The rainy month of January

Tuesday again and it's raining again. This is the third Tuesday in a row that we've had rain. Is this a new trend? I could live with that!

So far today we've gotten at least 1.2 inches which puts us close to 6 inches for the month. Our average in a normal year is around 4 inches, but, of course, we didn't get that in a single month last year. I'm liking this year a lot better!

The combination of the rain and the mild winter weather has brought spring peeping over the windowsill in my garden. Everything is greening up nicely. I've already started pruning my roses even though the usual time to do that is still a couple of weeks away. It seems silly to wait though when they are already putting on new leaves and even new flower buds.

I also did the initial pruning on the muscadine grape vines over the weekend, although I still need to go back and prune even closer. The vines do grow rampantly during the summer.

Yesterday, we visited our local feed store and picked up some red potatoes for planting. I got them into the ground yesterday, before the rains started, so they've been well watered today, as have the radish seeds I planted.

On Sunday, we had carrots from the garden for our lunch. They are tender and sweet, some of the best I've ever grown, I think. I prepared them using a glazed carrot recipe, but they hardly even need the glazing. Nevertheless, here's the recipe:

1 lb. of carrots
1/4 cup of orange juice
3 T. of brown sugar
2 T. of butter
Salt to taste 

Cook the carrots in a pan with water on top of the stove until fully tender. Drain the water. Add the other ingredients and cook on top of the stove for a few minutes. Five minutes did it for me. Serve and enjoy.

Carrots may be my favorite vegetable to eat - if not #1, they are certainly high in the top 10 - and one of my favorites to grow. I almost never have a failure with them.

In addition to the potatoes and radishes that I planted yesterday, I also planted a few dill seeds in my seed starter tray under the grow light. Most of the seeds that I've planted there have sprouted and are doing well and I'm going to have a lot of new plants for the garden in a few weeks.

The dill is mostly for the black swallowtail butterfly. I had a good number of them in the yard last year, one of the few types of butterflies that were relatively plentiful in the garden in that drought year. They do love dill, as well as parsley, carrots and other members of the parsley family. I saw one in the garden again only yesterday. Tomorrow, rainy January will be a pleasant memory and it will be February. Time to get ready for the coming of the butterflies.

 Black swallowtail caterpillar on fennel, another favorite of their host plants. 

    

NWF says bye, bye to ScottsMiracle-Gro

Well, that partnership sure didn't last long. Last week the National Wildlife Federation had announced a partnership with ScottsMiracle-Gro on a project to get kids outdoors and enjoying the world of Nature and gardens. (I blogged about it here.) The garden blogging world went nuts over the news, accusing NWF of selling out by partnering with a non-organic garden products company. Now NWF has announced that the partnership is being terminated. Here is their joint statement:

The National Wildlife Federation has worked together with ScottsMiracle-Gro over the past two years on programs to educate gardeners about global warming, connect children to the outdoors and help restore habitat following the Gulf oil disaster. Both parties recently announced plans for an even broader partnership that was based on our common interests.

Since that time, Scotts announced a pending legal settlement related to events in 2008 that predate our partnership, which has made it clear that the partnership is not viable. Therefore, NWF and Scotts will work together to end the partnership in a friendly and mutually beneficial way.

The "pending legal settlement" referred to is a lawsuit against Scotts for selling bird seed that had a chemical added to prevent insects from eating it. The problem was that the chemical was toxic to birds. Did they not see that that might be a problem? And did NWF truly not know about this before? What happened to due diligence?

Anyway, partnership terminated. Maybe all those bloggers' knickers can get untwisted now, but I suspect there may be more announcements forthcoming from NWF. Resignations, anyone?

This week in the garden

Running hither and thither for appointments and meetings this week left me little time to actually spend in the garden. And then, of course, there was our rain day.

On Tuesday, we got 2.7 inches of rain which puts us now officially above our monthly average rainfall for the first time in recent memory. The earth got a good soaking and all of the ponds in the area are now full of water. It is a wonderful thing to see.

Around the garden, spring is beginning to creep in already. We've not had very much winter at all yet and plants that have died back to the ground in the last two winters are beginning to put out green shoots. The fruit trees, too, are convinced that spring is just around the corner.

  The pomegranate tree that I planted this winter is already full of these tender buds.

My blueberries suffered terribly in last summer's drought and lost several limbs, but the limbs that remain are beginning to show some buds. I don't think my blueberry crop this year will be anywhere near as bountiful as it has in recent years, but it seems that there will be a few berries for my morning cereal.

The cheerful blossoms of the Carolina jessamine are beginning to open.

And the orange bulbine that has bloomed all winter continues to bloom.

My bulbs never seem to do very well, but in the front yard, a few of the daffodils are sending forth some pretty, little blossoms.

The signs of spring around my yard came as the USDA released its brand-spanking new 2012 hardiness zone map. When I went to their website and entered my zip code, I found that my garden had moved! My yard used to be in zone 8b, but with the new map, it is now in zone 9a (20 - 25F degrees for the low temperature). So without lifting a finger or packing a moving crate, I've moved to a more tropical zone. In fact, all across the  country, gardeners are now finding that they are in a warmer zone. Thus does global climate change affect us all.

National Wildlife Federation and Scotts Miracle-Gro: A green partnership or a sell-out?

The National Wildlife Federation, sponsor of the backyard habitat program, has agreed to a partnership with Scotts, makers of Miracle-Gro, the non-organic plant food, and the most popular herbicide, Roundup. This has caused utter consternation among many in the organic gardening movement who have previously been supporters of NWF.

The supposed aim of the partnership is a campaign to get kids outside and enjoying the real world of Nature and gardens, rather than being sedentary technoholics tied to their cell phones and video games. That certainly seems a worthy goal and Scotts is rich enough to provide money to back the campaign, but those in the organic movement see it as a marriage made in hell and accuse Scotts of trying to "greenwash" itself and its products by its association with what has been until now a respected conservation organization. NWF has received an angry and vociferous backlash from those who feel essentially that they have sold their soul to the devil with this partnership.

I feel conflicted by this news. I am an NWF member and I proudly display my backyard habitat certification from them. Although I try to be as organic in my gardening practices as I can, I'm not pure as the driven snow in this regard. I have used Scotts' products in the past and I can't honestly guarantee that I won't ever use them again. When I have used them before, I've tried to use them sparingly and should I ever feel the need to use them again, it will again be only as much as I need to do the job. So perhaps this means that I've sold my soul to the devil right along with NWF and that I have no right to criticize them.

In a perfect world, I would certainly prefer that my conservation organizations be unfettered by any doubtful associations. In the real world, I understand that it takes money as well as good intentions to do good. This is the compromise that NWF has made, trying to balance the good with the bad. It's a difficult line to walk and they have my sympathy.

Happy Squirrel Appreciation Day!

Squirrels tend to get a bad rap from some gardeners. They often dig where we don't want them to dig, nibble at our fruits and veggies when we'd prefer they didn't, dig up our bulbs, and eat the food that we'd intended for the birds.

On the plus side, they can be quite entertaining with their acrobatic antics and some of us actually find them endearing. One such appreciator of squirrels is Christy Hargrove, a wildlife rehabilitator in North Carolina. Last year, she established the first Squirrel Appreciation Day on January 21. So, today, we celebrate the second annual Squirrel Appreciation Day.

To get you in the mood, here's a link to a few pictures of some of the more than 200 species of squirrels in the world.

The squirrel species that shares my yard is the fox squirrel and here are a few pictures of some of my lodgers.

The post on the muscadine trellis makes a nice perch from which to view the backyard.

Squirrels enjoy the big pines trees in my neighborhood, many of which are now dead and some of which have already been removed.

The old apple tree used to be a favorite place for a squirrel's afternoon nap on a hot summer day. The tree is gone now so he'll have to find another limb this summer.

The area under the bird feeders always has plenty of sunflower seeds for a squirrel's snack.

Always alert! A squirrel has to be if he hopes to be long in this world.

When a squirrel has an itch, a squirrel has to scratch!

And when a squirrel's got a thirst, a squirrel's got to drink.

Take a moment to appreciate the squirrels in your yard today. Or if you can't bring yourself to appreciate them, at least tolerate them!

Wordless Wednesday: New life

How long does it take to ship a packet of seeds?

Most of the seed companies that I deal with online are models of efficiency. When I place my order, I receive an email acknowledgement of it, usually within minutes. Within 24 hours, there will generally be another email either telling me that the item has been shipped or when it will be shipped, and I normally receive whatever I've ordered within a very few days.

On January 4, I placed two online orders, one with Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and one with Henry Field's. I received prompt acknowledgement of my orders from both places, and within five days I had received my entire order of 18 packets of seeds from Baker Creek. Around the same time I received an email from Henry Field's informing that the seeds and most of the other items I had orders would be delivered on January 13. The Jerusalem artichokes and strawberry plants I had ordered would not be shipped until March 3.

It is now January 17, four days after I was told to expect delivery and I have received nothing from Henry Field's. According to the tracking, the shipment has been turned over to the postal service in Conroe for delivery and has sat there now for four days. Conroe is about 30 minutes from my house.

I am extremely displeased with the service I have received which you can be assured I will make known to the company in question. There is nothing in my order that should have taken two weeks to reach me, and, needless to say, I will not be ordering from this supplier again.

One good thing about the incident is that it just makes me appreciate even more those suppliers like Baker Creek who are efficient and timely in filling and shipping their orders.