Settling In

I’m finally starting to accept what we have to do, in this time of pandemic. It’s taken me awhile to stop fighting it, at least internally, even with closures cascading around us. We even went out to eat Friday night, something I would not do today (we wanted to support our local restaurants, but from now on we’ll do take out). Every time I go to a crowded store, I wonder if I’m spreading it, or if it’s being spread to me. I’m sure all of us have been talking to friends and family across the country, and the stories seem similar everywhere. Most poignant, perhaps, was a story from a friend whose parents live in a nursing home, and he’s not allowed to visit them. It’s for the best, but it’s hard.

We needed rain desperately, and it finally arrived; we got over an inch of it yesterday. It’s looking cold and gloomy for the next week, which doesn’t help anyone’s mood, and makes it hard to be outdoors, which is our only escape right now. (I can’t imagine having to deal with old, dirty, muddy snow, like so many are having to do!) We had our trees pruned Friday and I had the tree company leave me the chippings, so each day I go out in the rain and move a couple dozen wheelbarrows-full around the yard. It keeps me away from screens and the news, which I realize I have to be disciplined about watching.

My sister-in-law Loretta sent me a poem that suggested that we treat this time as sacred, and I’ve been thinking upon that as I put in some hard graft in the garden. In fact, there is plenty of time of think these days. One thing I’ve realized is that my generation (Gen X) hasn’t really ever had to deal with scarcity before. I mean, scarcity as an economic circumstance certainly, but scarcity on this kind of scale is new to us. If we had the means, there’s never been anything stopping us from buying what we need. It’s a new feeling. I’ve said to Tom and the kids that whenever they find themselves in a store of any kind (grocery, hardware, drug) to always keep an eye out for certain things - mostly household paper goods, but also cleaning supplies. In a very small way it reminds me of all the World War II novels I’ve read where the heroine has to go stand in a line for rations and comes home with whatever is available. Of course this is not anywhere near that, I know (baked goods have been flowing from our kitchen as flour and sugar are still readily available, also another reason to hump mulch), but in a very tiny way I have a new understanding of what that kind of scarcity might look like.

I also see that in some ways, this forced family closeness is a blessing. Having two busy teenagers, one about to go off to college, has made it hard to spend time together; now we are together all the time! I’m reminded of when our kids were young, and their stuff was strewn all about the house instead of confined to their rooms. It’s cluttered, but it’s got its own kind of charm. They are having to work through their own feelings of uncertainty (will there be graduation? how to stay close to friends? how will they finish school on time? and will college even be in session in the fall?), and it promotes some good (though hard) conversations. Tom said that this time has reminded him a bit of when Adam had cancer - you just have to put blinders on and get though the day as best you can, and not look at the future too much. There is a sort of relief in that kind of living.

I also wonder how this time will factor in my kids’ personal history. Will this end up to be just a ‘blip,’ or will it be a significantly impacting event? Time will tell.

I’m always interested to hear how all of you are doing, so feel free to post a comment and we can have a conversation about all of this. We now have time for deep thought and contemplation. And time for silliness, too - we just set our TV to record all the old episodes of Mythbusters!

Stay healthy, my friends.

How's Everybody Doing?

The world just feels a little strange right now, no?

We here in the Boegel household are going through what all of you are going through, I would guess. All kinds of cancellations, including things we’d looked forward to for months. A shift in the way we work and go to school. Since Tom’s business is college, and colleges are moving to online-only classes for the foreseeable future, that entails an awful lot of logistics work, as well as concern for the students and their families. School is a safe haven for many, and the provider of perhaps the only meals available for some students, which makes it even harder to find work-arounds for these types of situations. My own college has gone online as well, which let me tell you, sounds convenient but it really isn’t the most engaging way to learn. San Francisco is emptier than usual as most folks are working from home, and that makes it difficult for the local economy to sustain itself. Several health care workers who live in my neighborhood have reported how it is for them at work, which just sounds like a logistical nightmare.

It’s worrisome to think about the future. Being at home so much, and so isolated, means more opportunity to watch/listen/read the news, which just sends me into a tailspin. My mother and I have agreed that too much social isolation isn’t good for the mental health!

Thank God for the garden. Times like this, I’m always so grateful to have a beautiful place to wander in, a respite from the struggle of everyday life. I can search for bees and other insects, turn over the compost and watch the chickens enjoy what they find, smell the orange blossoms, feel the soft papery petals on the poppies, and tend my vegetables. I can also chat with my neighbors as they walk dogs or bike by. This helps immensely. I’m always reminded that the garden feeds more than my belly.

How are you all managing? It would be interesting for me to know how people across the country (or world) are faring, and it would be great to form a sort of community here, sharing ways to maintain our sanity and remain grounded in this crazy time. We need people!

Remain healthy, my friends.

March Arrangement

I knew I wanted to feature Geum coccineum ‘Totally Tangerine’ in this month’s bouquet, because it is a star in the home garden. This year, it started blooming in early February, and as long as I deadhead and give it a little extra compost, it’ll keep flowering until the first frost. It’s simply unstoppable. As you can see, even the spent flowers are attractive, and the foliage forms a nice tidy clump (prune back old leaves for best looks). It is reliably perennial in Zones 4-10, doesn’t mind being a little crowded, and creates multi-flowered, extremely long stems which are perfect for arranging.

Along with the Geum, I used a little Borago officianalis, which really never stopped blooming all through winter here in Zone 9b. Well, maybe December was iffy, but really, it just keeps on truckin’. It reseeds quite vigorously but is easy to remove if you find it thuggish, and the bees really adore it.

For a little greenery, I added some overwintering cilantro which seeded itself in my garlic and shallot beds and grew over the cold season. It’s just now starting to look like it might bolt, so I didn’t feel so bad sacrificing these tall stalks.

We have a new favorite way to eat beets. I pick them when young, peel and chop them in quarters, and roast them in the oven with olive oil and salt. While they are roasting, I make a glaze of equal parts butter, maple syrup, and balsamic vinegar, and cook on low heat until glossy and reduced. Then I pop the roasted beets in the pan with the glaze and serve. Delicious.

We’ve eaten all the broccoli and cauliflower, and have started in on cabbages. Carrots and sugar snap peas are being picked and snacked on daily, and of course we continue to eat the greens. We’re in the process of trying to germinate lettuce without the birds or slugs getting to it - some row cover, tightly pegged to the earth, might be the ticket. Tomatoes have been seeded in trays, and squashes started in the greenhouse.

Our new chickens have begun to lay! Above is a picture of a ‘normal’ egg next to a pullet egg. The pullet eggs are about half the size of the normal eggs. The young chickens lay these for a couple of weeks, allowing the vent to stretch, then the eggs become a more normal size. We’re looking forward to having enough extra eggs soon so we can make chocolate pudding!

Just a quick reminder

It’s almost seed starting time here in Northern California, so here’s a little reminder to get all your supplies ready for planting!

Buy some high-quality soil for making seed blocks or plugs. It can be any kind, as long as it is fine-textured. You don’t need to buy anything that has fertilizer in it, and in fact that much nutrition will not do the seeds any favors. Better to buy either a sterilized mix that is made for starting seeds, or a good quality organic potting soil. Again, it needs to be fine-textured, so sieve out any large pieces of bark. VERY IMPORTANT - do not buy peat-based mixtures. Peat is being harvested at a very unsustainable rate. We are stripping this ancient soil, which took nature thousands of years to make, at an astounding rate. Let’s do our ecologically-best part by buying coir based seed mixes. The package should say what’s in it, and if it doesn’t, assume it’s made of peat. When in doubt - ask your local garden store which of their mixes is peat free.

Wash your plant trays/cells/plugs/pots! Make a 10% bleach solution and clean those suckers off. We don’t want to spread disease or pathogens. Do the washing on a patio or on a driveway, somewhere away from soil, because bleach will kill off soil life. And dump the used water somewhere away from growing things. Dip your pots in the solution, scrub with a brush to remove any old soil, and then rinse and dry in the sun.

It’s not too late to buy seeds! While many of the most popular varieties will be sold out, there are still plenty of other varieties available. Why not arrange a seed swap with other growers so you get a mix of varieties to try? You could also have a seed-planting party. And always plant extra, so you have seedlings to give away to friends, family, neighbors, and local schools.

Make sure you have plenty of plant labels on hand. I use popsicle sticks so they can be composted afterward, rather than plastic tags. And make sure you have plenty of pots for transplanting seedlings after they’ve grown. I bought a large amount of cow pots this year for this purpose, so that I did not have to buy compostable plastic cups (which is an OK alternative, but I knew I could do better).

This is a great time of year when we look forward to spring and summer and the eventual bounty. Let’s celebrate it! Happy Planting!

Greenhouse Thermometer

Our greenhouse isn’t much to look at, just some old redwood fencing and plastic sheeting that we repurposed with the help of my dad, but its creation several years ago revolutionized my efficiency. Tom went to the trouble to figure out mathematically how to build the shelves inside to best capture the angle of the sun, particularly in winter. I don’t have anything in there right now, but starting March 1, the first batch of pepper seedlings will need to move in here to make room for tomato seedlings in the house. I’ll also start a lot of flower seeds, and squash/melon seeds at the same time, and just keep them in the greenhouse.

In an effort to maximize efficiency, I decided to buy a cheap greenhouse thermometer from Govee. This has allowed me to see, from my phone, the temperature and humidity inside it, without opening the door and letting out all the heat. If you allow Govee to have a lot of information about you, you can also make some neat charts and get a history of temps over time, wherever the thermometer is placed. I didn’t allow that, but I’m still able to collect enough data to get an accurate picture of what’s happening in there. Last week, I added a bowl of water to see if that would affect the humidity. I’m not sure it has, actually. But the data is interesting and it caused me to ask some more questions about humidity and its relationship to heat.

Here’s a morning reading:

You can see that temp and humidity are at about the same level.

Now, here’s an afternoon reading (the door is closed, remember):

Notice how, when the temperature rises, the humidity level goes low. I couldn’t figure this out, so I asked Tom to explain it to me. That allowed us to do some research together about it. Now, I know some of you probably already know this, but I did not, and I’m guessing some other folks don’t either. So bear with me as I share what I learned.

Relative humidity represents a percentage of water vapor in the air that changes when temperature changes. Warm air holds MUCH more moisture than cold air. So when it’s very warm, the air is ‘holding on’ to the moisture, and when it’s cool, the air can’t hold on to it, releasing it into the atmosphere. For instance, a rain cloud can only release its moisture when it cools down enough. That’s one of the reasons rain clouds are higher in the sky - it is colder as you get higher. 100% humidity makes a cloud, but it won’t release water until it’s cold enough to do so.

So, roughly, when the air in the greenhouse is at a very high temperature, it is ‘holding on’ to the moisture and I get a low humidity reading. But when it cools off at night, the air ‘releases’ the moisture, allowing it to be read by my thermometer.

Does that make sense?

Now, when there are plants in the greenhouse, they will be photosynthesizing; taking the sun’s energy and converting it to sugars to be taken to the root of the plant. While this is happening, the plant is transpiring - releasing moisture from the leaves. Photosynthesis ‘pulls’ the water up from the root of the plant to the leaf of the plant, where it is released into the air (there’s a complex process of using some of the water in the process of photosynthesis which we can leave out for the purposes of this conversation). Will this increase the humidity in the greenhouse? It won’t be happening at night, because there is no photosynthesis at night (for the most part - some plants do this but not the ones I’m talking about, usually only desert plants). It will be interesting to see the results of that.

The thing to remember is that air circulation is the MOST important thing about greenhouse management. If the air doesn’t circulate, the plants will have too much humid air around them, therefore they won’t be able to make any more water evaporate, and that means no nutrients will be coming up from the soil. So open your greenhouse doors during the day when plants are in there, no matter how much you want to keep them closed. Open the greenhouse during the day and close it up at night to keep things warm and snug.