The Uninvited

It could be worse. At least it's not cockroaches.

At first there were just a few. Scouts presumably, looking for food. Then the word spread and more of them began to appear. Ants. We kidded ourselves for the first few days, just crushing the random intruders, and mopping them up with paper towels. But it got difficult to keep up with the increasing numbers.

We cleared the counters where they were most active, on both sides of the stove. We swabbed the counters clean and applied vinegar. Still they came. I took a certain degree of pleasure in vacuuming them up. A nice quick solution, but like the others we had tried so far, ultimately ineffective.

Nathan, who is much better at finding real solutions than am I, was browsing the internet for ant riddance solutions came across what we hope is the final solution for these annoying critters. He found the answer on a website called Get Rich Slowly, coincidentally run by a friend of a friend.

Terro was the answer he claimed. I made haste to the hardware store around the corner and got a small bottle of this sugar and borax bait. Ants come, indulge in the mixture, transport it back to the nest, and well... you know. The slogan is Bait, Wait, Eliminate.

We are currently in the Wait part of the strategy, trying not to freak out at the increased numbers of ants, while they stock up on the poison that will solve the problem once and for all. Or at least for the near future.

Here is what the bait traps look like. Kind of like a pretty flower, right?

It's just a piece of cardboard from the packaging, doused with the sticky mixture. They do seem to love it, and belly up to the bar like it's happy hour. And it is kind of fun to watch them stagger away from the bait station with high hopes, not of moving a rubber tree plant, but of delivering their load of "food" to the colony.

It is my task today to make sure the feeders don't run dry. I want to be a generous as possible with the juice in the hopes that I will soon be able to use these counters again for normal kitchen activities, instead of entomology experiments.

Updates to follow.

Wet Ground Makes For Good Weeding

And I have pah-lenty of weeds, mostly Little Bitter Cress right now. And it's starting to flower, which means seeds and many, many more Little Bitter Cress. They are among those weeds who propel their seeds when touched, an dastardly evolutionary trick. Hence the nickname "shotweed".

So even though I am trying to be more One Straw Revolution minded, and live as one with the weeds, I just can't bear to let them multiply, even though they are kind of pretty. I just don't want them everywhere.

It looks like they may be edible, but I haven't tried them yet. I have seen a couple of forager blogs making this claim.

They identified as Cardamine oligosperma, and are in the family Brassicaceae (Cruciferae) .
Here's a nifty weed identification tool.
Weed ID from University of California

So yesterday I pulled out hundreds of weeds, and it felt good, very good. It was a bumper crop. I also pulled out lots of Forget Me Not volunteers. And I came to the conclusion that the name Forget Me Not is not sweet and old fashioned it is cruel and ironic. Plant it once and it will never be forgotten.

And it looks like it's going to be a great year for slugs too. I wish I still had the hens to feed them to. I took great pleasure feeding them slugs and they loved them. On the bright side I guess I should be glad that my soil is healthy enough to support so many thriving life forms.

Promises, Promises

Not much happening in the garden, so not much happening here on the blog. Ah, but there are signs, early signs of spring. We are in the middle of a warm, wet week, and the plants seem to be sighing in relief and relaxing, after a week of cold, dry freeze.




This is the kind of warm spell that makes me want to do crazy things, like plant lettuce seeds.



I admit, I'm soft. I grew up in San Diego, and I know I couldn't hack a real winter, a Chicago winter, or a Boston winter. Winter in Portland feels cold to me. But it's short and mild. And I do like to pile on the sweaters and sit beside cozy fires.

And now, only into the middle of January there are signs of spring.

Winter Jasmine isn't a big surprise, I expect it to bloom in January. But buds are swelling on other plants too. And the biggest shock was this...Cherry Blossoms!










So tonight the Bean Queen and I will review the seed catalogs that have arrived so far, and start making our lists.

Definitely Winter Now

Hard to believe it was only a few short weeks ago that we were still basking in sunny, warm afternoons. A few days of temperatures in the teens and twenties have quickly and thoroughly erased the memory of those last few days we clung to.

Until just before the freeze the arugula was providing salads aplenty and the mustard greens were prolific. But they have all faded and fallen. They'll be back though. Both are in well established spots that have been reseeding themselves for a couple of seasons, for an almost continuous harvest.

The Carrots made it through the cold and there are probably some beets I have overlooked. These are called Purple Haze, and they are sweet and delicious. Only a week ago they were trapped in the ground, frozen in place.

And although I miss the hens, I'm glad I didn't have to try and keep their coop warm and their water thawed during the cold snap.

And now the garden really does feel as if it is sleeping. But we aren't far from the shortest daylight of the year and after we turn that corner, around Christmas, the days will get longer, not by much each day, but still moving in the right direction. Seed catalogs will start to arrive in the mail and daydreams will be filled with what to plant next year. I know I am getting ahead of myself, but there you have it. It's a common strategy among gardeners during the winter.

Every fall I plan to put some bulbs in the ground for early spring color and life. I just got them last week. Just a little late. And I'll probably just put them in pots so I can enjoy them indoors. Hyacinths and Narcissus for color and fragrance.

Just a Little More Indian Summer

Although we've had pah-lenty of rain in the last few weeks, temps are nearing record highs for the next few days, high 60s, maybe a 70 or two. The warmer weather has been great for the herbs and greens that are still providing delicious salads.

And so this, the overgrown zucchini, which turned out to be an acorn squash upon examination of the interior,


turned into this.

Scenes From The Fall Garden

Fall sure is doing a good job of making up for the disappointments of summer. We've had many sunny, beautiful days lately.

Here is an example of one of my annual traditions; growing a giant zucchini. I just let one of them go and see how big it gets. Pearl has kindly agreed to stand beside it to lend scale. I may carve this instead of a pumpkin this year. And hopefully I won't graduate up to growing gargantuan pumpkins.







I love to grow peppers, but there is no way I could consume all of them. I like to string them up into ristras and hang them in the kitchen, or a front door ornament.

And speaking of peppers, I found this beautiful produce on a recent visit to Montreal at the fabulous Marche Jean-Talon.











A visitor stops to rest on one of the zinnias.

This Might Be Brilliant...

Because I grow mostly annuals in my garden I end up with a lot of bare dirt during the winter months. So I came up with a plan that might help alleviate this problem and increase my fruit production at the same time.

I have a patch of strawberries in the backyard, in less than perfect soil. This patch has also been neglected and not thinned out. I planted 13 plants 2 years ago and there are hundreds now. It has been prolific, but the berries were smaller this year.

So, as I removed withering tomato plants and many pounds of rotting or slug infested tomatoes from the raised beds, I hatched the idea to move strawberry plants into their place. This will give the strawberry plants a fresh start in good soil with plenty of room to clone themselves. And it will cover the dirt during the wet and cold. I will also plant some cover crop or spinach or lettuce in between the strawberries.

When I need space for the summer plants again I can just remove enough strawberry plants to make a space. This will hopefully keep me on top of the thinning. And next year I'll have a bumper crop of these delicious, fragrant, Rainier berries. I like the idea of a plant that provides food and also multiplies itself, like garlic, or Jerusalm Artichokes.