And Then There Were Two

On By StefanieIn Gardening

We began with 15 unopened tulip flowers and now we are down to two. Every day there has been one or two cleanly snipped off at the top of the stem. Have I mentioned lately how much I dislike rabbits? Since these tulips are in the front of the house, they are not surrounded by rabbit-proof fencing, alas. I used to blame squirrels, but I have come to realize that the flowers disappear not during the day, but in the twilight hours of dawn and dusk when rabbits are most active. I wish there were more rabbit predators around here, but aside from dogs, maybe large cats, and a random raptor, no one is much of a threat. There’s a rabbit for practically every yard it seems. The two remaining tulips, if they make it, will open in the next day or two. Will I get to see them or will they also be snipped off before they open their glorious petals? Stay tuned!

Last summer we had yet another drought and fall was so wet it moved us from extreme drought to abnormally dry. Then we had a warm, almost snowless, winter that sent us back to moderate drought. The weather has turned again, and spring, which I guessed back in February was going to be hot and very early, has turned out to be cool and wet. So wet that we are no longer in drought in the Twin Cities metro area, though there are portions of north central Minnesota that continue to be in drought. 

I can feel the relief of the trees, shrubs and perennials. I want to say they are exuberant, but they aren’t. You know how when you need to endure something uncomfortable or even painful for a period of time? How you pull in all your energy and become tight and hard and careful, you kind of hunker down and grind out your days, waiting for the pain or discomfort to end? And then when it does, that sudden relief, the loosening and opening up that follows. But it’s slow and careful, and holds a sort of tiredness and some distrust that it really is over. That’s how everything feels right now. 

a branch or white plum blossoms
This is exuberance!

Except for maybe Professor Plum who, while still a young tree, has decided, after drought and almost being killed by a rabbit, to put on the first big show of their life. They are doing a fine job of it too; their spindly little branches covered in white flowers, bearing up to a few frosts and some mighty winds and downpours. Even if none of those blossoms turn into plums, I am grateful for the Professor’s youthful exuberance in this season of cautious recovery.

Because there have been so many rainy days, it is raining as I type, working in the garden is challenging. Thursday we had a rain break and James and I rushed out and planted potatoes. The potatoes were all ones I had saved from last year’s garden, mostly Adirondack blue, but a few yellow potatoes the variety of which I can’t for the life of me recall. I will have to see if I made a note of it last year. I had them all stored in a box in the basement against an outside wall and covered to keep them dark, but they all sprouted anyway. I think it just isn’t cold enough in my basement, but they would freeze in my garden shed, so I must think on how to better store them, assuming they grow and I have some to save at the end of the season. I had a bunch that had sprouted before planting last year and they did better than the fresh seed potatoes, so I am hoping they will do just fine this year too.

Another break in the rain for Saturday afternoon. It is times like this that I am glad I have sandy soil because, while wet, it isn’t soggy even after all the rain. So I was able to prep the beds and direct sow cilantro, purple carrots, cabbage, and 5 color rainbow beets.

I also sowed a Japanese green called Komatsuna that I got free with my order from Baker Creek. The packet calls it a mustard spinach and since I had no idea what that meant, I looked it up. It is neither mustard nor spinach, but it is a member of the brassica family. The flavor is variously described as a cross between mustard and spinach or as a mild mustard cabbage. It is high in calcium, vitamins A and C, and has more iron than spinach. The seed packet says it tolerates very cold temperatures as well as heat, though it will bolt in extreme heat. These greens sound almost too good to be true! I planted maybe half the packet, and if they do well I plan to seed some in late summer for fall harvest.

a small morel mushroom
I love how morels look like elongated brains

While I was prepping one of the veg beds Saturday I came upon a tiny morel mushroom. It’s so small I left it alone. Will it get big enough to pluck and eat? Time will tell. Morels have popped up in the garden before after we’ve put down fresh wood chips on the garden paths. But I’ve not seen any for several years. Some of the paths got wood chips last fall and I’m guessing that’s where this one came from. 

There is a chance of rain almost every day this coming week, which means more frantic gardening when there is a break in the weather. I just hope the breaks don’t all come during the day while I’m at work. I have more carrots and more radishes to sow as well as dill. And all my indoor plant starts that are doing phenomenally, need to begin getting some outdoor time so they can gradually transition into the ground in the garden. But I can’t set them out to be pummeled by rain and wind because they aren’t ready for those sorts of rigors yet. Usually this time of year I only worry about crisping them in the sun, so this puts a new twist on it.

The garden has been bursting with bird visitors of late—sparrows, chickadees, cardinals, jays, house finches, and robins. James went out the other evening to put the chickens to bed and interrupted two male robins actually fighting in the middle of the garden path. Apparently the garden has become disputed robin territory. There’s been a robin singing in Silver Maple at the front of the house for a few weeks and I’ve heard another robin in a tree across the alley in the back. I wonder whose domain the garden is part of now? Silver Maple Robin or Alley Robin? 

purple pasque flower
The masque flowers are blooming

The robin fight has had me thinking. I consider the garden mine and everyone else as visitors. But that’s a human-centric way of seeing things. I have never paid attention to who else the garden might also belong to. The fighting robins clearly do not consider themselves visitors. For them the garden doesn’t belong to me; for them they have territorial boundaries and the garden falls within the boundary belonging to one of them. 

And while gray squirrels don’t have territories per se, they do have home ranges. As much as I can tell, “my” garden falls within the home range of at least five or six squirrels. 

Then there are the ants and spiders and all the other critters who live in the garden. They aren’t visitors who come and go, the garden is their home and it belongs to them as much as, or maybe even more so, than it does to me, the big oaf who, by accident or ignorance, destroys their web or burrow or tunnel.

I always think the garden belongs to me and I created it. But actually I am only part of it. The garden belongs to everyone who lives in it or passes through it and we all have worked to create it together. I’m not the only one who has planted seeds, or dug in the soil. I’m not the only one who takes care of the plants. It’s a cross-species communal effort. How beautiful and amazing is that?

I am grateful to the robins for teaching me about the community I didn’t even realize I was part of.

Reading

  • Book: The Book of (More) Delights by Ross Gay. I love Ross Gay so much. I loved this book so much. I need to figure out how to contact him so I can say thank you and let him know that he is himself a delight. These essayettes, as he calls them, are about noticing the simple, every day things. They are about delight and gratitude, and finding the good in spite of the bad, and also realizing that there is so much more good in the world than there is bad and what a big part we can play in being the good in the world. 
  • Poem: Epistle by Ellen Hinsey. I subscribe to the poets.org poem-a-day and “Epistle” landed in my email box this week and took my breath away. I love it so much I am planning on buying the collection the poem is published in. 

Listening

  • Podcast: Between the Covers: Danielle Dutton : Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other. I have her book on my TBR pile and after listening to this great interview with her, I want to push all of my in progress books off the table and melt into this one. But instead, I am continuing to read all of the very good books I am mostly at the start of and enjoying the sweet anticipation of when I will get to pick up this one.

Watching

Nothing new

Quote

Because I always delight in reading a book’s acknowledgements even when I have no idea who the people are, I was delighted to learn Ross Gay also delights in reading acknowledgments:

“But these days, freed for the time being from that particular need to position myself—to know who knows who knows who knows who knows; i.e., and strange people might now sweat who knows me—I find myself reading the acknowledgements as a way to know how they know who they know (ooh, delight: how and who are anagrammatical pals). Some writers seem to fancy themselves solo travelers, some have a tight-knit crew they feel indebted to (close readers, family, friends, this or that fellowship or granting institution), and some go on and on and on and on.”

Ross Gay, from “(Foot-End-Etc.) Note” in The Book of (More) Delights 

James’s Kitchen Wizardry

This week’s highlight is penne pasta (made from cassava not by us we bought this at the co-op) with arugula pesto we found frozen in the back of the freezer from last summer, and spicy chickpeas.

Arugula pesto pasta with spicy chickpeas

23 thoughts on “And Then There Were Two”

  1. For my garden, it’s the groundhog… she’s already been trundling through the veg patch, but as I haven’t had weather or time to plant yet, she’s been disappointed. Hopefully, by the time I get the veg planted, she’ll have tired of the wasted effort and moved on… yeah… that’ll happen…

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  2. Well, as a French person I have a solution for rabbits that you as a vegan will not like at all, but it would be radical… 🍖

    By coincidence, I also started a few days ago Ross Gay’s book of delights (the first one) and I also want to put his quotes everywhere!

    We have a resident robin or two in our compound. They usually stay clear of the cats. Sadly, cardinals are not a European species, I love them so much!

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    1. Heh Smithereens, you are welcome to come and snare a few if you’d like 😉

      Oh I’m so glad you have found Ross Gay and are enjoying his book!

      I love cardinals too and love seeing them in the garden in the winter. Too bad you don’t have any in Europe. But I imagine you have other birds that are pretty amazing 🙂

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  3. We have a long thin garden so there is plenty of room for one British robin to have his territory at the far end and another one to have the part near the house. This has patios with planters and a couple of flower borders, so less digging going on here, but it also takes in the bird feeder mainly used by sparrows if he needs some seeds!

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  4. I love so much about this post! We lose tulips every year too, but to deer, not rabbits. The deer have also helpfully trimmed several trees in the yard, the rose bushes, and the kale. Thanks, deer! I guess that means my yard is the deers’ yard as well… much as I dislike it. I do love seeing them, but wish they would stick to the acre of grass that’s abundantly growing for them… not my roses. I envy your sandy soil. Ours is clay, and it is a muddy, sticky, thick, messy mess this time of year, and then bakes into a brick in the summer. I add tons of compost but it just absorbs and disappears. Arg. Oh well, I try to plant plenty of natives that like that kind of soil. This year I’m trying to only plant tried-and-true things that appear to thrive. We are also having a lovely bird year, although we resident swallows seem to have moved on from the birdhouse they usually occupy. Instead, we have some very sweet sparrows currently making a nest, and I think the other birdhouse is occupied by nuthatches. It’s fun to watch them make their homes. On another topic, I also love Ross Gay and I hope you can find a way to reach out to him. I felt very personally moved by his first book of delights…

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    1. Thankfully I don’t also have to worry about deer! As much I get frustrated with my sandy soil needing so much water when it’s really hot, I am glad to not have clay. After so many years of adding organic matter to the soil it is getting better, but there is a certain depth where it is nothing but sand. Hopefully if you keep adding compost you will eventually get a little better. Or, you could just decide to become a potter or brick maker 😉 All your birds sound wonderful! It turns out Ross Gay has a website, of course, and he has a contact form on it, so I sent a message. I don’t expect to hear anything from him, but I am glad I was able to tell him thanks for being so delightful 🙂

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  5. Have you watched the recent YouTube video interview conversation between Hanif Abdurraqib and Ross Gay (talking about Hanif’s new book?) It’s a joy and I highly recommend it. I adore them both.

    I have never considered rabbits eating tulips. I have tried to grow tulips and they grow one year and then never flower again. I always thought that some critter below ground was eating them. I’m going to try again this fall to plant some more. We will see.

    Professor Plum is exquisite! What a delight!

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    1. Oh Laila I haven’t seen that interview! Thanks for the tip!

      Your tulip conundrum may have nothing to do with rabbits. Tulips need cold weather so if your winters are warm that could be part of it. Also tulip variety, if they are fancy tulips like parrots or ones with fringe or anything other than a standard, those generally don’t last long. I used to plant parrot tulips and they’d only ever come back maybe two years, three at the most.

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  6. I don’t think i’ll remember all I want to say but I’ll give it my best shot.

    Rabbits are a pest here in Australia as you probably know. Our scientific research organisation is always trying to come up with new ways of eradicating them but here in Canberra they are doing very well. We see them around road sides, big grassy patches. They have never bothered my gardens for some reason. We must grow the wrong things because they were in our suburbs.

    I love reading acknowledgements and I love the sound of Ross Gay. I’ve never heard of him before

    This, “The robin fight has had me thinking. I consider the garden mine and everyone else as visitors. But that’s a human-centric way of seeing things. I have never paid attention to who else the garden might also belong to”, reminded me of some thoughts I’ve been having recently. Not so much about ownership per se though this is an interesting idea and I love your thinking. I’ve been thinking about how little we know about animals and who they are. There is so much we assume that they don’t understand or I’m not aware of. I’m not even sure if they’re the appropriate words to use about them – am I anthropomorphising – but there is so much going on there that we are completely oblivious of, and we have no idea what they think of us.

    In my new downsized life (apartment) we have less richness of birds and that’s one thing I do miss. But, I am getting familiar with the birds we do have and having been here for a year now I’m starting to see their cycles. So, for example, it’s autumn now and we’ve been invaded by the noisy corellas. I will now look forward to them every year. They are noisy but they get about in such large groups that I just love them. We have a small wetlands within 300-400metres of our place and I love to go over there and look at the waterbirds, often also, in the right season, seeing fairy wrens pottering around the grass nearby. So, different birds – not so many garden/forest birds though we do have gardens in our little complex, but I’m getting to know them.

    Finally I have subscribed again, though I know I subscribed to this blog when you started it. WP does funny things. Mr Gums suddenly found that he was no longer receiving my blog posts and we discovered that he, according to WP, had blocked WordPress notifications. He’s an IT guy and is unlikely to have done that by mistake!

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    1. Am I remembering right that your rabbits were imported and then a critter was imported to take care of the rabbits and now that critter is a pest too? Can’t remember what the other critter was. Glad they have never bothered your gardens though. I’d say you are growing the right things!

      Regarding animals, yes! There is so much we don’t know. I think science is to blame for so much of that lack of knowledge. But it’s slowly getting better. I saw an article just today about some scientists who are studying the language of whales and they are beginning to pick out definite patterns but haven’t yet managed to connect the “words” to anything.

      Hearing about your birds makes me happy! How wonderful you have a wetlands nearby too. Hopefully it is somewhat accessible for you to visit for better birdwatching moments 🙂

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      1. Nearly right Stefanie but it was the cane toad brought in to get rid of the cane beetle that I think you are remembering. A whole range of other techniques, physical (like hunting and fences) and biological (like poison and viruses) have been used. There’s a big article in Wikipedia on rabbits in Australia if you are interested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbits_in_Australia

        And yes, the little wetlands are 5 minutes walk away and the bigger ones maybe 20 minutes.

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  7. I had never considered how a morel looks like an elongated brain, but now, any time I see a big-headed super scientist villain, I shall think of this earthy mushroom. You’re right about the garden not belonging to you. I know we humans try to control our spaces, but at what cost? I recently saw a photo of a person whose lawn was full of dandelions and the clear line where the neighbor’s lawn starts, which has weed killer on it. Everyone in the comments of the post wrote things like “the bees and I thank you.” I never think about inviting bees into my space because growing up, we had horrible, aggressive hornets that not only were happy to chase you around, but also dug tunnels in the wood on the deck and beams of the porch. However, a fat bouncy bumblebee is always a treat to see. We also have squirrels. One climbed up the tree to a knot hole and stared at us. Eventually, it laid down and put its chin on the edge of the hole! I’ve never seen a squirrel at rest before.

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    1. I found quite a few morels in the garden last week and we picked and ate the little brains! 😀 You should come to my house in summer Melanie, the Squirrels use my deck to sunbathe all the time and once I even saw one giving another one a massage. Seriously! I love seeing lawns full of dandelions, it’s pretty much the only good thing about lawns. Those Serama chickens are tiny! They look to be about the size of quail. I will never have any though since they need heat for temperatures below 40F above zero. Not a cold weather bird!

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  9. So did your Robin Realization led to any different way of thinking about your garden, then, when it comes to the other furry inhabitants? Your title suggests otherwise, but maybe you being with a title? (I usually end with a title.) I remember Past-Me being quite upset about things like potted plants and bulbs being eaten or disrupted, even having a tiny hissy-fit over squirell shenanigans and some morning glories I’d grown from seed, but somehow, lately, it’s begun to matter much less to me. Not sure if this is ageing or simply temporarily shifting priorities (maybe it will come to bother me once again!) but we are now planting some things specifically for reasons that have nothing to do with us. Much like we have potted MilkWeed for the monarchs but somehow we hadn’t considered the bigger creatures in the same vein. So now we have a bit of wheat and corn, for instance, not cultivated but sown, and it doesn’t serve us but it does serve others. Even some berry plants that aren’t likely to produce enough for us to eat from. But, yes, we do have to water, too, and have to be mindful of that.

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  10. Heh Marcie, I start with the title usually and progress from there 🙂 Let’s say it’s a process to remember and it takes time for it to work its way all the way in and through. I am remembering more often and working on a “squirrels will be squirrels” mindset since they are the ones I struggle with most. That doesn’t mean though that the garden is a free-for-all proposition, only that I need to remember I’m not the only one utilizing the space. Figuring out how we can all get along is my goal, and sometime that means giving plants extra protection. That’s really wonderful you are able to plant for many critters! I love that!

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