Month: April 2007

Things planted
4 different kinds of lettuce
spinach
arugula
mustard greens
scallions

Things nurtured
my thyme from last year has sprouted a few leaves, so I am watering it instead of pitching it in favor of a new plant.

I have mulched around the blackberry plants from last year (which will not be producing blackberries this year because they were cut down when the property manager cut down the poison ivy, but they have many happy green leaves already, so I think they are fine for putting up nice brambles this year).

I almost adopted a stray cat in my backyard. He always comes up for pettings and food, and I don’t think he knows how to hunt. So I put him in my cat carrier and took him off to my vet to get checked out and then fostered off to my mother… only the cat came back positive for feline leukemia. So he’s back in my backyard, and I have bought some wet (non-prescription) cat food to make sure he gets more regular meals.

Things spited
I have herbicide, and I have gone after all of the new sprouts of poison ivy. I suspect this will be a losing battle because the original vines are well entrenched and healthy in spite of the vigorous hacking that my property manager had done to it. And it not has its origin on a property not managed by my guys, but also it has a foothold in a third property (which is a parking lot and has no one to complain about the vines). But I am doing my very best to fight this war nonetheless. I might end up being one of those creepy neighborhood people who calls up and complains about things her neighbors are doing (i.e. not maintaining their backyards). Good times ahead.)

Things yet to be grown
The garden shops aren’t stocking herbs yet, so I bought some seeds for herbs (which were on sale because it’s a little late to be starting seeds at this point) and I might start those tomorrow. I’ll put a few thyme seeds in with the recovering thyme so that I can make sure there’s enough mass come seasoning time. Next summer I’ll see what pots of herbs are for sale at the farmers’ market.

I plan to have in 3″ pots (6 pots): thyme, rosemary, dill, sage, mint, lime basil (or some foreign basil that looks hardier and tasty)

In 6″ pots (up to 6 available): flat-leaf parsley, celeriac, maybe some more lettucy things, a small hot pepper plant (if I can find one small enough)

in larger pots: leeks, and maybe some other oniony thing (what? I totally read that the allium family keeps bugs away from the garden). And then I have one large flower pot that might work for a tomato plant… still deciding about that.

fannish duties
2 stories beta-read: for 1 I still need to hear back which kind of feedback the author wants, and the other one has been delivered and I’m waiting to see whether the author is insulted by my brusque style.

Neil Gaiman – showed up way early for his talk, camped out (and did the beta reading), listened all attentive-like, and then was very dignified and polite about asking for an autograph for my mum (and explained that the crazy woman didn’t actually want her name in the book, just his). He read “Instructions,” “The Day the Flying Saucers Came,” “Orange,” and a chapter from the children’s book he is in the middle of (and was still in rough draft and handwriting). Meanwhile, if you are in New York, he’ll be reading there tonight for eight minutes – only eight minutes because it is with other really nifty people – one of the first two things from our reading as he was taking the opportunity of our reading to time them for that one… which is odd since I’d first heard “Instructions” as an audio file, where it was clearly five minutes long.

And now I am at work.