End of Year Tropical Wave

T-shirts! No sweater, sleeves or scarf! It is in the low 70's today - looks like we're having the January heat wave early this year. This is the east coast version of the chinook, that mid-country western wind that can melt several feet of snow in a day. For those of us who live and garden the east coast, cold fronts plowing eastward into the Appalachian highlands and the Blue Ridge mountains force a funneling of air northward from the Gulf and southern states. Within a day, the temperatures here along the mid-Atlantic will rise 20 - 30 degrees, bathed in a strong, 10 - 35 mph southern wind. Daffodils and gardeners pop up like magic, desperate to claim the short hours of warm sun.

Our space, smack on the line between the southern gardening zones and the northern maps, can grow an amazing array of plants if gardeners are willing to juggle their microclimate. I was just out checking the loquats (Eriobotrya japonica, listed zones firmly a warm 8 - 10) onthe south side of the house - they are beautifully in bloom just as they should be this time of year - and, in the same trip, soundly scolding the Magnolia stellata, which wants to bloom and absolutely must not do it now, if we are to have any lovely blossoms later this spring when it should bloom.

My stellata is a weather slut - show her any sign of warmth and - poof! - buds begin popping open. In fact, it's become a weather joke around here that the last freeze will not occur until all the Magolia stellatas are opening into beautiful blossoms - at which time it will blast them all.

These warm winter respites, delightful as they are for the gardener-human, are hell on the plants. Buds swell too soon, onions and garlic bulbs heave themselves out of the ground, little buds appear that will quickly freeze again in the next, only-too-soon frosty drop. The dratted flowering cherries drive me nuts - they burst into bloom, I swear, if you breathe warmly on them. Optimists!

But enough blogging - my snack is ready and my trowel is waiting at the back door. I have a valiant batch of little, self-sown foxgloves that must be quickly transplanted if they are to be saved from my husband's determined mulching. Where on earth to put them???? Don't you hate having to move plants from a spot that they themselves have determined to be their perfect place, demonstrated by happily propagating themselves into a nice, established presence? Will they accept my desperate substitute? Probably not as well, or at least not for a while. Foxgloves, whose beauty surprises me again each spring, are quiet plants in our garden and take a while to settle themselves in a very lady like fashion into whatever spot they and I have finally agreed on.

Time to Spray....

Weather continues to roll this season - warm one day, colder the next. From here through February it will be time to seize every warmer day for spraying dormant oil on the fruit trees and any other non-coniferous plants to smother any overwintering pests and fungi.

There are few garden treatments as easy, effective and relatively non-toxic as oil sprays. Although some brands have sulfur compounds to help combat fungus, any light oil will do. I suspect I could hike out with the "Pam" cooking spray and accomplish the same thing, if using an aerosol wasn't so time consuming and expensive. Hmmm....I wonder if this wouldn't be a good way to use up olive oil and/or other kitchen oils that have passed their prime?

At any rate, loading the very light, easily misable oils into the sprayer and coating the plants - seriously coating, soaking everything to the point of runoff - knocks out a host of future problems and gives me something to feel virtuous about in the winter. Note to self: Make sure the sprayer gets cleaned immediately after spraying this year!

More horticultural oil info: Horticultural Oils

New Roomates.... Mice, Ladybugs.... what next?

This has been a relatively mild winter so far and it's surprising to see the numbers of adorable but unwanted field mice who are intent on spending the winter in the house with us. I suppose by definition this means each has "evolved" from a field mouse into a house mouse. Everywhere I turn, a little Hunca Munca is hurrying into some crevice or opening we've never noticed before. What interests me is that they have arrived in numbers far greater than we've battled the last couple of years. It's not a terribly cold winter - are they a harbinger of things to come? Do they sense something about the months ahead that our computer forecasting can't determine?

My practical evaluation is that they are coming inside more often this winter because it is the first fall in several years that it has been wet. Really wet. Wet enough, frequently enough to flood underground tunnels and turn cosy nests sodden.

Interestingly, the house mouse has a defined latin name: Mus musculus (which makes me think of a tiny bodybuilder) while the field mouse is not considered a specific species (gotta love that phrase) but is, rather, a collective common term for any odd number of terrestrial rodents. That last is an encyclopedia phrase and makes me wonder about the presence of aquatic rodents.... aerial rodents? (Would that last include bats?)

Well, in person, I think mice are adorable and would probably make room for them were it not for the fact that they have zero bladder control (in fact, I believe they don't have a bladder per se) but, rather, they trickle urine where ever they go. Now, that's just rude. Particularly in my kitchen. Last year we used a nifty little trap called the MiceBox - kind of a scaled down Havahart trap that we could empty wa-ay over in the far field. No such luck this year, I can't find the product anywhere. Rob's hunting with an old-fashioned mousetrap. Oh, dear.

70 Degrees and the Loquats are Humming....

Once again the temperatures have pushed up into "unseasonal" temperatures with damp and humid weather as the warm Gulf air runs northward up the coast in front of the massive cold front to our west. Like a snowplow, it shoves the warm air up and over into a tidal wave of soft air that has made all of us slow and lethargic. You'd think the warmth would have me out working like mad on gardens and outdoor projects, but the humid drizzle leaves me limp. Windows open! Air circulating! Out with the old, in with the new! And..... nap.

The insects woke up with the warm air and found the sweet smelling Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) blossoms by the patio irresistible. Although we've already had night temperatures on the barn down to 16 degrees, the blossoms continue to come out of bud on warm days. Unfortunately, temperatures below 25 degrees cause fruit drop in the spring and I lose most of the would-be heavy harvest at that time. The blossoms seem quite hardy, however and I still suspect that this tree could be of great value to beekeepers who now need extended food sources for their hives in the mild winters.

Secretary of Agriculture Post Selection 2009 - Ask Obama for Change

Many of us who are or have been small farmers feel huge concern over the dismal future of small, sustainable agriculture. Despite the increasing interest in buying local and buying organic (thank you, Michael Pollan, thank you, Barbara Kingsolver), the US government support is always very pro-corporate large-scale, mass-production agriculture.

This makes sense - when you have to feed a nation of people who no longer know or understand where and how their food arrives, what it takes to produce it or - heavens! - how to produce it themselves, and when hundreds of thousands of people have to be fed by a relatively few farmers... well, mass production agriculture is the only way to keep starvation (and I do mean starvation) at bay.

For instance, I look at our own city and surrounding area, Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads. Most folks in this area (over a million) eat chicken in some form at least once a week. Start thinking about how many chickens we're talking about here. Thousands and thousands every day. Now add in the chicken mcnuggets, fried chicken..... fast food..... No one (well, me and a few wacky others - and I don't eat my chickens, only their eggs) are raising their own chickens..... the rest simply go to the store and pick up a package. So, where are all these chickens coming from? For our area and much of the east coast, it's mostly the huge poultry farms on the Eastern Shore. Are they humane? Well, no. You can't produce thousands of chickens, butcher them and get them wrapped & shipped every darned day and treat them well. The birds are crammed full of hormones to speed their growth, jammed into small spaces to economize and killed in whatever way works fast (you hope). It's not fun, it's not friendly, it's not even sanitary. It's factory farming. Simple. That's what it means.

BUT - we are all hoping for more support for small family and community sized farms, support that would allow agriculture to diversify and allow for independent, small-scale producers to raise livestock (and vegetables) in thoughtful, sustainable and humane ways while still making a profit and providing affordable food to the community. I'm not talking about the "la la" upscale, specialty farming here - that venue is going to hit very, very hard times in the recession. I'm talking about practical but smaller and more local farming. And that's farming that needs the same kind of government breaks and support that the corporate farms -- you know, the ones that can afford the expensive lobbyists -- have been getting for years. (Check the 2008 Agriculture Bill if you want to see whether your dollars are being spent in ways your conscience can support.)

What to do? Hike over to www.fooddemocracynow.org/ and join folks like Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Alice Waters, Rosiland Creasy, Frances Moore Lappe, John Jeavons and... me!.... in signing a simple online petition asking the Obama transition team to consider candidates for Secretary of Agriculture who support "sustainable revitalizing our rural economies, protecting our nation's food supply and our environment, improving human health and well-being, rescuing the independent family farmer, and creating a sustainable renewable energy future."

Hey, it can't hurt. You can read the entire proposal - and the suggested candidates - at the http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/ website.

Small Farmer Sybil

Cookies

I've forsworn gardening this week for holiday madness, including baking cookies for a handful of darling souls that I love. This is More than one would suspect since I actually can't bake worth a damn and only attempt it this one time each year. I have the entire kitchen and porch full of cookies in progress, cookies baking, cookies cooling.... lots of different kinds of cookies. None are as delicious as I always hope they will be. They are only a bit a love from someone who really can't think of anything else creative to share.

Gifting is more difficult each year. I've pretty much worn out giving my dear ones plants. Most of my age group are eliminating, rather than expanding, their gardens and I no longer have all our greenhouses to draw from. I've tried giving charitable donations in their names but it seems self-serving somehow to make my own predetermined donations to charities I've selected and then say, "Oh, this was for you" as if I was perfectly sure that they would share my determination to share goats and chickens with the entire Third World. Even with the nifty accordian-fold gift cards (thank you Heifer Project). After all, I get the tax benefit.

Heaven knows my group doesn't need any more tshatshkes to crowd their lives. Knick-knacks are out, holiday knick-knacks are out of the question. Perhaps the economic slowdown has come just in time to resonate with all of us who are so fortunate that we do not need one single thing more than we have. Not from doing-with-a-little-with-gratitude (there's a word for all that, I know there is, I just can't pull it out) but from simple overabundance. We're full. Our houses are full, our garages are full, our minds are over-loaded.... we need less and lots of it.

Christmas Decorating Mania

Okay, I admit it. I've begun really enjoying decorating for the holidays. For years I refused to "give in to the holiday hype" by putting up more than a few faux candles or some equally noncommittal decorations but over the last few years... okay, over the last decade, I've really enjoyed decorating our farmhouse. For starters, our house is not in a closely packed neighborhood, where holiday kitsch can be overwhelming. It's on a long road, mostly dark, where the cheery glow of occasional holiday lights really brightens the dark winter evening for our commuters. There's space to enjoy each separate display and what it reveals about the taste and humor of the residents. And there is a huge capacity for amusing the neighbors. Hence the flamingos that are the highlight of this year's display at my house. $15 on Craigslist. Ha! I'm in love.