Cheap geraniums

Today's frugal rainy-day gardening project: geranium cuttings! It's cheap and can be done indoors--perfect for our March-going-on-January weather. Here's what you need:

• A geranium plant that needs (or can tolerate) a trim
  
• Pots. I use old nursery pots, but you could also use yogurt cups, Dixie cups, or whatever you have around. Just remember to poke some drainage holes in the bottom.
  
• Vermiculite. The best thing I've found for rooting cuttings, vermiculite is available at your local garden center. Some people use plain ol' potting soil, but my results improved drastically when I listened to one of my horti-friends and started using vermiculite.
  
• Rooting hormone. Also available at your local garden center. It'll probably set you back about $8, but you'll have enough for hundreds of cuttings. Some gardeners have good luck without it, so feel free to skip it if you wish.
  
• Plastic bags
  
• Something to keep the plastic bag from touching your cutting--small stakes, chopsticks, plastic forks, etc.
  
• Rubber bands
  
• A waterproof tray
  
• Some kind of label
  
• A source of bottom heat. Optional but will improve your results. I put mine on top of my reef tank, where the lights keep the soil at about 80 degrees during the day. If you don't have a reef tank, don't buy one just for rooting cuttings--that would make this a distinctly unfrugal project. Try the top of your refrigerator, fork over for a heat mat (about $40 but reusable many times), scavenge an old waterbed heater, or do without the bottom heat.
  

Here's what to do:

1. Fill pot(s) with vermiculite and wet it down till it's moist throughout.
   
2. Take your cutting(s). Snip them just below a leaf bud, remove all but the top 2 or 3 leaves, and pinch off any flower buds or blossoms. You want your cutting to put its energy into roots, not flowers, and you don't want it to lose too much moisture through its leaves.
   
3. Pour some rooting hormone into a shallow dish. Wet the bottom inch or so of your cutting and roll it in the rooting powder. Tap off the excess.
   
4. Make a hole in the wet vermiculite and stick the cutting in at least an inch or two. Firm the vermiculite around the cutting. Repeat with additional cuttings if you wish to put more than one in a pot.
   
5. Put a plastic bag over the cutting securing it around the bottom of the pot with a rubber band. Poke some holes in the plastic bag to control buildup of moisture.
   
6. Put the pot on a waterproof tray, preferably one that can hold some water so you can water your cutting from the bottom when the vermiculite starts to dry out.
   
7. Put the cuttings and tray on your source of bottom heat.
   
8. Check your cuttings every few days and dispose of any that are wilted or rotting. Make sure the vermiculite is damp, watering from the bottom if it isn't.
   
9. After a couple of weeks, or if you see new growth on your cutting, tug gently on it. If you feel resistance, you have roots! Pot the cutting in potting soil and care for it as you would any young geranium.
   

For my project, shown in the photo above, I used an old pot I'd saved from a plant purchased ages ago, an old produce bag, a rubber band from the newspaper, a popsicle stick for a label, and chopsticks from a long-ago Chinese takeout night, plus a cutting from a geranium I bought for a couple dollars at an estate sale last year. The only things that cost any money were the rooting powder and the vermiculite. I love projects that are cheap and fun!

Today's bargain

I just got back from grocery shopping, and I have to brag about my latest bargain. It turns out that WinCo, our local bargain-basement grocery chain, sells bareroot perennials and bulbs. Who knew? They were on a small display near the entrance to the produce section. For $1.99 per package, I got 3 purple astilbe (1 per pkg) and a box of 10 gladiolus bulbs. The selection was pretty limited, but in addition to the glads and astilbe, they had dahlias, hosta, liatris, salvia, and a couple other things I can't remember. So if you have a WinCo in your area (check http://www.wincofoods.com/locations.htm to find out), take a look.

A gardener's survey

I found this survey in an old posting on The Garden's Gift and thought it would be fun to post here. Feel free to leave your responses as a comment if you want. Here are mine:

1. Lilies: oriental or asiatic? No preference, as I'm not a big lily grower (yet)
2. No-till or till? No till, baby! I'm way too lazy for that. I've posted a few times on mulching for lazy gardeners; see http://rainydaygardening.blogspot.com/search/label/mulching.
3. Bare hands or garden gloves? I used to be a bare-handed gardener, but I'm starting to use gloves more now. I'm tired of having big cuts on my hands from accidentally grabbing blackberry vines, not to mention the effort to get all the dirt out from under my fingernails.
4. Garden tchotchkes, no or yes? Eh... I don't have many, mostly because I'm too cheap to by them. Cheap and lazy... that's me.
5. Clay or sand? (by default) Here in the NW, we have clay. Boy, do we have clay. Forget the tiller; rent a jackhammer.
6. Shrub roses or hybrid teas? Both!
7. Hollyhocks: single or double? Again, both! I may be cheap and lazy, but in the immortal words of Freddie Mercury, I want it all, and I want it now!
8. Foliage: gray or glaucous? "Glaucous?" Cool -- I learned a new vocabulary word! In case there's someone out there as uneducated as I am, here's the definition from dictionary.com:

1. Of a pale grayish or bluish green.
2. Botany Covered with a grayish, bluish, or whitish waxy coating or bloom that is easily rubbed off: glaucous leaves.

So "gray or glaucous" sounds a bit redundant. I prefer green foliage mostly, though I like some white variegation and some reddish foliage too.

9. Hemerocallis: flava or fulva? This is why I hate plant snobs! Would it be so effing difficult to say: Daylilies: yellow or orange? C'mon people. Latin is a dead language for a reason. And again, I like both.
10. Impatiens: double or single? I like both, as you might have guessed by now, but I'm hopelessly in love with the double ones. They're like miniature roses for shade.
11. Calendula or tagetes? Here we go with the Latin again. At least I didn't have to look these up (it's pot marigold and regular ol' marigold, in case you're wondering). I grow both (big shock, that). I like calendula flowers better, because they make lovely cut flowers, but I like the growth habit of marigolds (OK, fine, "tagetes" for you horti-snobs) better. My calendulas get a bit messy and rangy, and they don't hold up to the summer heat too well. Marigolds have a tidier habit, which makes them better suited as bedding plants.
12. Arborvitae or juniper? I'm sick to death of both of them! The hedge around our corner lot is arborvitae. It makes a nice hedge, especially since drunk idiots insist on running off the road and into our yard every couple years. Usually the arborvitae slow them down a little, but the dude in the 4x4 pickup a few years ago mowed our 30-year-old arborvitae down like matchsticks. He also destroyed some huge juniper (see, I'm back on topic) on his way to almost driving through my mother's bedroom. I just replaced some of the juniper a couple weeks ago, but I think I'm going to plant some sturdy shrub roses there too. As I said at the beginning, I'm sick of arborvitae and juniper.
13. Spaded edge or "edging"? Spaded edge around lawns. It's less work and looks more relaxed. Edging is nice to separate beds from paths.
14. Asters or mums? Mums are prettier, but asters are easier.
15. Reflecting pool or coursing waterfall? I love both, but I prefer waterfalls unless I can have some fat, lazy fish in my reflecting pool.
16. Morning glory blue or forget-me-not blue? Morning glory blue. I love the things.
17. Lettuce: leaf or cos? Both! Leaf is prettier, both in the ground and in salads. Cos (romaine to normal people) is great too and stores better in the fridge than the more fragile leaf lettuces.
18. Hyacinth bean or red runner bean? I've never grown hyacinth bean (yet). I love runner beans, because they're gorgeous and edible--if you pick the pods while they're small. If you wait too long, you'll be chewing the things for three hours.
19. Orange or pink? Pink. It's funny, but I haven't been a pink person since I was a little girl. I've always been a tomboy, and lacy frilly pink stuff activates my gag reflex almost instantly--except in the garden. I love big ruffly romantic pink blossoms--peonies, roses, all that stuff. Just don't ask me to wear anything pink.
20. Garden bed shapes: formal or informal? Informal all the way. Big wide curvy beds are great. You didn't really expect "formal" from the person who thinks jeans and a Def Leppard t-shirt should be acceptable apparel for all occasions, did you?
21. Garden bed planting schemes: informal or formal? Again, informal is my style. I love the rangy cottage garden look. Tidy the border with a sharp spade, but then let the plants have free reign. It's more interesting, I can cram more stuff in the bed, and it suits my laziness.
22. Hydrangeas: lace-cap or mophead? Do I have to quote Freddie again? Both! And I grow both. And I love both. But mopheads are better for cutting.
23. Spirea japonica: dried flowerheads standing over the winter or in bloom? In bloom
24. Japanese beetle drowning medium: kerosene or dishsoap solution? No Japanese beetles here, thank goodness. But I'd vote for the dish soap. I hate the smell of kerosene.
25. Garden stroll time: dusk or dawn? It's prettier at dawn, but I'm too lazy to get up that early, so we'll make it dusk.

Seed Shopping!

Based on Janet's recent advice on online seed and plant vendors she likes, I finally sat down last weekend to do a little armchair gardening of my own, ordering seeds from the web for the first time ever (from Territorial Seed). Yay for me! And, while I'm at it, yay for Territorial Seed too -- I placed my order Sunday afternoon and my package arrived Wednesday morning. Wow, they're fast!

I'm joining Janet to take the "Growing Challenge" this season, and have decided to give mesclun salad mix a try. Last year was the first time I'd ever tried growing lettuce, and I had gone with a butter lettuce of some sort (I forget what it was now) and had no success with it at all. The plants grew pretty well, but the lettuce itself was inedibly bitter.

We tried eating the leaves when they were younger, and then when they were older. We tried harvesting the leaves more often so it would put out more of them. We tried watering more, then watering less. We tried singing Beatles songs, then punk rock songs (I swear, those leaves perked up when I was humming The Ramones, but they still didn't taste any better).

Eventually, I dug the plants up and chucked them in the yard waste bin, because I resented keeping them alive any longer if they weren't going to do anything for ME in return. Whatever, butter lettuce. You're on your own.

I've since read that getting too hot can make lettuce bitter, and am wondering now if maybe I planted it too late in the season, or if full sun wasn't the best spot for it after all. This year, I'll do some reading on the optimal conditions for that mesclun salad mix before I put it in the ground and see if I can't do a better job of it. I'll be keeping you posted! I can't promise I can actually post weekly, as the Challenge dictates, but I will certainly try my best.

While I was picking out those seeds, incidentally, I also threw in some for Cosmos, my favorite flower. Chocolate-colored Cosmos (which I have never seen for sale anywhere, alas) was my wedding flower, and I just love everything about those plants. They have gorgeous flowers that last almost all summer long, it seems, and even their foliage is pretty -- soft and fluffy-looking.

My Mom plants a lot of Cosmos in her yard every year and hers typically do extremely well -- they get really tall and look absolutely stunning (the photo at the top of this post is of my twin sister and her adorable son in front of my Mom's Cosmos, by the way -- see what I mean by stunning? And thanks for letting me include this photo here, sis!). I'm not having that same kind of luck, though, and in trying to figure out why this winter, I learned that Cosmos like to be both hot and dry. It IS both hotter and dryer at Mom's house in Salem, Oregon, and maybe that's why hers thrive and mine struggle? But I also know I'm extremely guilty about overwatering everything (being thirsty gives me a headache, and I definitely project that onto my plants) so that may be another reason why my Cosmos don't seem to do all that well.

This year, I may try them in big black pots, so I can move them around and find the optimal spot for them, as well as get them up closer to the house where they'll stay warmer. They want hot and dry? I can give them hot and dry. Or, at least, I can give them "somewhat hotter and possibly a bit on the drier side." I'll let you know if that seems to work (it sure worked last year for our tomatoes!).

This weekend, assuming I feel up to it and it's not pouring down rain (I've been down with a cold or sinus thing most of this week), I'm hoping to get both my mesclun mix AND some sugar snap peas into the ground. I can't believe it's just a few days away from March already! I'm very excited for spring gardening, and looking forward to seeing how this whole Growing Challenge thing works out. Cross your fingers for my lettuce mix! And if you have any pointers on how to make Cosmos OR mesclun grow well in Seattle, I'm all ears!

Information management for gardeners, part 2: Organizing articles, books, web sites, and more

In my previous post on this topic, I wrote about ways to manage your gardening to-do list. This time, I'll share my method for organizing all the garden-related information that comes my way.

I've tried several methods, but until recently I hadn't found one that worked well for nearly all the types of information that cross my path--magazine articles, books, pamphlets, web pages, blog posts, online discussions, etc. Paper-based systems like subject files and binders are ok for printed materials, but they don't work well for online stuff unless you want to print it out. Browser bookmarks work fairly well until that really useful page you saved is taken down or moves. Then all you get for your trouble is a 404 Not Found error. Then I decided to use a tool from my work life: Zotero.

Zotero is a free Firefox extension that's also a full-fledged bibliographic management program. What the !@#$% is a bibliographic management program? Glad you asked! It's a database for books, articles, and other information sources--kind of like the 3x5 cards we Old Farts (tm) were taught to use in high school to keep track of the stuff we used to write our term papers. Unlike those cards, however, a bibliographic management program lets you search and sort your stuff--and it won't give you paper cuts. You can buy a program like EndNote, or you can download Zotero for free. Guess which option this cheapskate gardener chose?

In the rest of this post, I'll explain how to install and use Zotero to manage your garden info. If you want to manage printed information too, you'll also need a scanner. Here we go...

Installing Firefox and Zotero
In order to use Zotero, you must have the Firefox web browser. If you're still using Internet Explorer, come on over to the good side and try out Firefox! If you aren't familiar with Firefox, check out a document I wrote for a class at work, Introducing Firefox. It'll tell you everything you need to know to get started with Firefox.

Got Firefox? Great! Now let's get Zotero. If you've never installed a Firefox extension, go to my presentation, Customizing and Extending Firefox, and read the slides on extensions. Once you're comfortable installing extensions, head over to http://www.zotero.org and grab yourself a copy of Zotero. Once you have it installed, congratulate yourself on your excellent taste in software, and move on to...

Getting started with Zotero
The Zotero site includes a quick start guide to help you get acquainted with the software. The screenshots and notes below will show you a few basic functions, but if you want a solid introduction, view the quick start guide and look at the documentation.

• Launching Zotero
  Once you install Zotero, you should see the Zotero logo in the lower righthand corner of your Firefox window. Click the logo to open Zotero. See the screenshot below for an example (click the image to enlarge):
  
  
  
• Adding an item to Zotero
  The next screenshot illustrates options for adding an item to Zotero:
  
  
  The first step is to create a new collection. I called mine "Gardening." Then add your first item. There are four ways to add items to Zotero:
  
  
  
  1. Import from an existing database. I'll assume this is your first experience with bibliographic management software, so I won't explain this one.
     
  2. Add an item manually. I enter most of my information this way, because I'm usually working with a stack of old gardening magazines, adding selected articles I want to keep.
     
  3. Add a web page while viewing that page.
     
  4. Add one or more items from a web site compatible with Zotero, e.g. Amazon or certain library catalogs.
     
  
  
  This screenshot shows you what to click to do items 2, 3, and 4:
  
  
  
• Adding items manually
  As I said, I add most of my items manually. I find an article I want to keep and scan it, saving the image as a PDF file. Then I enter information about the article in Zotero. This screenshot shows you what the input window looks like:
  
  
  In addition to the bibliographic information, you'll want to get to the actual article in the future. To do that, you can attach files to each entry in your library. Zotero can store a link to the file or the actual file. I have it store the actual file, so I don't have to worry about accidentally moving the file and breaking the link. To attach a file, click the attachments tab:
  Then tell Zotero where to find the file and whether you want it to store the file or a link.
  
  To help you find articles later, I recommend you add some tags to describe your article. Because I am a Trained Information Professional (ha!), I try to be consistent in the way I tag things. I usually add tags for the names of plants discussed (common and Latin names if possible), plus the types of plants (perennials, annuals, vegetables, fruits, shrubs, trees, etc.). Here's a screenshot illustrating tagging:
  
  
  You can also attach notes to items in your library or add a standalone note.
  
  I use standalone notes for plant lists, landscaping ideas, etc. I attach notes when I want to remind myself of something especially interesting or useful about an article.
  
  
• Adding a web page
  Zotero can create an entry from the web page you are viewing. This screenshot shows you how:
  
  The actual content of the page will be saved to Zotero's database, so even if the page goes away, you will still have a copy of the information. You can edit the information, add tags, etc., just as you can with other types of Zotero entries.
  
  
• Adding items from Amazon, etc.
  Zotero can collect items from certain web sites, like Amazon or some library catalogs, that have information about books. To try this out, do an Amazon search. See the screenshot below for details.
  Note that this method only stores bibliographic information about the item. It doesn't store the actual book, article, etc.
  

All of this may sound like a lot of work, but it's actually pretty easy. And you'll love having your gardening info at your fingertips.

Take the Growing Challenge!

I'm taking the plunge and taking the Growing Challenge! Follow the link for details, but the gist is that you grow some new edible item from seed and agree to post at least once a week about gardening. The new items shouldn't be a problem; I'm trying celeriac and parsnips for the first time this year, as well as a couple new things not from seed (Jerusalem artichokes and a plum tree). The challenge will be to post weekly, especially as the gardening season gets underway in earnest. Already I've started spending lots of weekend hours in the garden, leaving minimal time for research and writing.

So why would I want to participate in something like this? I suppose because growing edibles is a cause near and dear to my heart. I got my start as a gardener when I was about four, helping my mother plant squash and tend our veggie garden. As a result, I always knew where food came from (including meat, since we raised cattle, chickens, ducks, and even a turkey once. Trust me, there's something to be said for ignorance in this case.) I also knew what vegetables were supposed to taste like; hence I've never been able to endure a store-bought tomato. Now that I'm older and no longer a starving student, I've started buying organic produce, because I hate the thought of exposing my family to a bunch of toxins. Having grown up in an agricultural area, with crop dusters dropping who-knows-what near my neighborhood, I also hate the thought of farm workers being exposed to so much poison. So I'll do what I can, and gardening is a part of that effort. If I grow it, I know what's (not) in it, I can grow varieties that aren't found in the grocery store... and I can save a ton of money. Organic produce is *expensive*, and so are weird veggies like leeks and parsnips that I like to eat but don't like to pay for.

So there you are--a rambling dissertation on why I grow edible stuff. Care to join me? You don't need a big yard. There's lots of great information on growing veggies in small spaces. Maybe I'll work up a post on that topic. In the meantime, do a little Googling and give it a try!

Ouch

Every year about this time, I get an entire day to work in the yard--the first full gardening day since about October. And every year on that day, I get very ambitious, hoeing everything in sight and completing some big project that involves shoveling and moving heavy objects. On that day, I get a bad case of Almost-Spring-Fever and forget that I'm not 20 anymore, with nearly limitless stamina and a nearly-invincible back. Today was that day.

I built a new bed to house what was formerly a crabgrass patch decorated with a few rosebushes, hoed out the crabgrass, shoveled out a whole pickup load of compost onto the new bed, dumped wheelbarrow loads of the (rather wet) compost, emptied a very large (and very heavy) terracotta pot, planted a bed of strawberries, carted a heavy planter uphill from one end of the yard to the other, pruned all my roses, and dragged a yard waste bin around. I'm basking in the warm glow of accomplishment, while my lower back is basking in... pain. What the !@#$% was I thinking? I'm a 40-year-old librarian! But the new bed looks really nice. I'd take a picture of it, but that would require getting up and walking.

I gardened this weekend!

So what if it's dark, dreary, and cold. I did some gardening this weekend anyway. Saturday was "let's do my least favorite winter chore day," a/k/a the day I pruned the marionberries and boysenberries. There are two good reasons why I hate that job: 1) I don't do it in late August, when I should, so the darn things have sent out a gazillion runners at least 15-20 feet in every direction, which I have to pull up and either wind around the wire supports or cut off; and 2) the berries fight back. Oh, don't bother to tell me that plants aren't sentient and can't behave aggressively toward humans. If you believe that, you've never met my berries! After I wrapped a 20'-long runner around the berry fence, the last 5 feet snapped back and rake me across the face, leaving big thorn scratches on my cheek. Then, when I bent over to pick up the cuttings, the runners reached out and grabbed me by the hair--nearly every time. By the time I came in, I looked like I'd been locked in a small room with about 50 angry cats. But I won! I pruned the stupid things and stuffed the carcasses...er, I mean prunings... in the yard waste bin. I showed them.

Today was more fun--and considerably less painful. Today was dark and dreary, and I was bored. Bored, bored, bored. I decided to go plant shopping, but most of the nurseries are either closed till later in the year or closed on Mondays. Desperate to spend what was left of my paycheck, I ended up at Lowe's, which had a few bare-root perennials, shrubs, and trees in stock. I came away with two bare-root peonies. And then, something amazing happened. I planted them THE SAME DAY I BOUGHT THEM! Really! Someone should alert the media. Usually I go on shopping sprees, and by the time I get home it's either pouring rain, or I'm too tired to do anything. I add the new purchases to the pile already waiting for permanent homes and hope they don't die before I plant them. But not today!

After planting the peonies, I started a flat of cool-weather seeds--leeks, coleus, lettuce, and broccoli. It's now sitting in a 20-gal aquarium topped with fluorescent lights, one of the many places I germinate seeds in the house. What a productive afternoon.

Ouch. I think I just dislocated my elbow while patting myself on the back.

Spring Ho!

I know it's a little early to be getting ridiculously excited about the onset of spring, but I can't help it! When I went out to run a few errands this weekend, I didn't take my coat with me. Know why? Because it just didn't feel that cold outside! And while I know a single warm-ish day in February is pretty meaningless up here in the Pacific Northwest, where the weather changes with more frequency than John McCain's position on George Bush, after a couple of weeks of frigid temperatures and gloom, I had this little burst of glee on Sunday. I was 100% parka-free in the grocery store, and they were selling bunches of tulips, three for ten bucks!

Spring -- it approacheth!

So, when I got home from my errands, I decided it was time to sit down and start making a list of all the things I want to get done in the yard/garden this year. It's a work in progress, of course, but I thought I'd share the first draft with you guys and see what you thought (remember, of course, that I'm the resident rookie, so advise away!).

One of my goals for this year is to simplify a few areas in our yard -- areas where I spend a ridiculous amount of time and energy every year struggling to keep them ship-shape. Every year I think to myself that I should just take a weekend and do something about those areas, so I could quit spending all my time weeding and get back to the garden-related things I enjoy more, like planting, nurturing, and eating!

I also have chronic pain problems -- my back, hips, legs, and hands -- and the more time I spend on my knees pulling weeds, the more I start to connect being in my yard with agony. That ain't no good, my peeps! This year, changes will be made! Here's what I've got down so far:

1. Replace all the soil in our raised beds with better, healthier stuff. We have five small raised beds in our backyard, and the soil in them is rocky and full of dead, disconnected roots. We keep meaning to scoop a bunch of it out (we can use it to fill a few sunken areas in our backyard) and replace it with good plantin' dirt, but it's going to be a huge (back breaking!) job, so we've put it off every year. The problem is, stuff doesn't grow well in those beds because that soil stinks. This year I'm ready to take a weekend to make that section of the yard a healthy place for plants, in the hopes it'll turn into a healthy place for ME once we finally get things to grow there that taste delicious (hooray for peas!) and make me happy! I have no idea how much dirt I'll need, but hey, that's what they made geometry for.

2. Replace the gravel walkways around those same raised beds with something else. I don't know if you guys know this, but there's nothing more torturously hard to keep looking nice as white gravel walkways underneath lots of trees. They look great when they're pristine, but they only stay pristine for about thirty-seven minutes (I've timed it, seriously -- okay, not really).

I've tried everything I could think of to keep those walkways looking nice -- I even spent six hours last summer washing all the gravel (stop laughing!) so it would look great for a barbecue we were hosting. It worked really well, actually -- all you have to do is fill a wheelbarrow with water and scoop a bunch of the gravel in there, then stir it a bit and let it sit for a few minutes. Soon all the dead leaves and twigs and such will float to the top where you can scoop them off. Dump the gravel back out on your paths, and voila!

But, frankly, life's too short for that kind of nonsense. And seriously? Washing ROCKS? That way lies madness. . . I'm thinking maybe mulch instead of gravel? But if anybody has any recommendations, hit me with 'em in the comments.

3. Build a fence in the front yard. We have no sidewalks in our neighborhood, so our front yard directly abuts the street. In order to make it look a little nicer -- so it didn' t just look like grass running irregularly into gravel running irregularly into pavement -- the original owners had created a mulched strip that runs across the edge of the yard. It looks great, that mulched strip. But the grass takes it over extremely quickly every fall and spring, and I've spent WAY too much time over the last three years out there weeding it. If we had a short fence that served as a boundary instead, we could let the grass roam free (vive le herbe!), and even plant some shrubs and flowers along the inside of the fence as well. It'll look nice AND be a lot less work to maintain, an extremely appealing combination.

4. Do not let the blackberries win.

5. Finish removing the strange bush thing that runs along the fence by the driveway. We have this strange bush thing -- I see it all over Seattle but don't know what it's called (when it flowers this year, I'll post a picture of it and maybe you guys can help identify it) -- and it's a nightmare! It looks fine, and the yellow flowers that spring out on it in the spring are lovely. But the problem is it sends little shooters out under the ground -- hundreds of them! -- and they spring up in our grass and start turning into more bush! No more bush! (Hey, I sound like Obama!)

I go out there regularly to chop the heads off the little springer-uppers (and yes, before you ask, that IS the technical term!), but that's really all I can think to do about them. They're connected securely to the mothership underground, so I can't just yank them out, and yet, if I leave them alone -- well, did you ever read that online novel Stephen King started called The Plant? The one that was about a plant that started to take over an office building? Unchecked, I think we'd have a jungle on our hands. So, it needs to go, and then we need to put something else in its place -- something less aggressive but still pretty. Anybody have a hedge-type shrub they like? I prefer leafy to pine-y, and it helps if it's something that doesn't grow too insanely tall (this one is about mid-thigh height at its tallest, which is about right for where it is located).

6. Take a day in the next couple of weeks to sit down with my gardening guides, all the catalogs the brilliant Janet just educated us about (thanks, Janet!), and a hand-drawn map of my yard, and really make a planting plan this year. You know, instead of just going to the nursery and winging it, which, to be honest, is really not workin' out all that well for me.

7. Do not let the dandelions win.

That's all I've come up with so far, but I'm already super-excited to get started! What are your plans for this year's gardening season? Got any major changes you want to make to your yard? Got any new plants you want to try out? Got anything gardening-related you want to learn more about? Let's hear it, people!

3000 hits!

I just peeked and discovered that we have reached 3000 hits! OK, so we aren't Google or Yahoo, but still... 3000 hits beats a boot to the head, doesn't it? Thanks very much, dear readers. We're grateful for the time you spend here.

Seed and plant catalogs and web sites = rainy day shopping

OK, Meg, you asked for it, you got it -- Janet's guide to garden catalogs and online shopping. The best thing about winter IMHO is the absence of bindweed. The second-best thing about winter is stepping into a steaming bubble bath with a stack of seed and plant catalogs to peruse. Aaaahhhhhh... Plant catalogs = porn for gardeners. I wonder how that sentence will affect our hit rate from Google searches. As usual, I digress...

Winter is a great time to shop catalogs and web sites for seeds and plants. There's not much to do outside, and it's usually too cold and miserable to cruise the nurseries. Plus, you can order bare-root plants this time of year and have them arrive early in the spring, the perfect time to plant them. I'm including only companies from which I've actually made purchases, so this is by no means a comprehensive list. I hope readers will add their favorite sources in the comments.

Seeds
I've done business with all of the following companies and had great experiences:

Territorial Seed: Territorial Seed is based in Oregon, so it's a great source for varieties that do well in our cool Northwest climate. They offer a great selection of vegetable seeds, as well as flowers, herbs, onion sets, seed potatoes, and other stuff. They also sell some live plants. You can request a free print catalog from their web site, or you can browse and order online. If I know exactly what I want, I go straight to the web site, but if I'm not sure, I find the print catalog to be a great reference. If you prefer to see what you're buying, you can find Territorial Seed at some nurseries, including Portland Nursery.

Totally Tomatoes: Like to grow unusual varieties of tomatoes? This is the catalog for you! I bought from them for the first time last year, and I was delighted with their selection. If it's a tomato, they probably have seeds for it: heirlooms, hybrids, funky colors, varieties for containers... they're all there. They also have a great selection of pepper seeds, both sweet and hot, along with a few other vegetable seeds.

Rich Farm Garden Supply: I ordered some heirloom seed from them in 2006 and was pleased with what I got. They have the best selection of heirloom squash seeds I've found, plus lots of other heirloom vegetables, flowers, herbs, trees, and shrubs. HOWEVER, a quick check of the Garden Watchdog reveals a slew of complaints, including several people accusing them of fraud. Under those circumstances, I can't recommend them, but if you decide to give them a try, be careful.

FYI, I buy a lot of my seed from seed racks in nurseries, grocery stores, and discount stores like Dollar Tree and Big Lots. The discount stores don't usually have a great selection or unusual varieties, but if you aren't picky, you can get basic veggie and flower seeds for $.10 or $.20 per pack. Not bad!

Plants
I buy most of my plants from local nurseries, unless I want something unusual or I find a bargain. But I have had good luck with the following:

Logee's: Logee's specializes in tropical plants for the home and greenhouse. They have a great selection of unusual items, making their catalog fun to browse even if you don't plan to buy anything. Everything I've ordered from them arrived quickly, well-packed, and healthy. I just took a quick look at their web site while writing this entry, and already I've found an unusual citrus tree I simply must have, but I'm not sure where to put it. Maybe I should convert my bedroom into a sunroom. Their web site should come with a warning: Visiting this site is hazardous to your bank account!

Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District Native Plant Sale: This one isn't mail-order; you have to pick up your plants in person. But you can download a pre-order form online, and the prices are great! If you have a big restoration project or other need for lots of Pacific Northwest native plants, it may be worth a drive to McMinville for their sale.

Trading and other options
EBay: EBay can be a gardener's dream for both seeds and plants, but watch those feedback ratings so you don't get ripped off.

Garden Exchange on GardenWeb: Nothing brightens up a dreary winter like trading plants! I've acquired all sorts of interesting plants through trades. You say you don't have anything to trade? Don't be so sure! What's common as, well, dirt in your neck of the woods may be a rare, exotic item halfway across the country. For example, I've had good luck trading marionberry and boysenberry starts (which root by themselves when I don't prune my berries at the end of the season) with people in parts of the country where these berries aren't so common. I also trade things that I can propagate easily from cuttings--not much effort for me, and I get cool new plants for just the cost of postage.

How to avoid getting ripped off
No matter what you're shopping for, including plants, it's wise to research a new business and proceed carefully, so you don't end up with poor-quality merchandise. The best place to research garden-related vendors is the Garden Watchdog, part of Dave's Garden. Here you'll find customer comments and ratings plus responses from the companies when comments are less than complimentary.

Winter sowing this week

Now that winter is about half over, I finally started winter sowing. If you aren't sure what winter sowing is, see my post from last year on the topic. Winter sowing is a great way to use up leftover seed from the previous season, and it's also a great antidote to the winter blahs. This morning I planted parsley and baby's breath. I'm going to try to sow something every week, but that may be overly optimistic.

Anyone else out there doing some winter sowing?

Why do you love to garden?

I know, I know... my next post was supposed to be the sequel to my "information management for gardeners" series. I'm working on that one, really. Today, though, I was practicing some information management, scanning articles from some old garden magazines, when I ran across a gem: "Why We Love to Garden", from a 1992 issue of Garden Ideas & Outdoor Living. The editors asked people to write in, explaining why they love to garden, and the magazine published some of the letters. Here are some quotes from the letters:

I love the seasons and am excited by the wonderful surprises that each one brings, especially in the spring when the first crocuses peek out"--Kate Gutierrez, New Jersey

My garden is my place. My peace. My nourishment." -- Janice Zimarik, California

Even in the dead of winter, my garden is a continual reminder that life renews itself. It's a magical place where I can rub fingers and toes into the warm earth, coaxing each plant to reach its potential promise--a gentle communication passing between us"--Beverly Beaty, Idaho

I love to garden because it brings me in touch with a miracle--every plant I touch, every seed I hold, every flower I caress--Kathy Thompson, Maryland

(Why we love to garden. Garden Ideas & Outdoor Living, Spring 1992, p. 54-56.)

I don't have time to compose an essay on why I love to garden, so I'll share a few random thoughts. For me, gardening is a creative activity. I'm not very artistic--I can't even draw a decent-looking stick figure, and I could never compose a beautiful flower bed like the ones in garden magazines. But I can take a pack of seeds and some dirt, and in a few months I have something beautiful. I can stick some cuttings in rooting hormone and vermiculite, and in a few weeks, I have a new plant. I can take stinky rotting produce from the bowels of my refrigerator, mix it with some pulled weeds and fall leaves, and in a few months I have compost. Nowhere else in my life can I be part of creation on that scale (unless I decide to have more children, and I'm too old for that). Gardening is dirty, messy, and exhausting, but it's also almost spiritual--I can lend my hands, literally, to God's miracle of creation. Not too bad for a hobby, huh?

Why do you love to garden? Leave me a comment and let me know. I need all the inspiration I can get on these dark, cold days.

Information management for gardeners, part 1: managing tasks and projects

What happens when librarians become gardeners? No, we don't catalog our plants (well... at least *I* don't) or shush the birds (oh, wait... I have been known to yell, "Shut up!" at the crows when they start squawking outside my window at 5:30 AM on the one day a week I get to sleep in, those nasty, stinking... ) Er, wait... where was I? Oh, yeah... librarians as gardeners. When we librarians embrace a hobby, we do research--lots of research. As a result, we gather lots of information on our new passion--information that needs to be organized to be useful. Since it's a bit cold outside for gardening (understatement of the year), this is a good time to find some indoor activities till the temperature breaks 50 (probably sometime in March at the rate we're going). So, let's talk about how we gardeners can organize ourselves to support our hobby.

I can think of three areas in which we might have information to organize:

• Planning
  
• Managing tasks and projects
  
• Organizing information for future reference
  

I'm not even going to attempt to talk about planning, because I'm awful at it. I occasionally map out my veggie beds with a pencil and graph paper, but mostly I just stick plants in where I think they'll grow well and look good, then spend the rest of the season complaining that they look funny and aren't doing well. My advice on planning is: Don't do what I do.

OK, one topic down, two to go...

Let's talk about managing the work of gardening. First, you need to know what you should be doing. I like to read lists of what I'm supposed to be doing in the garden, so I know exactly what I'm neglecting at any given time. It makes my guilt more specific. There are several good resources for finding out what should be done when:

• The Oregon State University Extension Service posts monthly garden calendars for Oregon gardeners. Much of this information is probably also relevant for gardeners in Washington, parts of British Columbia, and extreme Northern California. If you live somewhere else, check your local Extension Service web site to see if they offer something similar.
  
• The Homes & Gardens section of the Oregonian publishes seasonal garden planners, which are linked from the section web site. Look near the bottom, under Special Sections. Other newspapers may offer similar resources too.
  
• Books such as this one:
  
  Searching Amazon for "gardening month by month" will pull up similar books for other regions.
  

Once you know what you're supposed to be doing, how do you remember to do all that, along with all the projects you dream up for your garden? I spend lots of time in the winter, thinking up cool things to do once the weather gets warm. By the time spring rolls around, I've forgotten half of those good ideas. Once again: Don't do what I do. Or, don't do what I *did*. I've started using a personal information management system to manage my gardening to-do list. Now I know precisely, at any given moment, exactly how far behind I am in my yard work. It keeps me humble.

Care to join me in the exciting world of web 2.0 tools for task management? You could start by reading that modern classic, Getting Things Done:

If you'd rather skip the self-improvement book, just dive right in. You can use whatever system you use for managing other tasks (e.g. day planner, Outlook, nagging spouse) or try out one of these tools:

• Airset: Airset is designed to help families and small organizations manage their calendars, tasks, and communication. My family uses it, so I enter my garden to-do list there, keeping all my information in one system. I especially like the fact that it sends me my schedule and reminders via text message.
  
• Remember the Milk: This site focuses on task management, rather than including calendaring or other features. One of my co-workers swears by it.
  
• BackPack: BackPack lets you manage to-do lists, notes, calendar, and more.
  

That's enough for today. Next time I'll talk about how to organize all your gardening-related information so you can actually find the item you need when you need it. Till then, curl up with a mug of cocoa and some seed catalogs, and indulge your wildest (gardening-related) fantasies. (Keep your other fantasies to yourself!)

Book Review -- Radical Prunings by B.T. Abbott

I'm working on a blog post about moss, but in the meantime, I thought I'd post a book review for something a little different.

Bonnie Thomas Abbott's book Radical Prunings: A Novel of Officious Advice from the Contessa of Compost is written in the style of short newsletters -- that is, each "chapter" of the novel is actually a newsletter called "Radical Prunings," published by Miss Mertensia Corydalis. Miss C is a master gardener who opens each newsletter with some musings about her garden, certain plants she loves or hates, her employees (the dashing Tran and his obfuscating little sister Miss Vong), and her awful ex-husband, celebrity gardener Norton Doyle. Then she launches into a Q&A, written sort of like an advice column, with fictional people writing in fictional gardening questions, and Miss Corydalis. . . well. . . Miss Corydalis pretty much sniping their heads off and calling them all stupid for daring to have questions in the first place.

Hmmm.

And here's where I struggled a bit with this novel. You see, in my experience, "snarky" is only the same thing as "funny" one time out of ten when it's being heavily employed. And since Miss C is always snarky (especially when answering lawn questions, which by the third one begs the question, "Why keep answering lawn questions, if you hate them so much?"), that means this novel of 235 pages is only amusing for about 23.5 pages.

Oh, I'm being facetious -- this novel is actually pretty amusing, and it really got me excited for spring to hurry up so I could get out into the dirt (I also learned a few things, one of which I'll be talking about a bit in my upcoming post on moss). But I confess I almost quit reading it about thirty pages in. You see, as a librarian whose job it is to answer questions, stupid or not, I can't help but bristle when rookies get the slap-down from snooty know-it-alls instead of just an answer to their question, simple and clear and without patronizing judgment.

Luckily, I stuck with it, and Miss C started to lighten up a bit on her readers by about the midpoint. After that, she even managed to get me to chuckle a few times out loud. As it turns out, this is a pretty entertaining little novel, and if Miss Corydalis ever puts together another collection of her newsletters, I will definitely put it on my to-read list.

All in all, I definitely recommend this one, especially if you're looking for something light to help you get through the dark days of January. But, seriously, Miss C, you would've made a truly abominable librarian. Don't quit your day job!

Have you read any good books about gardening lately (fiction or nonfiction)? If so, share 'em in comments!

Winter weekend warrior

This past weekend, I did my first real yard work of 2008. We had a few hours of hazy winter sun on Saturday and Sunday, and I decided to tackle a hillside infested with Himalayan blackberry vines. I had avoided this project all last year, because the hillside was an overgrown mess, and I knew I'd be shredded by thorns and probably fall and/or turn an ankle, because with all the growth, I couldn't see where the slippery spots were. When I finally started working on it, I made an important discovery. Tasks like this are much easier to do in winter. Without all the overgrowth, I could see where to step. I could also clearly see the base of each blackberry vine, so I knew where to direct my clippers. And, a major bonus, I didn't break out in hives from touching grass pollen (oh, the joys of being a gardener with allergies). The work was still hard, but it wasn't unpleasant. And, I was able to clear in a couple of hours what would have taken a half day or more during the growing season.

I did some other weeding as well and realized that weeding is also easier in the winter, when the ground is soft and not overgrown. It can be difficult in clay soil, because a huge ball o' clay may come up with each weed. If you have loam or well-amended clay, though, you may be able to launch an effective attack against perennial weeds, catching them off-guard while they are resting up for the spring onslaught.

Obligatory health and safety warning
If your idea of exercise for the last couple of months is walking to the refrigerator to fix a plate of leftover holiday food, take it slow out there. If you go from sedentary to full-throttle in one weekend, you may spend the following week becoming good friends with an icepack and a bottle of Advil. In my experience, the best way to avoid muscle strains from yard work is to do moderate weight training year-round. You don't have to be Mr. (or Ms.) Universe, but about 20 minutes of weight lifting a couple times per week will keep your muscles in good working shape for your next war on weeds.

Now get out there and fight! (er, I mean weed...)

December greenhouse report

I just slogged through the rain and mud to the greenhouse to see how its occupants are getting along. Here's the update:

• Citrus trees -- all doing fine. The big ones are going through their third winter in my greenhouse, so I have no reason to expect any problems. The little ones I started from cuttings this summer are also doing well, so I should have some Meyer Improved lemons and Bearss limes to trade or sell at my church's annual plant sale this year.
  
• Snapdragons -- I dug some up a couple months ago to put in the greenhouse, hoping I'd be able to winter them over. So far, so good. Two or three died right away, but the rest are doing quite well. They even seem to have grown a little despite the cold.
  
• Impatiens -- RIP. I dug them up at the same time as the snapdragons, and they started looking pitiful before Thanksgiving. They're all dead now. It looks like they just turned to mush. Maybe I'll winter some over inside next year.
  
• Petunias -- I have a big pot of them in the greenhouse, and so far they're doing fine. I was able to winter over quite a few of them the last two years, so they should be OK.
  
• Brugmansias -- I lost my huge one last winter (no idea why), but the two I still have seem to be doing fine. They require more water than the other plants in the greenhouse, so I have to remember to give them a drink once a week or so, even during the coldest months.
  
• Cannas - doing just fine as usual
  

I also winter over some really tender stuff in the house: a cymbidium orchid, three begonias, and several pineapples.

That's about all the garden news from here. It's cold, wet, and muddy, so I don't spend much time outside these days.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Make Like a Tree and Leaf!

As you guys know, I'm pretty new both to gardening and to blogging about gardening. So, a couple of weeks ago, I confessed to Janet that I just couldn't think of anything to write about, now that it was winter and I wasn't really DOING any actual gardening. I ended my message to her with a joke about how the only thing I could think about saying on the blog now that fall and winter had arrived was "I HATE LEAVES!"

Janet, being the genius that she is (Hi, Janet! I think you're a genius!), quickly wrote back, not only sending me a lengthy list of topics I might be able to write about, but also to say I was thinking about leaves all the wrong way. They aren't a nuisance you have to rake up and take away -- they're MULCH waiting to happen!

"Wait," I thought to myself, "I could be using the bazillions of leaves covering my entire backyard as mulch? Instead of bagging them up and paying the city to cart them away? Why didn't anybody tell me this LAST year??" And yes, I know all you gardening geniuses are now rolling your eyes and snorting, but I'm a rookie, remember? A NOOB! Cut me some slack, already!

Now, before I get started, I want to make it clear that when I say I have bazillions of leaves in my backyard, I am NOT exaggerating. I'm not describing your usual sprinkling here and there of dainty little pear tree leaves (though, we have those too, of course). What I'm talking about, folks, is the debris from two ENORMOUS big-leaf maples that sit in the far left corner of our backyard. These are trees so tall you can't even see the tops of them, and in the summer, they are covered head to toe with leaves that are about the size of dinner plates.

Every fall, they drop those leaves on the left side of our yard, and before you even notice the weather has started to change, the leaves are already knee-deep. Seriously! I'm not making this up! Last year, we only managed to rake up about 2/3rds of them before winter rolled in (once it starts raining, it's a lot harder for me to deal with leaves both physically and mentally). Just 2/3rds of the leaves from two trees filled nineteen yard debris bags. NINETEEN! Is it just me, or is that not TOTALLY NUTS.

But when Janet said the magic word, "mulch," I suddenly found myself awash in hope. We've only gotten about half our leaves up so far this year -- we've just been too busy (and I've also had some back problems lately that have made lifting wet leaves a lot more challenging). But really, the worst thing about dealing with the leaves isn't the raking -- it's the BAGGING. And now Janet's got me thinking. What if I didn't have to do all that bagging? What if I could just load up a wheelbarrow with leaves and then dump them on my garden beds? What if that was not just easier, but also BETTER? How does this leaf-mulch thing WORK?

Time to hit The Google.

A quick search of "leaves as mulch" turned up a veritable ton of information. As it turns out, so many gardeners use leaves as mulch that leaves are often referred to as "gardener's gold." Gardener's gold! And I've just been bagging them up and sending them to the city compost heap! Man, I'm a MORON!

Not only are leaves a great source of protection and nutrients for plants, but they are extremely easy to mulch, as well. If you don't already have them knee-deep in your yard by the time you begin, you can easily shred leaves for mulch by running your lawn mower over them and collecting them in the grass bag. If you have more than your mower can handle, you can also rent shredders at many nurseries and tool shops (this is what we'll likely be doing, though I also think if we went out early and often next fall with our mulching mower, we might be able to keep the piles from getting too big for us to handle).

Once your leaves are chopped up, you can spread them right on your garden beds and plants as-is (not too thick, please, or else you'll choke your poor babies!). I read that gardeners in the Pacific Northwest in particular often find they can extend their winter vegetables through the entire season if they put a layer of warmth-storing mulched leaves around their plants. Wow! Keep in mind, though, that decomposing leaves are likely to rob your soil of some of its nitrogen. So, if you use leaves as mulch like this, you will want to fertilize your soil in early spring with a slow-release nitrogen fertilizer to try to reestablish a good balance of nutrients in your dirt.

Composting your leaves is even better for your yard, though most sites I read suggest letting them cook for at least two years before using them. It sounds like it's worth the wait, though -- apparently leaf mold turns into a fungus-rich compost that can retain 3-5 times its weight in water, making it even better than peat moss when it comes to keeping your plants moist. Sweet! You need a lot of leaves to make just a little compost, but if you've got the quantity and the patience, it sounds like an even better way to go. I've been interested in trying composting ever since we bought our house a couple of years ago, as we have a really great out-of-the-way spot for a heap or bin. Now that I know it might make it even easier to deal with our leaves each year, I think it's definitely time to start looking into how to get started. So, keep an eye out for a blog post on composting, coming soon!

In the meantime, it looks like the sun might come out up here in Seattle this Saturday, and it hasn't rained since The Flood of Ought-Seven last Monday, so I might attempt a little mowing and mulching tomorrow. We'll see how it goes!

Got any tips on using leaves as mulch, or favorite "get started with composting" web sites to suggest? Hit the comments, y'all! Your resident newbie (um, that would be me) needs all the guidance she can get!

For color in winter, try orchids

Though it's technically fall, winter weather has descended upon Portland. We had our first big storm over the weekend, with high winds and enough rain to cause considerable flooding. And it's been cold, dark, and dreary for several weeks. When daytime highs don't break 50, it's winter, regardless of what the calendar says. With the dark days and no more pretty fall leaves, I appreciate any spots of color I can find. Aside from the beautyberry and one camellia, there's nothing but green and brown in the yard, but my kitchen windowsill is starting to look like a tropical paradise. There's nothing like orchids to brighten up a Northwest winter.

I don't know what species this one is. I got it on sale after it had finished blooming, and the tag was missing.


Oncidium Mtssa Royal Robe 'Jerry's Pick'


Cymbidium, variety unknown. I forgot to bring it in from the unheated greenhouse before the cold weather started, so it developed some brown spots on the blooms. Normally it's pure yellow.


I don't claim to be an expert on growing orchids, but the common ones do well for me--better than most houseplants, in fact. I have a couple oncidiums, a phalaenopsis or two, and my treasured cymbidium. All bloom at least once per year, even though I usually forget to fertilize them and sometimes forget to water them regularly. I have all but the cymbidium in an east window above my kitchen sink, so they get bright morning sun and lots of humidity from the sink and dishwasher. The cymbidium lives in front of a south window during the cold months and outside in part sun the rest of the year. I've tried orchids in my office, which gets great light, but they don't do well. I don't think there's enough humidity for them there.

The one problem with orchids? They're expensive (like that $99 cymbidium I mentioned in my last post). But there are ways to get them for less than the going rate:

• Buy them after they've bloomed. You don't get instant gratification, but you'll pay 1/2 to 2/3 the regular price. I got my cymbidium from Home Depot for $15 when its original price was $30.
  
• Try a home and garden show. I got some of my at Portland's annual Yard, Garden and Patio show from an orchid grower based in Hawaii. They were a little smaller than the ones you typically see at the florist's, and they weren't blooming. But they were about $7 -- not bad.
  
• Try eBay. I just looked and found some good deals. If only I had a bigger windowsill...
  

So, if you have a sunny kitchen windowsill, get yourself some orchids. They'll brighten your winter days and impress your friends.

Zen and the Art of Flood

I had been planning to write a post here about the use of leaves as compost for your garden beds, but I realized today that this blog is called "Rainy Day Gardening," and since it's the rainiest day Seattle's had in as long as I can remember and I was just out in the yard with a shovel doing some emergency "gardening," I figured I'd take this opportunity to unload a little misery on you guys instead. Next time I post, I'll be all "educational" about it. Today, I just want to whine.

As anyone who lives in the Pacific Northwest knows, we are in the midst of the worst rain storm the area has seen in years. Know how I know this storm is the worst one we've seen in years? Because when we woke up this morning, I discovered we had magically become the owners of riverfront property during the night. We weren't the owners of riverfront property YESTERDAY. However, we sure are today! I'm sure you catch my drift on this one.

As charming as riverfront property may sound to some, the downside of it is that our garage is at the bottom of our hilly driveway, and if there's one law rivers tend to obey consistently, it's the law of gravity. I suppose I should feel lucky, as the intersection only four houses down from us is closed due to four FEET of standing water (we've only had more like four inches in our driveway), and the golf course across the street is now quite literally a LAKE. However, it's hard to feel lucky, even knowing things could be so much worse, because in only 90 minutes this morning, we mopped and shop-vac'd over 30 gallons of water out of our garage. We couldn't get the water up faster than it was flowing in, and about two hours ago had to declare the flood the victor and surrender.

The morning started with Denial, as I cheerfully piled up sand bags and leftover (unopened) bags of garden soil to try to block access to the garage. I grabbed a shovel and started digging trenches in the front yard along the driveway to try to give the water pooling on the concrete better access to the more-absorbent dirt (see? This post IS relevant: grass + shovels + rain = rainy day gardening!). Then I pushed up my (wet) sleeves, grabbed the mop, and started work on the garage floor. As I emptied my third bucket, I thought I must surely be about done. That's fifteen gallons of water I'd mopped up right there, after all -- how much more could there be?

But then I looked more closely and realized with horror what was truly happening -- the water wasn't just seeping slowly into the garage like it has in past storms -- it was actually FLOWING. I could actually SEE the water moving along the floor of the garage, like a little current was forming. I started to feel a tinge of panic and ran to go wake up my husband for an extra set of hands. The two of us began frantically sucking up water with the shop-vac and mopping, but it only took thirty (futile) minutes of that for Denial to turn to Extreme Panic (me) and Anger (husband). And then the freaking out and cussing began.

I'm happy to report, however, that we've now moved quite smoothly into the Acceptance phase. As soon as I started whistling the theme to Mickey Mouse's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, we realized the situation was pretty much out of our control. We put down the mops and started to empty the garage of all its boxes, stacking them neatly into the dining room as we made Noah's ark jokes ("How long is a cubit, again?") and talked about plans for lunch. And now, as I write this, I'm working hard at letting go of the stress. I strive to simply become one with the flood. The flood does not hate me. The flood is not out to get me. The flood is at the mercy of gravity, just like everybody else. The flood will do what floods do. And then it will be on its way.

Ommmmmmmmmmm.

Hope you guys are all staying warm and dry, wherever you are today! Please feel free to use the comments section to vent, rant, complain, whine, or just update us on the weather in your area. I'm off to check the garage -- if you've got a Buddha handy, give its belly a lucky rub for me!