Winter solstice is past and the days are getting a little bit lighter every day.  But still the blooms of my Amaryllis planted at Christmas are a welcome sight.  A week ago I pulled hyacinth bulbs from my refrigerator crisper where I stashed them last fall, and put them in a clear glass jar on top of colored marbles, with water just touching the base of the bulbs.  The roots grow almost fast enough to watch!

I also planted tulips and daffodil bulbs that I had stored in the same crisper bin.  These I planted shallowly in potting soil.  Ideally I would have had them potted in the frig all this time, but my husband considers food a higher priority than flower pots in the frig for some strange reason.   

Posted by gail_heineman at 8:40 PM YST

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In Spring 2006 I hung a bird house in the Hungarian lilac.  I did this because some chickadees had moved into the swallow house above our kitchen window that had been used by tree swallows for many years.  When the tree swallows arrived, and saw that the house was in use, I was distraught.

Turns out that the swallows did not nest in our yard that year or this.  But the chickadees successfully fledged from the swallow house in 2006, and the house in the Hungarian Lilac in 2007.  In midsummer 2007 I found the Hungarian Lilac house on the ground - it had fallen partially apart.  

So finally I put the house back together and hung it today.  I figure they might be able to use it for shelter this winter.

Incidentally, the next in the swallow house was made entirely of moss, like something in a fairy tale.  This year the next was made of moss in the lowest layer, but then on top was gray cat hair (from the neighbor cat fights) and bits of yellow fiberglass.  Not as charming, but functional apparently. 

Posted by gail_heineman at 9:57 AM YST

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I filled a bird feeder with sunflower seed chips and hung it on a cast iron "shepherd's crook" set in a raised bed.  I have this feeder out all winter, then bring it in in the summer when the birds are supposed to be eating insects. 

Within half an hour, black-capped chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches were lined up, sorting through the bits to find some they liked, and then flying off.  Some birds stuff them in the cracks between the fenceposts, and under the loose bark of the birch tree.  I felt badly that I'd waited this long to put out the feeder.  They seem frantic.

We haven't had snow yet but the Chugach behind town, and Sleeping Lady across the inlet, are coated so it's any day now.

Posted by gail_heineman at 10:19 PM YDT

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The weather reports were wrong.  It warmed up and rained, allowing for another chance to harvest the root crops.  I dug up my garlic and made a large if somewhat messy garlic braid for the first time in my life.  It's pretty, but now my entire house smells of garlic.  Oh well, no vampires in here for awhile.

Yesterday I brought in the carrots and potatoes.  I obtained the carrots by jumping up and down on the shovel to break through a couple inches of frozen soil.  They look great, plump, even and not frost damaged.  The potatoes provided more drama.  I grow them in a tub above ground, just because potatoes are cheap here and I don't want to use my precious raised bed space for them.  The tub was too small for me to balance the shovel in it and jump up and down, so I tried to turn the tub upside down and empty it, figuring the bottom soil wouldn't be frozen.  I could heave the tub on its side ok, but it was too heavy for me to turn over.  My greatest efforts succeeded only in rolling it onto my foot or over away from me.  Finally with a burst of effort I tipped it into a hole left over from moving a rhubarb plant, and the soil emptied out in one lump.  I desperately scrabbled away the near-freezing soil from the bottom of the tub-shaped iceberg, looking for potatoes.  By the time I found the first, some lovely Black Beauties (really purple) I had a six-inch-thick disk of icy soil.   I could tell there were more potatoes in there, but it was too hard to separate.  I picked it up and smashed it on the ground a few times to break it into three pieces, then stuffed the pieces into a large bucket which I brought inside to thaw overnight.  I do not recommend this method of potato harvest.

I did get enough for a nice side dish for Thanksgiving.  Purple and red and peanut-yellow.  Colorful if not a bumper crop. 

Posted by gail_heineman at 10:45 PM YDT

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Yesterday I took a scissors and cut off the top (the only remaining leaves) of all my kale, chard and collards, bringing in two packed grocery bags full. I once again tried to dig the carrots and potatoes, but the ground was frozen solid! Silly me. I first tried a few days ago and only succeeded in bending my trowel. In past years (except for last fall when I was traveling) we've have a freeze, then it would thaw a few more times before final freezeup. I'd wait for the first freeze to give my carrots and potatoes every possible minute to mature. Well, it was a mistake this year. Unless I go out with a flamethrower, I'm afraid they are there until spring.

So today it's blanching and making veg soup to get all those greens in the freezer. Tags: gourmet, health, vegetables

Posted by gail_heineman at 10:17 AM YDT

Updated: Saturday, 13 October 2007 10:29 AM YDT

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