Garden of Delights

Sunday, 10:17 PM, 21 February 2010
Temperature: 29 F, clear and calm

Today we got the seedling 'greenhouse' set up, limbed and cut down some more dead or decrepit trees, got some seeds started, took care of animals and gave the barn cats some more outdoor time, now that they have their collars. It was a very pleasant day, warmish but not too warm, which made the work much easier.

The seeds which have been started thus far are:

Snow's Fancy pickling cucumbers, 16 seeds
Marconi Rosso Italian sweet pepper, 16 seeds
Lettuce leaf basil, seeded to be thinned
Charentais melon, 16 seeds
Winningstadt cabbage, 16 seeds
Red drumhead cabbage, 16 seeds
Lemon cucumbers, 16 seeds
Ireland Annie Creek dry bush beans, 16 seeds
Dragon langerie wax beans, 12 seeds
Alpine strawberries, seeded to be thinned
Harbinger tomato, 15 seeds
Ailsa Craig tomato, 16 seeds
Marmande tomato, 16 seeds
Rubine brussel sprouts, 15 seeds
Alderman peas, 12 seeds
Lyon leeks, seeded to be thinned

In the case of the Harbinger tomato, the packet only contained 15 seeds, which seems a bit cheeky of the producers. We may opt to go with a different producer next year, if we need seeds. The Alpine strawberries take a year before they're productive; it's worth remembering a useful trick when planting strawberries is to get a strawberry-shaped rock or walnut and paint it red and place it among the strawberry leaves before any berries are in fact ready. The birds will attempt to sample this 'berry' and find it inedible; by the time your actual berries are ready, they will have lost interest and assume them all to be equally inaccessible.

We do have a great many more seeds to do, probably as many again to be done, but we ran out of potting soil. Three small bags is apparently the right amount to do eight flats of seedlings, which is good to know. The shelving units need to be staked down as well, and the plastic presently is being held by masking tape - not a very solid method. So that will all be worked on.

The barn kittens have been taking lurid advantage of outdoor time - at least, Tink and Nibs have, the others being a little shyer about it. Peter of course is nothing but an outsized love sponge, Tootles prefers to lurk in the workshop, and Slightly will venture out but is a bit more timid than the other two.

Tink is far and away the most adventurous and intrepid of the lot. We watched her stalking some of the muscovy ducks which had flown over the fence, first trying to slink through the grass, which was too short, then trying to use the grazing arks of the rabbits, and whatever else she could; to no avail, as the ducks could see her coming and kept their beady eyes fixed on her, waddling idly away whenever she seemed to be getting too close. Finally realizing this, she attempted to rush them, causing them to flap wildly away from her pursuit.

Each duck, of course, is somewhat bigger than she is, and probably as capably armed. That they travel in packs of two or three frequently further tips the odds against her favour, but she is determined. She did sniff hello to the rabbits, who didn't seem too worried about her, what with a layer of chicken wire between her and them.

The buck and Minnow both got some lap time, with a farmer brushing Minnow's lustrous fur until she got to feeling a bit too restless and rambunctious. The other rabbits are a bit shyer about being taken out of their arks; the best way to give them lap time is to sit next to the ark and coax them until they can be grabbed, which is a bit messy at times.

The pregnant ewe so far has opted to remain within her enclosure, although we've noticed our dominant ram, Hercules, spending inordinate amounts of time at the fenceline bordering the non-pregnant ewes' enclosure posing for the ladies. The resemblance to human adolescence has never been more pronounced. He has not thus far tried crossing the fence to the girls' dormitory, which is just as well. The only planned breeding in the near future is likely to be rabbit-oriented, after all.