.
From the Washington Post, an update: “On its 10th anniversary, dispelling myths around the Arctic Circle’s famed ‘doomsday’ seed vault” —
‘Tis the time of year to get seeds for the coming growing season. On Monday, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Arctic Circle got a delivery of more than 76,000 seed batches from gene banks in 22 countries.
But these are not for geminating — not yet, anyway. Sometimes referred to as the doomsday seed vault, the chilled storage chambers are located within a mountain on Norway’s island of Spitsbergen and form the protected repository of the word’s food crops.
This week’s ceremonial arrival of rice, wheat, barley, legumes and other seeds puts the vault’s inventory at more than 1 million varieties of crops. It also marked the vault’s 10th anniversary.
Officials with the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and the Crop Trust were on hand to receive a total of 179 boxes of seed from gene banks around the world, including two in the United States.
Jon Georg Dale, Norway’s minister of agriculture and food, said in a statement that in a period of extreme weather and an increasing global population “it is more important than ever to ensure that seeds — the foundation of our food supply and the future of our agriculture — are safely conserved.”
The Norwegian government also announced a $12.7 million plan to improve the vault with the construction of a new access tunnel and a service building to house emergency power and refrigerating units. The proposal stems from flooding at the entrance from an unexpected thaw in the permafrost, though none of the seed stocks were affected…
***********
Got a whole new batch of garden catalog this week, but I’m pretty well pre-ordered up, having already reserved a few more plants than we realistically have room for. Although the Spousal Unit is excited that I’m turning a couple of permanent planters (where tomatoes no longer flourish, even though the soil has been replaced) into alpine strawberry beds. Now we’ll see if he remembers to check for ripe fruit before the local fauna gets every last one — an ongoing issue with the three strawberry pots we’ve currently got near the front door.
What’s going on in your gardens (planning), this week?
Lapassionara
Good morning, everyone. I am away from my garden until next week. I expect to arrive home to see the cool weather weeds sprouting everywhere. Good times!
raven
The bride and her co-conspiritors are off to the Growers Outlet to start the season. She’s been hitting it hard the last two weekends while I redo my basement “shop” in anticipation of her retirement at eh end of May. We have to figure out how we’re are going to separate here studio from my office as I am going to continue working another year. I have a feeling I’m head to the basement.
Anne Laurie
@raven: Up here in Zone 6(ish) we don’t put out ‘tender’ plants until mid-May. (Used to be Memorial Day, but global warming is real.) Although the weatherpeople say we’ve had an ‘average’ amount of snow, it’s come in heavy bursts, interspersed with near-total warm-day melts, so right now everything outdoors is horrible battered brown & grey. Been too wet for me to even rake up oak leaves, and I know that the minute I start removing that ‘volunteer’ protection from the flower beds, we’ll get another sub-zero cold snap to kill off more perennials. If we ever get three whole days in a row without precipitation, maybe I can get a jump on putting down more mulch, at least…
OzarkHillbilly
My crocuses came up this week. A joy to see them.
Started my seeds 2 weeks ago. 17 different tomatoes, (Atomic Grape is one of the new ones this year) 13 different sweet peppers (in addition to all the varieties the rabbits ate last year, I’m trying Violet Sparkle ), 6 different hot peppers (Tunisian Baklouti is the only new one), and 4 different eggplants (the same 4 that the flea beetles decimated last year). Trying again for the farmer’s market, we’ll see what kind of summer we have. The greenhouse structure is not up yet but the base is built and I have 8 food grade barrels cut in half and waiting for the potting soil/compost mix (i’d really like to get at least 6 more barrels but food grade can be hit and miss) and that is where the eggplants and at least some of the sweet peppers will go.
I have sown wildflower seeds in my full sun flowers beds, also transplanted some daffodils, irises, and bleeding hearts. Will fill in any blank spaces with zinnias and other annuals. In the full shade beds I’ve started with some Astilbe, and Lilies of the Valley, will put at least 1 hosta in, and I don’t know what else tho I do have seeds.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
I have no garden, but can’t wait to see the pictures every weekend from those who do.??????
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
ThresherK
When I was a grade schooler my grandmother gave me her copy of The Egg And I, and I always carried a few things from it.
One big one was how in the middle of a dead, dreary winter, the seed catalogs tempted you with near-pornographic unattainable promises via the photographs.
Raven
@Anne Laurie: yea people got pretty jumpy with the warm weather the last couple of weeks but we’re headed back to normal.
Jeff
I’m still working on the fall clean up. Think the Gray Gardens look is what I’ll be getting this year.
OzarkHillbilly
Cat watching a horror movie -1 minute video
Sab
@Jeff: Seriously, fall cleanup already? It’s barely March yet! (Not snark. Sounds like my yard. So I have re-adjusted my mental schedule to feel more on top of things.)
No Drought No More
I planted the last tree I had room for on my lot yesterday. From a barren small yard 6 years ago, I now have planted a redbud, four pear, three cherry (one ornamental, by the front door), one peach, 2 apple trees, and a grove of nine gingkoes- all of which are surrounded by redwood forest. I scattered some red poppy seed around, too, that has filled a small slope overlooking my patio, and also patches under the peach and the grove of gingkoes. They’ve come in beautifully, and will pop in the next few weeks. I also planted three climbing wisteria this winter, to compliment the trumpet vines and jasmine along my fence line.. Tending to my butterfly bushes, lavender, and other sundry annuals will keep me busy, too, and this summer I might begin to grow my own food (it’s in the cards, if not this summer). When those vines finally cover the entire wire fence between me and the world, it will be a dream come true. I love where I live, and I live in Sonoma county, Ca.
JPL
I’m still cleaning up after the December storm. You can only put out a limited amount of brush and limbs each week, but I’m finally down to two more weeks worth. Wahoo! Then I’ll start spring clean-up.
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s me every time the orange one is on tv.
Elizabelle
Strong sense of deja vu from that photo! Worried my internet had gone out again.
Wiesbaden, Germany had crocuses up on January 30. They’re an unusually balmy area near Frankfurt; a wine growing region.
=====
Shall we start organizing a meetup after the March 24 March in DC? If we have a good turnout, maybe I can find a private room? What say you, Juicers?
PAM Dirac
Cleaned up two vegetable beds yesterday and planted spinach and peas. Started pruning the grape vines; 8 down only 170 more to go. Wind seems have finally dies down to below 10 mph. Just waiting for the temp to go up a bit more before getting at it again.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
Glad to see the blogfather’s babies made it to a garden thread. I’m thinking of starting up my cloner and cutting some of my bougainvilla, hibiscus, and geraniums for rooting. Plus seed starting, though I haven’t decided what to start yet.
satby
@Elizabelle: with enough advance notice I might be able to do a set-up around DC. Plus catch up with friends from an old account I worked on there. A trip has been in the wish stages for a while.
Ramalama
@ThresherK: The Egg and I?
satby
@No Drought No More: that sounds beautiful, hope you share a few pictures.
JMG
We had surprisingly little tree damage from the nor’easter on Friday, probably because the January blizzard took down all the really weak limbs and branches. But there’s no point in doing anything related to the yard and plants for now. Gonna snow a little tonight and a lot on Wednesday.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
Tomatoes, duuuuhhhh. ;-)
Wayne
About 6 months ago I bought a house in Ocala, Florida. We’ll be moving there in about a year.
It came with about a quarter acre vineyard of Muscadine grapes. The previous owner harvested the grapes and made wine. He passed away about 8 years ago so while there were a ton of grapes last fall, the vines have not been pruned during that time. I know now is the right time to prune and have looked up info on line but am looking for advice.
I’m not intending to make wine, I need to find someone who would want the grapes.
I do intend to start some vegetable growing areas. The vineyard has a great irrigation system that I am repairing.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah…though I had such good luck with seedlings I bought last year I may buy that variety again. Orange Whopper it was called, and they produced consistently until after a hard frost.
satby
@Wayne: are you thinking of pulling up some of the vines? That’s a huge job.
If it was my vineyard, I would ask around to see if there are other vineyards around and see if they would want to rent the field from you. They would do the pruning and take the grapes, you might get a small income to offset other improvements you want to make.
No Drought No More
@satby: One of these days, I just might. That is, if I learn how to use the iPhone I just bought. I spent more money for it than I did for a months rent way-back-when on a studio apartment in San Francisco,* and yet I don’t have a clue how to use it aside from, you know, make and receive phone calls. It’s people like me that luddites fear and despise, I suppose, and probably for good reason.
*god knows what the rent for that same apartment fetches nowadays. The San Francisco I knew as a kid- and knew up until fairly recently, in fact- is gone forever.
PAM Dirac
@Wayne: Ideally you prune before bud break. Here in Maryland that is usually late April to early May. There should be a lot of easy to find info on the internet, but you will prob find a lot of different pruning systems. Be aware that most of the discussions of the pros and cons of those systems is geared toward commercial growers where a 10% difference in yield can make a huge difference to the bottom line. For a backyard grower you mainly need to make sure the shoots aren’t too crowded so you get good air flow and lessen disease pressure. You also want to try to keep the new shoots coming up in roughly the same place to contain the sprawl. The original grapes grew up and spread out over 100-150 foot trees, so their natural state isn’t al all what you want to aim for :-)
Good Luck.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Loved that, thanks.
OzarkHillbilly
@No Drought No More:
No, us Luddites fear the mind control devices you weaklings press up against your heads for hours at a time.
MomSense
I heard from my partner in crime that we have 7 new families who want to participate in our neighborhood garden. This means raised bed construction in my future. I think we are also going to plant squash and pumpkins on the side of the plot that is not yet farmed. I was thinking I might buy some blueberry bushes and get a section started so we can eventually have a hedge row of high bush blueberries around the back of the garden area.
We are still trying to convince the neighbors that it would be good for the neighborhood and the gardens to keep bees on another section of land that is currently unused. It sits next to a meadow with lots of wildflowers so it would be ideal.
The resistance to our wild ideas seems to be softening. People love the compost bins and the raised beds now.
ThresherK
@Ramalama: Yes, I was a young ‘un who’d never heard of the novel. Since then, I have developed a love for Hollywood studio movies, but I never saw the movie and considering how much I enjoy the likes of Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert, I don’t know if I want to. Seems like it’d be glossied up a bunch.
My Grandma, herself, was from Sitka, Alaska, which is (as things go) not far from the state of Washington locale of the story.
Ramalama
@ThresherK: I’ve put it on my “to read” list. Looks good! For some reason, the description of your book reminded me of the writer MFK Fisher (so many good books but my favorite was A Gastronomical Me).
WereBear
@ThresherK: For one thing, Betty McDonald left the guy she had the egg ranch with. And reading the memoir (it is not a novel,) I do not blame her one bit :)
debbie
@MomSense:
Why would they be against bees?
satby
@MomSense: there’s an empty lot next to me that gets full sun, did you have to get permission from your town to put in the community garden? Because I would like to do that too.
Elizabelle
@WereBear: Betty McDonald sounds so interesting. Only 50 when she died of cancer in 1958, but what an interesting life. Also wrote the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle stories.
I would be interested in reading her memoirs (and she wrote several).
WereBear
@Elizabelle: She is a fine comic writer. Another favorite was The Plague and I, about her stay in a tuberculosis sanitarium. I had not realized she managed so many books in what was too short a life, but I have never been disappointed in her work.
No Drought No More
@OzarkHillbilly: Well then call me a luddite. I’m a dinosaur in a brave new world. I know it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way either. Fucking kids today couldn’t tell you the color of the sky because their zombie eyes have been glued to a flickering screen all their lives. If I could tell my 18 year old self what I just spent for a telephone- again, that’s all I really want it for- he’d shudder and ask me, “What happened to you, man?”.
Wayne
@satby:
I’ve started asking around. I may pull a couple out but not many.
Wayne
@PAM Dirac:
The multiple years of no pruning have resulted in a mess of old and new growth. Some like you said headed to a tree in the back area. My main goal is to do some preventative maintenance pruning, fix the trellises and irrigation system and see what happens. Now is the time to prune in this area.
Immanentize
I am going to start working on our garden/yard cleanup.the week after next (my school’s spring break week). Beside tilling my garden and adding some dried manure (which requires at least two weeks before planting), I have a new vision project. Some roses on my fence-line that are in shade will be moved to sunnier places and I am relocating white azalea volunteers from my front yard to creat a line across the sunny part of my back yard visible from my kitchen window.
At least, that is the plan!!
JMG
@Wayne: If the previous owner was growing grapes for wine, odds are there are other such growers in the area, too, and probably a vintner who buys them to make wine. Some research might locate such people who could suggest ways to take grapes surplus to your requirements off your hands.
MomSense
@debbie:
We have some olds who are afraid and a few parents who have kids with allergies.
@satby:
We had to get permission from the electric utility justnto make sure they can still access their equipment.
chris
There’s a grapevine here that grows over three ancient apple trees and produces big fat purple grapes that make really good jelly. Every few years my neighbour “prunes” it in the spring. He wraps a chain around some of the bigger stems, hooks it to the truck and drives away. It pulls up roots and yanks the vine right out of the trees and those are the best producing years.
PAM Dirac
@Wayne: Yes, you will have to remove a LOT of wood. In my experience grape vines are pretty resilient. It is much harder to kill them then you think. It isn’t that hard to lose a year’s crop, and to make up for years of no pruning, it might come to that. It might take a few years to get everything in balance, but the vines should come through it just fine.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle:
Ah Mrs Piggle Wiggle. Mrs Piggle Wiggle’s Won’t Pick Up Cure was a favorite story for my grandmother to read to me. We have a number of volumes of the Best in Children’s Books and that story was in one. I can always find that volume because it is so worn.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: I’d heard of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, but never read them. Now I will have to check them out.
Always got them confused with the grocery chain.
OzarkHillbilly
@No Drought No More: I recently had to get a new phone. Bought a flip phone. It has a bunch of stuff on it that I have absolutely zero idea of and will never use because it is just a fucking phone. If I am ever put in the position of having a smart phone or no phone at all (free markets are all about choices, right? Right???) I’ll just do without.
Spent the first 4+ decades of my life without one, I think I can spend my last decade on this planet without one too.
oldgold
I am considering planting my entire garden to kale. Why? This:
“Jean-Paul Sartre was sitting at the famous Parisian literary cafe’, Les Deux Magots, revising his draft of “Being and Nothingness.” When asked for his order he said, “I would like a cup of coffee please, with no cream.” The waitress replied, “I am sorry, Monsieur, but we have no of cream, only regular milk.”
Jean-Paul Sartre replied, “Okay, I’ll have it with no milk instead.”
satby
Ok, because I am insane, I wandered over to my email and saw a sale at one of my garden suppliers. So now I will need to find room to plant two columnar Apple trees, one red and one green. At least they stay narrow.
satby
@oldgold: I love kale. Looking forward to your garden stories again this year.
WereBear
@satby: Sounds great to me :)
Wayne
@PAM Dirac:
Thanks for the info.
JMG
@OzarkHillbilly: On the day I retired, I dropped my phone into the Ipswich River (there had been some drinking involved that evening). Been three years. Still haven’t missed it, although my wife and children are plotting how to nag me into getting an iPhone. Dream on, loved ones.
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m almost tempted to ask why you are using a computer and the Internets to register your vehement dislike of smartphones, but that’s really just a rhetorical question.
Technology exists that easily accommodates you and as well as people who exploit their smartphones to the fullest degree possible. You know, people who use their devices to play video games. It’s all good.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: And you can use non-powered hand tools too. I knew a high school shop teacher who didn’t believe in circular saws or other such devices. My old school builder/father in law hated stews, “they were meant to come out’!
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Smartphones are nothing but tiny computers. So OH doesn’t mind computers as long as they are not too small.
@OzarkHillbilly: Not being at everyone’s beck and call is still your choice even with a smart phone.
No Drought No More
@oldgold: An ancient Parisian had eaten lunch on a deck within the Eiffel Tower every day for 75 years. When ask why, he replied, “It’s the only place in Paris where I don’t have to look this damned tower while I eat”.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep. And that makes all the difference in the world. A tiny computer you can carry in your pocket.
RE: So OH doesn’t mind computers as long as they are not too small.
I’m always amused to see where people stop with technology. For me, it’s smart home stuff. But I enjoy reading about it.
schrodingers_cat
@raven: And take a horse buggy to work!
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: I love my smart phone. I ar sold. I can check Balloon Juice on it, from anywhere!
ETA: Most, smart home stuff is too creepy for me.
oldgold
@No Drought No More:
!
debbie
@Brachiator:
I don’t have a smart phone, mostly for non-Luddite reasons, but just about every one of the thousands of workers in the building where I work does. I am so sick of people busy reading their phones and not watching where they’re going until they hear a loud “Excuse Me” coming out of my mouth and avoid knocking me down. I’m still ticked off at the guy who, when the elevator door opened, just stood there reading his phone. It took another loud “Excuse Me” to get him moving before the doors closed. At least he apologized. Most others don’t.
No Drought No More
NYT: “..Mr. Trump has promised to spur “the biggest and boldest infrastructure investment in American history.” So his opposition to an established project that is widely considered a solution to one of the nation’s most critical infrastructure needs has confounded even veterans of his own party. Some fear that Mr. Trump is jeopardizing commerce along the Eastern Seaboard simply to spite Senator Charles E. Schumer, the Democratic leader from New York..”.
Bullshit. Trump is doing Russia’s bidding. Congressional democrats fear to even suggest it aloud, while congressional republicans actively conspire with Trump to effect the destruction of the American democracy of our inheritance.
WereBear
@No Drought No More: Yes. There is a brain behind all this, but it sure doesn’t belong to Trump.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep. There are some days where I never crack open my home laptop, but exclusively use my phone or tablet for stuff.
I also commute a lot, buses and trains, and am always happy when I see how people with challenges use mobile devices. I saw a woman have an exuberant conversation on her phone with a friend. She was deaf and was using Skype or FaceTime to use sign language. Which I did not know you could do with one hand. I also saw another deaf woman who had sent her drink order in advance to a local Starbucks, and who walked in, showed her order and paid for it, quickly and efficiently. I’ve seen people with visual issues make fonts and screen size bigger so they could use their devices.
I’ve seen people in stores and places like Home Depot take video or pictures of stuff and send them to their friends or spouse to verify what they were supposed to buy.
I love seeing how people use tech and include it in their lives.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
@Brachiator:
I’m so much more social and productive on the john thanks to smartphones.
oldgold
@No Drought No More:
Jean-Paul Sartre: “I tried to climb a tower in Paris, but Eiffel.”
Brachiator
@debbie:
Montclair, Honolulu and a few other cities are going to start writing tickets to people who use cellphones while crossing the street.
I also hate stuff like that. But even with flip phones, I would hate it when people would pull out their phones while in a restaurant or on the bus and start having loud conversations. Texting has mostly eliminated this problem, but a train I take has a Quiet Car which discourages talking on a phone, or noisy video games.
opiejeanne
@ThresherK: We live just outside Seattle and when we were going somewhere on the Olympic peninsula last year we noticed a street sign: Egg And I Road. I read the book as a kid but didn’t remember where it was set.
Wikipedia mentions criticism of the book because it “spawned a perception of Washington as a land of eccentric country bumpkins like Ma and Pa Kettle.”[3]
Trust me, Ma & Pa Kettle are still very much alive here in some places.
Brachiator
@Baud:
There should be a special circle of hell for people who use their phone while in the restroom.
I’ve read that more men do this than women, but have not seen rigorous surveys.
And I know at least one person who dropped his phone while on the throne.
debbie
@Brachiator:
LOL, I never use my phone in public places where people can see and mock. Unless, like a couple of years ago, I got a flat tire and had to call AAA. But it was night, the road was deserted, and no one saw me.
Brachiator
@oldgold:
Ugh. That’s just Eiffel. I hope he did not hurt himself.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Heh its easier to read on the throne, than a newspaper.
Chyron HR
@No Drought No More:
That’s an adorable lie, but here on Planet Earth congressional Democrats say that all the time. Conversely, that one senator who only considers himself part of the Democratic party for seven months in Presidential election years keeps insisting that there’s nothing to see here.
Just saying.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: I use my phone as a newspaper, checking the Twitter feeds of a couple of journalists, in the bathroom only when I am at home, not in public restrooms.
Brachiator
@opiejeanne:
I never knew that Ma and Pa Kettle were characters from The Egg and I. I only knew about their standalone movies.
I also didn’t know about the author’s connection to Washington. Very cool.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Don’t have one, don’t need one, don’t want one.
As I venture forth to places with lots of people only about once or twice a month, perhaps am more cognizant of incremental behavioral change than others. Three things about the phones which have noticed (the second one really gets my dander up, it is just plain rude):
1) Much more common to see folks clutching them the way Linus does his blanket
2) When engaging in face to face interaction with someone, should the phone ring that conversation automatically takes immediate precedence while the living, breathing person right there is left standing, ignored, of no more interest than the parsley garnish on a dinner plate
3) People in stores who plant themselves smack where they’re blocking traffic in the aisle, oblivious to the existence of everyone else, while they’re on the phone discussing something as crucial as whether the 24 oz. or the 26 oz. bottle of ketchup is the one to choose.
schrodingers_cat
This blog needs a new name, Curmudgeons R Us. I used to think I was pretty curmudgeonly, but I am no competition to the people on this thread.
NotMax
@debbie
Long ago mastered the icy, dripping with vitriol “Excuse me!” One application continues to work.
scav
@opiejeanne: Egg and I road? Well you were near Chimicum, in which case I really hope you stopped at the Chimicum Corner Farmstand for some seriously good vegetables.
ETA: they also will have starts and various handy soil thing (bone and fish meal, etc) suitable for the main thread topic.
opiejeanne
@Brachiator: My mom disliked the Ma and Pa Kettle movies because she thought they made too much fun of hillbillies. she was born in the Ozarks and her family were all hillbillies. They weren’t as amusing as the Kettles, just poor and poorly educated.
We kids loved those movies, many times part of a double feature at a kids’ matinee.
opiejeanne
@scav: Do you live out that way? I don’t remember going through Chimicum but now I know to.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: lots of us are older than you are.
@debbie: we had to stop a girl from walking right in front of a train a couple of years ago, she was busy on her phone and had ear buds in. Never even looked up until someone grabbed her arm. The train was about 20 feet away, with the bell ringing.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
You’d be surprised how many women have phone conversations while peeing. Like they don’t think the person on the other end of the line can’t hear what’s going on?
Brachiator
@opiejeanne:
This of course reminds me of the famous Daily Variety headline about the reaction of rural audiences to movies about rural life.
Sticks Nix Hicks Pix
I came to the Ma and Pa Kettle movies in a film class after watching stuff like Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies on TV and just saw the couple as amusing. Later I read about the problems some had with the movies.
HeleninEire
@Baud: Being productive on the john is not new. My Grandfather, born in 1918, died in 1985, called it “the library.”
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: I hardly ever have use my smart phone to make phone calls and never in the rest room.
scav
@opiejeanne: Do now, out by the part that stares at Canada at the end of the road. Chimacum could easily be missed. Oh, and if you head this direction? Port Gamble, Butcher & Baker is also well worth the slight detour.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: I bow before my elders. I have much to learn.
oldgold
@scav:
Damn technology – no candlestick maker!
opiejeanne
@scav: Thanks. That sounds like a place we’d enjoy.
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly: Actually, that’s probably a lot what *I* look like watching a horror movie. Not as furry and cute, tho’.