Today I made fish stock from the heads and backbones of the red salmon we dipnetted from the Kasilof River yesterday.  I buried the bones in the rows of seeds that didn't germinate in my garden very well:  some cilantro and thyme.  Other cilantro did ok.  Some of my seeds are probably too old and I should throw them away.

So now I have some room to transplant the greens that germinated very well and are too crowded.  I'll wait a couple of days for the soil mounded over the bones to sink down a bit before I do the transplanting.

Over the years I've buried many a salmon carcass in this garden.  I sometimes stick my finger on a pointy vertebra bone that hasn't decomposed yet. 

Posted by gail_heineman at 10:36 PM YDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Last year I bought three bare-root hybrid tea roses at Fred Meyer's.  For under four dollars a plant, I figured I could grow them as an annual.   I planted them deeply so that the graft was below the soil, hoping that they might just send down roots.  I got one beautiful bloom from each, and I cut each one and kept it inside to savor.  Last winter was severe, and this spring I saw that the above-ground rose stems were dry and dead.  In fact, my Hansa rose that I've had for years died, too.  But just in the past couple of days I saw the unmistakable stem of a hybrid tea rising above the tulip leaves, and today I dug down and found the metal tag I made last year.  My Olympiad rose has grown up from the roots!  I wish it had a scent, but other than that, its bloom was perfection last year.

This spring I was in Portland and purchased a Etoile de Hollande on its own root.  If the Olympiad can make it, it gives me more hope for the Etoile de Hollande.  The bed is next to the house in full sun, the best microclimate I have in my yard.  

Posted by gail_heineman at 10:02 PM YDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

First asparagus harvest of the year.  The biggest stalks have grown about six inches a day the last two days.  These are from old established plants.  The younger plants, only there about two years, just have a few small less-than-little-finger thickness stems coming up.

Fresh just-picked asparagus has a nutty flavor and a crisp texture unlike any asparagus I've ever bought from a store. 

Posted by gail_heineman at 4:47 PM YDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

A friend brought a bag of fresh rhubarb from her Matanuska Valley acreage today. I chopped and froze most of the stalks, supplementing it with some of my rhubarb to make three full 8-cup bags, and also baked a fresh rhubarb crisp.

My rhubarb plants are now shaded by a birch tree that keep gettting taller every year (imagine that!) so today she and I moved some from the shade to a new spot in full sun. No harvesting of those particular plants this year, but I have plenty of others.

Posted by gail_heineman at 8:13 PM YDT

Updated: Friday, 15 June 2007 8:23 PM YDT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink