Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Feb. 3

Our local Atmospheric River did not result in the forecast rainfall for our area, but we have more coming, they say.

Rain has not been coming like a river. There has been a mixture of ominous clouds, rain, a little hail and some sun. How is your weather?

The rosemary is starting to bloom, and the bees were able to visit. This is the only plant we have that doesn't smell like pine. The bees had mostly left for the day by the time I got around to taking these photos. There will be more blossoms later:

We planted Rosemary when we first moved in because gophers don't eat it, and we had GOPHERS.

Anyway, there are not a lot of flowering plants around right now. The earliest flowering pears are in bloom, and some of the low-chill stone fruits are starting to bloom, just in time to have the blossoms wrecked by blight due to rain. Get that copper spray ready.

Weeds

The green early February world is beautiful though. All the green vacant lots will be brown later. Foxtail grasses are the most dangerous weed around here. Goatheads are the most persistently painful, but they haven't become a presence yet this year. Annual Nettle (Burning Nettle) is a focus right now. If allowed to go to seed, it will make thousands of seedlings that burn the skin. Young leaves are edible after cooking. Don't eat after it flowers (even as Nettle Pesto):

Here it is intermingling with a relative of Lamb's Quarters (related to beets), also edible, but it doesn't look real tasty to me. Right now, I can pull out the Lamb's Quarters if I grasp it low on the stem, but gloves are necessary to avoid the nettles. I think I would be careful about how much of this plant I ate. It may accumulate nitrates:

And here is my common mallow (( think), cheeseweed. Like Little Mallow, it is edible, but also accumulates nitrates to some extent. It is a big plant already.

I was able to yank it out with my bare hands, paying attention to the nettle. Look at those tap roots!

The lamb's quarters resisted.

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Got chickens?

Consider leaving some pecans in the tree to attract some crows.

The reason I don't have to worry about hawks. They are currently picking pecans from the tree, and dropping them onto the concrete driveway to break them open. If that doesn't work, they'll drop them in the middle of the street to be broken by vehicle traffic. Corvids are awesome.

Ah, Nature

Drawing an invisible tree trunk (Anamorphic 3D illusion)

🎞️ Howard Lee pic.twitter.com/oouY905I4P

— Echos of Wisdom (@EchosofWisdom) January 28, 2024

Adventure

Community Action

Boat owners moving a large floating island out of the way on Wisconsin's Lake Chippewa
pic.twitter.com/oq8vh7lSVD

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) February 1, 2024

Gardens of The Horde

What are your worst weeds?

Anything going on in your yard or garden?

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Jan. 27

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:33 PM

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