New Clothes

The earth is throwing off her old drab winter wear and putting on bright colors and greens for spring. She is getting ready to march in the St. Patty’s day parade. Daffodils are blooming everywhere. The trees are flowering. Michael’s weeping cherry is sporting some cheerful blooms. The garden is growing as fast as we can eat it. The arugula is even starting to go to seed. It will be cut back real heavy to see if the harvest can be prolonged.

The last of the leaves in the front yard are finally picked up and mulched and put in the long bed that runs parallel to the sidewalk. That bed is only half mulch. The “stockpile” of mulch that has been accumulating in the back yard will need to be used up and maybe now that we have an electric leaf mulcher/blower/vacuum a few leaves from the street can be used. The time consuming part of that mulching project is laying down wet newspapers to cover the dirt.

A few more of the hardened cabbage, pak choy, parsley and cilantro plants went into the dirt today. It seems as if too many were started. At least as many as have been planted have been given away and there are still a bunch left.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Pak Choy

Don’t wait so long next time. This is the lesson learned from pak choy. The beautiful pak choy plants that were harvested this weekend were still good; but they were post-mature. The greens were saved by cooking them with garlic and ginger. The stalks were still good raw. Everything would have been better were the plants harvested 2 weeks ago.

The pepper spray seems to be effective against the 4 legged pests. It does little to stop the multi-legged villains. There is some type of little critter that attaches itself to a turnip leaf and just sucks. The leaf wilts and shrivels. The garden needs a good dose of BT. Rain was threatened all weekend so the application was post phoned. The rain finally came today so as soon as it quits, BT will go on the plants.

Arugula is going to seed. We have been eating it in salad, but now the flowering plants have gone to the compost bin. The rest will be cut short with the scissors and added to the mixed greens.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/