Happy Mom’s Day

Goji babies!

Hope all you mom’s did exactly what you wanted today. We were outside most of the day morale hunting and enjoying the sun.

Garden news: I dug the Jerusalem artichokes up ---I planted 3 tubers last fall. Three. Tres. Toi. I dug up . . . around 30. I hope I got them all. I’ll be replanting a few out in a separate area. Talk about invasive!! Perhaps I’ll move my mint over with it. The mint shoots along in the top three inches of soil, while the Jerusalem artichoke tubers grow about six inches down, so they sort of compliment each other.

Tristen has finally gotten his garden dug and planted. He’s growing: 16 carrots, 9 spinach, 9 radish, 1 fennel, 9 bush beans, 1 popcorn, 2 cucumbers, 1 tomato, and 4 basil plants. This is all planted in a 9 square foot bed.

The strawberries aren’t doing too well—I wondered when I saw the rootstock if I should return them. Perhaps I’ll try seeds yet this year. 5 of the 9 blueberry/raspberry bushes haven’t leafed yet. X yer finga’s for us.

Beyond food stuff: I’ve been working on a shade garden under the two big maples. I’ve split 4 large hosta into at least 50 plants, maybe more. I’ve added some transplanted wood ferns collected from the forest, and have recently found columbine as well, so that will be added soon. I have 8 seed trays holding between 30 and 40 seedlings each coming along, and I can’t wait until I can have cut flowers for the table (and for salads) every week.

Morals abound. The family’s collected over 10 pounds this season, and as none of us really eat them, they’ve made great gifts for neighbors and friends. Tristen found an extremely large moral this week—as big as a dollar bill. Kudos kiddo. What we haven’t given away, we’ve dehydrated to pass along later.

Other activities: Soccer season in here, and this is Tris's first year at it. He does well, particularly as goalie, and is picked often for that position. It’s so entertaining to watch all the kids running after that little black and white ball!

Rowan and I often go foraging in the woods. I'm trying to identify as many potential wild edibles and herbals as possible, as well as locate any thing else of interest--Like the fort on the top of the hill (really just a deep ditch surrounded by shrubs) which Tris has claimed as his own.

Hope you're keeping as busy.

~Sharilyn