While there is still snow on the ground I saw proof today that it really is spring. Bookman and I met a friend for breakfast this morning. Our table was next to a window that looked out on the patio dining area. Empty and sad looking with a ridge of snow along its length, I looked out when a movement caught my eye. What did I see? A robin! It is the first robin I have seen this year. Mr. Robin looked a bit cold, but there he was which means spring for real.
Even though it is spring and the snow is slowly melting I am still about a month away from being able to actually plant anything in the garden. And the only reason I will be able to plant anything in a month is because it will be in a raised bed. A raised bed that hasn’t been built yet. As soon as the snow is out of the garden, Bookman and I will be venturing forth for the supplies to build the bed. We decided to use cinder block instead of wood. The bed will be our first ever polyculture bed. Which reminds me, I have to figure out exactly what we will be growing in it so I can make succession planting plans and all that. The bed will be about 4 x 8 feet. And you know, cinder blocks have openings in them. We will be filling all those up with soil too and planting sweet alyssum and nasturtium in the blocks. So excited!
I mentioned a couple weeks ago Bookman and I were going to try our hand at making sauerkraut. We haven’t gotten around to it until today. Chopped and salted cabbage packed down as best we could get it in a very large jar with a weight pressing down the cabbage. The book says it will take about 24-hours for the salt to pull all the water out of the cabbage. Then we give it several days to start fermenting. The longer it ferments, the more sour it gets. We’ll let ours sit until the end of the week before giving it a taste. If this goes well and we manage to not poison ourselves, one of the things that we will end up growing in our polyculture bed will be cabbage. And, if the kraut goes well, we will also try out using fermentation to make pickles this summer. It is an exciting new adventure in garden food preservation.
This weekend I also put my worm wrangler hat on. It is time to put new bedding in my red wiggler bin. Since I don’t want to dump the bin out on a tarp on my kitchen floor and sort the worms out of the compost, I am trying another method that supposedly works. I moved the current bin contents to one end of the bin. In doing so I disturbed many worms and even found a few small young ones (my worms had sex!). I put fresh bedding in one side of the bin and some fresh food and made it all as inviting as I could. I will let the old bedding on the one side of the bin dry out. The idea is the worms will migrate under their own power to the new bedding because that is where the damp and the food is. I hope it works so I don’t have to resort to a tarp on my kitchen floor. Bookman would not be pleased to have the worms cavorting free outside the prison walls of their bin. Fingers crossed!
What a lovely post. I’ve been watching robins too, here on the west coast. And because it’s truly spring here, I’ve been working in my garden. The robin follow me from bed to bed, turning up worms in the weeded soil, and often they choose to dig in the very beds I’ve just planted with early greens. So I follow them and re-poke the seeds back in…
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Theresa, thanks! So lucky you’ve been able to work in your garden already. And what a wonderful story about the robins! It made me smile 🙂
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I bet you can’t wait until Spring is really in full force so you can plant and carry on with gardening adventures! Good luck with the sauerkraut!
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Iliana, oh my goodness, my fingers are itching to dig in the dirt! It’s been a really long winter. And thanks, so far so good on the kraut beginnings, we have brine 🙂
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Good luck with the sauerkraut … love the stuff but always shy off these “cooking” things that take so long before you know whether they’ve worked. And, good luck with the worms as well.
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whisperinggums, thanks! LOL, yes, it is hard to wait. But at least we don’t have to do anything ourselves other than make sure the cabbages stays covered in brine, nature does all the rest of the work. As for the worms, herding cats is much easier I think!
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Yeah–a robin sighting! Spring is slow to arrive but it will arrive.
Your kraut endeavor sounds fun and I hope it yields some tasty quantities after fermentation. I remember my father doing kraut once as a child and whoo boy, was it odoriferous. My parents use the wooden cabbage shredder and crock today for decoration. I hated sauerkraut as a kid but now adore it. I’m sure yours will be quite tasty.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the worms will take to their new bedding. How exciting that you found some juvenile worms.
Off topic–today I’m going to make for a second time that sauce for tofu using the recipe you shared with me in December. Thanks again for sharing it.
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Vanessa, I was so surprised and happy to see the robin I think I might have squealed. We are excited about making kraut. We have a small house so hopefully it won’t get too smelly. How cool that your parents have a shredder and a crock! Those things are so expensive these days. As for the worms, my fingers are crossed too. When I found the little ones I was so excited. It’s the simple things right?
Oh hooray! I am glad you like it so much. Coincidentally, Bookman is making some this morning before going to work to use over dinner tonight 🙂
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How inspiring you are! I will immediately begin thinking about
planting flowers. And the sauerkraut project! What a hoot!
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booksandbuttons, gosh, thanks! Have fun planting flowers! The sauerkraut is coming along nicely. It is now nice and brine-y so let the fermentation begin!
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I have a robin that stays in the garden all winter and keeps me company, but today I heard the most wonderful blackbird, singing as if his heart would break under the strain. It was the most beautiful sound I have heard in months.
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Alex, how nice you have a robin that stays all winter. A good many of our birds migrate to warmer areas for the winter so when I see them starting to come back it is always a great joy. And what beautiful music the blackbird gifted you!
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You are daring–as much as I want to begin composting I thnk I have to stick with the outside kind! Yay for canning veggies–I am already looking forward to your upcoming gardening posts! We were supposed to get snow this morning but it was a nonevent–I am happy to say. And by Sunday it is supposed to be up close to 70F! I’ll believe it when I feel it–hopefully it will continue to migrate your way!
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Danielle, the worms have been so very easy so even if I do have to resort to a tarp on my kitchen floor, it will only be a minor thing even if a little messy. I am looking forward to being able to have regular garden posts again and I am anxious to discover what did and didn’t survive the winter. We might get up to 60 on Sunday, though the forecaster I listen too has suggested upper 50s is more likely. But still, that will be the warmest it has been since November and I will not complain 🙂
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If you get tired of sauerkraut, you could try your hand at kimchee – it’s a Korean dish made with femented cabbage which has been standing in garlic, tomatoes and fish sauce. An aquired taste!
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BookerTalk, our fermentation book has all sorts of recipes including kimchee. We’d gladly give it a go except for the fish sauce part since we are vegan. I’m sure if we decide to venture in that direction we can find a non-animal substitute 🙂
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Hmm that would indeed be challenging to find a way of adapting the recipe. Though I wouldn’t cry too much about the lack of kimchee. It’s a horrid taste IMHO
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Cinder block… what a great idea! I have been wanting just ONE more raised bed to plant herbs in… that would be perfect! I’m going to make one this year. I hope you get to plant soon!!!
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wherethereisjoy, thanks! I got the idea from a photo in a garden book I was reading over the winter. I thought it would be easier to make, more flexible in terms of size, could even move it easier if I wanted to, and now sawing and nails. I hope yours works out, I think herbs are perfect.
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Hurray spring at last! We only have raised beds because our garden is so tiny. We have two up by the house and just about squeeze tomatoes, beans and courgetts (zuccini to you, dear friend) into them, along with a bunch of herbs. But they are Very Good Things and you will love having them.
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Litlove, not quite but it’s getting there. Good to know you’ve had such success with raised beds. I am looking forward to getting out in the garden again and getting dirty 🙂
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Can you believe we’re still snowing and it was -11C this morning. Tomorrow’s forecast: more snow. No Robins yet, albeit I was told they didn’t migrate in the winter, they just stay hidden until spring. Good to know spring has arrived for you. I’m still waiting.
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Oh Arti! Our temperature is jumping around one day above freezing the next day well below and then the next day just above freezing. Spring never just arrives, it always stutters its way in. I hope it reaches you soon!
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I heard my first robin on Friday!!! And then it snowed….I feel sorry for the robin now. I’m curious to see how your raised planting goes, and excited about the flowers you are going to try. I like sweet Alyssum very much.
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Susan, hooray for robins! The early ones always end up getting snowed on but their arrival is always so welcome. I have high hopes for my raised bed. I love sweet alyssum too. It’s a great pollinator attractor and once it starts blooming it just goes and goes and goes until frost kills it.
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