Glorious Tulips Last Only a Short Time

Sara's tulips grew extra large and tall this year, largely due to the tender loving care afforded them by my wife. She has nurtured the soil in her favorite garden beds for years, using kitchen-scraps compost, composted horse manure, rich topsoil, and most important of all, Humic Acid and Iguana Juice, great 100% organic products from Advanced Nutrients.

You can tell the difference, when you look at the same kind of tulips growing in the gardens of our neighbors. They're much shorter and their bowls aren't as full and robust as Sara's. I cherish this time of year, because I am well aware that just like those magnificent pink cherry blossoms a block away, blooms like tulips only last a relatively short time.

Tulips were prized possessions at one time in Europe. A single tulip of the right coloring was worth much more than its weight in gold. A man had to work for months to pay the prices they were asking. Then some blight or other took hold and tulips fell out of favor. Well, they're still very much in favor in our homestead.

As the attached photos clearly attest, the glorious tulips in Sara's garden are extra special this year. I can hardly wait for Spring a year from now to have them pop out of the soil once more and grace us with their presence.

Sara helped me construct a box for a new vegetable garden in a sunnier spot than before, and she planted seeds with the help of the kids. We have peas, carrots, arugula, leaf lettuce, spinach, and some herbs growing, as well as some well developed tomato plants which we haven't put outside yet, since the radio said something about the chance of frost tonight. We hope this doesn't happen for the sake of our seedlings!

But temperatures are due to rise over the weekend and then we'll be yearning for the cool days of early Spring! "You don't know what you've got, 'til it's gone!"

Putting Our Organic Garden to Bed

Sara just put up our Christmas lights yesterday, after putting the garden to bed. She mulched all the beds with shredded autumn leaves. This will prevent moisture loss, as well as act as a buffer against the extreme cold temperatures that we’re starting to experience. If you put some organic, composted soil on top of the leaves, you can actually precipitate composting of the layer underneath.

In the spring, Sara will have to remember to add an organic nutrient rich in Nitrogen (such as our favourite, Iguana Juice Grow) in order to replenish the Nitrogen that the leaves might leech from the soil in their decomposition process.

In previous years, Sara used to put a layer of composted horse manure over the entire garden, but that was in the days when Hedgehog was taking horseback riding lessons, and Sara was invited by the owner of the stables to take as much composted horse manure as she might need.

As we’re preparing ourselves for Christmas, I couldn’t help but to revisit my pictures of the last hurrah of Sara’s flower garden, the blossoms of late summer, early fall. The lovely fairie roses were in full bloom then, along with the phlox and the black eyed susans. Our gentle male cat, Patches, loved to hang out in the courtyard and the Christmas cactus, now in full bloom was just starting to bud at the time.

We wish everyone who reads this blog the warm glow of Christmas and New Year’s, or whatever holiday they are celebrating. We like to stick close to home and the privacy of our family circle. Enjoy!