I read this tip in Eliot Coleman's Winter Harvest Handbook last winter, and decided to try it out this year.

Instead of planting leeks a couple inches deep, and then hilling up around the plants as they get taller over the growing season, he basically pushes a 1-inch-diameter dowel about 9 inches into the ground, drops a plant (with its roots trimmed to 1") into the hole, and moves on. He wrote that this technique eliminated the time-consuming, messy hilling, and produced leeks that were beautifully and uniformly blanched for market.

The photo below shows the result of my test. I used an old broom handle as my dowel, marked at 9" from the end with a sharpie marker, to make my holes. Super easy!! My plants probably should have been a bit larger--I lost a few more than I normally would have when soil fell into the holes and covered the whole plant. Those plants that survived did not seem to mind being planted so deeply:

This was our morning-of-May-27 wake up call.

More fun can be found on this link (sorry I can't post the cool slide show, it's not my album so the tools aren't available).

Unrecycled new light bulbs release mercury into the environment

Energy-efficient CFLs are increasingly popular but few people recycle the bulbs. As a result, U.S. landfills are releasing more than 4 tons of mercury annually into the atmosphere and storm water runoff, a study says...

I have corned beef brining in the fridge...and half a bushel of beets to wash and store. Somewhere.

I really do need a root cellar.

That is all.

Old Trees May Soon Meet Their Match
from the New York Times
GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK, Nev. -- For millenniums, the twisted, wind-scoured bristlecone pines that grow at the roof of western North America have survived everything nature could throw at them, from bitter cold to lightning to increased solar radiation.

MILLENNIUMS???

Really, NYT? REALLY?

Sigh.

Long-Sought Viking Settlement Found

In other news, work is finally calming down a bit; gardens are still insane. Details to follow, perhaps even soon.

Granted, I don't put much content here anymore...but I used to. Still do, sometimes.

If I want it on Facebook, and I've posted it in LJ, I will also put it on Facebook. Otherwise, it should remain on LJ.

That is all.

The sun is shining. Whilst thunder rumbles in the not-so-distance.

I do love this state.

I just know someone in Ontario is evoking Huey. Cut it out! Seriously, I can't see my house and it's 200 feet away. Or less.

Raw-food raid highlights a hunger

Your tax dollars hard at work...denying you the right to eat the food you want to eat. Brilliant, really.

Quick: go to newsweek.com, type up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, enter.

(Up, down, etc. are arrow keys. Think video game.)

Finally, this month is behaving like spring!

Saturday, after the weekly market, got the leeks and potatoes in, replanted peas in places where they didn't come up the first time (thanks, meadow voles!). Also, planted the rest of the onions (the red ones that I started from seed, as opposed to the yellow storage and cipollini dormant little plants from Texas I planted ~a week and a half ago. Which will be the last time I buy those plants, I just have not been impressed the last couple years and now Cate Farm is selling lovely young organic onion plants so I have no reason to keep supporting an onion farm on the other side of the country.)

Sunday, went to the Plant Sale out at Cate Farm in Plainfield... holy crap, what a spectacular day! Planted my brussels sprouts in the Plainfield plot; planted fennel, beets, and carrots at the community plot (and watered all things previously planted there).

I need to start squashes and zucchini, maybe cucumbers, and start kicking my tomatoes, peppers, and melons to the curb (I mean, hardening them off for transplant).

April-planted greens, radishes, and spinach are nearly baby-sized now; another week or so and we'll be able to start eating them. May planted versions of same are up already. So much for the benefits of planting early!

The late/random frosts last week were not kind. I had row cover on my strawberries, but a garden neighbor's blueberry plants out at the community plot have frost-kissed blossoms. Walking around town, you can see black branch-tips on trees that are borderline for Zone 4 (like, sadly, the tulip tree on my walk to work--no flowers this year, most likely!).

~4 inches of snow on the ground this morning. The spring flowers are REALLY un-amused this time. Fortunately, I don't think the peas, kale, radishes, etc. care all that much...and most of the snow is gone again already.

Lots of garden progress to report, though I'm not likely to get through all of it before the file I am waiting for shows up.

Tomatoes, husk cherries, melons, and brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, etc.), oh, and basil and a few flowers, all planted inside in the last couple weeks. Peppers and brussels sprouts re-potted, onions and brussels hardening off (in theory, see above about snow, right now they are hiding in the garage).

...and there's that document. Bye!

...and I know there's at least one of you out there: Have some awfully sweet mini-drawings, courtesy of cedarseed.

Snow this morning, about an inch. It's all gone now, but the daffodils they are not so thrilled.

Good: My awesome friends in E. Montpelier, who raise the pasture-fed pork and lamb that currently grace our freezer, were featured in the NY Times!

Bad: They, like many other small farmers in Vermont, continually struggle to find adequate slaughtering facilities for the animals they raise.

Link: Push to Eat Local Food Is Hampered by Shortage

...no, not at the same time, yet.

The weekend garden update: planted kale. Celery and celeriac both up, but only my Peacework peppers are up so far. Odd. Saturday was spent almost entirely with my hands in the dirt, several of the raised beds at home are ready to go. Soil is totally thawed, even out at the community garden. Haven't been up to the Plainfield plot yet. The sub-freezing temps forecast for later this week are going to be a rude surprise to all the little bulbs that have poked out of the ground already. April fool, crocuses! Thinking about planting peas and spinach this weekend, if that forecast isn't quite right.

In other news, the next kitchen party is on for the May 22-23 weekend. Come early, stay late, bring your friends, your Scotch, and your music.

gigglingwizard, this one's for you: Urban farmers fight nationwide to sow green biz

...that my LJ friends in Maryland, Delaware, and Philly have got all my snow. Seriously, are you trying to start a new ski industry down there? (Fine, okay, do that, but no stealing our mountains.)

That is all.