Victory Garden 2012 Edition!

Now if you have been following me on Twitter, you probably have already been seeing updates on my vegetable and herb gardens popping up here and there.  If not, here is an update and a bit more explanation.


This year, for a change of pace and based upon what we learned from our first garden last year, I decided to put all the herbs in window boxes instead of in the garden proper. It will give the veggies more breathing room and -more importantly- the herbs will be right out on the back deck near the kitchen. They'll be easier to get at and we'll have more impetus to use them while cooking.


In the main garden, I stuck with tomatoes and squash mostly, as they did the best last time. I avoided cucumbers and peppers as they didn't do nearly as well. I also planted a lot of seeds, and have more seeds getting ready in starter pots.

We had a lot of violent rains early in the season.  Most of the plants and seeds enjoyed this while a couple didn't make it.  A lot of seeds are sprouting, and that lettuce is crazy!
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Sketch of the Day!

I got a most unusual commission recently. Here are some very early ideas for it:

In Which We Have a Truly Massive Garden Update, and Dunkin Donuts Goes America on Everyone's A**

I cannot guarantee that the first half of this post will make any sense to those of you readers outside the New England area. I am also going to suggest (mild spoiler) not reading this half during breakfast. But I think we can all agree that Paramount dropped the ball when they chose not to release the Captain America movie on Independence Day weekend, even though it doesn't seem to be hurting the film much.

Fortunately, their unusual promotional partner, Dunkin Donuts, did no such thing, releasing their tie-in specials just in time for July fourth. Now, I've recently been weaning myself off coffee and it's partially because my local Dunkie's has done something wimpy to their brews (in my day, we didn't need flavor shots!) I'd had my Obligatory Coffee Coolatta back at Comicon and would have been done for the summer season... until this ad, starring a dog with a punny name who wants to kill all humans, started running:



As you may know, if there's anything I can't pass up, it's campy patriotism. So I was pretty determined to get my hands on a Dunkin Donuts cup with Captain America's shield on it. But something far more spectacular awaited me inside.



A TRIPLE red white and blue Coolatta.



Now, it wasn't until I had the drink in front of me that I realized it isn't a physics-defying triple-blend of some kind. The three flavors (raspberry, vanilla, cherry) are each separated in their own little compartments. (In hindsight I have no idea how I thought the alternative was supposed to work.) The taste is basically straight-up sugar with some recognizable flavor and loads and loads of food coloring. Same goes for the matching donuts.

Which is to say, shortly after I hit the bottom of this thing, I may have thrown lots of red dye and patriotism up into the lake. That'd be a sincere thumbs-down on the triple-Coolatta then. At least the cup is cool.

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So what of the Gardens?



I apologize for the blurry picture, but I've been seeing the Oriole and his lady-friend quite often lately.

I also met a couple of cuties at a garden center:



These two fledglings were flopping around one of the center's greenhouses and being cute but cacophonic. I never got a good look at their parents, so if anyone has any idea what species they are, let me know in the comments (best guess is some kind of Icterid). Here's a better look:



And this might be my favorite photograph of a bird I've ever taken. It's a reminder of just how light they really are!



Over in the Victory Garden, we've got flowers everywhere! These are on the summer squash.



The peas are also in flower and they've grown quite tall. I think I spot a pod or two in there!



And lastly, I finally got to do this:



That leaf is fresh from the garden.  I just realized that this kind of thing is only okay to brag about because they are plants.

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Sketch of the Day!
I should do more of these...



Next week, oh-ho-ho, I have quite the book to review. Until then, enjoy this wonderful essay on the legacy of Harry Potter and this very funny Rifftrax montage:

Hummingbirds and Orioles are Back!

Last autumn and LAST last autumn, I had written about feeding hummingbirds. Since they've returned and are courting each-other by now, I figure some of the points I made back then need to be reiterated.  Once again, the formula is 3.5-4 cups of boiled water to one cup of pure cane sugar. Let the sugar dissolve in the hot water and set it aside to cool. DO NOT USE FOOD DYE!!!

I like to have a container prepared in advance. The feeder currently has a 3.5 cup of water mix but I'm going to fill the feeders with the 4 cup water mix next, just for the sake of experimenting.

A couple of Baltimore Orioles have been visiting the hummingbird feeders and their own nominal feeder as well. We started seeing just the adult male at first, so I put out a few slices of oranges to encourage him.



And then we started seeing this Oriole. I apologize for the blurry-as-hell through-the-kitchen-window photograph. I figure she/he is either a moulting young male or a female who looks a little ragged after diving in and out of her nest all day.



Here's another look at her/him. If you know what I'm looking at here exactly, sound off in the comments please.

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Sketch of the Day!

Tulips Aplenty -and- Joy from E.I.T.

As you can see in the above photograph, my tulips took a beating from the winter storms. I certainly don't have as many as I did last year. I will definitely have to replenish them once it comes time to plant bulbs.

That said, I did get a nice surprise.



Look at these funky tulips! I know this kind of tulip has a special name (are they Darwins or Parrots?) Does anyone know it? I want to plant more of these.

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For the sake of a little more substance, I did a little archive binge-ing (?) at Everything is Terrible and found these life-altering films:

Remember that one weird play your whole elementary class had to do?

This one actually made me feel sad for record executives.

Oh, how I wish I could retroactively add this to the Art Evolved Elephant Gallery.

Watch this video immediately after the immediately previous one and you will have seen the whole of not-fondly-remembered early '90s superhero cartoons.

And this last one might be the most beautiful thing they have ever shared with us.

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Sketch of the Day!

Veggie, Fruit-Fruit / Veggie-Veggie, Fruit-Fruit / Veggie, Fruit-Fruit / CHA-CHA-CHA!!!

It's spring! It's spring! It finally came! My gosh, it's actually nice out! The snow is gone and the air is full of bird song and frog song and pollen and mosquitoes and the little blackflies. Always the blackfly no matter where you go.

This week and next week will be nothing but gardening posts to celebrate (and also I will be very busy these two weeks). I've got a doozie to begin with.

Last week, my family and I started in on a grand science experiment: we built a raised vegetable garden. It's out by the side of the house and has not yet been eaten by ungulates knock on wood. Here's the tale of it's construction.

We'd been intrigued by the idea of making a raised bed for a while now and decided to start with a very simple one. We just picked out our five favorite plants and were a little overwhelmed by the options. We got a bunch of different tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, basil and mint, seeds of nasturtiums, beets, and spinach, onions to deter squirrels and marigolds to repel bugs. Ideally these plants won't know what pesticides even are.

With our "software" acquired, it was time for the hardware. The garden is basically a box full of dirt. We mixed the peat moss in with the garden soil to retain more water. Now for the fun / emotionally satisfying part: placing the plants in their new homes. They got a nice big soaking to settle the dirt. Hopefully, I'll remember to do weekly updates on it. Any advice or suggestions? Sound off in the comments please. Remember, I'm more used to plants who can essentially care for themselves.

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In other news, the Mtv Movie Awards were this weekend and... It'd be easy to say "this generation of young people has failed." But really, Mtv needs to change the "you can vote online as often as you like" policy. My one vote for my favorite movies isn't going to mean squat against fifty Sucklings with lots of free time.

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Sketch of the Day!



And just to get it out of our heads...

America Plants!

When last I talked about my garden, it was overrun with tulips and onions. Those have since gone to fruit, but there are loads of wildflowers taking over the big garden:



You can see the "spent" onions, lots of Rose Campion (to think some people would call this a weed!), and some yet-to-flower daylilies and chrysanthemums.
I don't remember if I showed off my irises, but here's what's currently blooming in their part of the garden:



Some crazy Asiatic Lilies I don't remember planting! Really, I don't remember planting these. I do remember having lilies in this garden, but they were all eaten years ago by those horrid little red beetles whose larvae spend all their days eating lily leaves and (from the looks of it) coating themselves in their own feces.
Perhaps they weren't all eaten? It is a mystery...



I apologize for the blurriness of this picture. This wasn't a particularly good year for the Delphiniums. They are so pretty but one strong rainstorm and they flop over. At least the bees don't care.



On the other hand, my Clematis is having an incredible year. I've never seen so many blooms on it! They only lasted a week or so but what a show!

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Sketch Costume design of the day!

It's almost Independence Day, so how about some patriotic pants?



This was part of a costume I designed for a Fourth of July party called America Pants (for reasons un-freaking-known; but there's your title significance). Some of the rest of the clothing I made for the occasion can be seen here.

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Oh, hey, is that a Drawgasmic button at right? The party happens on July tenth! That's only days away! If you're in the St. Louis area, please go!

The Making of the Belgrade Draggin' Masters Snowmobile Club logo!

EDIT: (Because I have no idea what the final post is going to look like from the "preview" option.) Ah, formatting. :/ Click to see the pictures full-sized.
By another one of those extremely happy coincidences, one of the members of the Belgrade Draggin' Masters Snowmobile Club had seen one of the dragons I drew for the 700 Dragons project, liked it, and contacted me to create a new logo for the club. This was a very fun project to work on, and I thoughtfully kept a record of the work in progress.

This is just one of many concept sketches. Both the club and I enjoyed this one the most. I went ahead and brought the sketch into Photoshop to do a line art version.

I wanted to keep the feeling of the original sketch, but make the lines more graphic. The image had to be easy to read, and it had to still be understandable when printed at wildly different sizes. The Club liked this concept, but they wanted a very different style.

And here is the *almost* final version. The Club approved this, but they still wanted a few minor changes (nothing big, just human errors -- Belgrade isn't spelled right here!) This has the honor of being the first piece I (a) produced on my Macbook and (b) drew the line art with a calligraphy Photoshop brush, which is almost a trademark of mine by now.
The final version can currently be seen as the title graphic of the Belgrade Draggin' Masters' website.
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Once again, in lieu of a Sketch of the day, here is some wonderful news: Starting today and going through Sunday night, the MA Horticultural Society's Spring Flower Show is back! This is fantastic as my aunt and I were going through withdrawals last year.
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And dang it, Disney, WTF?

A gardening post in January?

Yeah, why not?
Some of you are probably wondering what to do with all those lovely Christmas greens you've accumulated over this jolly time of year. Specifically, what do you do with that tree?

Ah, the Christmas Tree. We got our lovely Silver Blue Balsam the weekend after Thanksgiving (unusually early) and she was still looking okay... Until the week of Christmas when almost a month of heavy ornaments, moisture-sapping lights, and "hey, did you remember to water the tree" caught up with her and she started shedding needles like a fiend.
So, naturally, the weekend after Christmas we stripped her of ornaments and lights, cut off all her branches, and used those branches as "free" mulch:

You may have heard this suggestion before in gardening literature. I'm posting about it now because this is only the second time I thought to do this and it's the first time it actually worked.  Our city has a tree-mulching program but why let some random person keep our Christmas Tree forever? Plus, we needed the mulch sooner than I thought. We were in for a hell of a snowstorm.

Which is good, at least on an aesthetic level. Hopefully, those branches will protect the new bulbs. Remember them from October?
 
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FEEDERWATCH FRIDAY!!!
Red-Tailed Hawk - 1 (OMG!!!)
Rock Pigeon - 4
Mourning Dove - 1
Blue Jay - 2
Black-capped Chickadee - 3
White-breasted Nuthatch - 2
House Sparrow - 15
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Sketch of the Day! This one has a reoccurring character in it!

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Next week is Movie Week, where I'll be posting long reviews of the three most memorable movies I saw over the holidays. On that note, I might have to suck it up and invest in a Blu-Ray player. Because...

Bulb A'Sore - or - Probably The Last Gardening Post of the Year

Well, first off, here's some art. Click for big:

A week ago, I worked in the garden for the first time in months. I will not put off working in the garden for months if I can at all help it ever again. I had to dig up a lot of weeds and encroaching grass (it is almost hilarious how I have grass growing happily where I do not want it and no grass at all where I do want it.) As of the time I am writing this, I'm still hurting in some sensitive areas.
(Oh, calm down. I meant my joints. And my thumbnails. And my most of me.)



I don't know if I've had a chance to mention this before, and even so, I'm hoping some of you are new readers who met me at Boston Comicon and are doing an archive binge of this blog (I am extremely and very nerdily honored if this is the case). I am a native New Englander. That means I am genetically predisposed to complain about the weather. However, to be honest, I like seasonality. I like the fact that the growing season is ephemeral up here; it makes it all the more lovely. And I enjoy colorful leaves in autumn and -brace yourselves- I like snow.
With all that said, I'm wondering if spring bulbs are a distinctly temperate zone phenomenon. I had a fair number of daffodils early this spring, but I figured this would be a good year to replenish the garden. Bulbs are fairly easy to deal with and are a great choice for a family project - IF your kids are patient.
Like, having to wait up to twenty-four weeks for "delivery" patient.
You see, that's the downside of planting bulbs. Actually getting them in the ground takes a bit of effort and good timing (wait until after Daylight Savings Time ends and you may have completely wasted your money). I've got at least 120 out there now, and I am betting that at least half of them make it through the winter.
If this makes you cringe, you'll be happy to know that bulbs are easy to "cheat". Wait until the week after Easter (April 4, 2010) and you can snap up full-grown tulips and hyacinths for half off. This is much more expensive than planting bulbs en mass in autumn - but it's also easier on the nerves.



This is how most books of gardening will encourage you to plant bulbs.
And normally, I don't do this. I've done it with the onions only because they're easy to see and I only have a few of them. For tulips, daffodils, and the Anemones I'm experimenting with for the first time, I just dug a pit several inches deep, tossed the bulbs in, set them right-side up, and covered them with dirt and mulch. It's just as random as the "scattering" method shown above and much easier to keep track of.

And this is the "after" picture. The yellow and burgundy mums are there just for color as my perennials have all gone to seed. Occasionally, these mums will turn out to be perennials themselves, and will show green leaves early in spring.
As a funny addendum to the previous post, there is now no evidence *at all* of the storm on Sunday. As a matter of fact, it was pretty warm in the sun on Monday.
So now, the only major thing to do out there is get the bird feeder set up...

Where Disney Was Around 1987, Conveniently Summed Up by a Puzzle

Residing in my game cabinet is this odd little relic of 1980's Disneyana. Jaymer Puzzle 2424: "Disney Friends, Then and Now". Let's start putting it together, shall we?



The "Then" portion of the puzzle is pretty self-explanatory. Portraits of the five most popular Disney cartoon characters based upon their earliest known or most iconic early appearances. I actually really love this puzzle because it's a lot more challenging than you'd think. All those bright colors get very confusing after a while.

Now, that big empty spot is where the "Now" comes in. Let's start with America's fun couple:


 
Our old friend Mickey is rocking his iconic "Costume I stole from James Spader while he was filming 'Pretty in Pink' / Bright Red Chuck Taylors" ensemble. This is what Disney thought would make Mickey look cool to us 80s kids with our Mtv and our Nintendos and our British bands and our Hula Hoops and our piercings and our Bullfrogs and our children's card games...

But hoo boy, take a look at Minnie! No matter how crazy this image gets, know that there was a considerable upshot: Minnie Mouse became a far more interesting character than she'd ever been after fifty years of being "Mickey's girlfriend". As a matter of fact, she had her own "Totally Minnie" album, her own television special, and...

And very quickly and sadly devolved back into her boring old self once this was all scrapped and Disney fired up the cutesy-poo "Minnie and Me" merchandise line. She once again donned her polka-dot dress and giggled over Mickey. Sigh...

But moving right along...


 
Pluto's hip and current outfit is a little more subtle than the others. For that, I suppose, we should be grateful.

But I don't know what the hell is going on with Goofy back there. Is he meant to look like a fighter pilot? A la "Top Gun"? Remember, it was around 1987 and Tom Cruise was still every 80's kid's cool uncle.

And then, there's Donald.



...

...

...

No, really. I don't know what I could add to this to make it funnier.



Here's the full "Now" image (this time from the puzzle's box for a clearer view). It's funny how, while there have been some costume changes, these are essentially the "default" designs for the characters even now and they haven't changed much. You may even see images Mickey and Minnie the way they look here floating around the Internet.

And anyway, this isn't half as silly as "Mickey Unrapped".

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Garden Update!

Hoo boy, I wore myself out before Noon yesterday. I decided to start work on a project that I had worked on for hours and finished multiple times in my imagination. (As I get older, I realize that the only thing more annoying than finishing a big project in your sleep and then waking up to see that it still isn't even started is getting into an argument with a Twilight fan.)

I eventually bullied myself into digging. Five feet of rocks, roots, and other (I like this word) stressors later, I gave up. I had realized that this was silly because I was lacking the proper tools for this job and hadn't even really thought this plan out and I hit a wall. A very cold wall made out of wind. I really just wanted to extend the main line of rocks out one foot. That will give me enough room for the many, many spring bulbs I have to plant.

You will probably have some fun stories about these bulbs in your future...

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On the offhand chance I have any readers in England, apparently there's some kind of Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy 30'th anniversary convention in London this weekend. Looks like fun if you can make it, even though it looks like the real impetus for this event is the release of And Another Thing.

Now that I've brought it up: I don't even know what to think or how to feel about And Another Thing...

How I spent my Arbor Day

Short answer: I worked my butt off.

And here are the new plants I planted. They were all just too unusual to leave at the Giant Hardware Store. I've never experimented with Primula Primroses before and these were the last two they had. The Species Tulips (Tulipa tarda) were just too cool, and they now reside out front. And the little tiny tree is a Redtwig Dogwood (Red Osier to our friends out west, Cornus sericea to everyone else). Technically, it's a shrub. But it'll flower, and it'll fruit, and it may get to be around three times as tall as it is now. (I don't know if there are any hard and fast rules as to what gets to be called a tree and what gets to be called a shrub.)

How about an Arbor day song sung by a Cardinal with an odd-looking beak who can apparently alter his size at will? I can assure you that when I am very old, when I forget everything important in life, I will be singing the line about how "that's where squirrels spend their time!"

"Fun in the Backyard" Episode 32

We've covered Nut-hatch courtship. Here's Chickadee courtship. As usual, click for the big (and readable) version and it's followup:

If it wasn't yet clear that "FITBY" is my "just for fun experiment with different formatting, media, storytelling methods" outlet, it will be on Friday...

My gosh, it is actually not raining on Earth Day! I get to work outside!

Edit 3:45 PM: Yeah... I spoke too soon on that one. But I got to hook the hose up. :/

Happy Easter.

I spent most of yesterday out in the garden. This was the first time I worked extensively on it this season. I mulched, moved some boundaries around, cleaned, discovered that I have a healthy population of earthworms out there, and I even spread some seeds around just to see what they do. I'm still wonderfully exhausted and my hands are hurting bad now.
The one thing I did not do was take any before-and-after pictures. Wah.

Haven't you had enough Feederwatching for one week?

Of course you haven't!  The thistle sock is off to the right in the Dogwood tree. So far, nobody's gone for it, though it's not for lack of trying on the part of the House Sparrows. And putting the feeder out in the middle of the yard, well away from the hedge, has not discouraged the sparrows one bit. Oh well. I at least got to list a nuthatch.
And then this squirrel showed up.

As soon as I saw him limping around, I knew something was up. It's hard to see in the photo, but it looks like something took a bite out of his shoulder. Otherwise he's fine.
It's Oscar weekend! Yay!