Leeks

Leeks, requiring anywhere from 75 to 125 days to reach maturity, are best planted very early. Gardening in a Zone 8 growing season, our winter temps often dip too low to have much success here by directly sowing them in the fall, so today I started mine.
I decided to use a couple of Jiffy 12-Cell Mini Greenhouses because I'm not planning on growing a very large crop of leeks and the mini greenhouses fit so well on the window sill. So easy to use, all you do is add warm water.Almost instantly, the pellets swell up and are perfect for planting.

I gently opened up the mesh cover on the top of each peat pellet with a fork once they had expanded in order to plant the seeds.

I planted three leek seeds per pellet, gently firmed the tops and then placed the dome top onto the mini greenhouse.

Once the leeks have sprouted, it should take a couple of months before they will have grown large enough to plant outdoors (about pencil sized) and by then, we will be well into spring. With several different varieties of carrots, a very good companion plant for leeks, planned for my garden, I will intermix my leek seedlings into my beds of carrots. Ready for harvest when they have reached about one inch in diameter, because the carrots are a faster maturing crop, there should be plenty of room available for the leeks to reach maturity.

Orange Jelly

Often fascinated by the variety of mosses and lichens here in the Pacific Northwest, the different fungi growing on and around our forest floor is an interesting study as well. Walking the trail around the back, forested side of Lake Padden, we found masses of orange jelly, the fungi rather than what one might put on toast, blooming on a decaying log.Without examining a specimen on a slide under a microscope, it is difficult, if not impossible, for me to determine whether this orange jelly is Dacrymyces palmatus, or Tremella aurantia, both more commonly called Witches Butter, or, quite simply, jelly fungus.

Edible, but said to be lacking in flavor and texture, it is more suitable to being eaten raw as it melts rather quickly when heated. Sometimes prized as a flavoring for soups or vegetable dishes, it is rarely sought by mushroom hunters here. Growing in gelatinous globs, it seems a bit slimy and snotty in appearance to me. I'm sure I would need to be very, very hungry - and a long way from home - before I would ever consider eating any.

An owl perched in a nearby tree was hooting at us as we studied the fungi growing on those decaying logs, then finally took flight heading down the trail. Often seen with babies perched in those same branches in the early spring, even though we've had unseasonably warm weather this winter, it being only February, this resident owl still seems to be flying solo.

WMMSN Free Coffee Fundraiser

Whatcom Marine Mammal Stranding Network (WMMSN) members Danielle and Carley are shown here staffing the free coffee kiosk for the WSDOT free coffee program at the northbound Interstate 5 Bow Hill rest area.

There all weekend from Friday at noon until 2:00 a.m. Monday morning, WMMSN members and friends took turns staffing the booth and serving up free coffee and cookies. A big thank you to all the volunteers, and friends of volunteers, that helped us plan this fundraiser and staff the booth, and a special thank you to all those drivers that stopped by to meet us and helped fill our donations jar. As the WMMSN Director of Volunteers, I say, "thank you, thank you, thank you."

Plantation Products

Really now, how many flowers does one girl need in her garden? I tell myself that maybe if I grow more flowers, in some way the vegetables I plant will benefit by increased pollination from the bees the flowers draw. Zinnias - both dwarf Pumila and giants of California, and mammoth Russian sunflowers will look so pretty in my garden and make great cut flowers too. Carrots - tendersweet and scarlet nantes, both good eaten fresh or roasted, make another good addition. All said to be heirloom seeds, at only twenty cents a pack, I couldn't resist picking out a few more for my Happy Valley garden.These inexpensive seeds are sold under the name of American Seeds and packaged by Plantation Products Inc. of Norton, Massachusetts. Plantation Products are sold throughout the United States in national chains such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Osco Drug, Ace Hardware, TruValue Stores, and at many other regional outlets.

Green Toast

Who likes green toast? Green, they're called Toast and I can knit a pair in an evening.

They're arm warmers, and I sure like my green toast!

Next I think I'll make red toast. Want to make some for yourself? Here's the free pattern - Toast.