Road Construction Oaks

The Oaks Shopping Center, the construction site across Black Rock Road and the Expo Center all have contributed to a need for increased traffic capabilities of the nearby roads. Hopefully, that need is being addressed with the current road construction.

The Norristown bound side of Egypt Road is being widened as it approaches the eastbound US 422 entrance.

The grass has been scraped from quite a bit of the hillside along Egypt Road.

It looks like new storm drains will be installed along the road.

New utility poles were planted to carry the overhead traffic signals at both intersections along Egypt Road - Black Rock and Mill Roads.

Although the entrance ramp will be wider, it is not likely US 422 will be widened much beyond the entrance ramp.

Above is the eastbound exit from US 422 onto Norristown bound Egypt Road. There is a basin that was excavated to the right of the exit ramp. It is full of water. I spoke with an older lifetime Oaks resident who remembers a spring right where that basin is today. I wonder if anyone did their homework before digging that basin?

Below are a few images I created whilst out with a camera. I can be dangerous, at times.

With all this road construction, surely the roads will not be jammed in the future. One can only hope someone knows what they're doing.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all right reserved

Behind In My Gardening

The weather has me behind schedule in my garden. Well, if I had a schedule, I would be behind.

There is a folk truism in this part of the world that says you plant onions and peas on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. I didn't even have my garden ready for planting on St. Patrick's Day. I still don't have it ready and it is almost April.

This year I want to actually raise my square foot garden. I want to get some real drip irrigation with metered emitters, not the weeping hose I have been using. Plus I want to put down 1 mil plastic mulch over the drip system to try and eliminate weeding, increase soil temperature and retain moisture.

Ten days after the pea planting target date, I ordered online a 30'/ 9.1m roll of 1 mil red plastic mulch that is 4'/ 1.2m wide. I plan on making two 4' x 4' (1.2m x 1.2m) raised beds. So I should have enough mulch to cover both beds, almost completely, four times.

To get the order minimum up to $40 in order to use a discount coupon I received in the mail, I ordered some packets of Zinnias from W. Atlee Burpee. Burpee was a Philadelphia company that I remember visiting thirty-five years ago on Clarissa St. just NW of W. Hunting Park Ave. They are now in Bucks County, PA in Warminster, PA where you can still visit their store.


I love the ease of growing Zinnias. Beside their beauty, zinnias attract bees, butterflies and goldfinch love the mature seeds. All three creatures are a pleasant plus to the garden experience.

I hope my order ships really soon. In the mean time, I need to get some 2" x 12"/ 5cm x 30cm boards and a 2"x 4"/ 5cm x 20cm board or two for the corners of the bed frames and some exterior screws with which to fasten them.

Then there is the peat moss, vermiculite and perlite for the soilless growing medium.

The vegetable seeds to buy. 

The potato towers to erect.

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I love the growing season!

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved - Photographs from Burpee.com

Old Man Winter Leaves a Message

Old man winter lingers. The daylight equals the dark. Yet, he leaves a reminder. He still sways favor.

This snow arrived before sunrise the second day of spring.

It didn't hang around long.

Snow cloaked

sunrise blooms

White to melt

roots consume

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Persephone Breathes Color into the Garden

Twenty-five days have elapsed since Hades released Persephone from the underworld and I saw her head pushing up the soil in my garden. Cold and wet days have poured in to fill the gap since. Now the daughter of Demeter breathes brilliant life back into the garden.

Dwarf Iris

I have always loved spring flowering bulbs. Plant them in the fall and the garden's winter palette of dull grays and browns changes to brilliant hues of purples, blues, pinks and yellows. 

crocus

Crocus and dwarf iris are the first to bloom in my garden. My  preference has changed from crocus to the dwarf iris. You must admit, they are beautiful.

crocus

Not that I don't like crocus. I do. Look at the complexity of the petals, the shape of the pistil and color of the stamen. Marvelous. 

Muscarii in the foreground and Jonquil in the background

If you don't have spring flowering bulbs planted in your garden, I have a suggestion. Travel around your neighborhood or town and look to see what others have done with their spring flowering bulbs. If you don't know the name of a flower you like, knock on the owner's door and ask. Photograph the garden bed and research online. There is no better time to plan next years spring bulb garden than right now.

Gardening doesn't get any easier than planting spring flowering bulbs. I used more time and energy choosing which bulbs to plant than planting the actual bulbs. For a small amount of physical labor you will receive years and years of pleasure. A tremendous ROI.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Persephone Crowning

The myth of Persephone is the story of rebirth. Plants pushing up from the underworld were they spent the dark days of winter. I saw a bit of Persephone in my garden on Valentine's Day.

Common Daylillies

Ferns

Oregano

Daffodils

Tulips

Then there were signs of budding on trees and bushes.

Budding Redbud

New wood on a Hydrangea

Budding Rhododendren

As Persephone said in Latin,

Tempus Fugit!

It is time I get my new square foot garden ready for peas in Mid-March.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Oaks Shopping Center - Second Week of February

Groundhog's Day has come and gone and I didn't even take notice. Did he see his shadow? I guess I could Google it. No matter. I don't need no stinking groundhog to tell me spring is near. Evidence of spring can be seen if you just are observant.

I stopped by the Oaks Shopping Center construction site on Sunday, eight days after the groundhog's big day. The snow was melting. Puddles and mud covered the ground. Spring conditions if you ask me.

I stayed close to the intersection of Egypt and Mill Rds. The farther I walked the heavier my shoes became with the accumulating mud. I grabbed a few photographs of the construction progress.

The view from the site of the intersection of Egypt and Mill Roads shows a depression created for a large drainage pipe that will run from the back of the site to Egypt Road.

Two manholes, or is it person holes, in the back of the site along that drainage pipe are already underground.

More drainage pipe sits off to the side near the western limit of the site. The stone structure once supported the train tracks above several alcoves that probably held coal dropped from cars above.

Then I set to create some personal images.

I created a few images I liked. I found more evidence of spring. Even amidst the construction.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

US Spring Vegetable Garden Planting Calendar

It is time to start planning and purchasing seeds for your spring and summer vegetable garden. There are some terrific garden tools online. Let me recommend two. Using those two you will be able to create you very own spring vegetable garden planning calendar. Planning season is here. Planting season is near.

National Climatic Data Center - first and last frost/freeze dates by zip code. 
Skippy's Vegetable Garden Planning Calendar - Plan your gardening year by last frost date.

To start you will need the last frost/freezing date for your area.

Source:NOAA

Go to the National Climatic Data Center and choose your state from the pull down menu.

Source:NOAA

There you will see a chart. Above is the top of the chart for Pennsylvania. Find the closest reporting station to your town. As an example, take a look at Bradford Regional Airport. The first column to the right of the name of the reporting station contains three temperatures in Fahrenheit(F), 36, 32 & 28. Beside each of those temperatures is a row of dates. Spring frost date is our concern. The third column from 32ºF is, for all intents and purposes, the last frost date. That column designates the date on which there is a 10% chance that the temperature will descend below 32ºF. Which for Bradford is June19.

If you open another browser window and navigate to Skippy's Vegetable Garden Planner you will see Skippy asks for the latest frost date for your area. Residents of Bradford would enter the date, 06/19/2013, into the field.

You will place your last frost date into the field, then click the "Generate spring planting calendar" button to create your customized calendar.

Source:http://bioarray.us/Skippy's%20planting%20calendar.html

Above is my planning calendar. As you can see I have just about a week to purchase onion seeds before they need to go into the ground. Don't delay, get your calendar today.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Snow Peas Are Finished, One Cherry Tomato Harvested

Snow pea seeds were planted on 4 April. On Sunday, 17 June, all the snow pea plants were cut at the soil line. Snow peas are finished for the spring.

Once cut down, a total of 57 plants were counted. From those 57 plants were harvested 298 grams/10.5oz of fresh, crisp, tender snow peas starting on 28 May and ending today.

Already planted are watermelon and cucumbers seeds in the four squares in the rear of the square foot plot recently occupied by 2/3 of the snow peas. A tomato plant is also already in one of the interior squares occupied by snow peas.

A Husky Cherry tomato was harvested today. It weighed in at 18g. Waiting to taste that with a salad.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved