Garden update

Two days ago I was outside walking through the garden as I do a few times a day when I'm home. I haven't quite decided what I'm looking for or what I think might happen between now and when I last looked at the garden 30 minutes ago, but I digress. This time I was watering as I haven't watered in about a week. The weather has been cool, I have a ton of mulch laid down and not much moisture has been lost so I don't water as often as I normally would this time of year. As I watered I noticed that a few of the BlueLake bean bushes are starting to produce flowers - FINALLY! It seems like I've been waiting a lifetime for something to come out of the garden! Which reminds me - that first zuke that I was due to eat last week shriveled and didn't make it. The plant is still alive and happy and producing two more zukes, but that first one.. yeah, not so happy.

Did I ever mention...

...that my volunteer unidentified seedlings that sprouted from seeds which I had tossed out and then not remembered what I planted, were all arugula? Every morning I walk outside, go around to the side of the house and snitch a few leaves from each plant. There is something satisfying about starting my day by plucking and tasting those wonderfully nutty leaves!

How your mind goes, AKA Why You Get Nothing Done All Day

As I sit studying for one of the hardest tests I've ever had to take, I hear the dryer buzzer go off. I walk in to remove the dry clothes and notice that the laundry basket is by the back door, where I was previously hanging other clothes to dry. As I walk over to pick up the basket to empty the dryer, I look out the back door and notice that the sun has moved and my sun tea container is now.... in the shade. I walk outside and move the sun tea container to the sun. And as I walk back to the door to get the laundry basket to empty the dryer, I notice that the hole I had set my gopher trap in was full of fresh dirt. CURSES! He'd filled up the whole with dirt and most likely completely avoided my trap, even though I had dug a hole the size of a basketball in order to set the trap and catch him. I pulled on the trap and the ease with which it was coming out confirmed that my trap was indeed empty. Imagine my surprise when the end of the trap finally emerged and there, killed not too long before, was the gopher that had eaten my tomato plant, pulling it down down down to the depths and leaving nothing but a tiny bit of green leaves popping out of the earth to remind me of what I had so lovingly planted there just the day before. Oh JOY! Another gopher dead! Whoopee! (I love this feeling!) Now I had to mush down the gopher tunnels which were threatening to collapse and swallow me into "the place below the yard" and then fill in the pit with dirt from around the yard. I was amazed by how many shovel fulls it took to actually fill that in. Once done, I watered the area well so as to be able to tell tomorrow if any of the dirt is new dirt pushed up by yet another gopher. Afterwards, I headed back into the house to wash my hands before remembering that I was supposed to get the laundry basket, empty the dryer and fold the clothes. Then I had to sit down and write this all up so I can remember later why it took me 20 minutes to empty the dryer!

Baby Red comes to visit

Earlier this week, my SO told me that we had a new hummingbird at our feeder they other day. It's a male but a very young one. He was a little unsure of how to use the feeder and looked as if he still had some of his baby feathers. His colors weren't very bright and even when he wasn't eating, his tongue would pop in and out repeatedly. This morning I noticed a little hummingbird near the feeder but he sat opposite of where I was and he was small, so I couldn't see him. Once he was finished, he flew to the nearby vine and had a seat, to watch the world go by. I went to get my SO, he confirmed this was the hummer he saw the other day, which I have now named Baby Red for his youthful ways and his barely Red head (our hummingbirds here are almost all Anna's Hummingbirds). I got my camera and took some pictures from inside the house but they didn't take so well, so I went outside and Baby Red watched me walk all the way around and snap at least 10 different pictures of him. I left the last picture as-is so you can see how hard he is to pick out from the foliage he's sittin in. He's really quite cute, dontcha think? : )

Saturday night visitor

It was hot - smokin' hot! Most of Saturday was spent inside with the windows and curtains closed to keep the heat out. I did go out once and saw my next door neighbor with a crowbar, pulling the wooden edges off of the columns outside his front door. He looked busy, so I didn't ask. Later in the evening, J & I were watching a movie and by then, had opened all the windows as things were cooling off. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and when I looked, I saw the neighbors striped cat outside the window, about 3-4 feet away. When I sat up to get a better view, since we never see him anymore, he stopped and looked at me and that's when I realized it... that masked face was not the neighbors cat, but a raccoon! J & I looked at him for a split second, then he ducked and headed for the front lawn. Unfortunately, that was right by the garage where the door was cracked to let the heat out. We went outside, couldn't find the raccoon anywhere. Our neighbors were still out so we went to ask if they had seen anything. They calmly said yes, the mother raccoon had had her babies in their front column and with the record heat, they had heard them crying in there. Hence, them pulling it apart with the crowbar. They were able to capture all the babies but not the mother. Our raccoon was most likely a she, and she had run across our lawn and then across the street to the neighbors house. Raccoons in residential areas are not unheard of, but we haven't seen any in the 2.5 years we'd been there and she was so close, it was surprisingly. I was so glad that the neighbors were able to free all of the babies.





Garden pictures! Including..... ta da! our first zuchhini of the year!! Hurray! Note: Object in picture may be smaller than it appears... this zuke is only about 2 inches long. ;) I don't plan on eating it until Wednesday. The full garden picture shows the teepee's I put up this weekend to go along with the 12 cucumber plants that I put in the ground. Beyond the cukes is a row of roughly 8+ basil plants. Beyond the basil, across the sidewalk, I planted 2 Bloody Butchers and 2 Akers West Virginia in the bed up against the house. Tomatoes seem to do well there. Also planted in that bed are 2 sunflowers, 6 spinach, a rosebush, some calendula, and a few cabbage plants. Oh, btw, I used my first cabbage in cole slaw over the weekend. Can you say delicious? I knew you could....

What's blooming nowadays?

Everything is blooming!

The volunteer tomato

The Red Beauty sweet red bell pepper...

the Pattypan summer squash ....

the Odoriko Tomato .......

the Nasturtiums

the Calendulas...

the Blackberries.......

the Bird of Paradise.....

The apple tree is stil blooming. This is a sucker I need to take off, growing
off the main trunk, but I need to get the last of the apple blossom scent before
I remove this... ;)

Ok, the strawberries have already bloomed, obviously, but they were buried under
another bush that simply took off and got away from me. When I pruned the bush
the other day, this is what I found underneath, clean without a big bite removed
- yippee!

Garden photo updates

My Odoriko before and after planting. I'm testing out planting them in a circle to see if I can grow them closer, without putting them into rows.

This is how I laid out my other tomatoes. I don't have labels in the ground so I took this picture as a digital reminder of who is where.

My first cabbage. A few holes on the outside leaves but the inside is pristine. Oh, and delicious!

Layout of my 3 big slicers and 2 Sungolds on the left.

I have a few apple blossoms left and didn't get a picture of any this year except this one. Also, a picture of one of the many baby apples. Come December, they will be juicy, sweet and made into applesauce!

Tis a bittersweet day..

My babies that I have so lovingly grown found new homes today. I packed 12 Sungolds, 12 Odorikos and 2 Bloody Butcher tomato plants into a garden tray with 2 dill plants and headed out. I stopped at Shannon's to drop off 2 SGs and 2 BBs on the front porch while she slept. I also dropped off some geraniums and a dill for Patty as she visits Shannon often and I don't have time to drive cross town to Patty's house.

The rest of the babies came into work with me. Three went to the front office and then I sent out a note to a select few. Within an hour all of the babies had been taken to desks throughout my building, happy new moms ready to plant out their tomatoes this weekend. We had lively discussions about planting deep, the pot size one needs to plant in and a reminder to be kind to our local predator insects least we get stuck with veggie eating caterpillars. Once the topic turned to chemical sprays, I nixed the idea and stuck my fingers in my ears "la la la la la - NO chemicals!"

I have a number of mater babies at home ready to plant out this weekend in my own garden. Two days ago I had to transplant the Akers West Virginia as they grew too big for their 4 inch pots. I'm trying to come up with creative ways to plant all these maters in my garden plot and I'm toying with planting them in patches or circles. We'll see what my brain comes up with.

Til then, ttfn