FishinBC's Blog
FishinBC's July 2007 Entries
Last Post 65 days, 3 hours Ago
Jul 27, 2007 | 8:07 AM PST
Tags: Patio , Dogs , Daylily , Fall Veggies
Not really a lot to report. Just the dog days of summer and the regular chores. Hubby cut the grass last night and we added all the clippings to the compost pile. I added more browns to even out the mixture. Picked eight ripe yellow and red tomatoes, some peppers, two cukes and one zucchini last night. We will have them with dinner this evening.
The new raised bed will finally be complete this weekend and will start prepping for a fall crop. I am looking at broccoli, cauliflower, beets, and peas and want to get some garlic in to winter over.
I have another daylily that has bloomed this one is called “Fall Embers”. It’s very pretty and I will try to post a photo if the bloom hasn’t faded by the time I get home.
We got a new patio table and six chairs last night at Wally World. They are marking stuff down now. Nothing fancy just stained pine, but we needed a bigger table and more chairs. Never have an enough room for everyone on the small one we have had since we got married. I gave the table a coat of Australian timber oil to protect it and will do the chairs tonight when we get home. The table looked nice this morning when I checked it to see if it had dried. We will christen it tomorrow with a BBQ on the deck with friends.
Missy Blue Eye, Briar Rose has me a little worried. We think she had a seizure last night. She has been on Phenobarbital four years after having cluster seizures a month after we adopted her. We have been seizure free until last night. Called the vet and she said one breakthrough seizure is not a big deal but if she has another we need to go in and have her phenol levels checked. This was a small one no thrashing, just clacked her teeth together and it only lasted seconds. But you could tell that electricity was firing off in her brain and she was hot an acting drunk for a bit afterwards. Always keep vanilla ice cream in the house just in case, it speeds recovery and helps cool them down. She enjoyed her treat though.
Jul 23, 2007 | 10:39 AM PST
Tags: Veggie , Compost , mulch , tomato , zucchini , flowers , gerbera , petunias , hardy hibiscus
I could not bring myself to do anything inside this weekend, so the dust bunnies are still hopping around my house this morning. Oh, well. I spent both days out in the flower beds and veggie patch. Watered early Saturday and got the holes dug for the butterfly bush and hardy hibiscus that I got. As I was weeding and deadheading, there were a lot of thin spots in the mulch. I went down and got about 10 bags and brought that home to spread around. I love new mulch. Covered all the beds and had enough to put back behind the pond.
Some of the other daylilies have put up scapes and have buds. Can’t wait to see them. The gereberas have finally decided to bloom again and for some reason the wave petunias have also gotten a second wind from the something and are flowing all down the side of the old stump, thick with purple flowers.
Hubby helped me finish the three sided slat fence to put around my compost pile. My pile isn’t very big yet but I am working on it. Chopped up the kitchen scrapes in the food processor and put them out there too. Bill got me a pitch fork this weekend. I was trying to turn the pile with a shovel. Wow what a difference that made. (Duh!)
Cleaned and weeded in the veggie patch and tied up some more tomato limbs to the trellis. I have two zucchini left that haven’t been hit by the vine borers YET. My cukes have climbed nicely all over the fence and there are dozens of fruit hanging down. They are so good and crisp.
We did not get the new raised bed up. Hubby brought home work for a project that he was under a crunch on, so it will have to be next weekend. Will go by the dump and pick up some compost (have to make do until my own is ready) and some topsoil down at the landscape yard.
Had enough tomatoes to make another batch of sketty sauce. Added a few of the yellow tomatoes to it. They did lighten the color of the sauce but it still tasted great. Used loads of fresh basil from the herb pots of the deck. Made some Penne, a tomato, cuke and pepper salad and had a yummy dinner. Only things not from the garden were the pasta and the bread. You just can’t beat that!Jul 20, 2007 | 5:38 PM PST
Okay gang, I posted pix of the veggie patch in my photo albums. NO LAUGHING ALLOWED!! I'm still learning. But I have to say am I pleased with what it has produced so far.
Oh here are some gratutious dog and critter photos:
The Black and White Brigade: Briar Rose, Buddy & Robdog
Two of the Baby Racoons this morning.
Jul 20, 2007 | 6:58 AM PST
Tags: veggie , Pond , Daylilies , Squash Vine Borers , Tomato , Cukes , Zukes , raised beds , Banana Peppers , dogs , racoons , birds
Still dry but we are supposed to get some rain this afternoon. I should have watered last night but was just too tired. Been fighting a summer cold and trying to convenience myself I am not going to catch it. I am sure it will sneak up and bite me sooner or later. I don’t have time to be sick!
Gave some more pond plants away. I potted up some off shoots of the lotus and four leaf clover, added some hyacinths, water lettuce and gave them to a co worker who just put in a pond. My pond is still full!! Loads of lilies still blooming, but nothing from the lotus yet.
We will get the new raised bed up this weekend and do the soil prep, to have it ready for a fall veggie planting. Want to do some peas and beans and more greens. My yellow tomatoes have been the best producers so far. They sure are yummy. The red varieties are producing, just not as big or as many. I think the vine borers have finally discovered my zukes, I have two plants withering that I will pull out tonight. L Cukes are still doing great and I have one with dinner every night. I think the heat is starting to get to the peppers. The banana peppers are curling. I have been checking to be sure that they have adequate even water. Any suggestions?
More of the new daylilies are getting ready to bloom. These should be the Crimson Shadows. I have to late season ones that I hope will bloom also. One is called Late Embers and the other Fall Pink Melon. The two blooming now are called Go Figure.
Have the inevitable weed pulling and deadheading to do as well. Been lazy about the weeds in the flowerbeds with heat we have been having. The black and white brigade has been promised a trip down to the lake in the morning, so we will be up before the heat and I will have no excuses after that. The boys will be good and tired after a swim and Briar will have a good long ball session. They deserve it after being put aside a bit while company’s been here.
Rob now has the timing of the raccoon family’s visits down. They show up on the deck at about 5am every morning now and he knows it. No barking this morning, he just sat at the sliding glass door to watch them eat their breakfast. The babies are growing fast. Got a couple of dark pix of them this morning and will try to get them posted tonight.
The bird feeders have been really busy in the evenings. I am seeing a lot more indigo buntings this year. Not sure if there are more than normal or I am just providing a better seed selection. Must make some more of Gene’s suet for the pileated woodies. They are now daily visitors too.
Jul 17, 2007 | 8:21 AM PST
Tags: Green Worms , Pond , racoons , Heat , Watering
I am really missing our daily rain showers we were having for a while here! Everything is dry. I watered all the containers yesterday morning and went home last night to spend almost 3 hours watering everything. Things were looking kinda sad after the heat blast we had yesterday. More to come today and hopefully a little cooler by the weekend.
Went by Lowes and picked up some more perennials they had marked down. Also got a hardy hibiscus, it has one huge flower on it. I got them all watered and will get them in the ground this weekend. Trying to completely fill in this one bed and get it established before winter. Little by little it is coming together and I have high hopes that it will all come back and do well next year.
Took a recent photo of the pond and the elephant ears. There are a few new photos in a couple of my albums also. One of the baby pileated woodpecker who has now learned from mom how to get to the suet feeder.
Had two of the baby coons on the deck this morning when I got up, no sign of mom or the other kid. They are so cute and were both sleeping off full tummies in the feeding trough. Rob spotted them and spoiled their nap with his barking so they got up and shimmied down the deck post.
Well, I was wondering when they would show up and killed my first two victims last night. One of those big green worms had eaten the top of my cherry tomato plant and another was starting on the lemon boys. Grrrrr… They both got whacked in half with my garden shears. They are soooo gross!! Checked the rest of the maters over and didn’t see anymore. I will be diligent and check them often now. Not sure what else I can do about them. Checked my gourd plant when I was watering last night and I have a couple of little birdhouse gourds growing.
So hot last night even the dogs didn’t want to go for a walk. They sat on the porch while I watered then we all went in to collapse on the bed under the fan.
Jul 13, 2007 | 2:38 PM PST
Tags: zucchini , cukes , tomatoes
As much as I loved seeing the kids, I really must admit that it is nice to have my house and routine back to normal. We had a blast, but I am enjoying the peace and quiet again. Having my best bud here was wonderful too and we had a great time. I miss her very much!
The veggie patch is keeping me busy. So many tomatoes that I have started giving some away. I made some spaghetti sauce Sunday and it was delish! I will make some more and freeze it this weekend. Made a couple of jars of refrigerated pickled banana peppers while the sauce was cooking. In a week or two I will have cukes like crazy. I think I will pick some of the young ones and pickle those. Zukes and cukes are still flowering and I have had a few more zucchinis. We got the wood for the additional raised beds and I hope to get it started this weekend so that we can get some fall crops in.
This being my first veggie garden (done container tomatoes before) but never anything like this; I have to say I have learned a lot from everyone here and my own mistakes. Size does matter and for my little patch I have learned what to plant where next season.
The pond is completely covered in plants and I need to get out and take some photos of it. Had a neighbor down the road ask if we had taken the whole thing a part and started over, because she said it looked so different from when the previous owners of our house had it. Told her all I had done was added some rock to the top and the plants. She said she had a small pond in her back yard but only had a lily in it. I gave her a bag full of water lettuce, hyacinths and some cuttings with roots of the four leaf clover. Went by her place when I was walking the dogs and she showed me her pond with the new plants in it. It looked so nice and she has some really pretty fish too.
My daylilies are blooming like mad and I am really enjoying them, though my daughter was upset with me for planting them. They are poisonous to dogs! Okay my dogs don’t eat my flowers so what’s the beef? Right? She spent most of her vacation here keeping her 9 month old border collie from eating them. Sorry dear, I trained mine already. (teehee)
Been keeping the feeders and trough full and the squirrels are behaving. I have a Mama Coon and three raccoon babies visiting every night. I leave them a pile of peanuts and sliced apples. My neighbor brought me a homemade suet feeder and a recipe for the suet he makes. Bless his heart he is the sweetest ol’ guy. He says he sees me filling the feeders and sitting there watching the birds and knew I would enjoy it. I made his recipe and the next day had a mom and baby Pileated Woodpecker feeding at it. Got some great pix and framed one for Gene so he could see what his feeder and recipe brought to my deck. I will try to get them posted here later today.
Hubby is now off to Calif on business so for the next five days it’s just me and the boy and the dogs.
