FishinBC's Blog

No house work for me.
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!

Back at it...
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. 

Counting the hours
Jun 29, 2007 | 6:41 AM PST
Tags: zucchini , Cukes , elephant ears , Critters , Squirrels , July 4th , racoons , veggies , tomato

Went out to check the veggie patch and pull a few green tomatoes to send to my mom.  They are still off vagabonding in their RV and she loves fried green tomatoes.  I have zukes and cukes all over the place.  Wow.  I put in a few extra plants just to be sure at least a few would take well, all of them took well!  Also now that everything in there has matured, I am seeing my errors of where I planted and being able to maneuver around in that fenced space is getting more difficult.  I can hardly wait for next year, now that I have learned these important lessons I have big plans!!  Hubby is probably going to grumble about building more raised beds but if we get them up now I can work on the soil in them for next spring, right? And…still might be early enough to have a fall planting…more ideas!

My elephant ears are going crazy with all the rain and heat they are loving it!  I think I will put in a few more next year; they really break up all that brick from the wall of the garage.       

Will get up early tomorrow and get the lawn mowed and things spruced up outside, do the regular housekeeping when it is too hot outside.  The house full is coming and I can hardly wait to see them all!!  Two of the kids are leaving California this evening and should hit Arkansas Saturday night or Sunday morning.  They are going to switch off and drive straight through.  One more kid flies in on Sunday afternoon and my best buddy from Seattle gets in Monday night.  I am so excited I haven’t been able to sleep.  Like a kid on Christmas Eve.

The squirrels and I have worked out a great schedule with the feeding trough.  They come for breakfast every morning and are gone the rest of the day.  This allows me to fill it the night before and it’s all ready for them when they arrive.  Thankfully it has kept them out of my herb pots and other flowers on the deck. 

The coon has been coming nightly and I leave him a treat of peanuts and apple slices and he stays out of my bird feeders.  He does continue to use the bird bath as his wash bowl, so that must be emptied and refilled every morning.  Plan to camp out in the dark diningroom by the sliding glass door and watch for him Saturday night while I am waiting for the kids to arrive.  Hopefully I can get some shots of him. 

            The chipmunk that I have been feeding at the back of my pond has planted his seed stashes all over my flower beds.  I am still finding sunflower sprouts coming up all over the place.  No more sunflowers in the front yard please!  So sadly I have stopped feeding in that area of the yard. 

            The black and white brigade will get their baths and frontline tomorrow morning too.  They need to be pretty and clean when their kids arrive.  Rob to this day goes nuts when he hears a VW Beetle drive by.  He is so sure that his girl is coming to see him.  I feel so sad for him when he finally realizes it’s not his Shannon coming.  Now we are all just counting the hours till they arrive!