countrylane's Blog

Baby chicks/new plants
Jun 11, 2009 | 9:19 PM PST

Kids and I piled into the truck yesterday evening to see my "little" brother's baby chicks. He had called to say that most would be growing out of their cute stage soon and to see them this week would be best. So we did. 9 are about to gain all their feathers, though one hen had a little one about 3 days ago, so we still got to see a cute one. The boys enjoyed them, esp. #2 son who is not afraid of chickens, not even the roosters!

Also met my brother's neighbors, who are very very nice. They have "adopted" my brother's dog, Rocky, as their kid. They love on him almost as much as my brother. He comes to their window, sits, and gives them those sad puppy-dog eyes. He's waiting for something to eat, anything better than the dry dog food that my brother gives them. :)

They gave me some new plants: Passion Flower (a vine), Moonflower, Monkey flower, and some other thing that I can't think of, but I'll find out. :) That was very nice of them. Really nice people.

Did get my lawn mowed today, in between the rain showers. Tomorrow, we need to go up and mow at the church. Hoping it won't be too wet. Hard to plan mowing in between all the rain that we have had. But I'm not complaining because the Lord is watering the seeds and plants in the gardens/yard much better than I could.

Strawberry problem taken care of!
Jun 8, 2009 | 2:46 PM PST

This past spring, I bought 25 strawberry plants and received 25 free! Great deal! But that was with the thought that hubby was going to put in a raised bed just for my strawberries. Well, time came and went and seemed that the money just wasn't there to spend for it, so I've been trying to get some ground ready to put in these poor things. I have some other strawberries elsewhere in the yard, so I thought I would put them there. First it was too wet, but finally after a couple of weeks, the ground worked up nicely with the hoe and I was able to plant 26 of them. But wait! I have 24 left over...Talking to my mom-in-law on the phone and she was saying that all but one of her strawberries had died and she didn't know where she was going to get any strawberry plants. But I know where she can get 24 of them! So next week, when she's ready, I'll be helping her plant her new plants and the problem of the strawberries is all taken care of! (A burden has been lifted! Amazing how the Lord worked that all out!)

Found a slew, I mean, a slew of raspberry plants up at church! After we all have a raspberry pickin' party, I'm going to dig some up and bring them home! Our mulberry tree is really loaded with the mulberries here and am planning on going out and picking all that I can.

Still need to plant carrots, lima beans, more potatoes, and marigolds in the gardens. I would have had it done this past Saturday, but we went to the Mt. Comfort Air Show, where the Blue Angels really put on a show! Awww, I love to see them fly! What an awesome sight and sound!

garden planting log
Jun 3, 2009 | 8:33 AM PST

Just wanting to catch up on what I've planted for my reference:

In pot on South side of house, between windows, with trellis for climbing: Lima beans and two marigolds (to deter bugs).

In pots along new walkway, south of patio: spaghetti squash and mint (to deter bugs).

In flower bed south of patio, east of new walkway: Lavender, Indian blanket flower, white daisy, tickseed, rose.

In dirt along the south and east of raised beds: tomatoes

In dirt along the west of raised beds: pumpkins (must check on these, since I haven't seen any thing for some time now. Might plant something else here.

In west raised bed: turnips on the west side; on the east side, onions, potatoes, scarlet runner beans. Still want to plant more carrots in here as well.

In east raised bed: full of spinach and lettuce. Some spinach has started to go to seed, so I will be pulling these plants and filling in with maybe carrots or the like.

In between raised beds, under hog panel trellis: pole beans and marigolds in the center.

In old garden spot, close to the herbs: pole beans around the outside and inside of twig teepee trellis, marigolds, onions, two tomatoes. Need to plant something else in here. Maybe the cucumbers?

In flower box on patio, carrots are growing nicely. In cement/brick pot, the onions are coming in nicely, too.

From the compost pile, two viney things were growing. THey are either pumpkins or watermelons. I have transplanted them east of the house in new bed where old rose of sharon used to be. They are planted beside bee balm and shasta daisy. Close to them in new bed, I have planted zinnias.

NEEDED: new place to grow lima beans. Make a new trellis for them to climb on. Also need to get strawberry plants into the ground.