mudpies's Blog

A day in the sun
Jun 3, 2009 | 5:56 PM PST
Tags: Doctor , holding bed , Calendula , sunflower , birds , blue jays , barn swallows , hummingbirds , wax beans , Royal Burgundy beans , frost

Well, I had a most satisfactory visit with my new physician yesterday.  Having a doctor who's younger than my eldest child is a bit disconcerting, but she seems more than competent and is definitely a sweet-natured little thing.  I probably could have bullied her out of ordering a mammogram, had I tried.  I haven't endured that particularly nasty form of torture for a very long time and I'm certainly not looking forward to the procedure, but I guess it's for my own good.  She also ordered some blood work which I don't mind, and prescribed a topical therapy for my poor old knees.  It was expensive, but seems to provide some relief.  Apparently, the effects get better with time.  I hope so.  I hobble around like a 90-year old.

I didn't get my planter potted up yesterday, so I did that this morning before I went to the farm.  This is the first time I've started flowers from seed.  Usually I buy strong, healthy annuals from local nurseries.  Mine look pretty spindly.  I'm sure they'll fill in quickly, but I'm an impatient old woman.

I tidied up my holding bed.  I don't know how I managed to double plant one row, but I corrected that by moving some clumps of irises to a different area.  Then I moved more volunteer sunflowers into a second row and planted more seeds.  It's strange how one's tastes change.  There was a time when I thought sunflowers were coarse, ugly plants.  Now my only problems with them are (a) that I need big heavy vases complete with rocks in the bottom to ensure they don't topple over;  and (b) that they drop pollen like crazy, leaving a yellow mess on my tables.  But I love their cheerful faces enough to bring them inside on a regular basis.  I plan to plant some more tomorrow.  They're great for attracting bees early on, and blue jays later.  I also planted a row of calendulas for cutting later on.  What curious seeds!

Speaking of birds, I must comment on their particular dislike of me.  Kindly old ME, who never does harm to any of them!  We have tons of resident barn swallows.  Now, I admire and value those voracious little supersonic flyers, ( Their aerial acrobatics are a sight to behold and each one eats about  850 mosquitoes per day.)  but do they return my affection?  NOT!!  They dive-bomb me on a regular basis, and I KNOW that this chubby old body doesn't resemble a mosquito in the least!  Barn swallows are not alone in their aversion for me.  My mom feeds hummingbirds all summer.  Whenever I visit, one of my chores is to refill and rehang the feeders.  You'd think those miniature helicopters would be grateful, but no.  They, too, reward my generosity by using my head for target practice, swooping up and away at the last possible moment.  The blue jays sit atop my sunflowers in the fall and scold me mercilessly while gorging on the seeds.  Surely, they ought to be grateful that I plant their feast.  Only our robins seem to have any regard for me at all, and then only when I've turned the soil and they've grabbed a hapless worm or two.

After I played with my flower plants and seeds, I turned my attention to the veggie bed again and got a row of wax beans and a row of Royal Burgundy beans planted before heading home.  There's frost in the forecast tonight.  Can't the weatherman read the calendar?  It's June, for heaven's sake!  I'll have to be up before the crack of dawn tomorrow to spray down some of my tender plants.

Enough ranting and raving for one evening!  Happy gardening, everyone.

Finally able to put some more garden in
May 18, 2009 | 7:25 PM PST
Tags: a touch of frost , goat's beard , Bleeding Heart , Asparagus , carrot , cosmos , goat , sunflower , plant potatoes , Banana Fingers , Chieftains , California white potatoes , Yukon gold potatoes

We didn't get any rain yesterday!!  But the wind was oh so strong.  Besides, my youngest daughter and her husband hosted a family birthday party for me, so I took the day off from gardening.

We got frost overnight again, and it destroyed part of my bleeding heart and wrecked some of my asparagus.  I'm sure both will survive, but it was disappointing, nevertheless.

It was cool this morning, but sunny and there was no wind, thank goodness.  Yesterday's wind knocked the snot out of my newly planted goat's beard.  I hope it's a tough plant.  C and I headed to the farm to get some more garden in.  Both of my younger daughters and two of my grandchildren met us there.  My grandson wanted to plant a row of carrots, so I prepared the soil and made the tiny furrow.  My grandson sowed the seed and tamped the row after I covered it.  He did a really good job for a hyper 8-year old.  My granddaughter checked my supply of seeds and chose to plant a row of cosmos.  We made fancy markers with each of their names on them before they wanted to visit the animals in the barn.

My grandson is afraid of Sadie, our goat, so she was let out of the barn to roam free.  Unfortunately, she seems to like strawberry foliage, so she had to be returned from whence she came.  Not an easy task!  She led all of us on a merry chase before C managed to get her by the collar and put her back into the barn.

My children had other things to attend to and left shortly after the Sadie round-up.  C had to visit a customer, so I was left alone for a little while.  I used that time to transplant all the volunteer sunflowers from my perennial bed into a row of their own.

When C returned, we planted a few strawberries in spaces where those we planted last fall hadn't survived.  Then we transplanted a bunch of raspberries.  After that, we planted two 40' rows of potatoes.  C dug the trenches.  I cut and placed the potatoes.  Then C covered them up and I followed behind, hilling them from the opposite side of the row.  We're trying a new variety this year - Banana Fingers.  They were recommended to us by friends who have eaten them but never grown them.  Neither C nor I have tasted them.  They were a little dearer ($6:99/10 lbs) than the more conventional seed potatoes I grow:  Chieftains, California Whites, and Yukon Golds, each of which were $4:99.  There were a lot of eyes.  C thinks there is enough seed left for another row and a half. 

I came home and had a nap, leaving C behind to plant another row of potatoes on his own.  He's six years younger than I, but I still felt guilty leaving him to work on his own.  He had a nap when he got home, too.