Twiggybet1's Blog
Twiggybet1's Blog
Last Post 2 hours Ago
Jul 23, 2008 | 11:25 PM PST
Well, we've had thunderstorms nearly every day for the past week or so. I haven't had to use the sprinkler in quite some time I'm happy to say. We have also had some very humid, hot days. I have been running the A/C nearly every day. Today, it was drier and cooler, so I gave my trusty A/C unit a rest for the day. I love opening the windows and getting a nice breeze blowing in.
We've been so busy with other things this past week, that between the storms and errands, I haven't been able to spend as much time as I'd like out in the garden. But I do manage to at least check on things.
The peas have seen better days, they are about exhaused and I think I got as much as they have to give this year. They were delicious, and we got enough to put some up in the freezer. Hubby prefers them frozen rather than canned. I have to agree with him when it comes to peas.
The green beans are starting to slow down a little bit, but I got enough for us canned. I have some more cleaned and trimmed in the fridge that I will can tomorrow. Some of the lettuce is threatening to bolt. We have been eating a lot of fresh salads. This year I planted assorted kinds, one of which was musculin. We had never had that variety before, and we really don't like it as well as other kinds. So when that one started to bolt, I left it to flower to keep the bees and other pollinators happy. The blossoms are done now, so I pulled them all up now. I'm debating what I can plant there now.
This is a basket of some things I harvested earlier in the week. The beets are the first I got so far this year. I cooked them up with their greens, using a little bit of bacon and onion for flavor. Those red potatoes were ones I "stole" early. I just couldn't wait any longer. I cooked those up with their skins on, with bacon and onion for flavor, and mixed in some green beans. Sound familiar, my southern garden friends?
This basket I picked on Tuesday. I am finally getting a couple peppers. I made stuffed cabbage rolls for dinner last night, using that cabbage. I used one of those green peppers in them, also, along with a jar of last year's tomatoes. We have only just begun to get a few tomatoes, and those are the cherry tomatoes, and what I thought were supposed to be "grape" tomatos. Pretty large for grape tomatoes:
I don't know if they were mislabeled, or I didn't pay close enough attention when buying them, but, oh, well. Plum tomatoes are great for stuffing (something I plan to make soon) or sauce.
The corn has been growing so fast, it's just amazing! Here's what the garden looked like last week:
The corn had finally gotten taller than everything else in the garden. It started developing the tassels:
Now, all the stalks are topped with open tassels, and the ears are forming. Some of the stalks have to be about 8' tall. Here is a picture of what it looked like today:
This is hubby & I playing in our corn field.
Until next time, happy gardening!
Jul 17, 2008 | 9:21 PM PST
*sigh* I need to share. I've had a couple of strange days....
Yesterday, my daughter had her first automobile accident. She's o.k., but it sure gave me a scare. She was on her way to school, and stopped for a light and the driver behind her hit her. To make matters worse, it was final exam day. She calls me and says, "Mom, I've been hit and I don't know what to do!" (crying, and hysterical) Me: "are you hurt?" Her: "no" (thank you Jesus!) Me: "is the other driver o.k.?" Her: "yes, he's O.K." (praise the Lord!) Me: "how much damage?" Her: (cries harder) "I don't know!" Me: "Where are you?" (she tells me where) Me: "are the police there yet?" Her: "no" (she's a bit calmer, stopped crying) Me: "you did call the police, didn't you?" Her ".....no...." Me: "well, hang up with me and call them." Here in Michigan, in order to make an insurance claim, you need a police report. And by law, you are supposed to report any accident that happens on public streets. Since I was at home with NO CAR and she was only a few miles from Hubby's work , I called him, and he met her at the scene, to make sure the car was drivable, etc. It was, so he went back to work, and she went to class. She was 40 minutes late for class, but thankfully, the prof. let her take the exam. The damage is minor, only cosmetic, I'm not even sure we will bother to have it fixed. So much for that. After that, I felt exhausted for the rest of the day. I guess adrenaline rushes do that to you.
I spent a good portion of today canning green beans. Daughter was visiting friends, Hubby was at work, I had the house to my self. I got 2 canner loads done. So, after those were set to cooling, I decided to stroll around the garden, and check on things, since I'd been inside all day, before I had to start making dinner. Checking this 'n that, going up one row and down the other. I notice the next door neighbor watching me over the fence. This particular neighbor is of the barely nodding acquaintance type. She doesn't really talk much to anybody, she doesn't spend very much time outside, and never comes calling. Other neighbors have mentioned having quarrels with her, and that they believed she was mentally or emotionally imbalanced, but I had never had any cross words with her. So when I see her watching me, I shout out "Hello!" She shouts back "HI, how is it going for you?" I reply "Oh, good! and how are things with you?" (sounds like a nice, normal conversation so far, huh?) She says something unintelligible, so I ask her to repeat. I still couldn't make sense of what she was saying, so she screams at me while pointing to my garden "That stuff you got growing back there, that witchcraft stuff, I hope it all comes back on you and your family!!!!!!!!!!!" Then she stomps off into her house. I have no idea what it is she thinks is "witchcraft stuff." Maybe it's the corn. I don't know. About 3 years ago, my neice and her boyfriend both were out of work, so my husband told them he would pay them to help him put a new roof on the garage. This neighbor saw quasi-nephew working on the roof, and asked him to repair a shed roof she had that was leaking over her kitchen. So neice and quasi-nephew got a little side job repairing her roof. (Hubby helped, free of charge, just to make sure the job was done right, to avoid friction with the neighbor) Well, she had security cameras and motion detectors all over the roof, aimed at every corner and span of her yard. She told hubby she needed them because her ex sent people to spy on her all the time. What did we know, sometimes ex's are strange, we thought maybe she had a reason to be worried. So we started paying attention, but we have never seen anyone suspicious hanging around. But she has said and done a couple of weird things. If she does have mental problems, (and it seems evident that she DOES) Lord, I don't want to be the focus of her delusions! Now I am going to be just a bit nervous every time I go out to my garden, wondering if she's watching, and hoping she doesn't try to act on any delusions she's been having, like, oh, say, burn me at the stake or whatever.
Jul 14, 2008 | 6:51 AM PST
It's Monday morning, hubby's at work and daughter's at school. I have a some time to myself to reflect, write my blog, and plan my day. Well, some of it's already planned for me. Dentist appointment this afternoon, never look forward to those, just looking forward to getting it over with.
During the past week, we have had some stormy rainy days and some sunny days. Glad for the rain, saves on using the sprinkler and glad for the sun! Since returning from our short 5-day mini vacation for the 4th of July weekend, I have been trying to catch up on the weeding. It seems that once behind, it's a struggle to catch up again. But I'm making progress. I take it one area at a time. I need to replenish the mulch in areas.
We have been enjoying beans and peas. The peas especially have been doing very well this year. The plants seem taller than in past years, and the yield seems larger too. I used bean and pea innoculant this year when I planted. In past years, hubby declared he believed that buying and using innoculant to be just an added unnecessary expense. I talked him into trying it this year. I think that it made a huge difference.
This picture is of a basket full of peas that I picked yesterday afternoon. It took me quite a while to shell that many peas. As you can see, I also pulled some rhubarb. It is finally coming in good, I have been so impatiently waiting for it! Now perhaps my lucky family will get a pie for desert tonight.
These are the first of the tomatoes to ripen. They are golden cherries. It was all I could do to get them to last until this photo was snapped. They dissappeared soon after and are now history.
The asparagus was let to go to fern for the year. We had gotten a couple good meals from the new patch, which was more than we expected, being planted just last year. There is still plenty of broccoli side-shoots producing, I get those about every 3rd day or so. The cabbage is making nice heads now, I just need to keep the slugs away. I have been sprinkling crushed eggshells around them, but I am going to need to make some spray for reinforcements! The celery seems to be doing good. I did find some caterpillar on one, I don't know what kind, but it got moved to native flowers. I don't want to squish an endangered specie, but I don't want to share my celery, either. I took a picture of the critter, but I can't find the picture now.
The peppers are putting out a few blossoms, and there are a few growing on some plants, but this isn't going to be a stellar year for peppers. For some unknown reason, they are not growing and performing as they usually do. Hmm, I will have to spend some time finding out why.
The potatoes seem to be doing really well. We planted two varieties, a red one that we bought sets for, and white ones that we saved from ones we grew last year. The blossoms are pink on the red potato plants, and the blossoms are white on the white variety. Makes it easy to tell them apart w/o digging. The trench/mulch method seems to suit them fine.
The sweet potatoes are settling in fine. They are starting to vine out, but are still small enough to distinguish individual plants. But it wont be long before they run riot, if the weather stays warm.
My summer sqush plants are blossoming, but not any set fruit yet. It will be fun to see what kind of fruits we get this year, as I planted a medley of assorted types. Many years we have bought plants for the zucchini, but this year they are all from seed. A little bit later, but that's o.k. It will give me a bit more time to concentrate on canning the beans.
The corn stalks are now the tallest plants in the garden. They surpassed the tomatoes, just in the last week. I spent some time yesterday removing the suckers from most of the stalks. I had to leave a few in place, as the pumpkin vines are using them for support. Some of those plants are nearly as tall as the corn! I decided to interplant pumpkins and butternut squash with the corn. When using this method, from what I read, any pumpkins or squash harvested are supposed to be considered "bonus" fruit, but I can't help being hopeful that we will get a lot of them. If this method works out well, I will do it again. Almost like doubling your garden space!
My husband pulled the first of the carrots yesterday. I had to replant most of the carrot block, because I left the clear plastic cover on too long and fried the tiny seedlings. I will try not to make that mistake again. So far, no root maggots have showed up. We made sure to plant them far, far away from the spot they were in last year just for this reason.
I will be able to harvest the first of the beets soon. They are in the block next to the carrots. I plan to pickle some for my husband, because that is his favorite way to eat beets. I planted Detroit red and Detroit white this year. I am guessing that the white ones will be much less likely to stain things, and I am curious if they have a milder flavor. We will soon find out.
Until next time, Happy Gardening, everyone!
Jul 7, 2008 | 10:38 PM PST
We spent the 4th and the weekend out of town visiting relatives. While we had a very enjoyable time, it still is good to be back home. I could hardly wait to get back to check on the garden. Only another gardener would understand...
Before we left, the green beans and peas were just starting to ripen. This is what I picked today:
The peas are in one of those cartons you get at the U-pick strawberry farms. We had picked strawberries while we were away. I spent a good portion of the morning cleaning them, and getting some ready for jam. Anyway, it must have took me nearly 2 hours to shell the peas (but, then again, I had a few little interruptions). So, we had peas with dinner tonight. The beans were put away, I will deal with those tomorrow. I imagine we will have beans with dinner tomorrow, and I will can a load. I also picked more broccoli.
The potato plants are getting blossoms. LOTS of blossoms:
As I recall, the potatoes I planted last year seemed to have a lot fewer (and smaller) blossoms. I suppose that doesn't matter, since it is the roots I'm after. I will take it as a sign that this is a very healthy crop...
All the other vegetables seem to be progressing as expected. The tomatoes are overflowing their cages, and the corn is just past my knees now. I am finally getting a respectable amount of rhubarb, and I made 2 batches of rhubarb bread before we left town (I brought them to share). It seems I will have enough to make a batch of strawberry-rhubarb jam, and possibly a couple of pies after all.
Elsewhere in the yard, the orange lilies are in full bloom:
I have heard those orange lilies called tiger lilies, Michigan lilies, ditch lilies, and probably a few other names that escape me at the moment. Regardless what they are called, I like them. I realize some people consider them a weed or nuisance plant, but I love the fact that they are native, and don't require any special care. They are reliable.
After dinner, I made my jam. I did two batches, one regular strawberry jam, the other low-sugar strawberry jam.
I had picked up some "no sugar needed" pectin by mistake a while back, and since I had enough strawberries to do two batches, I thought I would try it. My daughter and I did a taste test with the skimmed foam and left over not-enough-for-another-jar jam. Tasting them side-by-side, we could detect a slight difference, but if you were unaware it was low-sugar, you probably wouldn't be able to tell. So I might buy more of the "no sugar needed" stuff in the future.
Until next time, Happy Gardening!!!
Jun 28, 2008 | 5:06 AM PST
How about that? I can't think of a very original name for my blog post, but that describes it best, I suppose. It has been 8 days since my last post. I had intended to blog w/ photos about once a week to keep a photo journal of how the garden progresses. It is amazing how much difference you can see in a weeks time. When you are seeing your garden every day, you don't notice how much everything is growing. Right now my garden is in that "in-between" stage - everything has been planted, but not too much is ripe yet. The anticipation stage, I call it.
We have been getting the best weather a gardener can ask for! We have had several thunderstorms during the past week, mixed with lots of sunshine and warm summer temperatures. I am so grateful, and I feel so blessed. I sympathize with gardeners in other areas of the country, some in drought areas, some in flooded areas.
I took these pictures a couple of days ago, one early morning when the dew was still on them:
The assorted salad greens are doing great, they are still a bit small for a complete harvest, but I have been picking some, sort of thinning them out. What a difference fresh picked lettuce makes in your salad bowl:
I will soon have green beans! I plan to check later this afternoon to see if any are big enough to pick:
The peas are going to be ripe right around the time I will start to get some beans. They usually can be planted a bit earlier than they got put in this year. This spring was really wet, and my soil way too soggy to put them in on time, so I am VERY pleased they are doing well this year:
I can't remember if this is the first head on the broccoli, or a "side shoot", because I picked several heads when they looked like they might flower. These, too, were a little later being planted than they could have:
The peppers are hanging in there, but they don't seem to be doing much yet. A few blossoms here and there. Here is a photo of the first (and only so far) pepper of the season:
The beets are about the size of marbles right now, but I expect that the recent rain will make them swell up to havestable size very soon. I have been culling some nice looking leaves to add to salads.
We used to have several of these blackberry bushes (aka thimbleberries), along with some black raspberry bushes (aka black caps). We tore out some of them before they could take over the whole garden, but left a few. Most often, the birds notice they are ripe before I do!
One of the things I am anticipating the most is sweet corn! In all the years we've gardened, this is the first year we planted some corn. It is hard to remember way back to when my grandpa grew it on his farm, and he isn't around now to ask advice. I feel like such a novice, and only have a vague idea what to expect. I am not sure if I should be concerned or not about these red streaks on a the leaves of a few of the plants:
I appologize for the blurry picture. I need to get my eyes checked, it looked fine on the little bitty 2" screen on the camera...but anyway, you can see the coloration I mentioned. I certainly hope this isn't a plant virus or something...
Until next time....
Jun 19, 2008 | 8:14 PM PST
am I! Today my sweet potato slips arrived. Boy, that sure was fast! I placed the order less than a week ago. I had called the grower to make sure that some were available before I mailed in my order, and explained my situation to him. I suspect he took special care with my order, he had marked all over the box "perishable, live plants, please don't delay". Here is a picture of the beautiful, healthy-looking slips I received today:
And remember what the previous shipment from a different grower looked like:
What a difference! I couldn't be more pleased. You can be sure that I will remember this grower come time to order next year! I had them in the ground within the hour after the postman delivered them...
look at them standing at attention like so many little soldiers....
I have been busy in the yard all week. The front beds got some desperately needed attention. The peonies needed deadheading and the beds needed weeding and the shrubs needed pruning. The driveway got cleaned and straightened. I pulled the weeds that grow up in the cracks in the pavement, and trimmed the wild grapevines that grow over the fence that runs beside the drive. I planted the free canna bulbs, mostly in planters, a few in a corner bed in the back yard. There was almost a dozen of them. They were pretty large, I wonder how big the plants will get. I hope this wasn't too late in the season to get them in, but they already had eyes and a couple small leaves on some. I spent a great deal of time on weed patrol, in the vegetable garden and various flower beds.
The vegetable garden is coming along wonderfully. We've had a good deal of rain, but not too much to drown us out. The tomatoes have pretty much filled their cages:
And the corn is almost knee-high already!:
Here is a picture of the back corner of the yard. Those bushes in amungst the corn are thimbleberry bushes (blackberry). They are somewhere between waist high and shoulder high on me .
If it doesn't rain tomorrow and we can mow, I should get enough grass clippings to mulch between another row. The more areas I can cover with mulch, the less time necessary to spend on weed patrol, the better...
Happy Gardening, until next time.....
Jun 15, 2008 | 5:11 AM PST
It's Sunday morning and the sun is shining! It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day. I haven't checked the forecast for the day, but I think I'll just take what I see. I couldn't ask for better! We plan on a family get-together today at an aunt's house to celebrate Father's day. I imagine she intends to use her backyard patio, as long as the weather is nice.
Well, after the disappointment of a few days ago, I searched and found another source for sweet potato slips, and placed an order. Hope springs eternal! Post office, (or UPS, or whatever) don't fail me now!
I just love sunnny days paired with rainy nights. What a perfect combination for us gardeners! That happened for us earlier in the week. What a bonus when I don't have to use the municipal water, it gets more expensive all the time, and we will probably have water restrictions at some point this summer. Right now the water ban is voluntary, and there are some folks who think this means open season on water usage. You know the type, they water the lawn twice a day, front and back. The type of people that make a ban necessary. They only stop when the actual ban goes into effect and are faced with a $500 fine. As for me, I imagine natural rain water is better for the plants and flowers than clorinated city water anyway, and the lawn is at the mercy of nature.
My sister and her family came down state to visit her father-in-law for Father's day this weekend. On Friday, my sister and nephew came over to go geocaching with my daughter and me. They brought a travel bug that needed placing. The weather started hot and humid, so we started out with going to the Icecream Parlor for an after lunch treat. We managed to find one cache to place the travel bug, but didn't have any success with 2 other caches. But by then it started to rain, and we were all soaked by the time we got back to my place. My nephew spent the night with us and we dropped him off at his grandpa's house Saturday on our way to a graduation party, which turned out very nice. The weather was perfect for a yard party, sunny, warm, slight breeze. The graduate is my highschool friend's daughter. They live in a rural area, and are a bit of a drive (1 1/2 hours away) and it was a perfect day for a drive in the country. I think my sweet corn is doing comparably well, if the corn fields we drove by are any indication. Ours is about the same size. Of course, since this is the first year we are growing it, I am paying close attention. On the way home we stopped at a farm house that had a sign out to sell eggs, straw, and firewood. Hubby wanted a bale or two of straw for mulch, because he feels we are running short. Well, the farmer wasn't home, but he had a cooler with his eggs and some milk in it, with a box to leave the cash in if you took some. (we wouldn't dare leave a cash box unattended where I live!) We didn't see the bales of straw, or firewood, but he had a box of canna bulbs setting there marked "free". So hubby decided we needed those and took them, and left a few dollars anyway. We are going to plant them before go to Auntie's house. It will be interesting to see what color they are!
To all the dads, have a very happy Father's Day!
Jun 12, 2008 | 2:30 PM PST
Tags: sweet potatoes , rain garden
...and this is the condition they arrived in:
Any bets that they will live???? And check out the moss the company uses to "keep the shoots from drying out":
I am SO dissapointed and upset.
The first thing I did was grab a small vase and RUN to the sink to put them in water. The next thing I did was examine them closely for any residual signs of life. It doesn't look promising, folks. So then I got on the horn and notified the company. They are sending me a refund, but I would have preferred a replacement. Unfortunately, they are done shipping sweet potatoes for the season. So that means NO SWEETPOTATOES this year. It just figures they would send me my order so late. I get so irritated. They sent my shoots late last year also, but at least they weren't dry as dust and they grew. I could have planted them any time after May 10th. I am fortunate enough to live in one of the warmest areas of the state, and most of the state is 1 or even 2 zones behind my area. But the growers refuse to send the sweetpotatoes here until June, after they filled orders for every other area of the country. And then they quit shipping them. *SIGH* Now what shall I plant here:
Maybe I could try putting in some watermelon or cantaloupe or honeydew, but they may not have time to mature before frost. *sigh, again*
Update on the rest of the garden...
the pumpkin and corn are growing nicely. And my broccoli is developing heads:
Sorry the photo is sideways. My daughter took these for me. Both her and my husband like doing the fancy sideways camera thing, and I uploaded it without checking it first. So tilt your head to the right to view...
The salad greens are doing good, and the beans are getting big. This picture was taken yesterday, and I did some weeding in this area this morning, so it looks a little better now...
I sure could use some advice on my rain garden. Here is a picture of what it looked like in the fall when I first put it in:
and here is a picture that was taken yesterday:
The garbage can lid is still there because I am still looking for my made-in-the-USA solar-powered bird bath/ fountain.
I had planted it last fall mostly with assorted bulbs and some bare-roots. Somehow, it doesn't look as lush and full as I envisioned it. I filled in a bare spot in the ring with petunias a couple weeks back. The outermost ring is comprised of lavender mountain lillies (lxiolirion tataricum) and pink alpine rosy bells (allium oreophilum) and yellow alpine bells. I think it would look better if I dug up all those in the outer ring, and grouped them in spots by color, rather than leave them mixed. I color coded the plants with twist ties so I could tell them apart later. My question is (anybody out there?) must I wait until fall or at least until they are done blooming, or would they survive if I rearranged them now?
Jun 4, 2008 | 11:32 PM PST
I don't remember which kind of lettuce this pic shows, but they are finally large enough to tell them from the weeds. Now I need to finish weeding this area...
The peas are climbing the fence (as they should) and the beans are doing o.k. Something has been nibbling on a few of them, though. My guess is the pesty squirrels.
The cabbage is filling out nicely, and the celery seems to be doing alright. We are keeping our fingers crossed on that one.
Here is one of the potato plants, just recently poking up out of the ground:
This year we planted two varieties of beets. The ones with the red in the leaves and stems are regular beets, the light green ones in front are supposed to be white beets. Hmm, I wonder if the flavor is milder than the red ones? If so, I may be able to make my family eat a little more of them. In any case, I imagine that they would be less likely to stain things...
We also planted two varieties of radishes. The taller ones are black radishes, and I haven't been able to harvest any of those yet. The shorter ones are usual red ones, and I have been harvesting and replanting those. We've been eating those as quickly as they can grow...
Guess what? WE'VE GOT CORN!
I hope it gets to be at least knee high by 4th of July, the measure my Grandpa always went by. It has been raining the last two days, so lets hope.
I interplanted butternut squash and pumpkins between the rows. These were seeds I saved from squash we grew last year and a pumpkin we bought around Halloween time. So I have no Idea if the fruit is going to grow true to type or not. I decided to interplant like this after reading a few articles on the subject. This method is supposed to be helpful to the corn, using the sqush and pumpkins as a mulch, more or less, and (according to what I've read) any squash and pumpkins should be considered bonuses.
Now, If I could just keep up with the weeds!
May 28, 2008 | 7:24 PM PST
Before we left to go visiting for the holiday weekend, we managed to get the sweet corn planted. I think we squeezed in 6 rows. I am SO excited! I absolutely love corn-on-the-cob, and we have never tried to grow it before. I decided to wait until we returned to plant the squash, since it's going in containers.
We had a very nice visit. We stayed with my sister and her family. They had lost their house in January (due to foreclosure) and had been staying with friends until a couple of weeks ago when they found a decent house to rent. It's on about an acre, and there are several raised beds for planting. Not as large as the property they lost (10 acres) but it will do until they can buy another place. The property is for sale, so if someone buys it, they will have about 30 days to find somewhere else, and because of the temporary nature of the living arrangements, she wasn't sure she wanted to plant anything. So, I told her I would go through my seeds when I got home, and find some stuff that grows pretty fast. I have a small box with an assortment of veggie and flower seeds ready to mail to her tomorrow. I think she plans to plant the fast growing stuff in the raised beds, and use containers for stuff she would want to bring with her if they have to move before the growing season ends.
We came home yesterday afternoon (Tuesday). I had to make it home before dark so I could check on my garden. We've got radishes ready! LOTS of radishes. Amazing how much happens in a couple day's absence! No, my corn didn't sprout yet, but everything that was sprouted made some progress. Of course the weeds made the most progress. So I spent a bit of time today clearing the weeds out of the areas that don't have mulch. First thing I did in the morning was to water the garden. Our sprinkler (which we bought last year , but looks as if it's much older) wasn't working properly. Hubby bought a new one on his way home from work today and tried it out. Works great, and he bought a better quality one, so HOPEFULLY this one will last more than one year!
I got some containers planted today. There is one for hubbard squash, Texas Sweet Potato (this is a new one for us, we will see how it does), one for watermelon, one for cantaloupe, and one with bushel gourd. I need to get a couple more ready so I can plant some pumpkins and cucumbers. I planted a couple of things in the garden, but I'm not sure which they are, so I want to be sure to have some of everything I want. These containers are going next to the fence, with some trellising for support. I have no idea how well this is going to work out, it's our big experiment this year.
The maple trees and elms are shedding their seeds right now. When we were kids, we called the maple seeds "helicopters." They were fun then, but now they just make a mess for me to clean up! I swept up the big piles from the drive way and patio. It's not pristine, but hey, I wasn't going for perfection, the trees aren't done yet.
I also spent some time on Creeping Charlie (and friends) patrol elsewhere in the yard. I hate that stuff. It grows everywhere, and is practically indestructible. Funny story about ole creeping charlie. Right now, the stuff is in bloom. I noticed it growing at my sister's newly rented place. When she had everyone over on Monday, my mother spied the tiny purple flowers and proclaimed "oh, how pretty, I'm going to pick some to dry!" Mom does stained glass, and one of her projects is jewelry boxes with a section of dried flowers between panes of glass on the lids. I told her to come on down to my place and pick as much as she wants, even dig some up, and she will have a never-ending supply! She doesn't have it growing in her own flower beds, and didn't know what it was, apparently. I don't know how she ever escaped an acquaintance with ole creeping charlie, she loves flowers and has always had beautiful plantings in her yard.
Tomorrow I plan to plant some flower seedlings I started, moonflowers and bright-eye daisies. I'm still debating where I will put them. One of the beds out front, rain garden, or back corner? Hmm, I guess I will sleep on it...
May 20, 2008 | 8:58 PM PST
Between yesterday and today, hubby and I managed to almost finish planting the garden. Yesterday we planted the potatoes, and readied the row for the sweet potatoes. The sweet potato starts probably wont come for a couple of weeks yet, but that will give the black plastic mulch time to warm the soil. If it weren't for that, we probably couldn't grow them this far north.
This picture shows the potato trench between the sweet potato row and the peppers. Looks kind of messy yet.
Yeah, I know the rows aren't all that straight. But once the veggies fill in, it won't be as noticeable. I put down the black plastic and put the bricks around to hold it in place today while hubby was at work.
Yesterday, while hubby planted the potatoes and made the sweet potato hill, I dug up all my Irises in the back of the rain garden. They were already planted by the fence before I put in the rain garden, so they haven't been disturbed since I planted them about 3 years ago. The soil was compacted way too hard, and they hadn't bloomed. So I dug them up, put them in a pail of water and loosened all the dirt in the area. I mixed in a couple of buckets of compost and shreddings of twigs and leaves, and replanted them a bit further apart:
Today, after finishing up the sweet potato area, (you would not believe how long it took to put all those brick pieces around, and try to keep the plastic from flapping in the breeze) I got the next row ready, and planted zucchini that I started from seeds indoors. The rest of the row I filled in with cucumbers (I think) from the wintersown plants:
I put milk jug tops over the zucchini for the night, because the temps are supposed to get down pretty chilly, and I'm not sure they hardened off enough for the night temps yet. Finally, when hubby got home, we had a quick supper and then we planted two rows of tomatoes. The row to the right next to the zucchini are all determinate except for the last two plants. These ones are Juliet grape tomatoes and Sungold cherry tomatoes. The row to the right and the last two plants in the first row are all indeterminate. These are Better boy (slicing) Bonny Best (salad and canning) and Jet Star (canning)
Tomorrow, we are planning to finish up planting the garden with sweet corn. This will be the first time we tried to grow it. I think we have just enough room to squeeze in 4 or 5 rows. We still have to put together the trellis for the winter squash, and install it next to the fence. I have some pots ready for the squash, I will probably try to get the plants in the pots tomorrow before hubby gets home. I really would like to get all the planting done before the weekend. We plan to go up north to visit family for the holiday weekend, and see the new baby nephew who was born in April. We haven't been up north since January, and we have birthdays and celebrations to catch up on!
May 18, 2008 | 7:44 PM PST
The weather here has been pretty weird the last couple of days. Yesterday was the day my daughter had her friends over for a cook-out. It was sunny and gusty in the morning, clouded up, rained a little bit, sun came back, more clouds moved in, hailed a few minutes, a bit more rain, then remained overcast and windy on and off for the rest of the day. My daughter managed to get the food grilled during one of the dry spells! Her and her friends rescued the screen house when it started doing cartwheels across the yard. Oh, well, it's Michigan. We have a saying here, "if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes." Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, weather notwithstanding. One of my daughter's friends is the daughter of my long-time friend, and my friend came too. So we had a nice visit, which doesn't happen as often as we'd like. We live almost 2 hours apart (another Michigan quirk, we are more likely to refer to distance in terms of the length of travel time rather than the number of miles).
Today the weather was just as weird. More sprinkles, clouds, winds, some sun on and off, and another couple of minutes of hail. It was more like sleet, really. The chunks were pretty small. Hubby and I spent almost the entire day out in the garden. We planted potatoes, sweet peppers and hot peppers, and (for the first time in our gardening history) celery. We had heard that celery is exceptionally fussy, and difficult. Well, this year, we decided we are up to the challenge!
My peas are all sprouted, and starting to climb the pea fence. The green beans are sprouted too. Radishes are getting pretty big and the beets are coming along. I'm not sure what the carrots are doing out there, so far, no sign of them sprouting. We are enjoying the asparagus, we still have a few weeks for that. I have been getting some rhubarb every couple of days, but, very little, because we just planted it last spring. We left it alone last year so it would establish, but I'm impatient, and I think I should leave it be for a while. I don't want to take too much and kill it. We newspapered and mulched between the rows, using our newly mowed grass clippings for the mulch. We decided to wait a day or so more before we plant the tomatoes because the temperature is supposed to get down to the upper 30's tonight.
Tomorrow, I plan to plant some onion seed, for green bunching. I also need to dig out the black mulch for the sweet potato row. We hill up a row and cover it with the black plastic mulch to get the soil nice and warm. We will leave it on to help control the weeds. And if time allows, then we will plant the tomatoes tomorrow. The night time temperatures are supposed to be warmer for the rest of the week. Oh, and I want to spend some time on my flower beds. I have a flat of pretty buttery-yellow petunias, called prism sunshine.
I finished screening the compost pile today also. And I found the robin's nest. It's in the pine tree, over the place where we moved the compost pile to. I have a picture in my albums. Every time I went near the compost pile, the robin would make some noise and move a branch or two away from the nest. I imagine she's trying to steer me away from the nest. And of course, while we were digging, the robin was going right behind us searching for worms. I think the robin family got a nice Sunday dinner today. Good for them, my family had left-overs from yesterday's cook-out!
May 15, 2008 | 9:29 PM PST
I haven't done much in the garden all week, because I pulled a muscle (or something?) in my leg earlier this week and have been hobbling around like.....I don't know, an infirm person or something. Dang! Oh, well, it was raining Tues. and Wed. off and on anyway, so I couldn't go out even if I felt better, and I had some other things to do that desperately needed my attention (read: paperwork - sorting, filing, paying bills, etc.) However, the weather was just too beautiful to stay indoors today, pampering myself. The temperature reached the mid-70's, and we have had so few days that nice and warm so far this year. So, I set out to move the compost pile.
All week, after work, hubby has been busy setting up the new spot for the cinderblock compost pile. (rain or shine. he doesn't mind getting a bit wet) We are moving it from the back of the garden over to the side next to the neighbors fence. They have a pine tree that unfortunately is getting quite large and shades a good sized spot of our garden, all morning until early afternoon. Last year, the plants in that area didn't perform optimally, to say the least. The space at the back of the garden where we previously had the compost pile receives a lot more hours of sunlight, so this way should work out better. Anyway, hubby finished moving all the cinderblocks yesterday, so I spent today screening the pile and moving it. I knew that I would be moving slower than usual due to my injured leg, but it turned into an all-day job. Actually, I think the exercise did my leg good. It seemed like the longer I worked the less stiff my leg became. Of course, it didn't hurt that I hopped myself up before and after on acetamenophren and ibuprofen.
While I was busily going about the task, along comes one of our resident robins. (I wonder, do they return to the same area year after year?) These robins are not particularly shy, I see them out in the garden just about every day, and they often come really close to watch us work, hoping for worms. So I tossed a few to him (her?) as I ran accross them in the compost, and he seemed to really appreciate it. I got about 70% of the pile done before I called it a day. So the rest will be waiting for me tomorrow.
We have so much work to do! I have been hardening off the plants I bought at the nursery last weekend, so hopefully - God willing and weather permitting - we can finish planting the garden this coming weekend. I don't know how much I can do on Saturday, my daughter is having some friends over for a cook-out. She's celebrating the break between the semester she just finished and the summer classes that haven't started yet. I promised to help her cook, and to set up the screen house in the back yard. I hope the weather is nice.
Hubby has to work Saturday, and possibly Sunday, which is a mixed blessing. The o.t. money is greatly appreciated, but I will have to do most of the gardening by myself, and we all know a job shared get done quicker and the time passes more pleasantly. (ideally, anyway!!!!)
May 11, 2008 | 6:17 AM PST
Here's a photo of a pair of ducks enjoying the neighbor's pool. The female was really keeping an eye on me, she seems somewhat wary of people. But the male just went about his business as if I wasn't there. He just kept preening himself. Perhaps he was more concerned with making himself attractive to her than worried about what I might do. I still haven't determined where their nest is, but I'm guessing it's not too far, because they have been visiting the pool every day. I know they haven't nested in my yard, and I doubt they nested in the neighbor's yard because she has a very large dog, unless they found a secluded area where the dog can't reach.
Here's the newest resident to the garden. My hubby found him while mowing the lawn, and relocated him to the garden. I hope he will be happy there and eat lots of bugs.
I cleaned up my bird houses. What a job! It took a few days, because I really wanted to make sure I drowned the paper wasps. I used a large bucket with a lid, and filled it with water and a little bit of dish soap to help remove the nests. I put in a bird house, made sure it was totally submerged, and quickly put the lid on and left it like that for at least a few hours. Then I would remove that one, and put in the next one. I think I cleaned seven in all. I have some pictures of them in my photo albums. The area doesn't look very impressive yet, but come june when the ditch lilies are in bloom it looks nice.
I planted a couple more plants in the rain garden. I put in another blanket flower, this variety called "Oranges and Lemons". I'm not sure the one I planted last year came back. I think quite a few of the things I planted in the fall became casualties of winter. *sigh* I'll have to fill in with annuals this year, until some of the stuff gets more established and larger. I need to split some peonies in the fall, which are planted in the front bed. I promised my neighbor some, but hopefully there will be enough to move a piece to the rain garden.
Well, I think my wintersowing experiment was pretty much a flop. Not only did my labels fade so I don't know what is what, but only a few of the things survived. My indoor sowing also had limited success. I do so much better with transplants. I have a favorite nursery that has absolutely beautiful, sturdy, stocky, healthy looking plants. Everything I have purchased there has done well - I don't think I've lost a single thing I've gotten from them over the years. We made a trip there on Friday afternoon, and got some tomato, pepper, broccoli, cabbage, and a couple of herbs, not to mention our Mother's day gifts and a flat of petunias to fill in some bare spots.
Happy Mother's Day, ladies, and happy gardening to everyone!
May 5, 2008 | 9:32 PM PST
Happy Cinco De Mayo! We had tacos for dinner, and (of course) used our home canned salsa. I love mexican food. Yeah, yeah, I know, what we call mexican is an americanized version of their authentic cuisine. Oh, well, I like it anyway.
The weather today was absolutely beautiful! The temperature here reached 75, well above the normal average temperature for this time of year here, about mid 60's. The sun was shining all day, nice occaisional breeze, but not too windy. I got quite a bit of cleanup, weeding, arranging, rearranging, etc. done. In other words, I did a lot of "puttering". I would have done a few more indepth chores, but I was locked out of the garage. Hubby has recently replaced the lock, and hasn't gotten around to getting a 2nd key made yet, and he forgot to unlock it for me before he left for work. So, I couldn't get to my tools and implements, until he got home. By then, it was time for dinner. I hope he remembers to get that key made soon.
After dinner, we lit a fire in the chimenia, and toasted marshmallows. And watched the bats come out. We are considering getting a bat house and hanging it on the back wall of the garage, closest to the garden. But how do you get them to move in? I don't want just another place for the wasps to nest!
My neighbor has a pair of mallard ducks taking advantage of her swimming pool. I doubt that they have their nest in her yard, though, because she has a couple of dogs. Actually, she just brought a new puppy home yesterday. Its a teensy tiny little "tea cup" poodle. I've seen bigger kittens. She had the puppy all dolled up in a pink dress with a bow on the back. It was so cute!
The weather forcast is for a nice morning, maybe afternoon showers. So I had better get up early (and hope hubby unlocks the garage) if I want to get much done outside tomorrow. Hubby has been working on moving our compost area to the side of the garden instead of the back. The neighbors have a pine tree that shades a spot along the side, and the back gets more sun, so if we move the compost area to the shady spot, I think we will be making better use of our garden space.
I need to clean up some bird houses. It seems those pesky paper wasps have made nests in some of them. I plan to submerge them in a bucket of water to drown them. (Hey! It's a better option than poison! I think?) And I plan to wear lots of insect repellant before I attempt to go near them. How in the world am I going to keep the wasps away from my birdhouses? Ideas, anyone?
