osprey94's Blog

Behind...
May 24, 2008 | 8:41 PM PST

I'm so behind updating this blog!

Today I finished off a new raised veggie bed in the garden. I planted two kinds of carrot, some bush cucumbers, and a few bush bean plants.

I finished settling the logs in for another raised bed and just have to fill it with some trucked-in soil and it'll be ready to plant.

I pulled some pea plants out on the east side of the garden. They were shaded by the shop and just not getting enough sun. The other row of peas on the west side were planted at the same time and were triple their size, so I figured I'd plant some lupine in their place since lupines take some shade and I need some color in the veggie garden.

The tomatoes are coming along well. Two of them have blossoms.

Our mason bees have been really active in this warm weather. There are now 14 plugs in the mason bee house. I'm so excited to have them around. The only problem is, the ants seem to love the bee house. They're crawling all over it. It's attached to a wooden fence post at the end of the veggie garden, so spraying the post with Pam won't really work like if it were on a metal pole. I don't really even know if they pose a real problem. Hopefully they don't.

I noticed a hummingbird eating from the blueberry blossoms today. That's great to see, because I'd like it if everything I planted was a hummingbird favorite!

The cherry tree is COVERED in blossoms this year. I wonder if we'll have one cherry after the birds are finished with 'em?

What else...what else? Oh! We hired a guy with this crazy brush mower machine to spend the day clearing trails in our woods. The machine looked a lot like this guy:

It just MULCHED everything in its path up to a diameter of 8"! It was nuts. I felt bad doing it during nesting season. Won't do that again. The end of summer would've been better, I think. We roped off the areas where we know the Coopers Hawks and also some nuthatches are nesting so they wouldn't be disturbed.

Now, we can walk right into the depths of the 10 acres and see things we never could before. There a number of beautiful clearings and some great old alder trees that we found.

The deck bed is looking good. Some of the heuchera and lady's mantle got a little crispy in the few days of heat we've had, but other than that it all looks good. The deer have left all the new plantings alone for the last few weeks, so they're starting to grow back a bit. Some plants they've never touched in that bed yet are:

1. Daylily (Stella de Oro)
2. Northern LIghts grass
3. Purple fountain grass
4. Autumn joy sedum
5. Loosestrife
6. Clematis
7. Flowering currant
8. Rhodies

They might (probably will) try them at some point in the future, but for now, they aren't. I'm tempted to buy more of the fountain grass and daylilies especially to fill in. I'd also still like to get one each of purple coneflower and frikart's aster  and see how they do. If they aren't eaten instantly, I'll buy more.

I want to keep transplanting plants into the deck bed as I get them, but I don't want to plant in the heat. I'm thinking of putting shade cloth over the bed, if necessary. I don't want to wait till fall to plant. I'm too impatient!

Besides, summer is when I actually have the time to plant!

Let's see if I can update sooner next time.

Countdown till summer break: 14 days. Only 2 more Mondays.