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Saturday, May 30, 2015

Family Dinner


Even though their parents were taking all of my suet to feed them, I thought these starling babies having dinner in my yard the other night were cute. They sure make a lot of noise, though. You definitely know when you have a starling family in your backyard.


Friday, May 29, 2015

A first

I picked my first strawberry this morning.


It wasn't very big, and I'd like to say it tasted great, but it didn't. There are quite a few little green berries on the plants, though, so hopefully I'll get some good ones soon.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Surprise, surprise

Look what I found the other day:



Despite days and days of rain, and all of the other things stacked against them, it appears that most of the potatoes have sprouted.


We're a long way from potato salad, but we're closer than I thought we'd get. On top of that, the flowers are looking good, too.



If only the gardener would trim the grass.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Peeping Tom

Or Tomasita, I can't tell.



How could you resist that face? I almost opened the window to let him in.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Psych!

We finally had a couple days without rain over the weekend, so I planted four tomato plants in the asparagus bed yesterday. This afternoon I was headed out to plant the rest, and I decided I should check the forecast....Not good. We've got at least two nights this week with temperatures forecast in the upper 30's. That's a little chilly for tomatoes, so the unplanted ones are staying in and the poor suckers in the asparagus bed got their own personal greenhouses.


I hope the chilly temperatures don't hurt them. I tried some new varieties this year, and they are all of the ones I planted outside already.


Stay warm, little guy.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

The state of things

It's been raining here. A lot. Most of the things that have been planted are doing well.

cabbage
kale and broccoli
lettuce
garlic
onions
peas
Unfortunately, so are the weeds. They're threatening the peas. . .


And practically taking over this corner where some of the tomatoes will go.


The strawberries are flowering and starting to show small green berries.


I was even able to find a few tiny carrot seedlings.


I'm not quite sure why the carrots are doing so poorly. I've never had great carrot germination, but this year I put out a lot more seed. I skipped the homemade seed tape thing and just sprinkled seeds down the row. I expected I would be doing a lot of thinning. Doesn't look like I will after all.

The potatoes are complete no-shows at this point. On top of all of the other things weighted against them this year, I imagine the rain has encouraged them to just rot peacefully in their nice little corral.

This evening marked 48 hours without rain and the first time in a couple weeks I was able to step foot in the garden, so I took the opportunity to get rid of some of those nasty weeds. Hopefully, I'll be planting tomatoes, peppers, and lots of other things soon.


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

One more reason

That's one more reason potatoes might be a pipe dream this year.


Someone decided to dig up a couple the other day and have a nibble.


They must not have tasted good, because they were left on the ground with only a small hole. I stuck them back in the ground, cursing those nasty squirrels the whole time.


Yes, you, you furry little devil.

As if that wasn't enough, I came home today and found this:

Don't mind the peeing dog in the corner
That is an empty chain where a suet feeder used to hang. Apparently, it could only take so much fat squirrel hanging on it, and it gave out.


I imagine I'll buy some heavier chain and hang it up again.


These little guys are counting on me.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Potatoes - my latest experiment

I decided in January that I wanted to move the potatoes out of the main garden. I just didn't like their falling down mess all over the place, so I wanted to try them in some type of container. When I said I wanted to build a box, D suggested using pallets, and that's exactly what I did. Luckily, D works in the trucking business, and was able to score me a couple clean, untreated pallets for free.

I first took the middle cross boards off of both of them and then cut them in half.


I connected three of them with metal brackets.



I was surprised at how easy that was and how well it worked.


The fourth side was attached with hooks and eyes, so it is removable.


D helped me move it to a spot in the yard.


I covered the bottom with cardboard and filled it with homemade container mix (compost, vermiculite and peat).


Then I planted the potatoes. They were puny little things.


With the potatoes in place, I got cute and planted annuals in the spaces in the pallets.


I don't even visit Pinterest - I thought that up on my own.


This whole thing is an experiment for several reasons. First, potatoes in a container. Second, the spot I chose isn't as sunny as I first thought, Third, I got the potatoes from a different place this year, and they were much smaller than ones I've planted in the past. So, if they grow well, no harm done. If they don't, I won't know which variable was the cause.