Hops are Climbing

All of the hops have now reached the chain-link fence, and are starting to climb. I spent a while this evening disentangling the bines that were growing in the wrong direction and were trying to climb the bamboo stakes and yarn perimeter we erected around them to discourage the dog from tramping on them. I've got most of them redirected towards the fence now. Go hops go!

What will bolt next or what do I plant now?

So it looks like I better come up with a plan B, cuz plan A just fell into the crapper. My first year at berries and veggies has become only somewhat successful so far, mostly in part because of the unusually warm weather we are having. The arugula, and spinach have already bolted. Now, out of the 48 radish seeds we planted, I'd say 40+ germinated and grew, some grew more than others (which is the case with all of the things we've planted from seed). We've been able to eat maybe 10 or 12. Today I've noticed that they were beginning to bolt, so I pulled them rest of them. Some looked ok, but most were more like narrow little tap roots.

Now, what should I plant there? Maybe that other mesclun seed mix? Lima beans?

Planting is done!

I finally filled in the corner bed with sunflowers, coneflowers and black-eyed susans. Let's hope the birds and squirrels don't have a party with all those seeds. I also planted some hollyhocks along the fence between the hops and the tall bush blueberry.

This morning I helped a fellow gardener from the MUG @ Home class. She need to fill her bed with topsoil and wanted to plant some squash, sunflowers and popcorn. Her neighbor had given her the sunflower seedlings and asked if we wanted some collards. I took some and planted them in the first raised bed when I got back. They've already wilted, so let's hope they come back.

Our first stawberry harvest

A minor success - either the reloaded and relocated suet feeder or the garden netting has detracted them from nibbling at them the minute they begin to turn red. The success is minor because we have no idea which it is. The suet feeder had been located out along the T fence. I'm not sure any birds used it much, but I had always noticed squirrels on it. I refilled it and placed it on the post between the veggie beds. The birds and squirrels have been all over it. Cardinals, woodpeckers and other birds I don't know. They've also been pecking in the garden at the lettuce and radishes, but that's worth a mostly ripe and intact berry.

I harvested one small berry and Paul and I split it. It was a little bit sour, but had a very good flavor.

Birds wreaking havoc in the berry patch

Aw, man, birds have eaten every strawberry that has turned red in the past week. This morning I put some garden netting over the strawberries and around the high-bush blueberry as it is starting to develop fruit. I really hope this helps keep the birds and the squirrels from eating the berries and destroying the plants.

Bye bye spinach

This afternoon I pulled all but two of the 24 spinach plants we planted. We'd been having a leaf miner problem for about a week. While picking off eaten leaves I noticed that some of the plants were beginning to bolt, so I decided to pull them and replant the space with kohlrabi. Maybe I'll try spinach again in the fall.

In raised bed 2 I planted 8 green bean seeds and a few sweet basil plants.

At real life FarmTown...

This weekend I tried to get a week's worth of work out of Paul because he's leaving today to visit Erich and Bryan in Oregon. On Saturday he mowed and installed my really cool retractable clothesline which I hope to use today.

Yesterday, we sifted rocks that were inadvertently placed on the path between the northeast corner bed and the two perennial beds. We placed the rocks around the air conditioner on the north side of the house. After trimming and pulling some grass along the beds, I planted 8 blue star creeper plants (Isotoma fluviatilis) that will hopefully form a green mortar of sorts between the steps of the path. It is a foot friendly plant that will spread.

In other garden news, every strawberry that gets red usually get nibbled by a bird. I don't mind sharing a few, but it looks like we'll need to get some netting to keep the birds from snacking on them.