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.

Horseradish, chamomile and posies, oh my!

This morning I finished filling perennial bed 2. In the center I planted a long row of Flax blue (Linum perenne lewisii) flanked by California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) and Thumbelina Zinnia (Zinnia elegans). At the end of the bed nearest perennial bed 1, I planted one horseradish root and a scattering of German chamomile (Matricaria recutita).

Watchin' the detectives...

Thank you Sabrina for the earworm!

This morning I busted butt in the garden and planted the okra, tomatoes (4 types), an eggplant and a red pepper. Think I'll plant two bean bushes.

I also purchased some top soil for the sunny perennial garden which is not as sunny as I had thought before, so we'll see how that goes. Looks like it gets more dappled sun in the morning.

I cannot tell a lie...

Today I cut away at the lilac tree. I call it a tree because it was very tall and had not been pruned properly. It was too leggy and would have gotten in the way of my sunny perennial garden that I'm planning for that corner. It still needs a bit more pruning to get it down to only a few feet. Also, we'll need to remove some of the old wood to make it a more compact bush.

On Saturday, Paul worked outside and was able to get quite a few things done. The bird bath has been installed on the pine stump in the southeast corner. He planted a bunch of arugula in the second raised bed. When I got home last night I worked at weeding around the lilac and moving some plants around, some of which I have no idea what they are so hopefully I have selected new spots wisely. I think they were two kinds of mums, but we'll see when they bloom. We planted the Hemerocallis (daylilies) that were gifts from our landscape design instructor along with other daylilies located around the utility pole. We also planted a cinnamon fern back by the compost. I want to start a shady perennial garden back there that will be cool and hide the compost bin a bit. I think it will do well as there are some ferns back by the fence already.

Other news, I graduated from my Master Urban Gardener at Home (MUG @ Home) class on Saturday. I have to put in 35 hours of volunteer work before the program is complete. That shouldn't be a problem since I've volunteered myself to help a few other MUG @ Home grads and friends.

Tonight we'll enjoy some of our fresh greens from the garden. We're having BLT's and salad. Yum!

The Neglected North Side

Today I had to water the fruits and veggies since any recent promises of rain have been a bust. I worked on the north side of the house for a bit, weeding and planting. I planted two chocolate chip bugleweed (Ajuga reptans valfredda), one on either side of the downspout. I also planted several mint sprigs between the lilac and air conditioner. The lilac will need to be moved at some point because it is not doing well there - probably too much shade.

When Paul got home we worked on planting 17 sunflowers (Helianthus annuus hy. Moulin Rouge). He also planted two containers, one with mesclun and another with spinach.

First Harvest

Paul and I picked our first greens from the garden. We trimmed several clumps of mesclun and arugula for a roasted beet salad. They were yum!

Busy Friday Afternoon

I took the afternoon off yesterday, and we did a bunch more stuff. Gave some bamboo stakes to the rapidly-growing hops to train them towards the chainlink fence. Moved excess soil from higher raised bed into the 2nd perennial bed and elsewhere around the yard, added three bags of compost and some mix of vermiculite, peat and perlite and turned it together a bunch; probably need to add another 2-3 bags of compost yet, and then it'll be ready for tomatoes, okra, eggplant, parsnips and some other stuff. Planted nine asparagus crowns and seven ever-bearing strawberry plants (two varieties) in the 1st perennial bed. Finished prepping the soil in the 2nd perennial bed, and planted three varieties of mint at one end; the rest will probably be different herbs, but we may just do some annual flowers for the moment and come back to this later. Mulched around the beds in front of the house with buckwheat hulls. Installed three plant hangers on the front porch for two blue hanging Lobelia and one fuchsia Petunia purchased at Cedar Grove Gardens.

Blueberries and pH

So, I checked the pH in the soil for the blueberry bushes. It's higher than what it's supposed to be. It was around 7.5, nowhere close to the 5.5-4.5 or so that it should be. Think we'll dig them back up and put them into planters.