Snake!

Yesterday we found a small snake in the pile of large rocks under the barberry bush. Karen is going to use the rocks at her house for a pathway, so she and Sabrina were loading them into Karen's car. The pile had remained relatively undisturbed since last fall until yesterday. All the dogs we've had in the yard, including Lucy, have been curiously sniffing about the pile since the beginning of Spring. Now that we have removed the rocks there is a kinda stinky smell there. I think I'll have Paul rake that area up today. He'll enjoy that.

Recent work in the garden

In the past few weeks we've been busy preparing the beds by weeding and mulching. I've been planting in containers. Last week I planted pansies in two long containers and two smaller plastic containers. They seem to be ok. I purchased them at Allandale. On Saturday (4/30) Guen and Anya helped me plant some flowers on the north side of the garden next to the fence. We planted Lemon Queen, Velvet Queen and Moulin Rouge sunflowers to the right of Paul's hops and in the bed to the left we planted flax and nigella. On May Day (Sunday) I planted thumbelina zinnia's in a long container. Today, I planted two varieties of morning glories in the coir basket in the metal plant stand. I also started some catnip in a container instead of planting it, meaning it will be easier to control.

In the vegetable beds I sewed more spinach, lettuce and radish seeds where some areas seemed a bit bare. The seedlings have been a bit slow to start, but I hope that will change with more rain and warmer weather. Next week I'm planning to plant beans and buy tomato plants.

Pictured above are some of the beautiful tulips that we planted last fall. I'm happy with how those beds turned out. I'm looking forward to seeing the bluebells and allium.

Welcome Spring!

Here's what we've been up to in the past week or so. Paul and I made a variation on seed tapes by using a flour paste to attach spinach (space and green 7), radish (purple plum) and kohlrabi (white and purple vienna) seeds to half sheets of paper towel. On Friday, March 18 I placed them in the garden and covered them with compost. I also planted arugula, mesclun mix and dill in bed 1.




Also, I've been spending time making garden decorations. I can't wait until the wildflowers spring up around my welding class project. I planted purple coneflowers, California poppies and forget-me-nots around it. The red-twig dogwoods behind it survived the winter.

What's been goin' on

Bloody Mary Mix (aka V-8)

A mix of tomatoes, onion, zucchini, beets, carrot, garlic, and roasted jalapenos.

Fruits of the garden

Compost bin fixed and brussel sprouts

Today Sabrina and I fixed the compost bin. About a month ago we noticed that the side of it had been chewed, creating a hole large enough for a small rodent to enter the bin. Sabrina worked hard at mixing and moving the compost and then we attached the metal plate with screws. Let's hope it holds.

In other garden news, the brussel sprouts are growing slowly, but still growing. The fresh planting of greens seems to be doing well so far.

Snake or fast-moving worm?

This morning when I went to water the tomatoes, something caught my eye - a long, quick moving gray thing that slithered away along the tall grass next to the tomato bed. It moved more gracefully and quickly than many of the worms I've see this year, so that makes me think it was a snake. If so, I have no idea what kind, but I hope it likes mice.

Planting new greens

This weekend and this morning I planted a new round of mesclun greens, arugula and spinach. We'll see what comes up.

Our first eggplant and cucumber!

In the past few days, the cucumbers have been spreading like crazy and our first eggplant blossom decided to fruit. As the summer days pass, we enjoy more and more tomatoes from our variety of plants. The Isis Candy are super sweet and delicious.

Green beans, tomatoes and deck completed

In the past two weeks we've been able to enjoy a handful of green beans and lots of tomatoes - mostly a hybrid called Juliet. I've been eating them on toasted cheese. We had a few of them last night in our salad. They're pretty good. Our Roma plant is also producing - just picked the first one off this morning. The kohlrabi has been slow, but worth it.

Now that the deck is done, we have much easier access to the back yard. In the past two weeks I've worked out there minimally. We've eaten every dinner out there since it was completed on Tuesday.

Tomatoes and strawberries

By now, most of our plants are heavy with ripening tomatoes. One of the isis candy variety is almost ready. We should have been training the tomatoes in the cages all along since planting because they were a bit of a mess to cage after the fact. I'll keep a better eye on them.

Last night we also completed the strawberry cover project. There are new berries coming in so just in time. Now we need to make something similar for the blueberries. Our low-bush berries are ripening.

Under Construction!

We've had limited access to the yard and garden since June 25 due to the construction of the deck. Today, the base structure is being finished. Looks like we'll be reseeding the yard or finding an lawn alternative, so I spent some time finding out the most successful way to do that. This will also give me the opportunity to redesign all the flowerbed shapes if I want to and that's ok by me.

Now I just need to figure out how to deter the squirrels from eating all the suet.

Bugs in the brussel sprouts

Probably no one here is sad about the fact that the brussel sprouts have some kind of bug, probably aphids. I pulled one plant yesterday because it was totally infested. Today I sprayed a combination of water, soap and canola oil on them. We just had a downpour of rain, so hopefully that will help. If it doesn't I'll need to purchase some insecticidal oil/soap stuff.

Otherwise, the garden looks pretty good. The collards are growing well. I picked the first kohlrabi which Sabrina and I shared this morning.

Greeted with small tomatoes

Yay! We have fruits on at least two plants. Looks like the birds got to the few green and lima beans that actually sprouted. Tonight we enjoyed raspberries (black and golden) and I had a blueberry. The birds helped themselves to the tall bush while we were away, but that's ok. We'll get to covering it this week.

Cucumbers and beans

Yesterday I purchased and planted some marketmore cucumbers and planted green bean and lima bean seeds.

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.