Hallelujah!

It worked!

My rain dance worked!

I have been longing for a good and proper rainy day.  It's started raining yesterday and it's still going strong!    I'm watching the news right now and it's predicted to go on for one or two more days.   

Much needed relief!  For me it's about balance.  Relentless hot and dry weather makes me feel out of whack.  My garden has repeated this sentiment.  As a matter of fact, I just peaked out the window down to the veggie garden and I think I saw the tomatoes smiling!

A Splendid Day - Experimenting for Fall

 

It never ceases to amaze me how affected we are by the weather.    I love the outdoors but I would be the first to say that on stifling hot day, my garden is mostly neglected.  Containers get watered and that’s about it.   We all grumble and groan when it’s too hot, or too cold.  Myself included.  But today…..was picture perfect.  Beautiful 80 degree weather with NO humidity!    So my thoughts turned to Fall veggies.    I have pondered planting cool weather crops for the past couple of years but a combination of weather and life in general have stopped me.  Until today!  Time to experiment.

 

The task involved pulling some veggies that were done for the year and turning the soil.    It was fun playing in the dirt again!

 

So, for the 1st time ever I have planted cool weather crops!  (It sounds so silly to say “crops” but…..)  SO this is what was planted:

 

Beets and, um, black eyed peas maybe??

 

   

 

Peas and Spinach

 

 

It will be fun to see if this experiment works.  Nothing like hands on experience to learn something new. 

 

Oops….I took a while to put this post together so I actually planted on Saturday but posted on Sunday.

Veggie Garden Update

Time to track the backyard garden happenings.   It’s been an odd summer – relentless heat and high humidity yet very little rain.  I thrive on balance and the garden agrees.  Not nearly enough rain.

Ok so…let’s talk tomatoes.

TOMATOES
Last year they were a complete bust because Late Blight kicked them to the curb but things are better this year.

Love these!  Thankfully they are plentiful!

Now for the other veggie garden inhabitants…..

Will it or won’t it?  We shall see.

Dunno about this.  Seems like it’s all male flowers.

Strawberry is making a second attempt.  I don’t even know where I got these so I don’t know what type they are but I’m guessing '”Everlasting”.

It was looking good and then the squash bugs made an appearance.  To the right in the pic is a decimated zucchini.  I have gotten two nice zucchinis.  Fingers are crossed.

Blooms are abundant but color is fading.

The white Datura is happily blooming but I am still waiting on the purple.

I am just growing these for the 1st time this year and can see that the white and purple can easily be identified by the color of their stems.  See?

A favorite in it’s waning state.

Today I noticed activity in a tree by the creek.  It looks like nesting is going on!  About 20 feet from my deck.  I hope I get to observe them for a while.

And that is today’s garden report!

That Darn Cat!

I have had dogs all of my life.   Then 5 or 6 years ago when my dachshund died I knew a dog wasn’t a good fit for our lifestyle so I got cats.   Two of them.  A sister (Cally) and brother (Smudgie)  who were found huddled together with another sibling in a snow bank.  It has been quite a learning experience to say the least.   Cally is pretty much a slug – sleeping her days away.  Smudgie is the cat about town.  My intention was to have indoor cats but he would hear nothing of that.  Once the windows are open in the springtime, he is relentless in his quest to get outside.  I have had to replace window blinds countless times due to his escape efforts.  And he pops up everywhere!  Rumor has it he visits all of our neighbor's pets by peering in their basement windows.



At least he’s self sufficient….
That darn cat!

Apparently I’m a Hibiscus Farmer

I am not a farmer.  As a matter of fact, any legit farmer might be offended that I use the word “farmer” at all.  To all farmers, my sincerest apologies.  I think my only saving grace might be the inclusion of  the word “experimental”.      And that’s what it’s all about.

I didn’t start off with a plan this summer.  Over the past few years I’ve been breaking away from my desire to over-tend (aka: overkill in the garden) and just do my best and see what happens.  More of a “you win some, lose some” attitude.  Tomatoes are the staple.   Cucumbers are always planted but cucumber beetles are a constant battle  Everything else is fair game.   Experiments abound.

Typically I have one or two Hibiscus on my deck.  Last week I posted about a clearance sale at Walmart.    Initially I brought a couple home.   These poor things were parched.   Can you say '”bone dry”?   With a little TLC, in a few short days they were looking  good.

And then…..

I had to go back!    There were still some left but this time they were saturated.   The pots sat in liners that had no holes!   Not to be deterred, I bought ten more.  Does that make it a farm?  For me it does!  They all have to fit on to my deck……and taken inside for the winter! 

I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

During the transportation of these babies I broke off a good size branch so it’s been dipped in rooting hormone and potted up. 

Hopefully I’ll have another one for my collection farm.

Out & About – July 22 Edition - Fertilizer Friday

I’m joining the weekly Fertilizer Friday meme hosted by the wonderful Tootsie.  You can pay her a visit too!   By clicking here.

This week has proven to be a random happenings kind of week. 

I pruned back the petunias in my hanging baskets and collected seeds for next year.



The last of the Leeks were pulled.   I love to let them bolt and have the papery scape burst open to reveal the inside.  But that’s just me being silly (and experimental).



In my little neighborhood the backyards are kind of pie shaped and meet in the middle.  Thankfully, we have been blessed with the greatest neighbors.  Very “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”.  This is a view of one part of my backyard.  Looking right from the deck. 
About 20 minutes before this picture was taken, I mentioned to my husband that a mammoth vine had climbed the tree overlooking my veggie patch and the tomatoes were not doing as well as they should because they needed more sun.  Next thing I know, our neighbor is up the tree on a ladder roping the tree to take it down.  Do you see the diagonal white line in the center of the picture?    Well hubby is on the end of that rope (behind our SHARED compost bins) pulling the tree while our neighbor is on the chainsaw.  He is obscured by the overgrown grapevine and hydrangea.  Poof!  Done!  My veggies should be happy!

From this vantage point if I were to look left (wish I had taken a picture), there is a small creek with a bridge and pretty much forest on the other side.  I use it to store nursery pots and there is a compost bin there too.  While I was walking the puppy  a couple of days ago, I was startled (doesn’t take much to freak me out, critter-wise) to see this….
This guy has apparently taken up residence in an old kiddy pool.  A quasi Club Med for frogs and friends.  Knock yourself out buddy!

WARNING!
At the risk of boring you to death, be forewarned this is but yet another blurb about my daturas.    You may want to run off at this point and that’s cool.  Run!  Run!  (This is the first year that I’ve grown them from seed and I just want to keep track.)


What a difference a day makes!

Have a wonderful week but first,  head on over to see Tootsie and more garden aficionados!

The Experimental Farmer, Experiments – Fertilizer Friday

I’m joining the weekly Fertilizer Friday meme hosted by the wonderful Tootsie.  You can pay her a visit too!   By clicking here.

Last summer while visiting my daughter in her city apartment I decided that she needed a little color on her mini balcony.    I visited the wonderful Atwater Market and came home with a tomato plant and a couple of daturas.  At the end of the summer when the plants produced seed pods I brought a few home to try my hand at starting  my own this year.


I started them in peat pots on April 30th, 2010.  Fortunately they “took” (hurray!) and have become quite lush.  But as all of us know, leaves are nice but bring on the the blooms!  A week ago today when I took a peak, this what they looked like…..

A bud!    Yahoo!

One week later…

Five times the size in just one week!

Another of the little experiments that I recently decided to attempt was one that I came across on one of my absolute favorite blog “Chickens in the Road”.    (If you haven’t been there before, you should run there right now.  The blog’s author, Suzanne McMinn, describes life on a farm – the animals, making cheese and butter, recipes, etc.  She has a phenomenal writing style with a great sense of humor.) 

OK.  Back to the experiment.   I grew celery for the first time last year.  I got teeny tiny celery starts (1 inch tall) from a local farm.  I planted them and all went well.   I harvested 4 or 5 celery and they looked pretty good.   Not tight and chunky like the grocery store kind but still pretty good.  A short while ago Suzanne posted that she was growing celery.   But using a method that had never occurred to me.   She cut the base off of her store bought celery and planted it!  So that’s what I did on Monday.




This photo was taken today….

Just 5 days old!  How cool is that?

One last quick thing.  I can't speak for other areas but in my neck of the woods, Wal-Mart has hibiscus on clearance. 

Just $3!

And that’s my story for today! Have a wonderful weekend!

Fertilizer Friday