Last year I picked these tomatoes one afternoon from my little garden:
This year I have had exactly four tomatoes. All season. I put the caraway container in the photo so you could get a sense of how large they are… not:
Nuff said.
Category Archives: gardening
Sad little garden
Last fall I said I wasn’t going to plant another vegetable garden. Too much work I said, too little payback. Could go to the neighborhood farmers’ market and get things cheap, support my local farmers, bla bla bla. And this spring as usual I was sucked into the illusion that I would have better luck, an overflowing garden filled with lush foliage and vegetables. Enough to share with the neighbors, to make it all worthwhile.
It’s mid July now. If you squint at the garden you can sort of recall that once upon a time, many years ago it used to resemble a fruitful garden. This year, however, it has not lived up to my expectations.
And what appears to be an empty bed, toward the back on the right? That was supposed to be my green beans. I planted after Memorial Day and only three bean seeds germinated. Then some sort of bug ate all the leaves off the three plants and they died. I replanted just before I left for the 4th of July, and about a week later I had pretty little rows of green beans, about an inch high. I was delighted. Then something came and ate everything down to stubby little stems. So. No green beans. I do have some beets and some chard though.
And three, maybe four tops tomatoes. Not even many blossoms. And something ate one of my tomatoes. Already.
It’s been a cold, wet summer. We’ve had a couple of days into the 90’s but mostly highs in the 70’s. So maybe it’s not my gardening skills. But still.
On the other hand, the perennial garden seems to like the chilly weather. The cone flowers are unstoppable of course, but other things are pretty this year too.
So next year I’m not doing a vegetable garden. Going to go buy my produce at the farmers’ market. Yep. Not going to put all that work into three tomatoes, no siree. Going to plant flowers in that space instead. Or turf. Maybe make it into a big ole rock garden. Yep. That’s what I’m going to do…bla bla bla.
Deer one, gardener two. So far.
Deer love day lilies. Of course we didn’t know that when we planted a whole lot of them on the south end of the house. Most years we don’t see many blooms. This year for reasons known only to the deer themselves, they didn’t eat many of the lily plants we’ve never seen bloom, and they DID eat those that in previous years they’ve left alone. Here’s what they didn’t eat:
And an example of many that they did:
Darn deer.
Tomorrow early I fly south for the weekend with my siblings. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend, if you’re in the States. If not, have a great weekend in general! See you when I get back. Everyone stay safe please!
Sittin on a Sunday
Katie and I spent some time weeding this morning. Well to be truthful I weeded and Katie napped on the warm black asphalt of the driveway. She’s the only Sheltie I’ve ever met that likes to be really warm. After awhile I got too warm myself and we retreated to the rocker on the shady deck. She’s being very good, intently watching the birds at the feeder, but not (yet) lunging off the deck to attack. I keep telling her what a good girl she is, but I’m sure as soon as the resident chipmunk arrives all bets will be off.
Meanwhile the most beautiful wonderful thing just happened. As I’m sitting here on the deck reading email (got to love that wireless!) and listening to a neighbor’s country music while sipping on iced tea, there is a ruckus in the trees just above the bird feeder. And then down swoops a blue jay being chased by a Baltimore oriole! The oriole chased the blue jay up and down through the trees for quite a long time, so I got to watch the sun flickering off of its bright orange back. Then they both landed on the ground and the oriole continued to chase the blue jay until the jay left with a big squawk. Sadly I imagine the cause of all this is that the jay tried to raid the oriole’s nest. Or something equally traumatic. But I only see an oriole maybe once a summer and never for as long as I got to watch this one. I’m hoping he (she?) is around more this summer. I have a feeder for them somewhere in the basement. Guess it won’t do much good down there; I should find it and try to entice them to visit me again. Last year an oriole tried to eat from the humming bird feeder, which is why I bought the oriole feeder. Of course I never saw the orioles again after that first appearance.
So now it’s just Katie and I, one neighbor’s country music, another’s lawnmower, my backyard wren singing her heart out, and the frogs across the way joining in on the summer’s symphony. Can’t say I’ve heard better .
Enjoy your weekend everyone!
High hopes
After last year’s debacle of a garden with the weeds out of control and where not much else grew I swore I wasn’t going to put in a vegetable garden again. Ever. Too much work. Can buy vegetables at the farmers market cheap. Bugs, rabbits and deer are the only beneficiaries of my garden. Etc. But then I changed my mind and decided to try one more time. I have high hopes that this year vegetables will grow and weeds won’t. Today I spent most of the day getting the garden ready to plant. I’m using some weed barrier this time. Though I have to say, getting it down during the windy afternoon was a pain in the …well, you know. Tomorrow I need to go and buy those pin things that hold the weed barrier down; the rocks I was using aren’t doing the job so well. Regardless, the garden is planted. Tomatoes, green beans (bush and pole), beets, chard and herbs.
Katie wanted to help, but I remember from last year how she liked to sleep on top of things that were just planted. So she had to wait in her kennel till I got done. She was sad and complained the whole time. Between her barking and the wren chirping angrily at me and the robin buzzing my head (you can see the robin in the picture at the top of this post!) I got a little frustrated. But it’s done. For now. Should probably go out and weed tonight, get a head start. But I’m too tired.
Katie and I went to the park after dinner. She did her heeling beautifully until I ran out of treats. Then we just goofed off. The pretty dandelions have all turned to fuzz now. Katie didn’t care, she just enjoyed being at the park.
She probably brought home a few special dandelion seeds to plant in her Daddy’s pretty green lawn. Shhhhhh! Don’t tell him! She especially liked sniffing around the taller grass, checking out paths that might need investigating.
Though she was also always up for a quick recall. Just never know when Mom might have found another treat hidden deep in the recesses of her treat pouch. Can’t always tell ya know, might be worth the run back to check it out!
All in all a fun day. But tiring. Time to get some shut eye. It’s back to work tomorrow! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
7 Things
Our doggie blogger friends Josh and Jessie from New Zealand (at http://oursheltie.blogspot.com/) have challenged Katie and I to come up with 7 things that we love. There’s a really cool graphic that is supposed to go with this challenge, but I’m not computer literate enough to figure out how to get it over to our blog here. So just image something pretty, a pink and green square or such thing!
So…let us think about this. Seven things that Katie loves. This shouldn’t be so hard…the difficulty might be in limiting it to only seven!
1. First has to be us, her people parents. She always wants to be nearby, in case we need anything…or are handing out anything. Like TREATS!
2. A close second would be supper! Or anything that accidentally falls on the floor. Especially TREATS!
3. The park ranks right up there. Any park will do, but especially one which might have little kids playing softball. She likes to watch them run around. And of course there is the possibility of TREATS!
4. Froggy, her favorite toy. Good for chewing, carrying around, fetching and dropping at the feet of her people parents to get attention. Can be used to get TREATS!
5. Her frisbee. Because that means we’re going outside to RUN! And there might be TREATS!
6. Dozing in the sun, either by the front door, in order to keep track of passing traffic, or out in her pen under a tree. She uses this time to store up energy the better to pester her people later for TREATS!
7. Posing for pictures. Cause often that is accompanied by…well…TREATS!
Now we’re supposed to tag seven doggie bloggers and have them come up with their own list of seven. Hmmm…this will be hard. But perhaps
Miley
Ricky
Oreo
Layla
Red
Morgan
and Ludo will want to give it a try? I think Reilly has already been tagged, but I’m not sure. If not…well…Reilly?
Visiting the nursery
This morning I decided to stop by my local nursery. Just to purchase a few packets of seeds. I wasn’t going to look at plants. Really. Got to save some money you know. Just seed packets…and a few photos.
It was really difficult not to buy everything I saw. It is an amazing place that makes me realize how lucky I am to have this nursery just down the road. If I ever have a blue sort of day I can pop in there and just look around. It never fails to make me smile.
And of course I didn’t get away with only buying a few packets of seeds. But on the other hand I didn’t buy all that much. It could have been much worse! A couple of tomato plants, some herbs, can’t live without rosemary, basil, parsley, thyme! A six pack of double pink impatiens and a few pots of harmony violet new guinea impatiens for a few pots around the yard. And a splurge on some pretty forget-me-nots for a special place in the perennial bed. 
Oh, there was so much more that looked wonderful as I was ‘not’ looking. But I have enough garden to keep track of already, no need to go make it any bigger. And of course, in these economic times I’m trying to keep as small a spending footprint as I can. But it’s so tempting!
I’m trying to figure out how to put a photo gallery into the blog. I’ve done it before, but so far I’m unsuccessful at uploading photos to the gallery. If I figure it out I’ll post it!
Meanwhile Katie has been very patient while I planted. She even tried to help, but in the end I had to do most of the work myself. We’re off to the park. After all, I promised!
Oh yes, picked up seeds too, green beans, beets, lettuce and chard.
May, my favorite month
Who can’t love the month of May? The flower vendors are putting their flats of annuals out and you can still dream about the beautiful gardens you’ll have; the overflowing pots filled with beautiful colors, the luscious vegetables ripe for the picking, the roses bug free, the arborvite not yet consumed by the neighborhood deer. There is just so much hope before the weeds begin to fill in the blanks, the rodents begin to dig up your bulbs, the rain ceases and the dust begins. I love the optimisim of May.
I’m headed out very early tomorrow morning for D.C. Wish us well! I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.
Holy springtime Batman!
Wasn’t it just last week that we had snow? OK, maybe two weeks ago tops? And it’s been icky and cold and rainy since. Then we got one or two days of warm weather and while I wasn’t paying attention spring appears to have sprung!
This morning Katie and I went on a little yard reconnaissance to see what we could see. First off, out near the mailbox our creeping phlox has little pink buds! Yesterday there were only small green nubs easing up out of the cold wet soil. I’m sure of it. And the peonies that were planted a couple of years ago? A day or so ago there was no sign of them. This morning? Well, see for yourself:
And my violets are blooming, 
as is the bleeding heart that had only just sprouted out of the ground last time I checked. Even the red bud tree is in bud! 
Everywhere we looked we saw signs of spring. Katie had a wonderful time, such wonderful things to smell! 
I tried not to look at the dandelions flourishing in among the chosen plants. 
Have to get cracking or I’ll be overrun again this summer!
One last time?
So my grass is getting sort of green. My daffodils are up about 4 or 5 inches, some even have tiny little blossom buds on them. The birds are running around making nests, I’m starting to think about getting out the gardening stuff, planning the garden, looking for weeds. You know, getting into the spring thing.
But they are predicting a big storm starting tonight. We’re supposed to get 4-6 inches of…dare I say it? SNOW!!! So it goes, springtime in Michigan. Doesn’t let a person get to complacent. Ever.
This picture was taken April 13, 2008. Hope what we have coming isn’t more than this, but I’m afraid it might be.
Change Is Hard 