Just pictures: May 31, 2010

Back door
Flower bed in the backyard
Flower bed in backyard

Hydrangea near garage
Front yard flower bed. Seems a little bit overgrown to me...
Another flower bed in the front
Arbor to the side yard
Flowers in the side yard
Shady flower bed
Compost corner
Hostas near compost pile. When else would I take their picture?
Veggie patch
Backyard
Cacti in one of the flower boxes in front of the house

Hits and Misses

It's the Memorial Day weekend and I'll spend less time gardening than I hoped to. There was a baseball tournament. And other chores. And today is too hot to be outside working. I'm thinking pool.

This morning I picked a few broccoli florets for our dinner. It seems that will be it--our own steamed broccoli only twice this spring. Now it is getting too hot and they will not produce any more. I plan to pull broccoli plants out and seed some corn instead. We grew some corn last year but it was not very good. It might be that I picked it too late and kennels had become too starchy. So we'll try again this year with a different variety.

I am not a very disciplined or elaborate gardener. If I buy seeds or seedlings, I rarely take note of the species name. Perhaps I could have found a better producing broccoli. I have not written down the variety of cucumbers I'm growing this year; I just remember it has "sweet" in their name (last year's pickling cucumbers were too bitter in one end). And I love to find seeds in other places than seed stands or catalogs. For example, my shallots and acorn squash originally came from a produce stand at Safeway.
I recently picked some seeds from jack-jump-up viola growing in our neighborhood near a sidewalk. I'm saving them for fall or next spring. Also pictured is an old sweet potato tuber originally purchased for consumption, but since it has started sprouting, I'll put it somewhere in my garden. I do not count on actually harvesting new sweet potatoes of this size, but I know it will grow lots of vines that will smother weeds.
This collection of heirloom tomatoes comes from Costco and I'll try to save some seeds from the yellow ones and grow them next year. Wish me luck!

Weeding and Thinning

Last night it rained.
Lady's mantle looks so beautiful with raindrops on it. In Latvia these plants grow wild. Ever since I've been gardening in the U.S., I have at least one my garden. I love its roundish leaves and chartreuse blooms. Its name in Latvian literally would translate "dew vessel".
Broccoli looks good enough for eating.
A corner with variegated oregano, garlic, bean sprout, potatoes and sunflower sprouts. Potatoes are fingerling potatoes from Safeway produce stand. They were not coming up for a very long time, so I seeded sunflowers over them. Now it looks that this corner might become too busy. We shall see.

There also are some weeds in the picture. I pulled a lot of them today. Very easy to do after the rain when ground is so soft.
All zucchini seeds sprouted and I had to thin the plants out.
Since the "rejects" came out from the soil with all roots attached, I have transferred them in pots. Any takers? I left four zucchini plants for us, and I know it will be plenty.
In another corner of the garden, rose campion blooms next to spearmint.
I also thinned beets. I'll use beet greens in my salad tomorrow. Other items cut tonight was one broccoli crown and a few clematis blooms to put in a bud vase in the living room.
Main ingredients for tonight's salad came from the garden: radishes, lettuce, dill and some green onions. Add some salt and sour cream and a light supper is ready!

The Tortoise and The Hare

Yesterday morning we spied this HUGE rabbit. Or is it a hare? Even after reading about the difference between two, I'm not sure...It stayed mostly in neighbor's yard and was munching on lawn grass. So I like him. Just kidding, I am actually feel quite fortunate to be in the neighborhood so close to a major city with active wildlife all around. Yes, despite the fact that they destroy some of my plants.

And to amaze us even more, this turtle appeared in our backyard this morning. Poor thing has a missing front right paw, but it seemed to have adapted quite well.

Radishes

Here's a bunch of radishes I plucked this evening. It's the fourth time this spring I've gotten a handful of those. They are smaller than the ones they sell in supermarkets, but they are fresh and free of chemicals.
In the other news, my husband saw today where rabbits come in and out. (Gosh, they must frequent my veggie patch quite a bit if even he can observe what they are doing!) Apparently they (it?) have cut an opening in the net. I cannot believe I did not see it yesterday. Maybe I just did not notice. Or could this been done today? I did mend the net, but will they make a cut in another corner? Will this go on and on? Do I have to give up on growing my own string beans? Oh, those pesky rabbits...

Pesky Rabbits II

The battle with rabbits continues.
When I thought there's no way to get in my veggie patch after I've secured the bottom of the netting fence with more bricks, they still get in. How? HOW? But they do. I had some beans that they had not discovered before and left alone. This evening I noticed that those, too, have been eaten.

I get my pail and head to the corner of the yard where previous owners have left us some bricks. I need to put bricks one next to another all around perimeter. I move one of the bricks and...

Do you see it? Now you can for sure:

What kind of snake is it?

I took some pictures, showed the snake to kids and my husband, then it crawled away. The snake gave me shivers at first, yet it is harmless. The rabbits on the other hand are cute, but destructive and they frustrate me.

The veggie patch is now lined around with bricks. I do hope this will help. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Shopping!

I've bought some things for the garden in the last two days. Not that I needed anything.

First, I got this ornamental strawberry at Home Depot yesterday. It caught my eye few weeks ago, but I did not put it in my shopping basket because it was already full with other things for garden. But yesterday we were in the area where HD is and kids said they are thirsty. I was more than happy to suggest that we run in there for cold drinks. Never mind that a grocery store was also close by.

I also purchased a packet of viola seeds and gourmet salad mix seeds. It is too late to seed either; these plants prefer cooler weather. I am saving them for fall.

Today with 20 spare minutes between a baseball game and drop-off at a birthday party, I stopped by Ayers Hardware Store in Westover. They always have nice garden ornaments. I've been wanting something like this for a while.

I also got this lavender plant inspired by last summer's visit to Audrey's garden. I'm still not sure where would be the right spot for it in my front yard, but hopefully I'll be able to "see" it tomorrow.

In my veggie patch, I transplanted cilantro and some sweet peppers. Both were started from seed in flowerpots. I collected pepper seeds from store-bought peppers and this year it will be an experiment to see what comes out of it. Those peppers came from who knows where--California, Mexico? Maybe their seedlings will not do well in Virginia?

The first two cucumbers have sprouted. :)

This is the look at my vegetable garden tonight. Work in progress...

Pesky Wabbits

There's a children's poem in Latvian that goes about like this:

A little bunny

A little kitty

Met on the road and wondered:

"Where're you hopping, bunny?"

"To cabbage patch, kitty."

...

I was reminder of this poem this morning. Except those two did not meet on the road. The real-life kitty’s name is Butch, he is hundred years old and belongs to our neighbors. A rabbit was inside my newly net-fenced vegetable patch. Butch was ready to pounce on the rabbit and it made the rabbit very nervous and it ran frantically around, as it could not get out at first. Finally, he escaped.

My father-in-law and I put a deer net around my vegetable patch last Saturday. We secured the bottom part with some bricks and both agreed that it will keep rabbits away, too. Yesterday evening I noticed that one of the pea shoots was cut to the ground. This morning my suspicion that rabbits can still get in was plainly confirmed. More bricks to come! I HOPE that will do. I planted those string beans for our dinners, not to feed local wildlife!

Safeway Basil

First, can I say how excited I am about my blog? I even have my first follower (Erika, I'll always remember that!)

Yesterday I bought live basil plants at Safeway--they routinely sell them in produce section. I think that's the best deal around for $4. You get plenty of basil for mozzarella, tomato and basil salad and then there are three or four basil plants to put in the garden to boot. I've used "Safeway basil" for my herb collection in the garden for the last two years and have decided that there's really no need to spend more money on basil seedlings at a nursery. This way you alreday get your first harvest and the next one can be done soon after.

"The planting material" does look unusual--their roots are squished together in some weird spongy mold with some substance that I'm sure is some super-duper plant food. I just pull the plants apart and shake off anything that will freely come off. No worries about weak-looking roots. The good thing about basil is that it's one of those plants that will easily root from a cutting. I might even use some of this same basil bunch to cut some stems, put in a water and after a week, when new roots have appeared, put it in a pot with some potting mix and give it to someone to plant in their garden. To my first follower, perhaps...


P.S. I could not help myself and took a picture of my white peony with raindrops on it tonight as well.

Blooming Arum

Arum is also known as lords an ladies. Soon the leaves will dry off and disappear to come out later in fall and stay green all winter long.


I also dug a lot this morning--I decided to expand my vegetable garden this spring. Still, I'm not sure if I'll have enough space for sweet peppers, cilantro, corn that are still to be added... Tiger pumpkin and acorn squash was seeded this morning (finally!) Also put in a few giant sunflower seeds that Lands End sent me. Transplanted zinnias.