Garden 2024

Thank pepper and dragn. If I had spelled it right when I did an internet search, I might have gotten some sensible results. Well, I tested that hypothesis and I got sensible results. D'oh!

That lime tree already has several areas of new growth on it! Amazing how fast re-potting helps!

This is a test! I'm hoping it'll work.

So I got my camera and tried to take a couple pictures. This is one half of my rock garden bed. It's a little late to go out messing with the camera now, but hopefully tomorrow I'll have a bunch more pics of my little garden.

The reason I took this one is so you can see the difference with the other half. There were weeds 2ft tall against the rocks front and back and last night I cleared them away on this part. Tonight I cleared them away from the front on the other part. Tomorrow I need to clear them away from the back of the other part.

But I hope to have some pictures of some of the wildflowers that have come up. I went out to see them this morning and there weren't a ton of them, but they're coming up.

And in case anyone is wondering, that dirt in front of the rocks was supposed to be seeded ages ago by the contractor. I have to get on to him about that. The Pepsi bottle is a wasp trap. I have a hummingbird feeder right above it and the wasps actually chase the hummingbirds away from it. So the trap went in. Seems to work well.

This pic was taken under my canopy. Those are the legs you see there, in cement blocks filled with sand and tied down, or that canopy would have been history with the first wind we had this summer.

I went out this morning to take pics, but we have no sun! Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, so it will probably be Tuesday or Wednesday before I get any pics of the wildflowers. Meantime, here's a pic of the other side of my rock garden after I weeded the front but before I weeded the back (that black thing at the bottom is my cat supervising):



Instead of taking pics of the yard, I decided to weed the back. And here is how it looks. Much better, right?



In case you were wondering why I hadn't done this sooner, it's because I've neglected these flower beds for two years and this spring I had to concentrate on sciatica, a stopped up black water tank, trying to get the front done, trying to get the contractor to do my yard, watering my yard and the neighbors' yard, fighting the deer, planting all the plants I ordered, weeding the irises, and weeding inside the rocks, as the flower beds had just as many weeds inside as the outside did. It's been a busy year. But next year I plan to weed a lot sooner because, man, those dandelion weeds have deep roots when they get grown! I opened up the blister on my hand again so it's a good thing there is only a little more weeding to do.

You really have to train that cat to share some of the work.

I stepped out to water the two pots of herbs I have out back. Someone had nibbled the lemon balm right off. There were a bunch of leaves lying next to the pot. There were a few leaves in the pot. But there were just tiny nubs of the main stems. I brought that pot inside because, there are two tiny, tiny sets of leaves still alive in that pot and who knows if the rest will come back with some TLC. Lemon balm is a member of the mint family.

At first glance, the rosemary seemed fine. But, looking more closely, I see that two small rosemary stems were on the ground. I guess whoever did the nibbling, didn't like rosemary.



I wonder if it's the bunny I saw the other day. That was the first time I have ever seen a bunny in this yard and I have lived in this house for 29 years.



The stems at the front left are my chives. Those seem to be of little appeal to the bunny or whoever it was that nibbled my lemon balm, thank goodness.

taxy, welcome to the world of bunnies... no matter where you are! Of the four broccoli plants that were decimated, one made a strong comeback and another sort of so - so. Well they are gone... again. The stems are there but all the leaves and lopped off.
They haven't touched the brussels, so I'm hoping they won't.
Other day a couple of chickens were allowed to roam around. There was a wild bunny also roaming the grass. I suddenly told my son - LOL watch that chicken! She made a big circle around and behind the bunny then made a running attack. Too funny. Not like the yard isn't big enough. But no harm done, bunny took off.

Those wild bunnies have no fear of us, stay a good 10/15 feet away - but otherwise ignore us. They were even ignoring poor blind Maya while she was bumbling around.

rodentraiser said:

I went out this morning to take pics, but we have no sun! Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, so it will probably be Tuesday or Wednesday before I get any pics of the wildflowers. Meantime, here's a pic of the other side of my rock garden after I weeded the front but before I weeded the back (that black thing at the bottom is my cat supervising):

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I got distracted. Its that a PT Cruiser... purple?

CD

taxlady said:

I stepped out to water the two pots of herbs I have out back. Someone had nibbled the lemon balm right off. There were a bunch of leaves lying next to the pot. There were a few leaves in the pot. But there were just tiny nubs of the main stems. I brought that pot inside because, there are two tiny, tiny sets of leaves still alive in that pot and who knows if the rest will come back with some TLC. Lemon balm is a member of the mint family.

At first glance, the rosemary seemed fine. But, looking more closely, I see that two small rosemary stems were on the ground. I guess whoever did the nibbling, didn't like rosemary.

View attachment 70135

I wonder if it's the bunny I saw the other day. That was the first time I have ever seen a bunny in this yard and I have lived in this house for 29 years.

View attachment 70136

The stems at the front left are my chives. Those seem to be of little appeal to the bunny or whoever it was that nibbled my lemon balm, thank goodness.

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Rabbit stew, pre-seasoned with lemon balm and rosemary.

CD

None of the warm blooded critters around here have ever bothered any of my herbs, until today. Sure, they munch other things I have tried to grow, like tomatoes. Lettuce has never gotten big enough to be eaten by warm blooded critters, just slugs or snails and maybe some insects.

taxlady said:

None of the warm blooded critters around here have ever bothered any of my herbs, until today. Sure, they munch other things I have tried to grow, like tomatoes. Lettuce has never gotten big enough to be eaten by warm blooded critters, just slugs or snails and maybe some insects.

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I've never had critters eat my herbs, for some reason. If any of them ate my chili peppers, they didn't do it more than once.

CD

I can't think of any herbs of mine that have eaten by warm blooded pests, either, though this spring I had one out of 3 epazote seedlings that was eaten to the stub, which I had never seen before, but the others weren't touched! I was thinking maybe whatever it was just took a couple bites, then realized, they didn't like the flavor!

Yesterday I cleaned out the raised bed I harvested my onions and shallots from, along with a bunch of onion sets. I wasn't trying to grow onion sets - don't really know how to do it, but these were all from those scallions I've grown for most of the season - I just cut them down to the ground, and they grow back several times, I guess until it was too hot...maybe length of day thing, or something else. Shallots did best; only had a couple of good sized onions, but I did use a lot of scallions, early in the season. I found 2 more onion sets when cleaning up yesterday, and spread another layer of soil and compost on top. The garlic bed I cleaned out today with only a few weeds that came back, and I cut all those out with my stirrup hoe, then raked them out, before spreading a layer of compost on it. I might plant some fall crops soon, and put those in that bed, and the garlic in the front bed in the fall. I'll have to move the hoops, so I can cover the brassicas.
Bed where I harvested all the shallots, onions, and a bunch of onion sets! they were all from the scallions, that I harvested several times, until they stopped coming back. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Cleaned up the garlic bed Sunday, and spread some compost over it. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

We were weeding the flower garden, this is spotted bee balm. We saw an iridescent blue winged wasp, about 1 and 1/4 inch long, big thing. I got some okay pictures of it.





It was the highlight of our weeding.

caseydog said:

I got distracted. Its that a PT Cruiser... purple?

CD

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Yerst. With a missing front bumper cover. And a white tailgate. My mom bought the car for me and we had to get it because she liked the color. Fun story. I thought a purple PT Cruiser was sort of rare. A couple years ago, I went to Walmart with a friend and in four spaces across the front rows were four purple PT Cruisers. It's still an awful color, though.

dragnlaw said:

You really have to train that cat to share some of the work.

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I'm wondering if I should get another cat. She enjoys having me out there and I think she gets lonely when I'm not. Thing is, I really think she still has a home somewhere. She disappeared yesterday when I went into the house and was gone until about 9pm, which is really unusual for her. When she came back, she was soft and fluffy and smelled like perfume. I think someone gave her a bath.

Today all I did was pick up all those piles of weeds and toss them in the woods. It was a big pile. I think tomorrow I can get some pics of my yard and my next weeding project.

The contractor called and said he contacted the person who sold him the grass seed for my yard. The seller swears he sold the contractor lawn grass. I'm left wondering if there really is a seller and whether the contractor is just trying to get out of fixing the lawn mess.

I think at this point, since all the tall meadow grass in the front is where I want to put the raised beds, I may just leave it. The beds will kill most of the tall grass and what's left can just be pulled out by hand. What's really funny is that if the tall grass was in the back where it was supposed to be, I wouldn't be able to see the wildflowers over it.

Still, it's really pretty when the wind blows and it all sways back and forth. I just worry about ticks and ground wasp nests, is all.

rodentraiser said:

I'm wondering if I should get another cat.

Still, it's really pretty when the wind blows and it all sways back and forth. I just worry about ticks and ground wasp nests, is all.

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It is full-blown kitten season. If you can adopt a kitty, please consider doing so. So many need homes and shelters often have great deals if you get one that includes having the animal neutered. The shelter near us also treated them with flea and tick prevention!

I would, but I really can't afford this cat. I know she needs her vaccines, but I just can't cover that right now and the shelters here charge for any animals people adopt. I can't afford that either. And then what do I do if the two cats don't get along?

I tried to get pics of my yard today but by the time the sun came out, I was facing straight into it and the pics were a disaster. Our rain is over for now so maybe tomorrow morning early I can get some pictures.

My next weeding challenge. Plus I have some trimming to do as well.

I didn't pick any tomatoes yesterday (though there were a lot more small ones, there are a lot more today!), and all I did was finish trimming (never really finished, of course!), and noticed that the Negro Azteka blossoms that I bagged about a week ago had opened inside the bag. I removed the bag briefly, and buzzed the 4 blossoms; still one unopened, and I'll wait until they all set fruit, then remove the bag, and wait for ripening! At first I thought I wouldn't grow this again, because a bunch got BER in the beginning, which cherries usually don't get, but they outgrew it quickly, like most large ones do, and eventually produced a large number of delicious tomatoes - not a sweet tomato, but a good, strongly flavored tomato, great in all those salads I make, with a few of the Sunsugars, for sweetness, but more of these type of tomatoes. They are the type that the branches turn brown after the tomatoes are picked from that section, so it's hard to keep up trimming it, but they just keep outgrowing it all! One of the two plants seems to have slightly larger fruits, and seems to be a larger plant (though that's hard to tell!), so that was the one I'm saving seeds from.
Here is that cluster of tomato blossoms, that I bagged before they opened, and here are 4 opened, with one unopened still. I buzzed them, and bagged again. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Negro Aztekas next to Sunsugars, to show the relative size, and some of the larger ones, like happens with the Sunsugar. by pepperhead212, on Flickr