Took them two days to finish off the blackeyed pea foliage– you can see the remaining stems in the left corner. I never would have believed they’d go for the okra leaves. Word to the wise. When you ask, “What won’t deer eat?” And some seemingly knowledgeable person rattles off a list of deer resistant
This is the big attraction right now. Zinnias. Tons of them, all volunteers. Randomly scattered all about. Butterflies galore. Stupid hummingbirds (don’t get me started). And silly little upside down goldfinches. I will let them go to seed and they will come again next year.
Mr. Big Food just retuned from cutting the Range, Southwest, and Hidden Pastures. He proclaimed, “Still growin’ down there.” I walked to the sink, pointed with my cast arm and said, “Look!” He got a big ol’ grin on his face and said, “Oh s^*t! Looks like we’ll be freezing more peppers!” Little know fact.
A few days ago two-handed me would have considered picking the blackeyed peas in there a nice little gardening challenge. I would have welcomed the opportunity to exercise some of my family-famous agility. Today one-handed me considers picking blackeyes rather problematic. Mr. Big Food offered to help by going into the thick of things. “Can
The Bermuda grass that was smothering the Liriope is under control– not eradicated, just very much under control. Nothing else is but I am partial to that edge of chaos look. Tumbling over the Liriope and some sedum are a couple of blackeyed peas. I think I planted three seeds. There are baby blackeyes! Unfortunately,
This is a newly hatched tomato horn worm. Lord knows I’ve seen hornworms, but I’ve never seen a freshly hatched one. It hasn’t even eaten enough to change color yet! The small black egg is where it’s from. The cream colored egg has not yet hatched. I can see the horn in the top two
I mentioned at the time that they would form very attractive seed pods. And so they have. All of the patches had gotten a bit unwieldy this year so I set out to pull it all out and cut off the pods so I could save the seeds and sow them elsewhere. Plenty have already
What a morning! I’m whooped. Mr. Big Food and I worked together on the Shortcut to the Hidden Pasture. It’s really The J-Man’s job but, you know, The J-Man doesn’t live here anymore so we have to do what we have to do.
Lovely, isn’t it? Daughter C planted gladiolas in her garden several years ago. The kitchen window in the Apartment over looks the garden. She staggered the planting so they’ve been blooming for a few weeks now. All different colors, too. Always something to look at if you live in the Apartment! Or take a walk
For the past three or four mornings I’ve been cleaning up the front beds. Long term objective is low to no maintenance appealing shrubbery with the never ending volunteer flowers. Meanwhile, as the gardenias, hollies, and Italian cypress have not achieved full size there’s space, so I plant blackeyes and okra in there. They will
Now we are using fresh oregano, but come this fall we’ll switch to dried. If I had to guess, I’d say that’s a 2-quart container. And that will be about half of what I’ll end up with. So a gallon of dried oregano. Mr. Big Food uses a lot of dried oregano. And OMG! The
I decided to change the microenvironment last evening. Who remembers the Shack in Cincinnati? Turns out learning how to manage the environment within the Shack– formally, The Synaptic Junction— was good training. The low temperature last evening was in the high 30s. The make-shift fire pit made a difference. Happy gardening!
An Inquiry into the Viability of Out-of-Date Seeds is coming along. The overnight low last night was 56° and temperatures stayed fine. However, a quick peek at RadarScope this morning indicated that I needed to get moving. Fortunately, I had a brand new tarp and paracord. So I fashioned a new, rain- and wind-resistant outer-outer
An Inquiry into the Viability of Out-of-Date Seeds Marica Bernstein, Department of Redundancy Department, Farther Along Farm University Abstract We planted some old seeds and will see what happens. Introduction Commercial seed packets for home gardens are labeled with sell-by or plant-by dates which refer to the year in which the seed crop was harvested;
Aren’t they lovely? Very attractive seed pods will form, dry up, fall to the ground, and– Voila!– next spring they’ll be back. Thanks to Daughter C who planted the original flower packet years ago!
Big day in the garden! Real progress getting back to where we should have been six months ago. It was a gorgeous day and things are starting to pop. Sometime in mid-November we had a real cold spell– before things had gone good and dormant. Gardenias took a real hit, as did the Italian cypress.
Irises are starting to pop. We have irises everywhere. Boy! Do they have a history! They all trace back to Aunt Margaret’s mother’s garden in upstate New York. Aunt Margaret was born in 1907. Both Mom and I had some in our gardens before she died. Mom dug up more when they dealt with Aunt
I put an asparagus patch in about 2010 or 2011. Didn’t harvest a spear until 2015 I think, and then for the next couple of years only a few. Long story. Remember The Lost Summer? The asparagus patch suffered a real hit that year. Imagine– trying to transplant asparagus in July. In Mississippi. This season’s
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