GARDEN DIARY END OF MAY 2013

This is mostly a private notation for future reference. This week the peas started to bloom. The first blueberry bush has green berries, the birds are thoroughly enjoying the strawberries, and the onions are well over a foot tall.  The yellow wax beans have their second set of leaves, and the Italian flats are just pushing some green thru the dirt. The Lima beans are thru the potting soil reminding me of my first biology class where we all had to plant one and learn such fun terms as cotyledon, and watch for the first sign of a real identifiable leaf. Remember?

I planted a circle of Blue Lake pole beans and put my big aluminum pole and hoops in the fenced in garden. A few beans have their leaves. I think I might have to replant in the empty places.

The potatoes are well over a foot tall and need more dirt in their bags. The last time I added dirt, the coons dug most of it out. That explains the ugly fencing. They also demolished my bag of carrots that had just been planted the day before. However, I do have a few carrots showing tiny green shoots this morning. I have had to put pieces of fencing over the growing bags anyway because Punk and Spook seemed to love to nap in these bags.

   This was my second planting – or replanting – of potatoes last year – the little ones that were too small to eat… I just stuck them back in the bags and got a couple more pounds of potatoes! Maybe the cats helped hatch them? This is Punk hatching the carrots last year. I sure do miss my little garden shadow!

Yesterday I managed to get the tomatoes and bush basil in… the zucchini and eggplant (Ikiban) are in the old tomato raised bed… I still have cucumbers to plant and some dill. We don’t use the dill anymore, but the black swallowtail butterflies caterpillars LOVE it. So I grow it for them.

The sage is in flower and the rosemary looks like bushes.

Thanks for all the interest so many of you have had in using these growing bags. Let me know if you try them and how it works out for you.

A ROUGH COUPLE OF WEEKS

Yep, it has been a rough couple of weeks, and it ain’t over yet.

 

We buried Punkin on Tuesday… my little orange shadow who followed me everywhere I went out in the yard, who would hid in the ferns and ambush me, who helped me in the garden, and spent hours and hours of his life rolling over to get his belly scratched.

       

   

Punkin arrived during Hurricane Isabel bringing a young kitten with him. They decided the food was good here, so they stayed.

 

      

He and Spook were inseparable much of the time, but Spook started to distance himself as Punkie got sicker. Punk died of renal failure. He was probably about 16, Spook is 9. Everybody loved Punkin.

Meanwhile inside the house, Rascal, the youngest of the cats, (9) has been diagnosed with a probable tumor, his chest cavity fills with fluid and has been tapped 3 times. He was my in-house shadow. Always curious, always watching. Rascal, otherwise known as the Rat, or Mr Bad Boy, is still with us, but we don’t know for how long. He no longer rolls over showing off his fine belly. Eating seems to be a problem and he sleeps all day instead of following me around or getting up into the window to see where I am if I go outside. We try not to ever be gone more than an hour or so. We keep checking on him as we did Punk. I am hoping the medicine he is on will help…

 

They are such wonderful little gifts when they come to us…… it is so hard to lose them.

Meanwhile Hadji, age 15 and diabetic, is holding his own and has not been on insulin for over 2 years. How is that for a miracle? He loves wearing a scarf. Go figure! He is very handsome.

 

Rascal was always a lap kitty as was Punk. Hadj like you to sit beside him on HIS sofa. Just don’t try to get him in your lap. Spook is and always has been, well, easily spooked. I have often wondered what horrible thing happened to him to make him so afraid of people. Generally, I can catch him once or twice a year to take him for his shots. I doubt anyone will ever have him on their lap.

It is rough trying to work out in the yard without my little buddy. And it seems strange typing on the computer without Rat pulling my hair or climbing on my lap.

THE RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH

I have been so blessed these past 2 years to have a number of Red-Breasted Nuthatches in my yard. These little, perhaps even tiny, birds are so much fun to watch. They visit my feeders daily, but the fun is to see them running up and down the redbud outside my computer window. Very distracting! They are often in shots of other birds, but being so small – and cardinals being twice their size and so bright, they usually remain unseen. But, yesterday, as I was taking a few shots of something else outside, I turned around and was literally face to face with a little nuthatch. Did I mention they are brave little souls? The White breasted Nuthatch will fly away if you are in their visibility range, or if one of the cats moseys by… the Carolina Wrens will go up higher or to a bush about 30 feet away and start ‘scolding’ at the top of its lungs. But the Nuthatch just sits quietly and watches. Perhaps it is curious, too. These shots were taken from a distance of 5 to 3 feet away. Punkie and Spook followed me out into the yard to see what was happening. I was thrilled to see Punk come out, but that is another story. He has been quite ill. Anyway, I digress, as usual. My guess is that this is a female as the breast is quite pale. I love that blue color. But, there she sat, and posed, don’t you think?

With Spook under the feeders, but not really interested… and Punkie right behind me. He is showing his age.

And an old shot for size comparison… find this feeder and compare with the size of the cardinals.

BUILDING PROJECT

OR MORE OF WHAT KEEPS ME SO BUSY… Sadly I have slowed down to a crawl lately. The Lyme's has been in its mean, bad , and nasty cycle… which means not just a lot of pain, but it means my muscles have been locking up when I try to do certain things – like bend over… reach over my head… sigh. So, it has really slowed me down. Somehow I thought I would have a lot of time to get things done before it got too cold to work outside – but today is the last of the warmer days, and so much has not gotten done. Cold is an enemy of Lyme's.  I did get my addition to my greenhouse finished… got the heat lamps installed yesterday. It is also painted since it is not made with pressure treated (called salt treated around here) wood and there is an added roof of 2 rug samples and a half inch piece of plywood that goes on it when the sun is not shining to keep it a bit warmer – and to keep the cats from scratching the quarter inch Plexiglas. That sheet of Plexiglas for the roof cost a small fortune… double what I paid the last time I had any 1/4th inch cut for me. The rest of the Plexiglas is only 1/8th inch – some of it scrap, most of the wood is scrap, too. It seems I just get more and more plants somehow… and then, I take cuttings of Strobilanthus and coleus – some of them make it, some do not. I am trying to winter over some begonias this year. The Mini-greenhouse will come apart come spring as it is held together with only 4 screws and several corner braces. The floor is brick, for retaining heat. It is amazing how many plants one can cram in a space 4 feet long and 2 feet wide. 

The heated cat box is on top of the larger greenhouse… and is already well occupied on chilly days and nights.

THE CAT'S OUT OF THE BAG

OR IS HE?  Punkin and Spook have taken a liking to the veggie growing bags. Are they "vegetating?"

 I guess they are called potato bags, mostly, but I found they were also very useful for growing onions and carrots, too! Once the crop has been harvested, the guys immediately climb on board and take a nap. However, the potatoes are producing their second crop, or what will survive of the second crop as both the little guys try to crowd their little kitty butts in without breaking off the plants. It will be interesting to see what is in that bag when the greenery dies back. Sometimes I think of Horton hatches a What? as he keeps the potato crop warm.

 Punkin and the Carrot Bag.

Tell me, is anyone else having trouble with Blogger and trying to get pictures where you want them? My old link to blogger no longer works, and this is in its place... very frustrating!

NEWEST BFF

YEP, WHO'D A THUNK IT? To be honest, I would not believe it if it hadn't happened to me. As I said in my last post, I have bunches of dragonflies this year... maybe it is because it has been so hot and dry and my place is shady and has several birdbaths, I dunno. Maybe they like all the stuff planted here... whatever. Here they are, and I am loving it! Yesterday, I cut some grass and got the weedwhacker out. It is electric, maybe something in the humming of the motor? Who knows... whatever it is, this one little dragonfly followed me around the yard. I choose to think it is the same one that follows me when I am watering things - I thought it was that he (she?) was attracted to the movement of water, sound of it, the coolness close to the water coming from the hose. As you can see, I have spent considerable time wondering about this. But yesterday, I had the hoses set up in their respective garden areas, careful to not water the Punkin patch snoozing in the last remaining potato bag, while I was weedwhacking in a different part of the yard. I must have been 50 feet away from the hoses, well 100 feet from the hose on the beans, and 40 feet from the cats snoozing or scratching (the ticks have been BAD!) and there he was, buzzing around my head. When I sat down for a little break in one of the Adirondacks, the little fellow came and sat on the arm of the chair across from me. My camera, of course, was in the house. So, I came in and grabbed the camera, returned to the patio, and, of course, no dragonfly on the chair. So, I headed back to the barn and the weedwhacker, and crackle, crackle, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzztttttttttttt, there he was. He sat down on the edge of the wheelbarrow, and I reached into the barn for the camera. These close up shots are NOT telephoto or enlarged by a photo program. The camera was not much more than a foot away. I did not use any color enhancing program, tho I wonder if something might have helped bring out the beautiful soft blue on him, or the turquoise of his eyes. I really wondered if I could slip a finger under him and pick him up, but I did not want to frighten him away.
It is drizzling this morning, so I am not working outside. I wonder where he is hiding. The camera and I will be heading to the Train Station in a few minutes, hopefully to record the hanging of the second half of the Big door. I guess I won't be painting the inside sections to the HVAC fence, since I do that outside. So I guess I will just be a Step-n-Fetch it, or maybe just the photographer. I am glad it is cooler and grateful for the minimal rain. Every drop helps. But I will go looking for him when I get home... or maybe he will find me!

THE END OF MAY

THE END OF MAY here on the shore means the peas are ready to be picked, the late peonies are in bloom, and my joy of joys, the Mountain Laurel is in bloom. The clematis is also in bloom this year, but I think it is a bit early. It has been hot for May, but then the entire winter/spring has been very warm, even hot some days. I am sure there are those who do not think 80 is hot, but I am a Mountain girl… or an Island girl so I measure hot and cold differently, I guess. I think Punkin must be a mountain cat… he does not like the heat when it gets around 80. He gives up following me around the garden and heads for a place in the shade, often under a bush, but sometimes right in the middle of the plants. What is fun for me, but surprising for visitors is when he meows as we walk by and other folks do not even see him. I am sure he enjoys that look of bewilderment when they look around and no cat is to be seen… “Ow,” he repeats. Do you see him?
It is also at the end of May that our little Train Station has its Plant Sale as part of the Town’s Spring Fling – a town-wide yard sale sort of thing that starts at 7 AM, but usually ends for us between noon and 1PM. It is real hard work for some of us, contacting growers, then driving up and down the highway with a van full of plants, then setting things up. Someone has to price them. They get arranged and rearranged as things get sold.
This year we had a Bake Sale in conjunction with the Plant Sale. That was even harder on me than all the work with the planning and getting and doing………… namely not eating all the goodies. Sigh. BUT, I try to stay gluten and sugar free, so my house is a Safe Haven for cookie storage! LOL!
We did set up our simplest train track, just in case a kid or two showed up. Of course, some of our kids were in their 60s. That happens a lot. But here is one of the younger ones.