The Garden & Wildlife Week!
The garden is doing well (mostly). Cuke vines are dying, but I know what he problem is – will plant them in a different location next year. We can’t eat all the cukes anyway, so no big loss.
Green bell peppers are the best I’ve ever grown.
Jalapenos are doing great – lots of peppers for Jalapeno Pepper Jelly! This is the best pepper year ever.
Tomatoes – finally starting to turn. They got a late start when I had to replant all of them due to cold weather late in the spring.
Flowers – sunflowers in full bloom and gorgeous. Zinnias still blooming, but many are going to seed and the bed will be replanted this coming week for a second, late crop of flowers – the birds/bees/butterflies really appreciate having a food source late in the fall.
Now for the wildlife …..
Something is eating tomatoes & partially two cukes. We think it’s a squirrel – no groundhogs this year at the barn. The crows can’t get in (fencing) so they are not the culprit. No luck with the squirrel trap.
Animal sitting for the next door neighbor from last Saturday evening through last evening – dogs & chickens. Monday morning, I opened the door to check the nest boxes for eggs & was eyeball to eyeball with a Rat Snake. The rascal ended up being 5-1/2 feet long – biggest one we’ve ever caught in the hen house …. longer than I am tall! Tuesday evening – took the top off the trash can where the chicken food is kept – Snake #2! Much smaller. There was a hole in one feed bag, nibbled by a mouse – I’m sure that is what the snake was after.
Baby Bun Bun, the one that visits our front porch, is now Somebunny who likes sunflower leaves! The squirrels are knocking the plants down (volunteers that came up around the bird feeders) to eat the seeds & Somebunny is eating the leaves.
A juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk landed in the back yard & was eating something – checked out the spot after the hawk left, but couldn’t figure out what it was eating. The hawk needs to work on the squirrel population.
A doe is visiting the yard regularly – she’s already all but destroyed my mom’s hostas (gourmet salad bar – green ones only) & is now visiting near the bird feeders. The squirrel trap was moved off some corn I had bating it & I think is was the deer who did it.
Crows – think “The Birds” (school yard scene)…. yes, it’s almost that bad!! They have youngsters & they are constantly sounding off (want the adults to feed them).
Hummingbirds – delightful!! They are really using the feeders & yesterday morning, one was sitting on top of the shepherd’s crook that holds the feeder – fluffing some wet feathers after thunder storms overnight. Another male came along, chased off #1 and then spent some time looking handsome on the same perch.
LOL. I feel like that’s what we do for the squirrels and likely coons. Something is getting the corn before we do, and the apples and peaches, and cherries and grapes.
So far the only thing we have are tomatoes. We pick them with a slight blush and bring them in to ripen. We got some lettuce earlier in the year. How come we can’t have lettuce and tomatoes at the same time-lettuce bolted a few weeks before tomatoes were here.
We have the basement walls and floor completed on our storage project. It’s costing twice as much as I budgeted-because hubby doubled the size without consulting me.
This means that I won’t get my number 1 wish for a sunroom off the dining room with a little soapstone stove. To grow way more indoor plants and the stove for heat or cooking when the electricity goes out. I knew I should have insisted on the sunroom first. Ha.
Number 2 wish for a commercial plastic cistern to hold the rainwater, since the above ground pool keeps getting holes and the cover doesn’t last long enough to keep the crap out.
It’s a bummer and I just can’t believe Hubby did that. I think it sort of slipped up on him-he’d add something to the plan that wouldn’t be that much, then later on have another idea and add it and pretty soon it was huge dollars. sigh.
Well, maybe there will be enough to make a window wall facing south and south west, and get a stove and some insulation for the year around growing of plants? I dunno.
I am so disappointed about my sunroom dreams going up in CONCRETE. Ha.
We have bunnies, chipmunks, squirrels, mice, and lots of birds (American Goldfinch, Robins, Jays, etc) who love my garden, and foxes, coyotes, feral cats, and Red-tailed Hawks who love those who love my garden. :-)
Our cucs are just starting to be ready to pick. We have been picking bush beans all week. Tomatos are still very green. Peppers are very slow. Eggplant should be ripe late next week. Sunflowers taller by the day! Trimmed up the basil, mint and thyme and bundled them for drying this morning. Not much for pests yet and just the usual fungus trying to defoliate a couple tomato plants, but keeping that at bay. July has been a great garden month here.
I’ve got some zucchini plants that cranked out a dozen-or-so squashes, but now they’re only producing male blossoms; no females.
Anyone have any idea what would make them do that?
It was another hot week here in Central Missouri. We have plenty of moisture in the soil from last weeks’ rain, but it is very unpleasant outside.
We’re being over-run by cukes. Still no ripe slicer tomatoes. Starting to see a few beginning to make some color. Not sure what the problem is, but they are just not doing well this summer.
Between the kale and the collards we have more greens that we can eat.
Been making steady progress on Mr. Clarence. Still waiting on the alternator kit to arrive, but aside from that the electrics are almost finished.
Woke up this morning to the sound of rainfall.
Good timing. We were planning to water the garden this evening. Now, thanks to Mother Nature, that won’t be necessary.
EASY recipe for ‘roasted’ veggies .... don’t water your garden & with temps in the upper 90’s for 2 weeks & heat index around 100, your veggies will roast nicely on the vine. All that’s missing is a sprinkle of salt, maybe a spritz of olive oil!
The grass has returned to “crunchy” status ... we had a few light showers last week (3 nights, total of all 3 less than 1/4”) that vanquished the ‘crunchy’ for a while, but it’s back.
Forty Easy Ways to Use Up Fresh Basil:
Lime Basil Pie?
Basil and Heirloom Tomato Toss?
Caprese Salad Kabobs?
Yes, Please! :)
Facing South-West. See that tan house in the upper right of the photo? They raise Buffalo. Kinda cool to watch them when they're grazing on this side of the hill. It takes 5 YEARS from start to finish to raise a buffalo. That's a LOT of feed and water! Feed Corn growing to be made into winter silage for Da Cows, and the lighter green is Alfalfa which has been cut and harvested once already, growing back to be harvested again, also, for Da Cows.
lol lol lol