Posted on 05/01/2024 6:00:41 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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We have an area of our yard that is terraced, and the middle terrace is the most level, and where I do my potting. There are several mature trees and I’ve created a little woodland garden area near one of the trees with a little bit of yard art. It’s where my Virginia bluebells are planted, and a painted fern, hosta, and some sweet woodruff too. One of the pieces of yard art is a bird house on a post.
Every year some house wrens make a nest there. The thing is out in the elements so is beginning to fall apart. It doesn’t have a door to open to clean it out every season, but the roof nails have given way so now I can peer into it a little. Yesterday I found 3 house wren eggs. Mama hasn’t started incubating yet, so I guess there could be more coming. I’ll keep an eye on it.
The bluebirds chose another of the four bluebird houses and began bringing nesting material the day after the babies fledged, which would’ve been May 1st. So yesterday I checked briefly, and could tell there were at least two eggs in there. It’s up high, and I can’t reach it well enough to get a good camera angle, and I don’t like to disturb the area for long. It’s good to see they are ready with the next clutch to get going.
You should choose whichever meal your Mama prefers. Very nice of you to make a feast for her like that. She’ll love it!
Another 86 degree day here...so...weed killing is on the agenda...the esp noxios ones on our property. Like Japanese knotweed and blackberries, and whatever those sticky weeds are...and stuff in gravel driveways...hate it, but gotta do it.
Sausage tomato?????
https://www.totallytomato.com/product/T00490/89
Thought it looked a little like a Sabre but maybe not
https://victoryseeds.com/products/sausage-tomato
But then again this might be a bingo. Talks about a seed company no longer in business. Like maybe the Amish seed website where I got my first Sabre seeds.
Sent an email to the tomato growers site, asking them if it is the Sabre remarketed. I have 5 plants old seed gone.
Something got into one of our fenced off (but not fenced over) garden areas and ate most of our Opo plants down to 1" - 1-1/2" high. They were in pots and had grown about 5 ft. high, with stems close to 1/4" in diameter. I was gonna transplant them into soil (no pot) today...
Basically, these are "snake gourds", I guess, with a very neutral taste. (Can be added in cooking to almost any stew, soup, sauce, etc.) Any chance they will regenerate? Should I make a clean cut where the remainder of the stems begins to have been chewed? I do know these can be pruned back in normal circumstances to promote flowering (or just the darn plant from getting out of hand!), but I've never trimmed one by more than a third or so.
Thanks...
As much as I'm looking forward to the high tunnel with some row crops on either side, some fruit trees etc etc, I really like the LFYG with it's limitation.
Went out and cleaned up the clutter and started weeding. Came back in to make another pot of coffee. Plenty of time for that and to go back out and finish weeding and getting it ready for the year, all before noon. No such thing as feeling overwhelmed or wondering if the work will never end.
I decided to put the shisito and mater plants in the LFYG. Everything in the pic is going in the ground this afternoon.
When I got home yesterday, I went out to the tunnel area and pulled up a little grass and weeds around some horse thistle. I think I'm going to just spray to kill it but I don't want to plant anything I'm going to eat there for a while. If I grow anything in it this Fall/Winter, I'll do it in pots as it would be small leafy stuff anyway.
Bought a local newspaper and it had an ad from a local farm/garden center advertising chickens. That truck topper coup in the background might be occupied again soon with some New Hampshire Reds.
Got a few Bok Choy plants in the LFYG to harvest. Gonna bring a couple in to my veggie loving co-worker.
The comfrey is not very happy with me at the moment. It got pulled from a shady spot into mid day sun. It's for their own good. The goats won't be able to get to them now. I draped a tarp over them to help them out.
The cicadas are singing. Gonna go work on the tunnel frame now.(wondering if the work will never end)
Something got into one of our fenced off (but not fenced over) garden areas and ate most of our Opo plants down to 1" - 1-1/2" high. They were in pots and had grown about 5 ft. high, with stems close to 1/4" in diameter. I was gonna transplant them into soil (no pot) today...
Basically, these are "snake gourds", I guess, with a very neutral taste. (Can be added in cooking to almost any stew, soup, sauce, etc.) Any chance they will regenerate? Should I make a clean cut where the remainder of the stems begins to have been chewed?
I do know these can be pruned back in normal circumstances to promote flowering (or just the darn plant from getting out of hand!), but I've never trimmed one by more than a third or so.
Thanks...
Just watched my nephew walk across the stage & get his Mechanical Engineering degree ... where did that little boy go who used to visit in the summer & we’d watch Shark Week together? Mixed emotions for sure 😭😁 He’s a good person with a kind heart in addition to being super smart ... he’ll do well (has a job already, too).
We’re doing chicken marbella with a baked sweet potato & her choice of broccoli with cheese or creamed spinach. She’ll have plenty of leftover chicken for meals next week or she can freeze some of it.
How did she taste? ;~)
Thanks! Good Sweet Corn is readily available here in Wisconsin...but you need to wait until August or so. :)
I didn't want to tread all over thistle down the middle of the tunnel area so I'm weeding and surrounding the enemy from all sides.
I know this horse thistle well enough now that I also found that the first year's growth has no thorns and looks kinda nice. They also pull out with the full root intact which is good.
Screw that poison. Pulled a lot of stuff that can go to the compost pile that I inadvertently started this morning while weeding the LFYG. I needed to do something with the holes leftover from moving the comfrey anyway.
Nature is the best Counselor, Teacher, Friend and Confidant. :)
Gorgeous! Great shots. I hear owls from time to time, but I never see any. :(
I know that ‘Sausage’ tomato! We just might be back in business! I am ‘babying’ my two Sabre plants, for sure! Can’t WAIT to taste them! :)
Great progress! I’m so glad that I don’t have anything other than the occasional ‘steer’ ending up in my garden.
I know you’ll have a good harvest this year - but I’m MORE excited to see what you end up growing in that tunnel! :)
Looks like too much water. What’s your weather been like this Spring?
Are they in pots or in the ground? Or both? Drainage may be an issue - not much you can do about too much rain, though. Their roots are way too soggy and are suffocating. :(
That’s pretty special! All of my nieces and nephews are past the college stage, but the youngest (a nephew) is just a little older than yours. We have a few weddings this summer, so we have that same feeling of where did the time go? How did they grow up so fast?
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