Therapy or penitence?

I wasn't going to work outside yesterday but I was seduced by the dark side (or should I say warm temperatures and bright sunlight?). It was such a beautiful day and all I did outside during the day was to hang a load of laundry on the clothesline. But by dinner time I felt guilty of not taking advantage of the weather and temperature. So after dinner I worked in the yard. First thing I did was to transplant two daisies from one flower bed where there are plenty of volunteers to a flower bed alongside the house where all of my perennials perished this winter (except for a few smaller volunteer daisies). Then I planted about 10 zinnias and 10 marigolds that I started from seed in this same garden and in front of the daisies. I wanted to plant cosmos behind all of these because they can get taller but they didn't sprout so well this year. I planted the marigold in front of the zinnias. Next I moved to one of my five flower beds that run along a fence. On the end of one of the flower beds I had planted a pincushion last year but it too perished this winter so I planted some left over marigolds in its place. Then I just continued down the flower bed weeding and mulching as I went. As I was weeding, it always comes to mind that weeding is great therapy. You can always be on autopilot pulling weeds while your mind is allowed to think of whatever is on your mind. Then when you start pulling the weeds out from under the Holly bush/tree then one has to pay more attention to the weeds or you get a handful of dried holly leaves along with those weeds. So I consider weeding therapy unless the weeds are under the Holly tree and could be considered penitence.

Notes for June 28, 2009

I've got some transplanting to do. Here's one I found in the driveway. That's one thing nice about Gloriosa Daisies, if you let them go to seed... you'll be finding them everywhere.

Notes for June 27, 2009

Yes I have Lymes and I had a real anxiety about working outside today. My doctor told me to wear a high sunblock and my brother who recently had Lymes said that he couldn't go outside because the medicine gave him a headache in sunlight. Yesterday on my way home from work I did get a headache (it was bright). After working outside for several hours (and putting on a sunblock before I went outside) I never did get a headache. I wear glasses and my glasses automatically turn dark when exposed to the sun's ultraviolet light. Anyone who has this type of glasses also knows that they don't work in the car since auto glass has been UV treated for years. The headache I got on Friday on my drive home was close to one of those headaches I get instantly when I get beamed with a red laser pointer. So I think I need to find my old clip ons for driving during the day. I started the day by Tying the tomato plants and trimming off the tomato suckers. About 1/3 of my plants top leaves are curling and seem to smaller. Wonder if its from the wet weather. It does seem to be affecting more than one variety. Then I transplanted two gloriosa daisies from the veggie garden into the flower bed next to the chimney. Actually its not a flower bed now and it was last year. Everything that was in that flower bed last year died over the winter. This particular flower bed was under a pile of leaves one foot thick (the winter winds pile them there). And we also had temperatures in the negative numbers this past winter. While planting I found a couple of volunteer daisies, so all is not lost. After I transplanted the daisies, I turned the garden using a spade where the radish bed was and then removed the sunflower twine and their supports. This made me think that I should mulch the 2nd green beans next before planting the third and so I did. Then I planted 3rd green beans and noticed that the 1st green beans could be picked next weekend. Then I mulched the remainder of veggie garden and all thats left to mulch in the veggie garden is alongside 3rd green beans after they sprout. Last night we had three dry thunderstorms. Each storm dumped a bunch to our west and then faded as it got close. My son cut the grass in the front yard for me this afternoon and I cut the back yard after dinner. My son mentioned that he chased a toad with the mower for a moment. Good to know there are still some around. During one of my breaks I was watching the Red Tailed Hawk circle around and was listening to the Blue Jays give the warning squawk. When I took my cool down break after cutting the grass, all I saw were robins looking for bugs/worms.

notes for June 26, 2009

I went to the doctor's yesterday and got checked out. He said he didn't need a blood test for confirmation (which wouldn't show it for a few weeks anyway) but I have Lymes disease. I have no other symptoms but a red rash on the back of my arm where I removed a very small tick about a month ago. So now I am taking an antibiotic for three weeks. In other news...it didn't rain yesterday! ... my Bee Balm is starting to bloom ...heard first cicada In the veggie patch, I took a stroll through last night and trained the cuke vines back to its fence and away from the nearby tomatoes or the outer fence or just blocking the garden paths.

Another two tenths!!??

When will it stop? I don't want it to stop altogether but it would be nice to have a few dry days in between! I emptied another 0.2" from the rain gauge this morning. But this rain shower has a little funny story to go with it. My son drove to the local school to go jogging around the track and got caught in last night's shower. I joked with him and said I see you got your shower already. He said "I think my socks are the only thing that might be dry."

Here is a picture of my cukes. I have them planted on a 5 foot inner fence and a piece of white fencing on a frame that some one gave me. To the right are two of my compost/leaf piles. We don't have leaf pick up in our township and I don't have a place to dump them so I pick them up with the lawn mower (weekly in October and November) and dump them into the cinder block contained piles and use the leaves for mulch. The back one is nearly empty and the one in the front I haven't started to use yet. the third pile is located behind my shed and is in just a fence but it is leaves that have been twice ground (or run over more than once before bagging them with the mower). I use the finer mulch to turn under in my gardens.

Here is a picture of my tomato plants. You can see that the paths are mulched but I haven't finished mulching in between the tomato plants (I just planted the marigolds in between when it started raining). Mulching is next on the list.

Here are two rows of green beans planted 3 weeks apart with room for a third to the left where the weeds have taken over (there were radishes there but they are finished). Right before I mulch I will probably plant the third row of beans. Hopefully this weekend but the grass needs cutting too. There is a row of pepper plants to the right of the larger green bean plants. The weather has been nice to the beans and they are larger than in past years. The empty twine trellis in between was for my sunflowers but something ate all three attempts to plant them (I strongly suspect Chip N Dale chipmunk).

Two tenths and a slug

I emptied 0.2" from the rain gauge this morning and flung off the attached slug from the rain gauge. Well at least I hope Mr. Toad is having a feast on my slugs. The weather this month as every one in the Northeast has said has been wet. I think we have had rain 18 of the 23 days so far. I know its play havoc with the local farmers (or at least the ones who tried to grow strawberries). In May its asparagus, in June its Strawberries and July its blueberries. Well here it is late June and the local stands still have asparagus, the strawberries are done (lasted about a week) and now the blueberries have started. Yesterday was a nice day it didn't rain until bedtime.

Here is a pic of the marigolds and zinnia that I have started from seed that are ready to plant but time and weather haven't been very accommodating.

The onion bed is looking great and a bunch are about to flower. The left half is red onions and the right half are yellow onions. The two rows of green beans are in the back ground. I have a better picture of them that I will probably post tomorrow.

Here are five buckets of chives. I have regular and garlic chives.

Notes for June 23, 2009

Two years ago I bought a 6-inch pot of Bee Balm...its taking over (tiger lillies to the right and a butterfly weed to the left).

Here's the Butterfly weed a little closer.

Here are two Sedums. I like the larger sedums. I lost three this winter. The three I lost were just as big as these were and when I raked out the winter leaves, they were gone. They have since come back but you have to look real close to see them.

My yellow Stella is in bloom. This is the same one that is on the top of my blog. (I know, it needs some mulch and it will get some when its stops raining long enough).

Here is my white Yarrow in bloom. I read once that the smaller the flower, the more beneficial insects they attract.



Both Saturday and Sunday I saw a "First". We bought our house in 2000 and until this weekend I had not seen in my yard... two chipmunks at the same time. This year I have seen more chipmunks than in any years past, but I hadn't seen more than one at any one time. On Sunday I saw two male cardinals near my feeder. There was one male on the feeder and a female on the hanging wire. Then another male landed on my neighbors fence and then landed on the wire. The female then flew off in the direction the second male came from and then the second male flew after her. Kind of made me think that the female was hanging around with the wrong male and her mate chased her home. :-)

Father's Day or 1-2-3-4- Nap

Had a couple of late nights and early mornings this weekend, so a nap Sunday afternoon was good. Funny thing was that three other people in the house were also napping (hence the 1-2-3-4). The wife had the nerve of accusing me of snoring on Father's Day. Hmmmmph!

But she made up for it by getting me a digital camera (of course the hints two weeks ago helped). Now this blog will have more pics. Here are some I took today.

Last year some one gave me a 12-inch square brick of Joe Pye Weed. I cut the brick (with a hatchet) into four squares. I planted two of them next to the mailbox. This year, its looking great.

The Tiger Lillies are in full bloom this week, although last year they were about a foot taller (I swear). In this bed I planted a $3.99 Magnolia that's only 15" tall. It's in there and seems to be doing well. Yes I know it won't be seen for a couple of years.

It was in this bunch of tigers that I first spotted the rabbit this year and the following day I noticed that he had eaten some of the painted daisies.

Saturday afternoon I emptied 0.35" from the rain gauge (remember it started raining when I was planting marigolds). Sunday morning I emptied another 0.2".

5-4-3-2-1-speed marigold planting

Well the weather radar looked like it was going to give me a few hours of time this morning but I forgot to check it again right before I went outside. I got about 45 minutes. It was just enough time to tie up the tomato plants and start to speed plant the yellow marigolds in between the tomato plants before in started to pour. Okay I did get a few other things done. I transplanted four volunteer tomato plants replacing four very small tomato plants that weren't growing well for what ever reason. The volunteers were about 4 to 5 times larger than the ones I dug up. I also planted several cosmos along the fence of the veggie garden. I worked about ten minutes in a light drizzle before I had had enough. This afternoon I emptied 0.35" from the rain gauge. Just after dinner we had a couple of downpours.

Notes for Friday June 19

I emptied 0.8" from the rain gauge this morning (this rain started Wednesday night).

As I emptied the rain gauge I did do a quick check of the veggie garden.

- Tomatoes are ready to be tied again.
- Three tomato plants could/should be replaced with larger volunteers.

- First green beans flowering, second coming along nicely, must check diary for when to plant third (did check, tomorrow is three weeks, so could plant third this weekend).

- Marigolds, zinnia and cosmos are of nice size ready to plant.
- At least one cucumber plant has a flower.

- Some cucumbers have attached themselves to the wrong fence (not a real problem unless a cucumber grows in a hard to reach spot between the outer fence and the cucumber fence.

- There will be NO sunflowers this year. All have been eaten.

Between the family schedule and the constant rain (no I don't live in Seattle, that's the joke going around here), I'm not sure when life will grant me some time in the garden this weekend. One forecast I saw this morning shows rain/showers from now until next Friday. We are definitely above average for the month of June but we are still behind for the year. We had a very dry January and February and April showers really didn't happen until May.

Surprise! It's raining.

I never did get out into the yard on Tuesday night. There was too much to do inside when I got home from work. So I thought I might have an opportunity last night, but surprise, it's raining.

The family schedule will prevent me from trying again either tonight or tomorrow night, so I am hoping for dryer conditions on Saturday and Sunday. Yes I know that Sunday is Father's day and the way my week has been going, working outside sounds kind of nice.

Tops on my list to do is to transplant some annuals I started from seed. I have Marigolds to plant in my veggie garden and in my flower beds. I have cosmos to plant along the inside of my fence of my veggie garden and I have zinnias to plant in a flower bed.

Then I have still a good chunk of mulching required in my veggie garden. Once caught up there, I need to mulch my flower beds.

Notes for June 16, 2009

I was pleasantly surprised this morning. We got more rain during the night. :-) I'll take it. My sandy soil can definitely take it in. During the summer I have to water every 3 to 4 days when it doesn't rain. Anyway I emptied 0.5" this morning.

I never did work outside last night. Between the nearby thunder and honey-do list inside, I thought better to work inside and try again tonight.

I have some transplanting of annuals to do and of course some mulching. I have some yellow marigolds and cosmos ready for the veggie patch and some zinnias to go in another flower bed.

Notes for June 14, 2009

I emptied 0.3" from the rain gauge this morning and in the next town over they got 2.5" early Saturday afternoon in about an hour and half.

I did end up cutting the grass in the afternoon but when it drizzled in the AM I wasn't sure if it would be dry by the afternoon. Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn't get home from church until later than normal and it was dry by that time. But my window of opportunity was limited since I had to take my daughter some where later in the afternoon before dinner. I did guilt my son into helping me but he didn't come out until I was more than half done.

While I was cutting the grass I did come across a toad. I once read that the leading killer of suburban toads is the lawn mower. So I stopped the mower and tried to corner him so I could pick him up and put him in my veggie patch. But he did a circle on me and went for cover in a hole in a stump of a tree I had cut down last spring. What a perfect place, especially since there was a piece of a brick partially covering the hole giving him shade.

I did take a walk through the veggie garden to check things out. The cukes are about 18" tall now so I made sure they knew where the fence is. I grow a vine type of cuke (not a bush variety). It also looks like all the sunflowers I planted last week have been dug up. Looks like I will have to start them somewhere else and transplant them in future. The first green beans planted are about to flower.

The tiger lillies in my yard have started to bloom. The blooms aren't as tall this year. Last year some of the blooms were 6 foot tall.

After I cut the grass I did my customary cooling down while replenishing fluids and sitting on the back patio. There was a nice breeze and sitting in the shade and it felt wonderful. As I was listening to the birds, it sounded as if they were telling each other "there fresh cut grass here!" Not that they are eating the grass but can now walk in the grass (because its shorter) to get at the bugs in the grass.

I am hoping the weather cooperates this evening to do some more transplanting and mulching.

Notes for June 12, 2009

I emptied 0.35" from the rain gauge this morning. We had a good downpour in the night that woke us up (briefly). Luckily the thunder was at a distance or the golden retriever would have told us it was storming as well.

The family schedule has a busy Saturday but Sunday looks like I will be able to work outside. I have to at least get the grass cut with all this rain we have been getting. Of course I really like to bank this rain until July or August when I am watering the veggies every three or four days as the water just filters through my sandy soil.

Notes for June 11, 2009

I got a little bit of time last night after dinner and knocked out a few chores and parts of others.

First I transplanted a yellow marigold that was freelancing on the outside of the veggie garden and transplanted it to inside the fence. Then I planted three of the cosmos that I started back on May 13Th. Only three of them were big enough. It was then that I noticed that almost all of the mixed cosmos I started back on May 30Th had been dug up and the roots eaten by some critter. So I replanted some cosmos seeds in seed starting six packs. I guess I'm really going to try to plant my annuals earlier so that they are of a good size by now and maybe not interesting enough for food for whatever critter. I also noticed that the two remaining sunflowers had also been eaten. Hopefully whatever critter will leave them alone after the seeds I planted this past weekend germinate. But if they get eaten, there will be no sunflowers this year.

Next I did some mulching in the veggie garden. The one (smaller) compost pile is nearly gone but I still have one and a half left. I still have a bunch to mulch but I would say that the veggie garden is more than half mulched. I am waiting for some of my marigolds get bigger to transplant so I can plant them in between my tomatoes and peppers and then I will mulch those tomatoes and peppers. In any case I did mulch all of my cukes and one double row of tomatoes (I planted marigolds among them from the freelancing marigolds I transplanted). The second row of green beans will be ready to mulch soon.

Then I cleaned out the dead stems and leaves from my five large pots of chives. I have two kinds of chives, regular and garlic. The regular chives are rounded and the garlic chives are more flat or oval. Now there is a small pile of leaves and stems that will get mulched by the mower (probably on Sunday).

As I reclined on the patio after working in the yard, I did notice that my yellow Stella D'Oro daylilly is in bloom. The rest of my common orange daylillys are are about to explode in the next few weeks.

I also noticed that all the leaves on my beautiful Columbine (see pictures June 4, 2009) have been eaten. They are nothing now but stems and dead flowers. this is so disheartening. I started these Columbine from seed last year and was so glad how they survived the winter and how beautifully they exploded in bloom this year. I was so proud and thought I got to start more from seed next year. Now I'm not so sure.

I have been in this home since the fall of 2000 and its hard finding what works and what doesn't. What will survive the winter and what isn't food for my local wildlife. So far I can really only say Iris and Tiger Lillies. the tiger Lillies I am told they are a favorite of deer. Thank goodness I don't have a problem with them. Last fall I was wondering where I was going to plant any new perennials, every flowere bed was full. this Spring I noticed I had lost a bunch of stuff either to the cold (we had negative temperatures one weekend) or to be being buried in leaves that i couldn't get to until mid Spring. I lost a whole bed of dianthus and gloriosa daisies and several spots of Iris and Daylillies. I lost a Bleeding heart and several hardy Geraniums. My Spiderworts and Yarrow are severely diminished. Several but not all of my large Sedums are down to one stem which were a nice bunch. I wish I had started some new perennial from seed this year but I still have to experiment for what will survive winter and critters.

Notes for June 10, 2009

Emptied 0.75" from the rain gauge yesterday afternoon. Thought we were going to get more, but it went to our south.

Last week a co-worker of mine showed me pictures of snapping turtles laying egs in his mulch pile (he lives near a small stream). This week I have noticed the remains of several turtles run over.

Summer can't be far

Last night I noticed my first lightning bug of the season. Two days earlier than last year. I haven't been looking for them or really been outside at night to notice, but last night I was outside for a moment and saw one.

I will never forget one summer night while visiting relatives in Ohio and sitting on the porch in the before bed and listening to the nearby stream. The hillside across the street was covered with lightning bugs.

Staked and tied!

I finally did get some time in the garden yesterday afternoon but it wasn't until 2 PM.

I picked another handful of radishes and then pulled out the remaining plants since they were all bolting into flowers.

I lost a couple of cucumber plants and so I transplanted one to where I had lost three right next to each other. The plants are now just under a foot tall. In the next week or so I will be moving the vine so it can find the fence.

I planted the remaining volunteer yellow marigolds that I dug up when I planted my tomatoes and peppers. I still have some I started from seed but they are still kind of small. I planted the marigolds in between some of the cucumbers and then in between some of the tomatoes. The rest of the yellow marigolds will go between the rest of the tomatoes and then the peppers.

Something has eaten all but two of my sunflowers and luckily I had another packet of seeds. If these get eaten, I don't think I am going to try to plant them again this year. The rabbits can't get into my veggie garden where I have the sunflowers so my next suspect is the chipmunk. They seem to be abundant this year, or it may be just one. but in any case I am seeing him/her more often this year than in years past.

My second green beans have nicely sprouted. They are all about three inches tall. The first green beans are about a foot tall and have about three to four sets of full leaves.

I lost a tomato plant so I transplanted a volunteer in its place. Then of course I found two more that were bigger and better looking than the one I transplanted. I have a pepper plant that is looking suspect so I might replace it with another volunteer.

Then I staked all of my tomato and pepper plants using 8 ft 1x2's for my tomatoes and shorter pieces for my peppers. I purchased a couple of old bedsheets from the thrift store last winter and cut one up to use for making strips for tying. I first cut into fourths and then made small cuts on the edge about 3/4" apart to rip off a strip as I need them to tie the tomatoes and peppers. Then I tied almost all of the tomatoes and will wait for the peppers to get bigger before I tie them.

Next job: mulching!

Notes for June 7, 2009

I emptied 0.7" from the rain gauge yesterday. It was a nice even rain all day on Friday, nothing real heavy.

I never did get to the garden yesterday. Between the family schedule and we had a homeowner problem rear its ugly head that I am hoping to get taken care of today. I am hoping to get out into the garden this afternoon.

Notes for Friday June 5, 2009

Emptied 0.45" from the rain gauge this morning in the rain. I hope the rain continues as they say its supposed to for the rest of the day

I have a long list of garden chores to do this weekend but the family schedule is going to take a large chunk of Saturday. I have much staking and mulching to do. And I need to transplant some annuals (some that I started and some that I dug up in the veggie garden). I have noticed that I have other marigolds coming up in my flower beds and they need to be thinned/transplanted since they are coming up in bunches where I had them planted last year. But the tomato and pepper plant staking is the priority. I may get some time Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon and evening. We have things going on tonight as well and the rain isn't supposed to let up until tonight and tomorrow and Sunday are supposed to be beautiful.

As I emptied the rain gauge I observed the cosmos germination. About 50 percent of the mixed sprouted, about 20 percent of the red sprouted and none of the orange have sprouted so far. I guess I have to start them indoors and earlier. Unfortunately I don't have enough room to do as much seed starting indoors as I want.

Notes for June 4, 2009

Emptied 0.3" from the rain gauge this morning. Looks like the Moses effect is in full summer operation now. You see, the Delaware River acts like a wall of fire and doesn't let much rain cross the Delaware River from Pennsylvania into New Jersey. Then what does get across is divided like the Red Sea making the storm break up and rain to the north or to the south of my garden. Welcome to the Coastal Plain of southern New Jersey.

On another thing... it really annoys me to see sprinklers in use in the rain. This morning on my way to work I saw someone's sprinklers on and it was raining. I realize they are on timers and its on every day at this time but I think there should be an ordinance that if a sprinkler system is on a timer it should have a moisture sensor so that it doesn't run if its raining or rained recently.

Notes for June 3, 2009

I bought this Salvia plant last year from a roadside stand.

I started this Columbine from seed last year and I didn't think it was going to survive the winter.

Here are two more Columbine that I started from seed last year and again I am still surprised they survived the winter.

Here is a beautiful yellow Iris.

I still don't remember what this plant is. I started it from seed last year. I tied it up right after taking this picture.

On Friday or Saturday of last week I saw a good size box turtle in the same flower bed as the Salvia. He was about 8 inches long. Didn't think about getting his picture until the next day.

Notes for June 1, 2009

Cut the grass but didn't have to cut all of it. Some spots weren't tall enough to cut due to the lack of rain. That made me think of watering and so after cutting the grass I watered the veggie garden and the patches of young grass.

I noticed last night that I have poor germination of sunflowers on one side of the garden. looks like I will be doing some transplanting when the seedlings get there first true leaves.

I started 32 cucumber plants. Lost one in transporting them outside. Planted 28 to begin with. Planted the remaining five a few days later after I noticed I lost a few. Last night I noticed I had lost five more (not all in the same spots as before).