Notes for Thursday July 30, 2009

Well after being teased for the last five or six days, I finally got some measurable rain. It had been raining all around us the past week and all we got was occasional sprinkles. Last night's rain was accompanied with strong winds and decent lighting storm. I say "decent" because I like thunderstorms. This morning I emptied 0.9" from the rain gauge and noticed I have some branches to pick up before cutting the grass the next time. Last night when I got home from work I did pick six cukes and two Juliet tomatoes (I thought they were a grape tomato but they are more like a small plumb).

Notes For Sunday July 26, 2009

Yesterday the family schedule allowed me to work in the yard and I was able to take advantage of it and still catch up to the family. And at bedtime I was feeling it.

First, I picked two gallons of green beans. I probably should have picked last week because I realized I really need to spread the planting from three weeks apart to four weeks apart. The row of Lima Beans I planted last week is sprouting now. Then I tied and trimmed the tomato plants. I found two cherry tomatoes that were ripe. Actually they were more like a grape tomato. This year I am trying Juliet (an elongated grape tomato) because I was tired of losing so many cherry tomatoes because they have a tendency to split. And of course they never made it out of the garden and I ate them right there. They aren't as sweet or as juicy as a cherry tomato but they were surprisingly very meaty and very good. I also picked 6 cukes.

Then I finally finished mulching my flower beds and transplanted a few marigolds and cosmos left. I still would like to mulch the front of the house and will probably will do that next.

After mulching, I cut the grass. With the dry weather we've had, I grass didn't need cutting. While cutting the grass I avoided running over a toad. This must have father or mother toad. He was a good size one.

Notes for Friday July 24, 2009

As I was watching out my office window from work yesterday and the periodic heavy rain, I oftened wondered how much rain I was getting at home (an hour away south). Ok, I was also wishing I was home weeding or mulching, even though it was raining. On my way home yesterday I drove through a moderate to light rain the whole way home and saw many healthy puddles until I was about two miles from home where the raods were practically dry and hardly any puddles. This morning I emptied only 0.15" from the rain gauge.

Notes for July 23, 2009

Well I didn't do any mulching last night. I wanted to and I was prepared to do so but it rained before I got home from work and there were puddles all over so everything was soaked and I didn't feel like getting wet (sweat would have been enough). Combine that with a family schedule event (which the timing wasn't discussed with me although I should have presumed so) which would have required me to be bathed (if having been working in the yard) before dark. In simple terms, it was my daughter's 17th birthday and we were going to the grandparents house for ice cream cake (which we do every year for both kids) around 7:30-8:00 (so it didn't leave me much time to work outside and I would have had to cut it even shorter to get a shower). In any case... I emptied 0.6" from the rain gauge when I got home from work yesterday and after dinner I did pick about 10 cucumbers. Maybe tonight...???

Notes for July 22, 2009

It rained for most of the day yesterday and I was nicely surprised when I emptied 0.9" from the rain gauge when I got home from work.  It's so nice when Mother Nature does the watering chore, now maybe I can get to finishing mulching the flower beds?

A success!

Last week I had put in some overtime and wasn't getting home until 8:30 or 9:00 for most of the week. Friday morning I sent a text message to my teenage kids and asked them to do a couple of household chores for me. I also asked my daughter to pick some of the cucumbers for me (I hadn't picked since last weekend). Luckily I didn't have to work on Saturday and was able to start catching up on the household chores. I also had a window of time to work in the garden where I tied and trimmed the tomatoes and picked the third picking from the first green beans. In the past I noticed that the beans drop off dramatically after the third picking so I pulled the plants after the third picking. So now I had an empty row and so I planted Lima Beans. I also picked some more cucumbers. It wasn't until Sunday while I was watering the veggie garden that I noticed a success that warmed my heart. The first planting of green beans were shading the next door row of green peppers and I have peppers coming. This is a first for me for July since I started gardening here when we bought our house in the fall of 2000. I have a semi wooded lot and I have always said that my garden gets only about 3-4 hours of good sunlight a day. I have lost some trees but the trees lost really didn't effect the veggie garden. Every year I since I started my veggie garden I wasn't getting any peppers until September. I know peppers like full sun and that's the only reason I can think of why I wasn''t getting them during the summer. It seemed like the plants finally decided that in September they better start making peppers because they're weren't going to get anymore sun. Last year I tried a different variety that had a shorter maturation time (by two weeks) and to my surprise I did get peppers two weeks earlier than in previous years. This year I found another variety that's time was even two weeks shorter and its those plants that have peppers on them. The variety is New Ace and it looks like its going to be a staple from now on.

Summer Has Just Started?

If you don't count the 90 degree day (s) we had in April (yes April), then Summer started yesterday. Yesterday was the first 90 degree plus day and the mugginess was there too. Now maybe my tomatoes and peppers will respond? I emptied 0.3" from the rain gauge this morning. Not quite enough to not water but I will take it. Especially since I have been working late this week and wasn't able to water anyway (nor pick cucumbers either). So when I get home I haven't had enough time to write in my blog or check out others. This entry is being entered through email.

Notes for July 12, 2009

Here is a pic of the veggie garden, beans in the front hiding the peppers, tomatoes tied to the tall stakes and cukes in the back on their own fence.

Here are the beans in the front. Each row was planted three weeks apart (the family complained when all three rows had to be picked at once). I started picking last week so I will be picking each week for the next seven which puts me into September. The first row (on the right) I picked their second picking yesterday and I filled two one gallon bowls.

This flower bed has mostly annuals. Our cold winter this past year was down to the negative numbers and the winter winds buried it with a foot of leaves that I was unable to dig out until late and so all but a few volunteer daisies survived. I replanted some volunteer daisies in the back with zinnias in the middle and some marigolds in the front.

Yesterday in addition to the second picking of the first green beans, I picked 12 cukes. Then I tied and trimmed the tomatoes and finished mulching the third green beans. Next week I will pull the first green beans and replant lima beans. When the second green beans are done I am thinking of planting spinach and the third will be replaced with radish. My tomatoes will be super late this year because of the cooler wet June. I will have some grape tomatoes in a few weeks but the bigger varietties will be into August.

Last night Mother Nature smiled on me and provided 0.75" rain, otherwise I was going to water today. Unfortunately is was a noisy rain complete with light show which the thunderstorm proximity alarm didn't like (the 80 lb Golden Retriever) so we had company in bed with us from 1 AM to 2 AM.

What's in bloom?

We'll start off with a bonus, two for the price of one. We have a dark red daylilly and some white Yarrow.


Here is a lavender day lilly.

And now I have a double bloomer! There is a story to go with this one. Got this one (and others not blooming this year) from the next door neighbor of a relative while attending the annual fourth of July family picnic last year.

Any guesses? How about ONION! Yes, my onions are in bloom.



Here is a look at my onion patch. they are starting to fall over so I will be picking in a few weeks.

Yesterday I watered the veggie garden and the annuals planted this year. Tied and trimmed the tomatoes (thank goodness that most of the stunted one are looking better). I figure the wet and not very warm June has put me back about a month. I also picked 10 cucumbers.

First beans and cukes

My other day lillies have started to bloom. I planted this one last year.

Thursday afternoon I had a large dead oak tree cut down. It died last summer. I don't know what from. Gypsy moth caterpillars were really bad two years ago and this tree did survive that but then died a few months after spring started last year. I wanted the tree service to it cut down on Friday when I had the day off but it was a cash deal and they finally called me back Thursday afternoon while I was work and said we'll be there in a half an hour. Wouldn't have been a bad day if my wife's car battery hadn't died when she tried to move the car back in the driveway after the tree was cut down.

I had Friday off and I got a bunch done before we went to some local fireworks. I picked the first picking from the first green beans. ( We had them for dinner tonight in a green bean casserole at my brother's house celebrating the 4th and mom's 82nd birthday. They were good). I then tied the tomatoes and trimmed their suckers. The third green beans started to sprout a few days ago.

I finished mulching flower bed #4 and then mulched all of flower bed #5 and began mulching #3. Before I mulched #5, I planted some more marigolds, zinnia and cosmos in flower bed #5. Yes I know I am going out of order but these two gardens needed more attention first (they're the youngest) flower beds 1, 2 & 3 are closer to autopilot.

With the tree down I had to install a post in the ground for the birdfeeder. One end of the hanging wire was attached to the dead tree. I bought a 10 ft 4x4 post a couple of weeks ago in anticipation. I also installed several new posts for the clothesline and removed the hooks from the trees.

This afternoon I watered the veggie garden and the recently planted marigolds, zinnias and cosmos. I really don't like to water in the afternoon but the family schedule left me no choice since we were going to dinner at my brother's house and this morning I did make it to church. After I watered I noticed that I could pick several cucumbers and I ended up picking seven. So this weekend I picked the first fruits of green beans and cukes. Yummy!

The cucumbers are growing nicely. I grow a seedless burpless, which is the family's favorite.


The Bee Balm is starting to bloom. My teenage daughter has even noticed.

I just planted my third green beans. Each row was planted three weeks apart. I will be picking from the first row (on the far right) this weekend and when its finished in three weeks, I will be picking from the middle row. I noticed the third green beans are starting to sprout.

The tomatoes are growing but in the past they have been bigger but its been a mild (not hot) June with plenty of rain.

It hasn't measurably rained since last week so I watered my veggies tonight as well as the marigold and zinnia I planted along the house on Sunday.

Notes for July 1, 2009

Yes I watched weather radar do its magic again. There was a nice line of thunderstorms marching across Pennsylvania only to break up as it crossed the Delaware river into the Coastal Plain of southern New Jersey. So all I got last night at dinner time was dark clouds and a couple of sprinkles that would not even warrant turning on the wiper blades. With that being said... I emptied 0.15" from the rain gauge this morning from an overnight shower. Hopefully we will get some more today, otherwise I need to water my veggie garden.