The Garden Chronicles - Week 15
No rain yet. I've only had an inch in the past 5 weeks. The forecasted heat wave didn't fully materialize, though, so that's good. It has been getting into the mid and upper 90's, but no 100's so far.
The grass is starting to go brown, but at least I've hardly had to mow it lately. A decent trade-off in my book.
- Sunday, July 19 -
Just after sunrise.
.
Cool and pleasant.
.
Corn.
.
Starting to silk out and make ears.
.
Larry.
.
Polly's not quite sure what to make of him. 
.
Rutgers tomatoes, onions.
.
I suddenly have a lettuce crisis on my hands. Some of it is trying to go to seed before I'm ready to pick it...
.
...and the next batch is being eaten by rabbits. Yep, rabbits. I caught them in the act.
.
Apparently, they pulled off a covert operation and disabled my defenses.
.
I had no idea rabbits were strong enough to do this sort of thing.
.
They've eaten some beans...
.
...and some beets. The fiends! I've already picked up some rabbit wire, and I'm going to be working on my fence in the near future.
.
Carrots.
.
Beans.
.
Butternut squash and the garden sprinkler. It was time to put it out.
.
It's just an oscillating sprinkler attached to a makeshift platform that slides down onto a t-post. The arm sticking out to the right keeps the hose from pulling down on the drive mechanism, which causes it to get stuck in one place. It doesn't quite water the whole garden, but I can clean up what it misses pretty easily.
.
In operation, making it rain. I only turned it on for a minute to take this pic. I'm not actually watering in full sun or anything.
.
Baby butternut squash.
.
Big Beef tomatoes.
.
Starting to ripen.
.
Eggplant. Bugs are having a field day with these things. I keep having to spray them with liquid Sevin.
.
The nearly-drowned peppers are really coming back strong now.
.
I was sure this one was going to die, but it's started making new leaves all of a sudden. It's the runt of the litter, I guess.
.
The backup peppers. Still going strong.
.
Flowering.
.
I think I have some mystery peppers. Two of the backups that I started from seed aren't looking right. They have different leaves...
.
... and they have purple flowers instead of white. What is up with the seed companies this year? Does anyone know what kind of pepper that might be?
.
First and second cucumbers.
.
These got picked before I started taking pictures.
.
One of these will be the third cucumber.
.
Watermelon vines. They're getting close to the bird netting, so that frame needs to come out of there soon. Maybe later today.
.
Baby watermelon.
.
The trellised butternut.
.
Cantaloupes.
.
Cantaloupe flower.
.
Baby cantaloupe, with dirt on it from watering.
.
Zucchini.
.
Zucchini.
.
A rosemary plant that just doesn't want to grow for some reason. I think May might have stunted it a bit.
.
Basil in a flower bed. It's already been picked once.
.
Apple.
.
The planter. Lettuce, butternut backups, and a new zucchini.
.
I can't remember what these are at the moment. Sometimes flower names escape me.
[Edit: They're zinnias. Thanks Greg]
.
Butterfly weed, with no visitors yet.
[Edit: Name correction, weed not bush. Thanks Dulay]
.
Hibiscus.
.
Begonias hanging from a tree in fiber pots.
.
The humble abode.
.
The rabbit wire I mentioned earlier. Four of them are for the garden fence. I'm going to make collapsible pea trellises (in folding four foot sections) out of the other one.
.
Some cukes and a zucchini from a couple of days ago. The zucchini was hiding, or it wouldn't have gotten quite so big.
.
Has anyone ever tried this stuff? I guess you pour it over sliced cucumbers and let them chill in the fridge for a while. It's supposed to make instant pickles, without canning. Should be crisp, too. No heating. I'm going to try it today or tomorrow.
.
Chipmunk.
Perfect timing. I probably couldn't get this shot again if you paid me. Apparently, the wrens have a second batch of chicks now. They keep bringing food to the birdhouse. They both showed up with food at the same time here. One went inside and presumably fed a chick, turned around, received what the other one had brought, turned back around and presumably fed another chick. Cooperation.
Trail camera pics.
I zoomed in on this one before compressing it for the blog, and this is a buck. He has antlers in velvet on his head. They were a bit hard to make out, but I think he's going to be an 8-pointer by the fall.
See you next week.
My son made the mistake of going outside barefoot earlier today. The grass was pretty unpleasant to walk on. It's dry here, too. Mid 90s or so, and humid. It gets cloudy, but the rain just won't fall.
I was going to pick some blackberries this morning, but this guy changed my mind for me. He was stretched out in front of the blackberry bush.
Yikes. Is that a blacksnake or something else? I had a 5 or 6 foot blacksnake raiding birdhouses last summer. Well, birdhouse, I should say. He only went in one (and I mean all the way in). I had a shotgun at the ready if he went for any more, but he slithered back off into the woods after. He was huge.
At least they're not dangerous. Still wouldn't want to step on one.
Yes, blacksnake. I'd say it was between 4.5 and 5 feet long - I couldn't really find the tip of his tail to get a good estimate. I found a snake skin under the concrete pad my AC unit sits on, and if it's his, I'd say it was about 5 feet long, too.
I thought about getting a hoe and disposing of him, but they keep rats and rattlesnakes away. But if my dog ends up getting bitten, all bets are off.
I've heard their bites tend to get nasty infections. Not venomous, but not something I want to test firsthand.
Your garden looks great...it's amazing what a little warm to hot weather will do.
I think your mystery flowers are zinnias.
Wish I still had a garden, but the community garden I was going to was several miles across town, and driving over there every other day with less than stellar growing results made me decide to just go over when I feel like it as a volunteer. I also volunteer at DBG...keeps me off the streets out of mischief.
*slaps forehead* Yup. Thanks.
You have zombie rabbits!
That orange plant is Asclepias tuberosa, butterfly weed. I have it all over in the woods.
I just dump cuks in cold water with kosher salt. Eat them by the handful, yum.
Already 20 quarts of pickled peppers and zucs. 5 pints of HOT peppers. Looked up how to make Kimchi and I may take a crack at it since I have a crap load of bok choy and nappa cabbage. I won't be putting anywhere near the amount of red pepper flacks they recommend though. Been eating green and wax beans every other day. Three kinds of cherry tomatoes ripening every day, plum and Cherokee red getting there.
BTW, your rosemary may be getting too much water. It likes hot dry conditions and it's a heavy feeder.
I blame the blog. As soon as I start doing this, all kinds of crazy crap starts happening. Idiotic weather, zombie critters, everything.
I knew it was butterfly something. I guess butterfly bush is something else. I'll change that. Thanks.
Oh yeah. They're great just by themselves, but more often than not I'll put a little salad dressing on them.
Sounds like you've been busy.
Do the leaves on your hot peppers look like the mystery one I pointed out above? The one with the purple flowers? I'm trying to figure out what it is.
Maybe. Thanks.
Maybe we have an envious practitioner of voodoo in our midst.
That looks like an Eggplant to me.
My butterfly bush, with a hummingbird moth.
Ah. So that's a butterfly bush. What I have is butterfly weed, I suppose.
I have a love-hate relationship with mine. They're pretty, and attract pollinators, but they grow like crazy. This one is in front of the cleanout for my chimney, and when I call the chimney service for my annual cleaning and inspection, he always asks if I've trimmed this thing back before he'll come to the house.
Is that a pond in the background ?
No, it's the foundation of my house. It does sort of look like water in this pic, now that you mention it.
Went to a garden party...
The corn looks great. Better every week.
A bunch of cucumbers. Now I have a craving...
I guess the waskaly wabbits have some strong jaws.
I just can't get over the balls on top of the poles. That was the best idea.
I didn't know aliens likes veggies. He sure didn't scare off the rabbits.
Those things are downright dangerous without them. Bend over to pull a weed when you're not paying close enough attention and... ugh, I don't even like imagining it.
Something about aliens and corn.
I don't think he was out there until just before sunrise, though. That was about the time I saw some funny lights up there.
Your garden is looking great and shows you have really been working. I got 2 cukes yesterday, some snack size okra and some cherry tomatoes. Very hot and dry, too hot to do much garden work
I hear you. The heat does takes a lot the fun out of it. July is statistically the hottest month for me, and now I have to work on my fence, in addition to doing a little planting for the fall.
Nor am I.
It's like a garden gnome, Buzz, but a little grey alien instead. It's for fun.
Same here, only we've had 1-3/4 inch since June 10th, one inch of which came Sunday morning.
The rabbit might be like a mouse, if the head fits so will the body
I've used that brand for canning, but for something close to pickles, I slice cukes into a bowl of vinegar and salt, otherwise I just open another jar of pickles from the year before, (I can enough to last a year and a half every year). As an add in some of the jars I place a whole jalapeno to make hot pickles and in all the jars I place one grape leaf in the bottom.
What does the grape leaf do?
Its suppose to keep the pickles crispier when canning by the hot water bath method. So far it seems to work when I use the grape leaves versus not using them, but the quality of the cucumbers could also be the difference, but since it doesn't hurt I'll keep using them.