Green Beanies!Happy Tuesday everyone! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, and somewhere there is a beasty critter with a tummy full of my strawberries! Oh raving disappointment! My strawberry plants this year are loaded with a magnificent harvest. Imagine me, every day, lovingly looking upon the little heart shaped fruits ... encouraging them to grow and ripen. Then imagine my furrowed brow and downturned face when I went to harvest the fruit only to discover that the magnificent red berries had already been consumed. Right. Off. The. Stem. Not picked, mind you. My children and spouse are innocent. No, some obnoxious beast ate them right off their stems leaving the top of the fruit on the plant. Oh, they didn’t touch the ones that haven’t turned red; nope they ate just the ripe ones. Grrrrrr. I’ve no clue what ate them. Raccoons? Mice? Opossums? Slugs? I don’t know where the blame rests, but you can definitely see “chew” marks and something out there has red strawberry juice trickling down its chin. Grrrrr, I say, Grrrrr!
Baby Lady Bug farming the Curly Leaf Parsley Anyway, these things happen. I may need to get creative in figuring out how to deter this from repeating. The rest of the garden is doing well. We had a huge thunder and lightning storm blow through last week, and I mean HUGE! Although we do get hail storms in the spring (little pea sized hail), thunder and lightning rare in these parts. There were such severe wind gusts that thousands were without power and there was tons of property damage. Had I not witnessed it myself, I could never have imagined the swirling mass of pollen that filled the air. The air was just clogged with yellow gunk everywhere! I hollered to my kids to close the windows as fast as they could, then they had to rinse off because of all the pollen coating everything. The hospitals were and continue to be inundated by folks suffering from an increase in severe allergies, so much so that the hospital closest to me had to set up a triage tent outside the emergency room to handle the influx of allergy and asthma patients. My son and I both have allergies, and we’ve been pretty miserable for the past few days. Usually the rain helps clear the air, but the pollen is now coating everything do to the wind storm. My garden beds are loaded with all sorts of pollen, and tree buds, and stuff from the storm. On the bright side, I’m seeing more bees this year than last year, so hopefully the garden will benefit from Mother Nature’s show of power.
Garbage Can PotatoesThese puppies are doing amazing! The plants now completely fill the can. One thing I did wrong ... I wanted to even out the dirt that I had incrementally added to what I call the potato jungle and so I kind of rocked/shook the can. BIG MISTAKE. Don’t do that! Centrifugal force caused the plants to congregate in the center with the dirt out at the edges. I tried to rearrange them after my error, but it was extremely hard to do. As you can see by the photo, the plants continue to thrive, so I don’t think I hurt anything, but be sure you don’t do what I did!
Italian Parsley
First Tomato Flower (See how the green leaves are kind of yellow? Hmm.)
Little Sweet Pea from last week did make it! I just love how the pea plant leaves unfold right from the very start!
Marigolds to add color and bring on the bees!
Um, I’m embarrassed to ask this, but how does one harvest this type of lettuce? It’s my first time growing it, and I’m guessing I just snip off the leaves? Anyone care to enlighten this novice gardener?Still have to construct the vine support for the beans and peas. Plus, I still need to cage my tomatoes. What’s new in your garden?
21 comments:
I'm guessing you chop it off at the roots. I don't know if it will grow more leaves if you just pick some, but you can try that! Your plants are so far ahead of mine. I should have preplanted inside. Maybe next year.
Hey Marjie! You're not behind at all!! This time last year, I hadn't even STARTED yet! Plus, those 2 weeks of unseasonably hot, dry weather we had at the end of May worked in my favor. I didn't start anything inside first, although I'd like to try that next year, too. I did purchase tomato, cucumber, and pepper starter plants. I'm getting ready to plant another garbage can of a different variety of potatoes as these have been so successful. If you want to try, too, just set aside a couple of potatoes to let them sprout, and give it a go! I suspect I'm going to be giving away lots of potatoes. I'm stunned at how much faster they grow in the can, or as in your case, dumpster! :-)
Let's see, I killed my basil and something's eating my lime tree. Grr! Just as mad about your strawberries, that little imp that ate them!
Those marigolds are BEAUtiful!
Nice garden shots! If I remember right you just snip off leaves a little above the base and the plant will keep growing new ones until it bolts from the heat.
garbage can potatoes - i love the idea
our strawberries were kind of laden in the beginning of the season, but they arent doing well now - i wonder if its too hot for them and i need to shade them
Gorgeous. My garden is well behind yours (and quite a bit smaller, at that) -- so I'm thoroughly enjoying your adventures.
Except for the mangey thing that's stealing strawberries. FIE on that beast!
You think people would really read a Triple Twirl? I always feel like I write too much!
I forgot to tell you, when I was at Agway last month, I bought a spray bottle of deer and rabbit repellant. Smells like pee when you spray it on the edges of the garden, but the smell goes away in under an hour. I have reapplied every 3 days or so, and have had no nibbling on my plants. Of course, I have no strawberries. Or, you could put that filmy cotton whose name escapes me on stakes around it...they sell it in the grocery store...I'll remember later what it's called. Damn memory! Never remember what I want when I want it!
Hi Paula, your garden is beautiful! Its so much fun to watch everything mature. When my children were little they loved to go out and pick the harvest. They were very fond of little 3 - 4 inch carrots. Very fond memories.
Nice garden.I just stumbled upon your blog.have a great day..
Hi Paula, thanks for stopping by Mick's gardening blog, we too are having mixed results at the mo. Shame about your strawberries, that's the trouble with soft fruits every bug and critter for miles around wants a piece of the action. :-(
Well done with the spuds - we have lost one batch but the other is doing great. We are also considering potatoes in containers next year.
Your lettuce looks fabulous, I would say just snip off what you need. We have had terrible results with lettuce and spinach, as we have only a very small window of cool weather, and then it just gets way too hot.
Oh, I would be so mad! While you slept, they feasted! Dang.
Your garden is beautiful, Paula.I had hoped to post some garden pics, but maybe next week.
For the lettuce , just cut off what you need. when the weather gets hot, it may taste bitter, but leaving it in the fridge for a couple of days should calm the bitterness. Have a great week!
Hi Paula
My parents grew several types of frilly leafed lettuce over iur Summer. From fairly early on they picked a few leaves every few days, leaving their plants in the ground. If you have nore than one plant just pick a selection of leaves. May be better for the plant if you cut rather than rip off the leaves.
Keep at it and you'll have a source of young leaves for a quite while.
Veggie garden looking wonderful despite the woe over the strawberries, I tell Dad about your successful potato crop
Huggles from a damp NZ, Michelle
and i continue to be jealous. :)
the marigolds are lovely, first of all. and all the greenery holds so much promise!!
I am so jealous of your garden! and that storm was cool I was in Petsmart and the power went out! I hope you are getting rain today we sure are!
Look at you, Mrs. Green Thumb!
Also, I'm so glad you showed your potatoes. I told my husband that I wanted to grow some potatoes in a garbage can, that someone was doing it, but I couldn't remember who! Now, I can show him your beauties!
Cheesecloth. It's cheesecloth.
For you, dear, double edition of Twirl on Friday.
We did mound planting of the potatoes, its our first year trying to grow them. I laid on the dirt for weeks and then finally let them go when I ran out of places in the raised bed to store the dirt.
Problem is, we then got a huge growth spurt and then rain. Now all my potatoes are laying down in the bed :(
I hope they make it. ANyway thought I would say hello!! I have been following.
so... HI!
Lisa
This a wonderful Garden~~~
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