Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Good times

Cliff and I spent a lot of time outside with the baby yesterday.  Here you can see her enjoying the chickens as the chickens enjoy their pen.  It got pretty warm in the afternoon, and the hens spent a lot of time under their house where it was cooler.  If they start laying eggs under there, they are going to be confined inside the house until mid-afternoons.  So far, so good.  I average about five eggs a day from the six hens, now that the days are longer.  

We are not getting enough rain.  I sure hope that changes, because if it doesn't, this will be the third dry year in a row.  I really get tired of dragging soaker hoses from row to row.  

I set out my last two tomato plants yesterday; Burpee had a special three-plant price with no shipping charge, so I got two tomato plants and one sweet pepper plant.  Every year I tell myself I will only have eight plants, but I always end up with more.  This year it's a total of fourteen.  One of the tomatoes is a variety I had never heard of:  Steakhouse Hybrid.  It's supposed to bear the largest tomatoes of any plant.  


Now, I don't expect a tomato this huge.  In fact, I have learned not to expect anything when trying new varieties.  Last year I had a couple of "Mortgage-lifter" tomatoes, an old heirloom type that were supposed to be huge.  I only got puny little tomatoes from it, and not many, either.

Finally I saw a couple of green beans breaking through the crusty soil this morning.  Radishes are doing the same thing they always do for me... most of them are making tops, not roots, and then going to seed.  I'm having a problem with horses running through my garden again, which I thought was a thing of the past.  I'm not sure what the deal is, but at least once a month the new neighbors have horses get out.  Cliff thinks it's due to a faulty closure on one of their fancy gates.  In the winter it didn't matter much, but yesterday one of their horses got out and left great big craters in the garden everywhere he stepped.  Looks like we are going to have to electric fence the garden like we used to. 



7 comments:

  1. I can't grow radishes either. All I get are tops, but luckily they are edible! I might put some plants in next week if the weather holds out. I have chard in already.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How do you keep the chiggers and ticks off that baby? Our little neighbor girl rolls around in the grass whenever she comes to visit, and never picks up anything. I can just go to move the hose, and I get eaten alive. What's the secret?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The baby looks cute out there on the grass. I'd be worried sick about her getting stung by a bee. Probably cause I'm allergic. A shame about the horses causing trouble.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I remember how amazing it was when my little ones first put their feet or hands in the grass. It was a delight to watch them too. We here have rain about every other day and it's making the weeds grow really well. I don't put in a garden but got brave and put flowers in boxes on the porch. I'm thinking even if we have a frost yet, it won't hit them there on the porch. This is the first really sunny day we've had in about a week now. Enjoy that good life!

    ReplyDelete
  5. We don't seem to have chiggers and ticks in the yard. Now, the woods is another story, ticks are awful there. And in the evening, mosquitoes can be terrible, but I don't have her in the evening.

    Most of the time I was sitting right next to her in the grass, watching for bees. I only got further away to take the picture.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hope you do get some rain soon, and I hope all your plants do well. Andrew's girlfriend is originally from Chicago, and she has always lived in apartments. She went to my Mom's in the country recently and was so amazed and excited about the things she was able to see "in person" for the first time -- like a clothes line. lol She is so sweet and cute. She just moved to a new apartment that has a little deck, and she has planted a container tomato. She is super excited and determined that she will get a few "home grown" tomatoes out of it. I hope she does. I almost wish we'd made plans to garden again this year so that she could experience a real garden. She has asked Eler Beth if she can help do yard work this summer because she has never had the opportunity to do that before. She would really love your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I only want tomatoes! I was successful last year because we had a sunny summer. (lack of rain isn't an issue here)I tried green beans, but may have planted them too late. What do you think I did wrong? I wish you lived closer so I could get your advice!

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!