Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Gardening

Cliff and I went for our walk much earlier than usual; Cliff got tired of my complaints that he takes too long to get out of the house in the morning.  Here's the thing:  If he isn't ready to head out there until 9:30 in the morning, I can't start certain things because we're going to walk, and there are some things you just can't walk off and leave.  I do feel for Cliff, because it's his retirement, and he shouldn't have to hurry up and do anything; he's been on a schedule his whole life, and I try to accomodate him.  Anyway.  We walked, we made a quick trip to the nearest grocery store, and were still back home and outside working by 9:30.  Wonderful!
I picked another gallon of strawberries.  We had some for dinner, and the I froze the rest.  
I cooked dinner and stemmed the berries while things were cooking.  After we ate, I went to tend the garden.  
Insects and bugs of all kids are starting to show up.  I saw the white moths flying around that lay eggs in the cabbage, eggs that hatch into nasty cabbage worms.  


See the holes in the leaves?  That's how I know they've been busy.  One cabbage plant, out of all of them, looks particularly distressed.


I don't know if this is bug damage, or if perhaps Peter Rabbit came along and helped himself.  Anyway, I sprayed Sevin on all the cabbage plants.  I plant seeds, rather than buying the plants that are started.  That saves a lot of money, and I have good luck with them.


The Good Friday potatoes have been hosting some sort of bug, too.  They also got some Sevin.  I had sprayed the St. Patrick's Day potatoes earlier, so they weren't too moth-eaten.  However, they got another dose.  Those, by the way, are almost ready to bloom.  We'll be having new potatoes before you know it.   
I sprayed the tomato plants with fungicide, hoping to ward off blight. 


This is some late lettuce.  I shouldn't have planted it, because we aren't even using the lettuce that's ready.  I'm too cheap to pay four or five dollars a pound for bacon, and the only way I like leaf lettuce is wilted, with bacon grease.  


I replanted sweet corn again!  The first planting would have done all right, but I didn't think it was going to grow and tilled it up.  That's when I saw the seeds had started to germinate.  The second planting got no rain for three weeks, so it came up spotty.  There's plenty of moisture in the ground today, so maybe third time will be charm.  If it doesn't rain, I now have a soaker hose.


My first radish crop this year was typical for me:  Nice radish tops, long skinny roots but no round radishes.  A couple of weeks later I planted the same kind of radish seeds and, lo and behold, RADISHES!  Cliff has had all the radishes he wants, this year.  I got brave and planted more today.  I can't imagine why the same seeds, in the same kind of soil, would perform differently at different plantings.  Maybe there is something to this business of "planting by the signs".    
That's it for garden news.  
I'm really frustrated with my Mac lately.  It loses connection several times a day, and I have to reboot to get connection back.  Four times so far today, and I've been outside most of the day, so I haven't even been using it that much.  
Maybe it's time to go back to Windows.  

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:57 PM

    Donna I drool over your pictures like a teenage boy over a playboy magazine. Love your blogs, & the pictures of your garden make my hungry. I don't have a garden so guess I'll head to the store & see what they have in fresh veggies.

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  2. My husband has started some seeds but I'm not too sure how that is going to come out because he put a lot of seeds in one pot and all the sprouts are coming up clumped together. He might have to thin them out. It has been so darn cloudy and cool. I have some lettuce that is coming up from last year in the garden but I will go and get some from the nursery soon as well as broccoli and cabbage.

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  3. I swear I think BUGS are the root of all evil. The pesky little things BOTHER me. Shame they ruined your plants. We LOVE radishes here too. Haven't grown any in years. It delights me to hear about all the goodies in your garden. ENJOY! take care.

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  4. We have friends who raise a lot of tomatoes every year and he sprays fungicide regularly. He starts when they are small.
    I know when we were raising 20 acres of onions that rain or sprinkler, (water and mud splashing off of the ground) was the worst thing that could happen.
    Things went better with gravity feed irrigation, or in your case a soaker hose. Our experts told us onions like dry tops and wet bottoms. I guess kinda like a baby.

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  5. Good old seven dust has been around for years and years and is still doing a great job. Sure saves a lot of plants and gardens.

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  6. Good looking garden. Sevin dust is great though I always worry about using it.

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  7. And now I have the song "Sowing the Seeds of Love" by Tears for Fears stuck in my head.

    What's up with that?

    More coffee over here, please!

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  8. Oh Donna.... sevin is a known carcinogen!! I wish you wouldn't do that to things you intend to eat. Look for more natural solutions, dear. Please!

    Peace~ Andrea

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