Ugly Pea Trellis

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Brrrr . . . it's 31F out there right now.
Yesterday, the weather was finally nice enough to get a few things accomplished.

We got the pea trellis up and the peas planted - all two thousand of them (we've found they do much, much better when crammed on top of each other, as do the peppers (yes, it works!)) - and three rows of onions are in. The onions never did get their second haircut, but that's ok.

Since it's black, you can't really see the old bird netting we used in this picture, but it works a peach.



We chose 'Early Frosty' to trial this year since it's one we haven't yet grown and we haven't really been impressed with the 10 or so other varieties we've tried over the last 25 years.

"64days. Frosty produces a prolific yield of tightly packed 3.5" pods with medium-size peas. A distinct improvement over Little Marvel because of uniformity and higher number of peas per pod. It has a greater number of pods per plant as well. Plants are about 28" tall and have many double pods resulting in almost twice the yield of Little Marvel. Uniform dark green shelled peas are tender and sweet, both for fresh and frozen uses. The best early peas for home garden planting."

Sounds good, right?

Just like every year, the trellis looks ugly now (hey, you gotta do what you can with what you've got), but it'll look fab covered with pea pods! You won't even be able to tell what's under there by the time we're harvesting and freezing them.

Happy (ugly trellis) Growing!
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Mid July Update

Wow, what a difference two whole days of heat, sun and no rain can make. The ground actually looks dry - I'd forgotten what dry soil looks like!

For those of you in the upper eastern states - hang in there, it's on its way. I'm outside blowing the good weather in your direction. Man, my lips are tired! :(

An update on how well the tomato bale experiment is doing: Fantastic!



Thank God I haven't seen hide nor hair of the blight. ~fingers crossed~ Pays a bit to start your own seed in this instance. I think I only have one close neighbor that gardens and he grows his own also.
:)
Bonnie Plants first said they accepted that they were to blame, now this:

Dennis Thomas, Bonnie Plants general manager, insists there never was any evidence of blight at any of the company's 61 growing stations nationwide and that his company did not ship out any infected plants. "None whatsoever," he said. "The last inspections we've had in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and in West Virginia today, showed negative."

One of those things that makes you go, hmmmm...

On to happier stuff.

I only got one plant from the strawberry petunia seed (stupid weather!) but what a bloom it is!


Things that are finally taking off:

Popcorn


Potato (don't mind the weeds. potato is a DH thing, not a me thing, so unless he weeds them...)


Peppers (looking better!)


Onions are looking good.


Carrots have gone bonkers!


Yellow and green bush beans are finally flowering. Interesting how you can easily tell which row are which.


We had the first cabbage salad of the year yesterday. Yum! Was fabulous. I honestly should have let it go a few more days, but well, you know...
The cauliflower is almost ready and huge.
Half a gallon of peas in the freezer so far.

I guess that's it for the veg, so on to what few flowers I have that the freaking slugs didn't eat.

The view from my living room last week.


The honey bees are swarming the borage now that the sun has returned.


The bee balm is finally open for the hummers. They've been cleaning out the feeders in a day!





I lurve gloriosa daisies.


The lavender is looking beautiful.


Lilies are so fab they almost glow.


and last but not least, the coolest visitors of all to my flower beds-


Hope everyone's gardens are growing like gangbusters!
Happy gardening.
:)

(wow, I actually titled the post as June instead of July - talk about a Freudian slip - I'm still subconsciously waiting on some nice june weather! lol)

Much Better Weather

The sun finally came out and things are looking better.
More flower beds are going in.

The shed is built. Yay! We've needed one desperately for the last 25 years.
DH came across some used wood someone was getting rid of and, hurrah, it was enough to do the whole thing! Plus a leftover piece for a sorta-deck for the sliding glass doors. The kids, boyfriends/girlfriends and friend showed up to help get it finished. (They thought DH and I were a little to slow on the progress I guess. lol, it was just the two of us, what did they expect?) The friend just hung out and supervised. The kids brought a whole BBQ meal too boot! (I have some great kids, eh?)
:)
In progress.


Finished. Well, except for some paint.



With a little sun and heat, the peppers are looking much, much better! Please ignore all those weeds - it has been way too wet to even walk in there.


The peas are covered with blooms and pods.


The toms have blossoms! Woohoo!



Even the azaleas I grew from seed are looking pretty darn good.




Lynchnis - major color. This poor thing is sooo in the wrong spot for it.


The peach leaf bellflowers are at their best right now.


As are the delphs.
The rose campion is so bright it glows neon.


Anthony waterer spirea is going gangbusters.
The Halward's silver blooms a few weeks before the Anthony, and I neglected to take pics.


The sweet william and stella are doing well. Not sure I like this combo, but it's staying this way for a while.


The slugs have gotten completely out of control with this weather(think hundreds within a few square feet). The beans are half eaten away, the marigolds, zinnias and dahlias are nothing but tiny stumps having had their leaves totally eaten away. I've resorted to starting watermelon and zukes inside to get enough growth on them to survive - the slugs have cleaned out 3 plantings of seed so far. Even the cosmos are fair game. Ugh!
The population seems to have depleted a bit with the sun and being a little drier. Or, maybe because of the salt shaker.
Yes, at this point salting the little bastards is very satisfying.
I take comfort in the fact that I'm not the only one in NY to be suffering through 'the year of the slug' - they seem to have taken over the entire state and parts of Pennsylvania to boot.

Hope all is going well in the garden for everyone!

Getting Started

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Finally, yay!

With my dad having another heart attack and the hubs' job set to disappear (ugh!) things have gotten way behind around here.
Well, just us. Most certainly not the plants. They know it's time to make an appearance, ready or not.

So far planted in the garden:
Broccoli
peas (I know, I know, we are way late!)
cabbage
cauliflower
Brussel sprouts
and potatoes.


Hey, at least it's a start.
The belt broke on the rototiller (ahem, the yearly go-round with the beastie. Some things never change) and another is on order - translation = "We can't get you one for at least 2 weeks." ~sigh~

We made a quick trip to TSC to see if maybe they had a belt that would fit and they have chicks in. Oh, man, I'd love to have some chicks! Our coop was dismantled ages ago and there's no way finances will allow one right now. A lady in the store came up while I was looking at them and said, "Oh, how cute!" Her husband looked at her and said, "Yeah, cute now, then they get big and you eat 'em." She about freaked. When she glanced at me after he said that, I nodded and said, "Yeah, then you eat 'em!" Poor woman, I thought she was gonna faint.

Anyway, still on deck and waiting in the wings:
radishes
lettuce
and carrots.

Now, to the good thing - my nephew brought me 4 dump truck loads of wood chips for mulch. Yay! Hey, it was free and I'm smilin'! I got a little of it spread on the perennial beds where I can see things popping, but I'll have to wait on the other beds for the reseeders (both flowers and weeds) to show themselves before I can tackle those. Besides, spreading mulch is no fun in 90 F heat. I'll wait until it cools down in a few days. I really can't imagine what it's like not to battle weeds non-stop all summer long and never really finish before starting all over at the beginning again. It'll be a new experience! Seriously, I've never been able to have mulch before. Yes, sad. Very sad.

The pepper and tomato seedlings are looking awesome. I'm so proud!
Sent some cole sprouts to my niece. Remains to be seen if they get planted or not. I'm sure she'll get to it, eventually.

My gosh, I am soooo excited about that mulch . . . y'all have no idea! Seriously, I could PMP just thinking of it spread everywhere. Those piles are bee-u-tee-full!
Lordy, I'm such an easy garden date. lol.
;)

I'm so very proud of my youngest daughter! Out of the blue, she noticed the lady that volunteers every year to clean out the school's flowerbeds struggling a little to get it all done by herself and D ran right over there and offered to help instead of going to lunch and recess. How sweet is she? What'd the other kids do? Why, stood and stared at them do it, of course. :( Yesterday, the lady came in the school and gave D some potted-up pups from her aloe plant as a thank you. Awww, that was so nice! D wasn't expecting anything for helping and was very shocked. She has them sitting at home on her desk next to her comp. They might have to be moved for more light, though.

Oh, and another good thing - I have sprouts out the wazoo from my WS jugs. I'll make a list soon. But I'm much more excited about that mulch!
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Transplanting

Yay!
The weather in this neck of the woods has finally broken. It's nice. And it looks as if it will be sticking around for a while.

I'm full of that excited feeling gardeners get when they can finally get their hands in the soil, and feet - and butt. The youngest planted a whole row of broccoli in the garden yesterday - on her butt. It's such a wonderful thing to know the soil is finally warm enough! :) It was fabulous to have her working in the dirt with me. She thinks it's no big deal, but to me, it's always the most joyful time with her I could ask for.

My plans to get all the cole crops in a week ahead of last year didn't quite make it, but 5 days is close enough.

Transplanted and sowed yesterday:

Broccoli
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Brussel Sprout
2 types of head lettuce
Radish seed
Carrot seed

No sign of the peas yet, but I'm betting they'll start making an appearance this week.

I wanted to get so much more done yesterday, but got stopped in my tracks by another migraine.

I finally scraped together enough to get a new pair of glasses and learned something very interesting about my migraines from the eye doctor yesterday.
My regular doctor hasn't bothered doing anything about them as his answer to everything that is wrong with me is simply because I smoke. "Quit smoking and it'll go away."
~sigh~
So, he has had the same answer all these years about my migraines - quit smoking and they'll magically disappear. Trust me - if it were that easy, I would have done it years and years ago. Hindsight.

Anyway, I haven't been able to get new glasses for six years and when the eye doctor checked, my glasses hadn't been adjusted for my more dominant right eye. The last time I got new glasses, I thought it would help with the headaches (because, when you're straining to see, you can get headaches). I simply figured it was because I was doing so many small crafts and straining my eyes for hours on end. But, getting the new glasses last time didn't make any difference in the amount of headaches I was experiencing.

This doctor (bless him!) says, "No wonder you're getting headaches. Your lenses aren't adjusted correctly for your dominant eye."
Huh?
So he explained to me what was going on with my eyes and said with the new glasses my migraines and headaches might ease up. He showed me the difference with those flippy-lensy things, and I swear, it was like looking at the world in a totally new way. Not just clearer - different.

I'm going to be so overjoyed and miffed at the same time if all these years it has simply been my glasses!
After I get the new ones and wear them for a few weeks, he wants me to call and let him know if it made a difference in the amount of migraines and headaches. I hope (for my sake and his) I can report positive results. He seemed pretty sure it would make a huge difference.

On a different note, I was a naughty girl.
When we went to the casino for our free bingo for the week, I swiped a begonia leaf from one of the displays they were yanking out.
Shhh! Nobody saw? Right? And it was just lying there!
Ok, the hubs just ignored me as nothing surprises him anymore when it comes to plants, but youngest son was mortified. I got the, "I sooo can not believe you just did that" look, followed closely with the eye-roll.
He has yet to discover how deep this 'plant obsession' of mine really goes. Wouldn't it have been much worse if I had picked up the whole plant, roots and all, and walked out with it rather than just a broken-off leaf? It was headed for the trash anyway.
Well, that's my story and I'm stickin'!

So the leaf got sliced and mounted on some potting soil and I'll see what happens. How bad can I really screw it up? If it doesn't work, it was worth the experiment. My Aunt D does it with hers all the time. Of course, she has a green thumb to die for. lol.

Getting Things Done

The soil is workable.
A bit too damp still, but I can ignore that small detail.

As is the case every year, the hubs had the usual fight with the rototiller. Apparently, just add oil and the motor will seize tight as a drum on you after it has started momentarily and then stalled.
I went on an internet hunt for used ones for sale. Ha! $1800.00?! Are these people kidding? They're used for Pete's sake. The prices never got down to a range we were even close to affording. I think the cheapest I found in my area was $600.00. Bah. So the fight continued after a few phone calls to friends for discarded motors, of which only one was found that wouldn't come close to fitting.

In the end it didn't matter as 'spawn of satan' tiller decided it had given him enough grief and was ready to go to work for another season. His arm is hurting like heck this morning from a temperamental rewind being yanked a thousand times, but at least he won in the end.

After the wasted few hours fighting with the devil tiller, we popped over to my step-mom's for her birthday. By afternoon we were more than ready to actually get something accomplished.

The trellis got set up and the peas are planted. All five varieties. I hate peas, but the rest of the fam love them, so I guess it's not wasted space? lol.

Alaska
Wando
Sugar Snap
Oregon Sugar Pod
Laxton's Progress

Whichever variety they decide they like best is what will ultimately get planted next year. I don't even know what variety we grew last year. They will eat them no matter what kind they are anyway, so I guess it doesn't much matter.

Half the onions got in the ground - Sweet Spanish.
We ran out of light before we could get the White Bunching sprouts planted. We'll get to those on Tuesday.

The koi are much happier as we've gotten the pond filter and waterfalls up and running. All seem well and happy. Unfortunately, we lost one last year (due to a pump malfunctioning) but this spring everyone looks good. I'd really, really love some Wakin, but they're impossible to find for sale around here, and if you do stumble on a few, they want $25.00 a piece! Unreal.

The Orfe were zipping around and looking for those first bugs of spring. It is glorious to see them whizzing through the water again. There may be no blooms in the yard, but there is color in the water. :)

According to last years records, we transplanted broccoli, cabbage, head lettuce, cauliflower and brussel sprouts on April 22 and they all did very well except for the brussels. Maybe I'll start hardening them off this week and get them in the ground a week or ten days earlier this year to see how they do compared to last. Hopefully, I'll have better luck with the brussel sprouts staying tighter.

My daughter got me some India Mustard seed last year. I have no idea what this is, or how to use it. The packet only says "used for greens", "pick outside leaves as they mature to encourage more growth". I've come across a few sites that say it is an invasive weed in some parts of the US, but dies at 17 degrees.

So, what do you do with it? Eat the leaves or grow it for the seeds? Some info said that it has a peppery flavor in salads when you use the small interior leaves, but it will have a 'burn your tonsils' effect if you eat the mature leaves. My youngest son would be happy with the burn your tonsils thing, but the hubs would not. Do you cook like collards (which I'm also hoping to try growing for the first time this year)? Mix with lettuce? Wait for the seed and make mustard? Seriously - what?

I'd hate to waste garden space on something we won't end up eating. Maybe I'll give it a half-row with the collards. Experiments are always fun!