May 11, 2009: Today in the Garden

I'll get to the garden a bit later, but first I must tell you about the tipsy pots. I was afraid the dollar store waste baskets might not hold up well as planters, and I was right. With just one really warm day, the pots began to warp and crack, so I had to find replacements for them. I ended up having to spend $22 at Lowe's for three pots that were big enough to hold the dollar store pots! So I have twenty-five bucks just in pots! It wasn't as easy getting these bigger pots to tip correctly, and the center one ended up being more upright than I wanted, but they will have to do.


I don't think they look as pretty, but they are much stronger.


Yesterday the kids were here for Mother's Day so we got a wild hare and decided to tear down the old metal garden shed. It came down pretty easy, and Mr. H and I loaded it on the Ranger and hauled it to the dump today. All 420 pounds of it. I'm anxiously awaiting the day we begin to build the new one. In the meantime, I have to look at the neighbor's horrid fence. They can't see it from their house, so they do nothing to keep it repaired. I guess we'll try to fix it before we put up the new building, but I'm not happy about doing it....they should fix their own fence.


The neighbor's fence used to be hidden from our view.
I guess we'll end up repairing/replacing it.


Now I also have to look at the corner that used to be behind our shed, where the compost bins reside, and at the straw that I'm spreading back there for a future extension of the garden. I got the bale of straw from Freecycle, a Halloween leftover. There were two more full bales, but I couldn't lift them, so I ended up just taking one partial bale. It's a start.



I had to move the compost barrel to make room for my son to work on the new shed, so I just went ahead and separated the top and bottom and made two containers. By the time I had the compost moved and the corner cleaned up, both were filled.

Last night I was sitting on the patio, when a flock of about 15-20 wrens sparrows came flying into the garden and landed on my sugar snap peas. It didn't take them a minute to decapitate half the vines! The poor plants are really trying to put on a few blossoms, but they don't have a chance when they come under bird attack daily. Today I found some plastic netting, and I draped it over the fence....hopefully it will give the vines a bit of protection.

Now for today in the garden.....

I picked a full 8 ounces of the most beautiful spinach. I can't believe there wasn't a single leaf with leaf miner damage, even though there were still some of the tiny white eggs visible on the backs of the leaves. Most of the leaves are the size of my hand. We had it for dinner tonight, steamed. It's so mild and absolutely delicious.




There was too much to pile into the salad spinner, so I had to weigh it in my large mixing bowl. The new garden gloves were one of my Mother's Day presents!

The lettuces were ready to pick, too. I took five ounces from the small lettuce bed, with three green onions and a bunch of radishes. Mr. H said tonight's salad was really good. I'm glad he's enjoying the fresh greens!



I'm anxious for my Yugoslavian Red lettuce, a gift from Dan, to mature. It's getting close, and it's such a pretty little lettuce.


Yugoslavian Red Lettuce


I'll leave you today with a gift of beauty from my back yard...............







24 comments:

  1. Umm....granny. Did you say "future garden expansion?" You've gotta be kidding me! That's so unfortunate about the birds mauling your peas...Oh well, just think of how much harvest weight you'll be missing. Ha!!! I just had to say that....Oh god, I can't stop giggling...*snicker* Ok, ahem! I'm really sorry about that. Boy, ain't I a real poopyhead sometimes!

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  2. Hey, poopyhead....I need that extra garden space to grow my 90 pound melon next year. *Snicker-snicker-snort!*

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  3. wow, granny, that tipsy pot is amazing! i've never seen one before! nor have i seen spinach look so green and scrumptious - it would have popeye salivating! hehehe

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  4. Kelli, I'm becoming a real spinach addict! Seems I can never grow too much, it's so good in so many things.

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  5. I agree. I don't have enough to harvest yet, but I just had spinach 3 of the last four days. It's yummy! You do have some gorgeous spinach! What do you feed them with?

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  6. Beautiful pics! I love that planter. I sure hope my dollar store pots don't crack under the weight. I've got tons of SWCs counting on that not happening.

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  7. Kalena, I feed them rabbit food! I buy alfalfa pellets at the feed store and they go in my house rabbit and in my garden, for the greens. Which reminds me, I forgot to put some on my new lettuce patch :-( Anyway, I just sprinkle the pellets liberally over the soil, around the plants and water as usual. It gives them a good, safe dose of nitrogen.

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  8. Thank you, Sinfonian. I bought a bunch of dollar store pots too, but they are a different plastic than those waste baskets. I think they will hold up for at least a season. Although the one the big tomato was in did crack when we took the tomato out of it.

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  9. You're killing me with your spinach harvests. I want some so bad!! Mine have sprouted. I think I'm going to eat them before they get big!! I'm desparate for fresh greens.
    Beautiful flowers too.
    Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Those are beautiful photos and veggies Granny. Some of that old fence looks solid enough to build a rustic garden shed. You wouldn’t need much siding if you used a lot of windows and some sky lights. :) :) :)
    John

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  11. Thanks for sharing your beautiful flowers! So sorry about the peas....

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  12. Granny I love the tipsy pot... I have a spot in the veggie garden where I think it would look really nice! I'm going to have to make me one!

    That is awesome that you're going to expand the garden space that you have. Yep, the neighbor's fence is definitely not a pretty site... sorry you are going to have to repair it for them. Maybe you should send them a bill LOL

    The flowers in your garden are so beautiful! Loved the pics! Happy Mother's Day!

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  13. Sue, I always start eating mine when it's small, that's when we like it in salads. These larger leaves aren't as tender, so we like them cooked.

    You're welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed the flowers.

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  14. John, once the new shed is built, the fence will be out of sight again.

    "Some of that old fence looks solid enough to build a rustic garden shed"

    I might be old, but I'm not THAT rustic! The old metal shed was a 10x10 and the new one will be 12x14 and much taller. With three windows. And a skylight. And siding to match the house.

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  15. Toni, you're welcome.

    I didn't see any birds attacking the peas yesterday, so maybe they have a chance now. I just hope they don't get so tangled in the bird netting that I won't be able to pick them!

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  16. Judy, a couple of years ago the main part of that fence (newer, but not much nicer) fell down in a wind storm. We were 1200 miles away at the time, but the neighbor contacted us to complain because his animals could get out of his yard. That's when we informed him it was HIS fence, not ours. He put in a rusty pole some crooked 2x4s (facing our property, of course) and put the fencing back up crooked. Now I see he's nailed OSB panels to his side to keep it from falling over! Someday I might just build a fence to abut his. In the meantime, I'll just mumble and gripe. He's a real nice guy, he just doesn't care what his fence looks like.

    Be sure to post pics of your tipsy pots when you get them made!

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  17. Isn't it crazy what some plastic pots sell for. We bought 2 cast iron urns for the front porch and they cost less then the plastic equivalent. That is a pretty wonky fence your neighbor has. Maybe your guys could replace it and the neighbor can pay for the material? All your plants & harvests looks great. Nice to see the Yugoslavian Red, I just planted some out so it does not look as colorful as your yet.

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  18. Dan, I doubt he'd spring for the cost. We have one new post, and we saved the cedar boards from when the storm blew our back fence down, so it really will only cost us a bag of concrete mix to set the post. It won't be beautiful, but it will be strong and in one piece!

    I had a lot more Yug. Red, but the pesky wrens ate it. I'll be building a box just for greens, with a removable plastic mesh cover. I should get some lovely fall lettuce, and foil the birds for years to come.

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  19. That spinach is big! I wish ours would grow.. sigh.
    I hope you can work something out with your neighbors too to get the fence fixed.

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  20. Jenn, the neighbor's dog just discovered he could get through the fence and into our yard. Annie and Otto went bonkers....until he actually came on our lawn. Then they just kind of yawned and ignored him! We added yet another odd board to the horrid fence.

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  21. I wanted to ask this before but I forgot. Are you sure they are wrens? We have two types of wrens here, the Carolina and the House wren. They are both carnivorous though and do not eat vegetation. Also they are solitary birds except for there mates.

    John

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  22. John, CRS? They are sparrows, not wrens :-)

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  23. My spinach is actually growing for a change, but nothing like yours. I'm sure it's here someplace, but I'm a little too lazy to look. What kind of spinach do you have and how close did you plant it?

    All the blooms are so pretty.

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  24. Cheryl, that is Tyee Hybrid spinach and I planted it way too closely. I thinned it to about 4" apart I think. Looking at it yesterday, that may have been my last good harvest of it. The leaf miners have hit it with a vengeance! I picked off all the damaged leaves and threw them in the garbage, now my poor plants look rather naked.

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