May 9, 2013 - Mr. Granny, My Hero! (2nd post for the day)

*The man finally did something right!

He walked in the house and handed me some metal tubes.  At first I thought they were rolls of quarters, and wondered where on earth he got them.  Then he led me out to the front porch and showed me.........

These outdoor rocking chairs were seldom used.  They are comfortable enough, but the front part of the rockers stuck out about 8" and they were ankle breakers!  One couldn't walk by them without getting gouged by a rocker.  I think I've spent the last four, maybe five years complaining about them.  Well, today Mr. Granny cut them off!  Did a darned good job, too.  I immediately moved them to the patio, and hid the old folding chairs in the garage.  Now I have a comfortable place to sit.  If I ever find the time!

*He's actually done a few things right in the 50-plus years we've been together, otherwise I'd have given him away a long time ago  ;-)

I had to start hilling the potatoes today.  With the wide rows, I could only bring up the soil from the paths on each side of the bed, so I began filling up the center with semi-composted leaves.  I've never used leaves like that as a mulch, so it remains to be seen how well it works.  I have used the leaves layered with soil in previous potato beds (leaves underneath, soil over the top), and that worked great.  It made the soil nice and loose for stealing those baby potatoes without harming the plants.  I have that big bin of decomposing leaves, so I might as well use them wherever I can.

I checked the carrot bed where the carrot seedlings have been disappearing, and there isn't a single seedling left to be seen in that entire 3'x6' bed.  I guess I'll be planting beans.

I saw 3 ripening strawberries tonight, but pill bugs were already devouring one of them.  I'm quite sure that's what took out my carrots and a couple of cabbages.  It looks like earwigs will also be a big problem in the garden this year.  My celery is full of baby earwigs.  Wire worms are eating the radishes, and they are in the same bed as the parsnips.  That doesn't bode well for the parsnips.  I think the bugs will be eating better than we do this year.  That's the way it goes when one wants to grow organic.  I'd rather share with the critters than consume poison.

We're breaking records for heat now, so soon after breaking records for cold.  It's supposed to hit 97F in the next few days before settling back down into the "normal" 70s.

PS: The rhubarb pie was good, but a little dry.  I think that was because I substituted Splenda for part of the sugar.  The next time I make it, I'll omit the flour in the filling and use a streusel topping in place of the top pastry crust.  That will cut the calories and fat a bit, but it will still be only an occasional treat.  I gave my second slice to Granddaughter, which saved me from eating another 511 calories.

15 comments:

  1. You are having such insect problems this year. Did you have a mild winter?

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    1. Daphne, we had a very cold (and long) winter. I thought colder than usual, but I'd been going south for so many winters I may have forgotten how cold it can get. Our winters are normally quite mild. Wire worms, sow/pill/roly-poly bugs and earwigs have always been my gardening problems, they just seem exceptionally bad this year. Last spring I lost all my carrots too, but later plantings were successful. I'll keep trying, if I don't run out of places to try. They are growing well in the kennel by the spinach, so when the spinach bolts I'll put carrots there.

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  2. Way to go, Mr. Granny! We fellas do something right every now and then!

    97 already? Are you kidding me? I do remember one Memorial Day weekend in Moses Lake years ago when it hit 105!

    I need to hill up my potatoes but I planted them so close there is not enough dirt. Rather than use straw as I have in the past, I am buying some topsoil/composted manure mix from a farmer south of us. But the rain has postponed it a bit. He can't load it out yet....too wet. And a heavy shower just passed through again an hour ago! My oh my.

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    1. Ray, isn't that something? It's been in the nineties the past couple of days, and I refuse to run the AC this early. So take THAT Mother Nature!

      My potatoes are close, too. I put them in about 10" apart in all directions. The chopped leaves should work fine for hilling, I'd think. I should have gone for straw, there are so many places I like to use it in the garden, but the few places I've tried to buy it take my money and point me to the place to pick it up.....but I can't lift a bale of straw into the car. Or out of the car and out to the garden. I suppose I could take wire cutters with me and separate the bale into "tablets" that I could manage, but that could get kind of messy in the trunk of the Malibu, LOL! I bought a partial bale one year after someone finished with their Halloween decorations, and what's left of that is still mulching the garlic!

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    2. I hear you. I bought about 60 bales from a local farmer 2 years ago and stacked it under the shed. I probably need to replenish it this summer, as there are fewer than 20 left and the chickens like to have a flake or two now and then to wallow in.

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  3. yay for Mr.Granny! It's always nice when they surprise you with something good :)

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    1. Yes it is! Especially when it's something you've been asking them to do for days, or weeks, or years ;-)

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  4. I am sure that Mr. Granny has done a lot of wonderful things throughout the years! Enjoy your chairs this summer. Sorry the bugs are getting you already. Perhaps the heat will chase them away. Hope my garden does okay. Nancy

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    1. Of course he has, Nancy. I'll try to think of something and get back to ya....LOL!

      I don't know if the heat will chase the bugs away, but it's 96F in the shade right now, and the peas (and just about everything else in the garden) are wilting badly. My parsnip seedlings are now beginning to disappear. At this rate, my garden will be bare by the end of the month!

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  5. Hurray for Mr. Granny!

    I have pill bugs, too, all over my garden, but I'm not sure they're doing anything harmful. At least I haven't seen any evidence. Carrots seem a problem this year, doesn't it? Mine dried up, I think. But your rhubarb looks great, the pie even more!

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    1. Mrs. R, I lost another cabbage today, and I'm finding pill bugs all around the roots, right at the surface. My parsnips are mostly gone today, but that looks like birds, because there are a few leafless stems sticking up. I'll be replanting, and covering the parsnips with netting.

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  6. I am sure the pill bugs were attacking my seedlings in my Colorado garden a couple years ago. I never saw a single slug (or slime trail) in that garden but I did find the pill bugs milling around the half eaten stems of my zucchini and maybe beans my last gardening year there. Now I'm in WA (Olympia)for my second spring (1st gardening year) and it was 84 here over the weekend and in the high 70's today. Definitely not like last spring.
    Amy (greenbean08 from GW).

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    1. Amy! How good to hear from you....somehow I lost touch with you, but that has now been corrected! Isn't this weather ridiculous? It was officially 96 here yesterday, but it actually got up to 97.8 in the shade here. The garden was absolutely wilting, as was I!

      I dug in a lot of leaves in December, which was too late for them to completely compost. I think that's why I'm having a worse than usual problem with pill bugs, as they go for decaying materials. Now they are attacking my strawberries. I got my first two ripe ones yesterday, but the pill bugs got the third one.

      You certainly are going to have a learning experience gardening in Olympia after Colorado! I'll be looking forward to your blog posts.

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  7. How wonderful to have a veranda to sit outdoors in (or do you say sit on?) on a warm summers evening. I've always wanted one but our British climate is really too changeable for that. My dream is to have one with glass walls that could be slid right back on occasions. Dream on!

    Pests are a real dilemma when it comes to growing organically. I agree with you - why spray chemicals everywhere? if you are going to do that you might just as well buy them from a supermarket and save yourself an awful lot of hard work and time!

    Happy gardening
    John

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    1. That's quite the dream, John! I've also thought about glassing ours in, but I really don't enjoy washing windows that much. It's lovely sitting out in the early mornings for coffee, or relaxing in the evening, but summers are usually too hot outside to enjoy it through the day.

      I'm still waiting for Amazon to notify me of your book release! I'm looking forward to buying my copy :-)

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