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Journal for 2005
 Lost and Found: Found in the garden ( August 28, 2005, 05:23:25 PM )Christi came across this yesterday in the garden... A big friggin spider - click to view Update - the link this was going to is gone. It was a big "black and yellow argiope" apparently.  Out of my coma ( August 28, 2005, 05:07:32 PM )Well, I was not really in a coma, but for some reason just have not updated the photos or text here in a while. Things are wrapping up in the garden - the cucumbers are gone (pickling cukes had a good season), the zuccinin have been eradicated by a nasty larva that gets into the root and eats the inside. The Winter squash has been attacked by squash bugs - which as far as I can tell simply cause blemishes on the vegetable when they suck out the juice. We've still got lots of tomatoes, eggplants and carrots to go. We've learned a lot from this year, but I have to say - and Christi would probably agree - we did a darned good job for our first crack at it. The biggest thing we did wrong that I can tell are:
Things we did good, but will improve next year
We also planted a second crop of beans and peas... we will see how that goes Typhoon good for garden! ( July 25, 2005, 04:41:32 AM )I don't know what spiked the growth, but today I got a total of 33 pickling cukes and 2 lbs of beans and one normal cuke. Have to bring two bags next time. Gave away cukes, split the beans with Christi and blanched and froze mine. Mmmm, beans.  Typhoon strikes garden - output down ( July 24, 2005, 03:17:31 AM )Well, a sudden and fearsome rainstorm struck last night. Lightning and high winds blasted trees all around town... and a few of our tomato plants. I found several of the ones, with cages at that, knocked over. I have to go back to restake them tomorrow night. Managed to pull a few cukes and some peas out of the debris though. I am hopeful it will all recover soon. BTW, if anyone knows a good way to keep bean and cucumber leaves from annoying the forearms... let me know! Please! owwwwww. Journal entries continued from the main garden page Too bad you can't grow burgers ( July 22, 2005, 05:04:27 AM )Well, on the average we are pulling about 3/4 lb of beans, a few cucumbers and 1-2 Zuccinis a day now. Good enough for me... and they taste great! Amazing how much different a really fresh cucumber tastes. If you don't have the time to put into growing a garden, I highly recommend deviating from the suppermarket in the summer to a local produce stand (most farms tend to have one) and grabbing veggies there. Its worth the effort. It's been good for my diet also  Finally reaping the rewards ( July 22, 2005, 05:01:40 AM )(orignal entry July 17th) We are finally starting to get some produce from the garden. Took home some zuccini today and some beans. Seems like they all started up at once and have just kept growing!  The Amazing hanging tomato plant ( July 22, 2005, 05:00:01 AM )(original entry from July 7th) Well, my hanging grape tomato plant seems to be doing particulary well. Aside from a few small yellowing leaves, it has about 100 little grape tomatoes growing on it. Not bad considering its just hanging on my front porch. They tell me it will be late august before I get anything... curses, I am hungry NOW!!! Why won't it STOP growing???? ( July 22, 2005, 04:57:23 AM )(original entry July 5th) Well, its become all our biotanical warfare... The pickeling cucumbers have been seen smothering the lettuce, and trying to strangle the carrots. The normal cukes have suceeded in over-running the radishes, taken up residence in two nearby tomato plants and were last seen mounting an assault on our beans and peas. Why can't we all just get along?  Guess who's coming to dinner? ( July 22, 2005, 04:53:46 AM )(Original Entry June 27th) I was doing some weeding and was shocked when a clump of dirt next to my hand suddenly jumped a few feet. It was a toad, that blended in perfectly with the soil in the garden. I was incredibly happy about this, as this new resident would eat many little bugs. I made him a little house (basically a little cave) in the hopes he would hang around. He must be somewhere since whatever was eating the zucchini has seemed to stop. This is good, since we don't use pesticides at all. In fact, between the different plants and flowers we put in purely for insect fighting properties - we have had very little insect problems. Keeping my fingers crossed! Why won't anything grow???? ( July 22, 2005, 02:21:55 AM )Original Entry June 20th Why wont anything grow? It seems like time has stopped on our little garden. Radishes look pretty promising though. Hope we can eat something soon... I sure am hungry.  Original entry June 15 ( July 22, 2005, 02:06:50 AM )First Encounters of the Tomato Kind Today we spotted our first actual tomato! Twas in zone 5. Just seconds after that find, I turned around to see a huge open area - in zone 2. Hmmmmm. I don't remember us leaving a huge area unplanted in zone 2. Hmmmmm. Hey! Wait a minute! A tomato plant used to be there. Used to be. Now all we see is a small indented hole... and a hoof print. Arrggghhh ... hey, this could explain why, in the back of my mind, I thought something was amiss with the tomato plant in the raised bed. That was half-eaten by our 8 tiny reindeer visitors too, along with 2 others - decapitated as farmer bill states. So farmer bill calls Evergreen Nursery (Brilliant movie I might add) and gets thier advice on what to do about those pesky varmits! (Luckly they did not snack on any of our other veggie plants... yet!). Dried blood was one of the answers they offered us and after a trip to the nursery, we got our bag of blooooooooood - and a new, very healthly looking beefsteak tomato plant to replace the one that vanished the night before. We replanted the tomato and before we also planted carrots in the raised bed and some marigolds. We also set up some pie tins near the fence in the hopes of keeping the deer away. Our next plan is to gather some human hair to put around the garden and research other ways of keeping our garden safe and prosperous. Forensic evidence is located here: http://cpmfetch.fistfullofcode.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=33&pos=8 http://cpmfetch.fistfullofcode.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=33&pos=9 |
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