Bogieblog

Falling

Go over to the Weekend Pundit and take a look at this. There is not a chance in hell that I would go in there!

Slow Weekend

It seems like not much got done this weekend. Yesterday, I stripped turf off of part of the area formerly known as the fruit tree archard. That took most of the afternoon. I got the sourwood tree planted, but did not get any of the surrounding shrubs planted (sourwoods do not like winter wind, and it needs the shrubs to help protect it). Then today, I got some housecleaning done, then we went for a several hour bike ride (it was in the 80's today).

Yesterday, WS helped Jim mow his girlfriends lawn (almost a pasture). Then today, he completed the ditches by raking them, spreading grass seed, and covering the seed with hay.

Hopefully during the week, I can get a couple of the shrubs planted so I won't have so much to plant next weekend; all I have left this year is 2 crabapples and a maple. Next year I will have a lot more trees and shrubs to plant.

Still Out There

Just a short note on hummingbirds - I saw one at the beginning of the week, but weren't sure if any were still around (they are supposed to leave at the beginning of the month). So Wednesday evening, I put out the small test-tube feeder which allows me to see if the level drops (the tubes don't hold much so even a sip will make the level go down). I used that feeder to replace a much larger feeder that hangs on the deck, just outside the kitchen window.

Yesterday when I got home, the levels on both test-tubes were noticeabley lower. Obviously, there are still hummers about so I put the large feeder back out there for anouther week.

Even though the weather has been cold in the morning and 50-60 daytime, the flowers are just as confused as the garden has been. Black Eyed Susans just started blooming last week, Hibiscus started blooming then too (the morning glories haven't even begun). Maybe the late bloomers are keeping the hummers around way past their usual departure date.

Gardening Production

In my last post, I probably left everyone with the impression that I have gotten absolutely nothing out of the garden. That is not true.

The green beans have done absolutely wonderfully. Although none of the 5 plants got very tall or bushed out as well as normal, they have produced beans enthusiastically. I picked beans last night and the plants are still flowering so I expect more. They have done so well that I planted more bean seeds two weeks ago and they are growing pretty well. Hopefully, I will get some production out of them too and then I will have enough to freeze.

The carrots too have done well. Let me amend that, the foliage has done well; the greenery is a couple of feet tall - for Danvers Half Long, that is pretty tall.  I haven't pulled any yet, but am expecting the carrots to be good sized.

I also had 1 leek survive out of all the onions and leeks I planted. The ground stayed to wet and they just rotted away. Oh well, without peppers or tomatoes, the onions aren't needed for salsa anyway.

So, the garden wasn't a total failure, but I would have liked to see the production levels spread out between all the vegetables (yes, I know tomatoes are fruit).

No Meeting of the Minds

It is so pathetic when someone emails me with a message to set up a meeting with them. It would have taken the same amount of their time to set it up in Outlook and have me accept it. Instead, I set it up, sent the invite, and they had to interupt whatever they were doing to accept the meeting.

Sheesh!

No Salsa Zone

It has been a disappointing year in the vegetable garden. It has been so cool and cloudy this year that almost nothing produced for me.

I literally have not had any tomatoes ripen yet. With the nighttime temps getting down in the 30's, I don't expect any to ripen. I've had scads of green peppers for over a month, but it has only been within the last couple of days that any have even begun to blush. That would be great except the chipmunks decided not to wait any longer and have started taking bites out of them as well as others are just starting to rot before blushing. I would blame the deer also, since they have had their share of the foliage. Except they left the tomatoes alone, and left most plants alone, so they haven't caused a huge problem in that area.

Then there are the peppers. The few pitifully small plants (6-8 inches tall) I have just started blooming last week. The deer are to blame for this as they ate entire plants, and the plants they didn't eat to the ground, they nibbled down to just nubs.

This is the second year in a row that there will be no salsa. Hmmppff!

Labor Day Hard Labor

It's been a while since I have posted and you would think I'd have a lot to write about. You would be wrong on that assumption. However, I will write something and try not to bore you too much.

Last week WS and I were on "vacation". That means, we worked harder than we normally do, for longer hours, but didn't get paid.

On the 1st, we had an excavator delivered so we could do some work on the yard, driveway and put in a new driveway. Jim, crazy person that he is, took vacation last week to run the excavator for us (yes, that is his idea of fun). WS also ran the machine, but is not nearly as proficient as Jim is - Jim does work with large machinery on a regular basis.

So, we have a new driveway going behind the sheds. Right now it isn't really usefull to me, but maybe one day we will get a garage built, then it will be the cat's meow. What the driveway is useful for is getting access to the back of the property with the 4-wheeler, lawn tractor, sled and truck.

The plan was to terrace the area the fruit trees had been at, however that did not happen. The driveway, which is on one side of that slope, also takes up quite a bit more room than originally intended. That is because at the last moment, WS realized that the slope was just too steep to make a fairly strait driveway, so the driveway now curves, taking much more room.

Terracing of the former fruit tree area did not happen. We had to use the really large rocks and boulders for a retaining wall for the new driveway. So now I am working with the same slope, just a smaller area. I have to completely re-plan the landscaping as the dreamscape that I had worked up previously is unusable.

Never Forget