Snow

Our second winter storm hit last night. As usual, the good people of this town emptied the grocery store of eggs, bread, and milk (and, I hear, made quite a run on the liquor stores). As of this afternoon, we have about seven inches of snow. I think it's mostly done, but it's still occasionally sleeting. And, it's windy and getting colder. Lows tonight will be around 14. Brrr. Looks like we'll be making up a lot of snow days in June...

Last spring I planted two palm trees. They seem to be thriving, even in the cold and snow, as you can see.

Warming Up.

After almost two weeks of unseasonable cold, things are returning to normal. We usually see a bit of really cold weather each winter. What we don't see is ten days in a row of high temps below freezing and lows in the teens. Ponds were freezing over! But this weekend it hit 60 for several days in a row. The garlic has popped back up. Even better--snowdrops and daffodils are peeking out of the ground! I need to get some pictures, but I'm not often home in full daylight. I've been scouring the seed catalogs and making lists. Time to make plans for the summer garden!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

We're on our second day of unusually cold weather. The highs are below freezing, the lows are in the teens, and it's really windy. They say this may be with us for a week or two. We broke the ice on the bird bath every hour or two today. The birds were very happy with us--they visited the feeders all day, especially in the afternoon, getting prepared for a long, cold night.

My garlic sprouts have keeled over in the cold. I hope they recover once things warm up. I planted two palm trees this spring. They're supposed to be cold-hardy, and they seem to be OK so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I Hate Squirrels!

Yes, that's a cage around the peanut feeder. Yes, it's there to keep the squirrels out. And, yes, that's a squirrel, INSIDE the cage! Somehow, it managed to snake its way in through the bottom... It's some small consolation that my husband and daughter ran out and attacked it with the Nerf gun :)

In other news, I planted a half-pound of garlic this fall. Two varieties--Inchelium Red and Italian Late. The Inchelium Red sprouted in about two weeks. It grew about four inches then stopped. I've covered the bed with a mesh cover to keep squirrels from digging--I'm pretty sure they wouldn't eat it, but I know they'd dig it up just to see what it was. Did I mention that I hate squirrels?

Happy New Year. Here's to happy gardening in 2010.

Milkweed and Monarchs

So, I blew it. Photgraphically, anyway. I was checking on my milkweed, in the bed out by the mailbox, on Sunday, when I noticed that many of the plants were being eaten. The main stem was still there, but each leaf was eaten down to the nubs. For maybe the first time in my gardening career, I was very happy about this. The culprits were monarch butterfly caterpillars! There were four or five of them, just hanging out. I called my daughter out to take a look--she thought they were way cool--but it NEVER occurred to me to get a camera! Doh. The next day they were all gone. I don't know if they pupated or got eaten. I'll keep an eye out, and bring a camera, when I check the mail this week...

A New Hope

I'm feeling a bit better today about things in the vegetable garden. I made a batch of spaghetti sauce (known in my husband's family as gravy) with the Romas. Five to six pounds of tomatoes made a quart of gravy. We had half for dinner tonight, along with some zucchini and green beans from the garden. The rest is cooling in a Zip-loc bag, and headed for the freezer soon. I used our tomatoes, yellow peppers, basil, and oregano, and garlic from my father-in-law's garden (thanks, Bill!). A little olive oil, a little onion, a little Chianti. Yum.

I started some seeds for the fall garden. To thwart the chipmunks (and birds), I started the zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumber seeds in peat pots on the deck. I also started some lettuce and spinach in planters. They'll stay on the deck. Tomorrow, I'll soak some sugar snap seeds, and plant them in the garden in the afternoon.

We were going to check on the bluebird babies today, until we saw one of them come to the opening of the box. I remembered that you're not supposed to check them after they're fourteen days old. If you open the box, they may fledge too early. So we'll wait. Best we can tell, they're 15-16 days old. They fledge at 17-18 days. So we'll be keeping a close eye out--they should fledge before Tuesday.

Frustrated and Discouraged

The chipmunks and birds have gotten the best of my garden. I haven't had a single slicing tomato, and only a handful of blueberries. The critters have gotten everything else, including most of the grape tomatoes. The Romas are doing OK, but I'm not getting enough yield to can them, so I'm not sure what to do with them.

The cukes and zukes are running out of steam--the cukes are withered and brown, and the zukes aren't far behind. The cabbages were completely wormy, and the carrots are bitter.

I'm having serious doubts about continuing the vegetable garden. What's the point if it's not producing anything edible?