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Post by Mari on Jul 29, 2018 9:08:34 GMT
My garden is mostly dead. I wasn't able to water for a week and they didn't like that one bit. On the up side: it's easier to see what the space looks like and what plants I want to keep when we redo the garden as we intend to.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 30, 2018 17:26:22 GMT
R.I.P.
Post-drought gardens are sad affairs.
In the wake of two extended droughts here, I attempted to convert to more xeriscaping, but by then I was committed to roses, so what I have is mixed. The iris are a perfect xeriscaping candidate, as are established rudbeckia.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 31, 2018 3:50:52 GMT
I've been very kicked back of late...sapped, as it were. Still, I have been just enjoying all the yellowness of the rudies, mostly.
It's just too hot to do much of anything...and far too sunny to keep my dermatologist happy. So, I'm spending entirely too much time indoors, hunkering down against the storm raging outdoors.
I get a bit 'stir-crazy' being cooped up where the cooled air is 'false' but the uncooled air outdoors is much worse. It makes me grumpy. Morning waterings have kept me semi-sane.
More cloud cover for tomorrow, I hear. I hope.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 3, 2018 2:12:26 GMT
Outdoors!
All ten of the new iris rhizomes are planted just where I had planned. And I still have room for more white rhizomes....
Weeding in midday!
No direct sun...all overcast, all day.
I still took my midday nap, overcast or no.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 8, 2018 16:15:18 GMT
So...I watered all the pots yesterday, so today I deep watered a couple of rose bushes and let the pots slide.
I note that I have colour in my 'maters. Well, one 'mater. A paste 'mater...on the smallest tomato plant. I'm not very impressed with my 'mater plants this year. They tend to be pretty spindly. I think I need to fertilize more assiduously in the off-season.
This is my first year trying melons (cantaloupes) and mine are starting to look like real vines. They are blooming and today I noticed that I have a little nubbin of a fruit forming.
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Post by Mari on Aug 8, 2018 16:42:50 GMT
I have loads of very red cherry tomatoes. And since we had 15 drops of water, miraculously my dead garden has sprouted some tiny green leaves here and there... Nature's resillience is amazing.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 11, 2018 17:44:12 GMT
Natural moisture overnight.
Today, I will harvest my first lone ripe tomato. It is one of the paste tomatoes.
I am not impressed with my tomatoes this year. Small plants with sparse blooms and production.
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Post by Mari on Aug 12, 2018 8:34:16 GMT
I'm very impressed with mine. Too bad I'm completely off tomatoes. Can't stand the things at the moment.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 13, 2018 19:04:15 GMT
Heh...I hope it is a brief transient phase and you regain your joy in fresh tomatoes....it is a very small window.
My tomato was tasty. Meaty, too, since it was a paste tomato. A Roma, basically.
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Post by Mari on Aug 14, 2018 4:38:23 GMT
We'll see. I've developed the same aversion to peanuts. Interestingly enough I can eat them if it's in a meal someone else cooked, but picking them and eating them repulses me at the moment.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 19, 2018 20:32:17 GMT
Today, I took down the bloomed out catnip, as the interest of the bees seems to have waned. It makes the 'mater patch look a lot neater.
Yesterday, I had my second shearing of the basil herd for the second batch of pesto and a feast of pesto pasta.
The last of the roses' second bloom are coming down, most today, and the remains in the next few days. Of course, at least one rose, 'Sweet Surrender' has got a good jump on the third bloom already. Most bushes are either busy finishing off late bloomers or pushing up new stems. Oh, and it seems I beat the fungal invasion with a spraying of baking soda and dishsoap.
I noticed the first signs of fading rudies today, too. I'm kind of waiting for the passing of the rudie blooms to do my final shuffle of iris for the year (they are interplanted and I wish to move several of them together to new spots.)
Although I am not impressed with my scrawny, spindly little tomato bushes, the pepper production on my two Hungarian hot wax plants is quite impressive. Too bad it was another whim (like the melons) that I'm not prepared to use that much hot pepper. I'll have to try some other peppers next year, using the same set-up (which is two plants in a single pot on the table with the basil herd - my 'raised bed').
Oh, the fiber cable holding the extending grape vine up to the lowermost roofline of the garden shed snapped last night. The furthest end is down on the ground and the nearest end still up at the front corner, so I have a fruit heavy vine running the east facing wall of the garden shed, from the lower back corner to the upper front corner. Too much weight (in vine and fruit) finally snapped the rotten fiber cable. I'll have to replace with coated copper wire....which I was going to get for the raspberries, anyhoo.
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Post by Mari on Aug 20, 2018 8:51:41 GMT
How was the interest of your cats in the catnip?
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 21, 2018 5:14:41 GMT
Minimal. Murray is not really interested. Cleo is pretty much a niphead, but I think she has burned out because of the massive amount available. She gets all dancy-dancy and reeeeeal friendly, particularly with the ankle buffing behavior. Then, she curls up and sleeps for a few hours. Of course, Murray is a bedlump, sleeping much of the time, and he doesn't imbibe. I'm surprised I don't have more neighborhood visitors....then, I saw my two in action, discouraging a young kiwi cat from malingering around the premises. Murray has taken to slipping out in the wee hours (if I make sure to 'Murray' the back door) and catting around in the garden in the dark, coming in in the morning and crapping out in the laundry basket at the foot of the bed. My first ever melon nubbin. It is now bigger than a kumquat, but still smaller than a kiwifruit. Yes, that is my left thumbnail, placed next to the melon nubbin for 'scale'.
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Post by Mari on Aug 21, 2018 6:28:24 GMT
Mine are only interested in dried catnip. The real live thing doesn't do it for them. Weirdos.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 21, 2018 14:56:07 GMT
Since I've been 'harvesting' them, there has been dried plant matter for some time. They don't seem to show any variation in reaction between the fresh and the dried.
I now have an entire tabletop filled with fallen catnip...drying. I guess we'll see what this attracts....
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 25, 2018 23:59:36 GMT
The melon update: My ripening tomatoes....all three of them: Looking back at the garden from under the lilac: The oft referenced balcony is to the right in the last photo.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 26, 2018 0:18:12 GMT
The cannabis is blooming! Huzzah! This bud's for me!
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Post by Mari on Aug 26, 2018 8:28:03 GMT
Wow, that melon is growing fast!
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 29, 2018 17:07:00 GMT
Not only that, I now have about eight new little melon nubbins set!
I tested to see if my second tomato was ready to harvest. It wasn't.
On the down side, the rudies are starting to fade. All that screaming yellow is starting to shrivel up, turn brown, and leave naught but coneheads. *sigh*
This means I will soon be able to start the final stages of my transplantation shuffle. I must wait until the rudies have been deadheaded. More iris to shuffle about.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 30, 2018 19:08:07 GMT
First real signs of autumn: Yellow leaves on the katsura in the parking strip at the street. This is always my first tree to shed its leaves.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 1, 2018 5:58:33 GMT
For brief period this morning, we had wet cat.
It rained and Cleo came in wet. It didn't linger long, though. By afternoon it was dry again and I felt it necessary to water all my potted plants.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 4, 2018 23:23:23 GMT
I found a dead raccoon.
Freshly dead. Kilt by the blunt object of my birdbath bowl. Heavy concrete. It broke his neck when it came down on him.
It probably flipped on him when he tried climbing up on to it.
Ten years of stalking, hunting, and cursing these bastards, and the garden itself claims one near a year after the chooks are gone.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 15, 2018 1:51:58 GMT
It has been inclement of late and I've sloughed off in the garden, not having to even water thanks to real rain.
But today it dawned clear and bright and, indeed, turned in to an absolute beautiful day for puttering in the garden.
It was nice and moist from the heavy rains, so it was perfect for excising all the volunteer saplings. Two maples and a black walnut. Thank you, SQRLz.
I deadheaded my first set of many rudies today.
I groomed the new 'Scotch moss' and 'Irish moss' along the shed path to mosaic pad, noticing that the pool of nice, soft composted humus around the recovering sword fern looks well turned over. I would not be surprised if family SQRL had deposited a considerable reserve of assets in the nice soft soil. It would explain Murray's continued interest in positioning himself to 'oversee' the active area.
I guess I'm getting a second full bloom from the honeysuckle on my eastern fence. Plus, a one-off clematis bloom, too.
There are now developing buds on all my cannabis plants and they weathered the downpour pretty well. I'm hoping for another month of mostly sunny weather for these plants.
I'm just now starting to see some decent fruit on my tomatoes. Again, if I get another month of sunny days, I might enjoy the bounty.
I have one Minnesota Midget canteloupe melon that looks as though it is approaching maturity. It's about the size of a big softball. I have a number of other nubbins started, but most, if not all, are smaller than a standard marble. My #2 contender turned yellow and withered....
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Post by Mari on Sept 15, 2018 14:26:16 GMT
My topside veggie patch seems to have recovered after the heat. The bottom part is a lost cause though.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 17, 2018 21:28:34 GMT
Topside? Dual levels?
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 17, 2018 21:38:20 GMT
So, decent weather this afternoon prompted a tour of the garden.
The cannabis are going yellow on a significant number of lower leaves, and losing some, but the bud ends are lush and have expanding kolas. Some are further along than others, but only days separates the development of my six plants.
I'm starting to watch the weather forecasts, hoping for certain events. I have a mixed week coming up with partly sunny days and with days with showers. The latter concern me more as the plants approach harvesting time. Too much moisture can engender molding in the buds....don't want that. But once we get through the coming weekend and its smattering of showers, the prognostication out beyond is and extend clear spell. Of course, that is beyond three days, so it ain't reliable.
My melon is turning color. Dunno if that is good, or expected. I'm guessing I'll know when I can harvest the melon. I have my doubts about any subsequent melons.
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Post by Mari on Sept 18, 2018 17:02:24 GMT
Yeah, dual levels to save space. It worked well, but the bottom just never recovered from the heat.
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Post by tourmaline on Sept 18, 2018 18:13:19 GMT
Now that I'm in an apartment, my garden is all potted plants.... But I love seeing and hearing about your 'real' gardens! (I did ask for and got permission to plant scarlet Runner Beans along the back fence and I saw my first humming birds checking out the red flowers just last week, so that was cool)
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 27, 2018 17:52:13 GMT
I must admit I love all my little bird visitors. I particularly like the pushy little hummingbirds. I think I have had them nesting in my camellia, up high, but deep in the foliage.
So, I'd like to feed them beyond all the flowers I have. I'd like to make my place a year-round attraction for hummingbirds, wrens, bushtits, chickadees, and vireos.
I want more twitterbirds.
So I went crosstown to the bird shop. Sure enough, they had a selection of metal hooked arms and brackets. Of course, though, they didn't have exactly what I had envisioned for this project and I had to return home empty-handed against the prospect that the bracket I was considering was going to be practicable. I still don't know and probably won't without putting down the $50, bringing home the unit, and installing it on my balcony rail.
It is a thumbscrew pressure bracket that holds an extending metal arm with a hook at the end. The hook can hold one feeder, or with hanging bars like a mobile, multiple feeders, and the entire arm can swing in to the balcony for replenishing the feeders, and then swing back out above the rose bed, in to feeding position. This is intended to be far enough out and over such treacherous ground that it will deter my 'yardshark' feline, Cleo. I also don't know as the bar positions the end hook high enough....I may have to jury rig some kind of mounting extension, which I do NOT want to dick around with.
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Post by Mari on Sept 28, 2018 9:50:12 GMT
We have a rat visiting. It eats my tomatoes (which I don't mine, since I'm off them) and my strawberrries (NOOOOOO!!! It must die!!!).
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