Saturday 14th June


5-30am
Awakened, dozing on and off until 8-00am. Rising for tea and crosswords.


10-30am
A trip to Corky's for eggs but no one's around. Probably gone fishing.
After this a trip to see Vic the vet for the purchasing of Wilson's food and to deliver Alvin for worming, vaccinations etc.


12-30pm
Set off for the full retail experience via Java Dave's for a splendid lunch of cafe lattes, mega sandwiches and salads. Yummy.

Then on to Wally Mart to stock up on supplies for the week(s) ahead, pick up a few gardening bits for this afternoon........

......and to purchase some things.........

.
.........for later.

As everyone has probably heard, the Mid West has once again been hit with torrential thunderstorms and flooding. Here in Oklahomegrownvegland it's very, very wet at the moment but the sun is out today and forecast to be so tomorrow too. It's too wet and far too humid to work but I did manage to hill around the potatoes that used to be straw mulched and erect this...........



And, after weeks of 30 to 40mph winds constantly blowing there is now ne'er a breath.
As I stood surveying my stationary windmill, sweating in the heat and humidity, I could hear a Mocking Bird ridiculing me from the tree above.

I've been unable to mow the grass, it being like either a lake, a bog, a swamp or all three at times. It looks very ragged and overgrown in places but on the plus side some things are growing which usually get the chop long before making an appearance

I don't know what these are...........



...which sprung up at the side of the garage............



...but they look pretty.

All this rain is great for the toads and the local population is booming. This morning it was almost impossible to hear the birds for the "Toad Chorus" giving it rock all. I'm not surprised they're happy, they have their own personal pool at the side of the house!

As long as they eat loads of bugs during the night they are quite welcome to hang around and croak their hearts out all day.

7-30pm
To prepare. To cook.................



.........and to wine and dine.

Recipe available from:

http://www.range-warfare.blogspot.com/ upon request.

10-15pm
To bed for an early start

Got Wind?

Saturday 7th June

Rising at 6-00am to a warm and very windy morning. It's been blowing hard for a few days now and, although there has been a few branches come down, the veg plots are virtually untouched.


This warm and damp weather has certainly helped a few things along but before we start........



...a breakfast of fresh eggs, toast, low fat milk and a delightful organic peach.



Breakfast reading (highly recommended publication)

OK, lets brave the breezes...................................

Plot 1
This is still being frequented by the Bluejays and the plot is littered with beetle shells. Word must have got around as they are now being joined by a few Blackbirds.
More birds = less beetles? I hope so.



The front row of onions have romped along and the sunflowers are now well over a foot tall. I staked them when they were small but may have to do so again as they get taller.

Plot 2
Pole beans abound! One plant has outgrown the cage already so I had to extend it by putting another cage on top......



....another keeps reaching out and trying to grab one of the sunflowers but I wrestle it back to the cage. Hey, who's running this garden?

The watermelons too seem to have a mind of their own...............



................reaching out towards the cucumbers and squash in the containers. I can't let the melon vines intertwine with them as the melons will become bitter if pollinated by either of these related plants. So, I keep dragging them back into place.

Plot 3
Not long ago this was the slowest moving plot of the six, now it's the greenest and best looking in my opinion.



The once feeble lettuce are now rampant and we need to get eating them. I pulled the radishes as they were not getting any sun, half the row was unformed and is now on the compost heap.......



.....but the best looking carrots are in here and the yolo pepper plants are covered in blossoms. Every plant is bearing produce though still too small to harvest. I gave this plot a feed of Fish Emulsion fertilizer before the sun got too high.

Plot 4
The 2nd crop of turnips has had a spurt of growth this week but the spinach is stalling.
I doubt that it's going to do anything so it's coming out and I'm putting in some more chard and radish. I'll need room.................



.....so I pulled a few red onions for the salad......



...and I'm suprised these have survived with all the rain thats been poured on them.


Plot 5
I'm worried. Lots of foliage loss, plant damage and general all round droopyness.....



....and it could be Late Blight (which, funnily enough usually comes before Early Blight).



And if it is, I'll have to cut back the plants to prevent it getting into the tubers which I KNOW are under there. Oh hum, one year the potatoes will grow perfectly................


Plot 6
I checked each plant this morning and trimmed off any suckers. All six plants are setting fruit.
The little weakling which snapped in half has made a complete recovery......



... and is the centre plant on the front row. Well done that plant !!!
I also gave this plot a dose of Fish Emulsion Fertilzer.

Containers
Hmmm, not sure here. I expected them to be a little more vigorous than this.



They seem to be languishing at the bottom of the cages. I gave them some fertilizer and a good talking to so we'll see what happens next.

Saplings
All looking great, I had one out of the eleven not grow which I think is pretty good.



The sapling that didn't make it was pulled and replaced by a few Basil plants I've grown from seed and were requiring a home. Seen here lower right hand side pot.


OK, it MUST be beer thirty?

It's Friday!!

Friday 6th June

More thunderstorms last night, more rain. Hmmm.
Guess I'll just slip into something more comfortable..........................



The veg plot seems to have come through this latest downpour without too much damage.
And I even have a few tomatoes making an appearence. Three heirloom varieties are growing:

Big Red (from my own seed stock)
Giant Beefsteak
Old Virginia

I'm happy to report that all three varieties have set fruit.



The ongoing potato battle seems to have quietened off after applying the iron phosphate but the plants have suffered. At least I'm woodlice free (at the moment).



Still, new growth has appeared at the top of all the plants so I have my fingers crossed for at least a partial harvest. If the plants get to flower I'll feel a lot better but up to now there is no sign. So we wait....................

Another thing that has been on my mind is the overhead light that, unfortunately, is directly above the veg plot......................



This, I'm sure, is attracting lots of bugs that I don't need so I contacted the electricity company and enquired about having it turned off. Someone came and looked and said that they would surely extinguish the aforementioned light for us but not until the land had dried out a little as to drive the truck across the garden would do some serious churning up.

We are on hold...............................

As the saying goes "Every cloud has a silver lining" and the rain has attracted my old garden buddies back in force. Yes, the toads are here.



To make things easier we name all our toads "Froggy", a bit like calling all Australians "Bruce". It makes for a simpler life. The above froggy is a bit fickle as he's abandoned "Petunia" as his preferred abode and has now moved in with "Rosemary".
It's nice to have them around and they are one creature that the cats don't mess with much as the toads let off some kind of secretion that makes them taste bad so they leave them alone for the most part.

They also eat a whole load of bugs so they are welcome anytime.

But, it's Friday. I have the whole weekend to look forward to.

And this......................



Jan's homemade "Popeye Pizza" and a glass of red wine (or three).

Early start tomorrow. Busy, busy........

Another stormy weekend

Saturday May 31st


The weekend has started with yet another huge thunderstorm which started around 9-00am. The sky went black, the house shook with terrific claps of thunder as I stood at the window watching the rain approach. Lesser violent storms continued on and off throughout the day but I did manage to get out and inspect the trees





The young Fuji apple continues to grow. Last year it was quite slow progress but this year has seen it more than make up for it.





The peach has definately improved since I wire staked it back to almost vertical, the branches now hang more evenly and the tree has an all round better shape. I was going to prune this year but decided to leave it alone after the damage it sustained at the beginning of the year.





Its first crop of fruit has suprised me both in quantity and quality. Although the fruit is still small I have hopes of some harvest this year if the bugs dont beat me to it.




Here's another harvest that surprised me even more. Around the middle of last week I noticed that a couple of the potato plants were getting seriously chomped by some thing. I thought it was the dreaded Carrot Beetle at first and started to dig around the base of the infected plants to see. What I did find was these, and quite a few of them too so I snitched a couple out from under the plant. I also noticed a whole lot of Woodlice or Pill Bugs as they are sometimes known.

I consulted my gardening guru Dawn and she confirmed they they were probably the problem.




Here you can see leaf damage, not too bad but bad enough.





But there were literally thousands of them hiding in the warm, damp straw mulch and chewing through the plant stalks.
Luckily, Dawn had the organic, garden friendly solution................

Slug repellant with Iron Phosphate as the active ingredient. I had to make sure that there was no Mataldahyde in it which is a poison. The Iron Phosphate based product actually helps the soil so it's a win-win situation.
A trip to Lowe's organic gardening section came up with This

I cleared away all the straw mulch and spread the repellant and that evening the Woodlice population had reduced by an unbelievable amount. When it does eventually stop raining I'll go out and have another check on the progress.

Dodging the rain.

Sunday May 25th

More thunderstorms and rain forecast for tomorrow (Monday) so that day is earmarked for blog updating, messaging and e-flurrying.
Today was the day to get things done outside while we had some sunshine and dry weather.

Plot 1

I'm now getting a bit of help with the carrot beetle problem in the form of a couple of Blue Jays. The plot is riddled with holes they have dug and carefully dissected pieces of beetle litter the area. They have even dug up a couple of the onion bulbs in their relentless search. Good for them I say, keep up the good work!
I do my bit by digging around each weekend, picking out any live ones I find and dropping them into a container of rubbing alcohol.


This is one of the sunflowers which are in plots 1 and 2 They are around 6 inches tall now. Still a long way to go as they are supposed to attain around 10 feet.

Plot 2

I've planted some Rainbow Swiss Chard seeds in here in an attempt to rustle up a supply of salad greens for later in the season. Temperatures are on the rise and pretty soon it will be scorching hot so any spinach or lettuce I start now wont have a chance. This, hopefully will be an alternative.


The pole beans are making progress in here. I got a decent crop last year despite a late start so I'm hoping for a repeat this time around.

Plot 3

Carrots, lettuce, 4th radish crop, onions and bell peppers are all looking fine here and the floating row cover is permanently off. This plot was really slow to start this year but has picked up in the last couple of weeks, probably due to the amount of rain and sunshine we've been having.


The Yolo Bell Peppers are now flowering and forming peppers

Plot 4

It looks pretty bare in here since I pulled the turnips and spinach. I've resown more turnips on the left and added romaine lettuce seeds down the centre so it should soom fill up again. The 3rd crop of radish seed which I mixed in with carrot seeds are about half way there. It will be interesting to see how the carrots grow along with their companions. This plot is now permanently uncovered too.

Plot 5

"Spud City". All 6 plants look healthy, no sign of flowers yet. I've been very light with the watering this season due to the heavy rainfall. I think I've watered them twice since planting. But when the flowers form and the weather dries up I'll have to increase the amount as its then that the tubers start to form. I can't say that I can see any significant difference between the growing methods yet. Covers still in place here and will remain so until the flowers form.

Plot 6

All 6 tomato plants are healthy and forming flowers. the plant that broke off at the top has rallied tremendously and is catching up. Today the lower stems were pruned, the plot was weeded, old straw was removed and consigned to compost heap and a fresh layer added. I'll need to start thinking of pruning a few suckers soon. Next weekend I may treat them to some fish emulsion fertilizer (if they are really nice to me).
One evening last week I added a few marigolds and some of my home grown basil as companions.

Containers

Due to the loss of plot 1 this year I ended up with a few plants needing a home. So now I have squash and cucumbers living here, all grown from heirloom seeds. The cucumber has flowered.
I've sown a few radish seeds in with the cucumbers as they are supposed to keep away pests. The radish wont be used, just allowed to grow and go to seed.

Sunday May 26th

As predicted the thunderstorms have arrived. The power went off for around half an hour. I had to rush out and drag the strawberry hanging baskets to safety yet again but did notice this...........

.......so I ate it!!

Then back outside to rescue this.............

............... our lovely petunia hanging basket.

Let's think on the bright side, at least everythings getting a good watering.

Again!

Extended weekend

Friday May 23rd.

I've taken a vacation day today with the intention of getting a few jobs done.



This little chap was pleased to see me. He must have wandered into the garage and got shut in there overnight. I set him down in the bushes and he wandered on his way.

If the weather forecast is correct it's going to rain tomorrow. So, I'd better get the grass cut as it's almost 3 weeks since it was last done and looks pretty ragged...................



.......as Tommy is quick to point out.

"Herbie" is called from the garage...............



......but refuses to run properly, coughing and spluttering. Probably the thought of all that work that lies ahead. A new spark plug is fitted, the airfilter cleaned and he begrudgingly comes to life.
And so to mow.....and a mere 4 hours 20 mins later it's done.

Front................


.........and rear.

Gasp!

Saturday 24th May

I'm woken at 6-00am this morning. Not by the usual early call from Alvin but by the sound of thunder and torrential rain.



I'm quickly out of bed to let the cats in and move some of the plants on the patio to sheltered locations. It's coming down really heavy and in seconds I'm soaked.



My poor strawberry hanging baskets have received yet another flooding so are left in the garage to dry out. Everything else looks ok. I'm sure glad that I got that grass cut yesterday!

Well, I'm up and wide awake so I may as well have a little breakfast............



....and catch up on my reading.



By lunch time it's warm and sunny with a light breeze. The thunderstorm is almost forgotten.




So now I can get that small plumbing job done.