Zucs & Cucs ... and Soldier Beetles

Moments after coming back from the garden, I noticed a Tweet about soldier beetles being good garden insects to have - phew - because I saw some and thought, 'Oh No - now I've got these?' ... I scooted a couple of them off leaves and got them going in the direction out of the garden and into the woods. Hopefully they didn't follow my direction. I'll try to get photos next garden visit. I don't think mine are redheads though. Anyways - here's the post I saw about them ...


The blue tomatoes are coming along ... I was hoping they
would look pretty beside the gold ones ... and they do.



I hadn't counted on having to build a doorway for what
I'm calling pumpkins but they might not be OWell wOoPs
... they grew a few yards longer in just a week ... YA!


And there's fruit growing on them too - I perched this one
up here hoping it will like it there as it grows and ripens.

That's it for today ... I'm not going to write about the corn that doesn't exist anymore because some animal had a feast on all the cobs - probably the chipmunk that frequents the plot - even while I'm there - the one that wakes me up when I'm snoozing on the lawn chair and scares the paparazzi out of me (I tend to go for my camera normally when I spot it) ...

A Day Later ...

A little baby robin got it's wings caught in my vines - it looked to me like it had gone into them to have a little snooze and I might have woken it up when I got to the garden early this morning. I talked very softly to it - encouraging words - and let it find it's way out on it's own without exciting it by over reacting ... it was exhausted and rested in between flapping and catching it's other wing after it had freed the first one ... funny how life mimics life (I left the water on and got caught this morning too ... nobody yelled at me - everyone was playing musical hoses last night at the taps and I turned someone elses off - maybe - then again - maybe not). Consequently though, my garden has had a really great soak (so has the garden next to mine)! I know they will be happy as it's been really hot and dry and the gardens are all parched. No harm done.


At 10:30am the sun began to creep into the garden ... kinda late I thought ... hmpf!


Not qiute making it to the pastes nor exotics yet ...


I'd already weeded as much as I was going to today ...


I tore up the rhubarb leaves I'd cut off the stalks and put the leaves into water to soak in the sun ... hoping to make bug poison ... I think I heard about this somewhere - maybe - I'll google it now ... OK - WARNING - hear yee - hear yee ... don't use it on veggies or edibles! That makes sense. Why didn't I think of that? But here's a very neat thing to do with the leaves - use them as little mulches for seedlings at the start of the season ... aww (too cute)


I cut off the garlic scapes and will make pesto today. I am going to soak the rhubarb in sugar and vodka ... the vodka - where did I put it ... it's around here somewhere ... I hope. I might have to go buy more or just make stewed rhubarb with sugar. And I'm going to make a cilantro mash using oil as well to freeze for later use.

Mid-July and all is well

I just got back from Ottawa & always like to go to the National Gallery ... outside Louise Bourgeois' spider guards the front doors! I was out-of-town for 9 days. Fortunately the garden and roof garden were fine even though there was a heat wave and no rain. I watered deeply before going (and put my pots into kids swimming pools - if anything the plants had too much water but I rescued them the minute I got home and all seem to be fine)! Phew!


The zucs haven't taken over the garden ... yet! The mint has now overtaken the creeping charlie ... there will be mint pesto when I return from the cottage ... (almonds, lemon, honey, garlic, parlsly) ... lamb! ... maybe some feta - yeah feta! Oh and there are some raspberries over on the far left ... I ate some ... the rest still need time to redden up.


The tomatillos were trying to get outside the fence but I was able to tuck them back inside ... also - notice at the back where the creeping charlie compost is doing quite well - it's not alive - I consider that doing quite well ... I was able to control it by throwing knu poo and chipped twigs on it ... the hose isn't manditory ... it's just 'there'!


This little tomato patch was the last one planted so all the plants are a little bit smaller than all the others - but they are catching up ...


I guess I only get two meals of peas - next year I'll plant more! The rhubarb at the back will be married with some sugar and vodka in a week - when I get back from the cottage ... (I'm going drawing and swimming) ...


This is the original tomato patch. For two years I put veggies into it so the soil would reconstitute ... these were the first plants in and they are really doing well ... some big green tomatoes already (I've trimmed every bottom leaf and anything off all my tomato plants that is the least little bit bitten by bugs ... or whatever makes those small brown freckles on bottom leaves).


Pesto ... tomorrow! Cilantro and Basil. Later I'll do the Mint. The Sage wilted so I'm hoping it perks back up with water! The rosemary thrived ... so did the stevia - that's worth a WaHOOooOooo!


Here's the entire patch. The wilted sage is way in the back at the left ... it's wilted - you can't see it ...


Flox. It's such a perfect perfumed bouquet to bring home.


This is the first time planting tomatoes in this patch ... these are my big exotics ... ruffles, blues, oranges, greens, yellows and blacks ...


This is the first time planting here as well .. these are my tiniest little current tomatoes ... some reds, whites and yellows ... over on the far right (there are about 5-6 plants) ...


The cucs are doing really well. This is a first ... (they are in the old tomatillo patch). Notice how fast the brown paper mulch breaks down - it's done it's job - no weeds of any consequence. I'll need to really mulch with leaves in the Fall though if I want there to be some weed control come Spring.


This is what officially (kinda) makes me a farm ... corn (it's a crop) ... I tried planting the 3 sisters but they are all kind of being like a dysfunctional family ... not doing what they're supposed to do ... the corn didn't grow quick enough for the beans to grow up them ... I planted the beans to the side where I could put poles for them and the pumpkins were supposed to be squashes ... what can I say ... dysfunctional (me maybe - not them) ... 'better luck next year' ... maybe!


Here's another view of the corn ... it all looks really good ...


Here's the old paste patch (can't remember what tomatoes are in here ... there's a piece of paper with it all written down somewhere that was supposed to get laminated ... (it could still happen ... theoretically ... if I find it before the year is over) ...


Well that's it.

If you look at the photos taken earlier you'll see how fast my garden grows! Soon it will be outta control & I'll be feeling like a real loser that knows nothing about how to keep it together. Right now - I & it looks as good as it gets! Enjoy ...

Some more Nudes - I'm Still in the Garden - Text to Follow

Photos to be Updated with Text - but for now - I'm in the Garden

Here's an overview of where the garden is for now with photos of all the plants I still have to find a fit for!

Getting a Little Behind

I've noticed all the larger muscles on my body are tightening up ... lots of squats being done and I swear tweeting and blogging has been making my biceps firmer (along with all the digging, weeding & lifting I'm doing getting the garden together).

29 May - I managed to have 25 tomatoes in ground by the time I left Sunday evening (mind you 8 were in prior to my arrival) ... so that was the big original bed which had been used for vegetables for two years prior and I created a little bed along the right fence which had been a path for 4 sweet peas (and possibly 2 blanche millfeiulles (tiny white currant-size tomatoes)

2 June - I managed to get another 24 in yesterday ... five ruffles, 5 blacks, 6 more pastes (3 more San Marzano, 3 Principe Borghese), at the end I've put the two blue P20's flanking the Sweet Orange 2, along with other interesting ones (Eva Purple Ball, Bali, Nepal, Chianti Rose). I have 9 larger types to put in today, 3 tomatillos, and 6 that could have gone into containers but I'm going to make space where the peas didn't grow last year for them (Quads, Blanche du Quebec and Green Zebra or Sophie's Choice ... hmmm where did Sophie's Choice wind up) I wonder?

Stay tuned ... plus there will be photos

nudes in the garden

I pulled up the last of the creeping charlie in the new
(in 2010) tomato patch and put down student figure
drawings that had been thrown in the recycle bin - I
figure (pun intended) that since all the drawings are
done with conte which is clay-based that it's better
than the inks used on newspapers. I could be right ...
Right?


... then I put the red mulch from Lee Valley down. I get
three rows out of one package which costs about $12 - and
then there is the 'pretty factor' and have been able to use
old ones - cough cough (the ugly albeit practical factor) by
folding them in half length-wise (see in between and below).


... 4 sweet peas which aren't sweet peas at all but rather
(one of my favourite little currant tomatoes)


There are 21 tomatoes in this patch - 8 went in three days ago -
most are pastes - all are good for canning (4 san marzanoes from
Fiesta and 4 I grew from seed, 7 red fig & my first hybrids, 4 early
girls - from Fiesta). Of the 55 that will go in, 8 are store bought - I
somehow thought I might fall short this year - heheh - compared
to last year when there were 64+, I suppose I have. I am rotating
where everything goes each year and I feel good about this. I feel very
lucky to have enough garden space to allow me this wonderful obsession.


All in all - a great day - tomorrow will be too - it's our 3rd Annual Plant Swap @Melamalies.