Cucumbers Like to Hide!

Every year I learn something new while gardening. This year was no exception.

I had tried to grow cucumbers before, but all I ever got was little round balls. It's not me, it's the soil in this area as my neighbours had the same problem. But now I have a raised bed filled with proper garden soil (not topsoil), so I thought I'd try again.

I put in three plants that I started from seed. One died immediately. A second one died after a couple of weeks. The third and last one sat there and didn't look like it was going to do anything for quite a while, and then suddenly it took off and grew vigorously.

I had tried to get this cucumber to climb a pole I had put in for it. I even moved the pole when it went in a different direction. It ignored the pole completely but decided that tomato plants were great for climbing on. Who knew?  The first cucumber I found was growing under tomato leaves. The second one was also under tomato leaves but outside of the garden, hanging over the side.  Then I found another one when I tried something I read in someone else's blog.

I like to grow zucchini. One plant is more than enough for any family. I usually just let the thing grow however it wants to. They look like tropical plants and that kind of pleases me somehow. Then I read that zucchinis, like tomatoes, grow all on one stem, and should be supported the same way you support a tomato plant. Well, the zucchini plant was far too big to put inside a tomato cage, so I got out one of my peony rings and passed the hoop around the plant and fastened it. Then I carefully poked the legs into the ground and the zucchini stood up so the new flowers won't have to fight for the light.

I had already been pruning off some of the leaves, but what I read said any leaves below the bottom zucchini could go. The stems are hollow but they are solid next to the stock so the trick is to trim them close enough that there is no hollow part left for insects or diseases to get into. Once I had done that I was rewarded with an unexpected third cucumber, happily hanging from a tomato plant just behind the zucchini.  I never would have spotted that if I had not read that other blog and decided to try what she was telling me.  I'm sure there are more in there somewhere but the tomatoes are too think at the moment to spot them.

Isn't gardening fun?

Spring Ritual

In my last post, I suggested that you get more done if you can get yourself to focus on just one thing. This warmer weather has me focusing on my garden. In the meantime, the house is gathering dust and the usual piles of clutter.

Even in the garden I'm feeling overwhelmed. I had knee problems the past two summers so I couldn't dig. I grow lots of bulbs and perennials and everything seems to be overgrown now, and I expect to do a lot of digging and rethinking over this gardening season.

If I wanted to plant something new, or even divide and replant anything, I will no doubt run into a shovel full of bulbs. At this time of the year I like to leave them alone so they can gather strength for next year's blooms.  Even then, I'll have way too many as I've lived here for over 40 years and they just keep multiplying.

Where the bulbs aren't crowding the perennials, the perennials have grown over the bulbs and corms. I will wait until after the leaves of these die down also, before digging things up and reassigning space.

The flower strip between my place and my neighbours (formerly known as the fence garden before their old pool fence was removed) gives us both lots of pleasure with its assorted blooms, but the perennials there are currently battling for space and have managed somehow to intermix. My main job here will be to clear out anything that is encroaching on my peonies.  It means a lot of digging, and I'm thinking it's time to reduce this to nothing but peonies, daylilies and flowering bushes. That will have to happen gradually.

Some of the flowering bushes didn't do well this winter and I need to get in and cut out the dead wood. Even the apple tree seems to have a problem this year. The bark has stripped right off parts of it.  There is also another dead branch higher up. The hubby will have to take care of that branch but this may be the last year for this old tree.

The half with the bark problem isn't flowering, but the other half is making up for it and the lilac bushes are blooming too.

There is a nice little red maple that has appeared out front in my accent garden. I have to move that soon as it's growing right over the gas line.

In fact, that entire garden has become overgrown as I've been afraid to dig there since the gas line went in several years ago. I'd like to eliminate it entirely, but have waited too long once again. There are a few things in there I'd like to save and plant somewhere else.

At least I can report that my rock river project is starting to shape up nicely. The forsythia I bought last fall bloomed for me this spring and the new little globe cedar is looking good too. The weigela that I thought was dead is showing life.  I just need a few more big stones and some river rocks now.

My new raised garden is off to a slow start but there are baby tomatoes, lettuce and carrots in there so far, and a couple of things I found growing in my yard, which may turn out to be nothing but wild cucumbers, but I'm curious so they are in there too for now.



There is a lot to do, and as you may have guessed, I've been distracted from this story by one of those other chair legs. I've managed to clear out a huge pile of weeds that started to flower. I had to tackle that to prevent them from reseeding.

The goutweed likes to keep me busy too!  It's not mine, but it apparently wants to be.  I have peonies back there and I much prefer them so I have to draw a strict line as to where it is allowed to be. I think it will win this battle eventually.  I may have to relocate the peonies. But knowing goutweed, I'd likely end up with some of the roots getting transplanted too and start the problem in a whole new spot. Honestly, I'm getting too old for this fight!

Well, I think you have some idea what I've been up to outdoors around here.  At least I'm getting some exercise while I'm at it.

Get That Chair Out of the Way

Lion tamer, Clyde Beatty was the first person to bring a chair into the circus ring to tame lions and other large cats.  A whip is just for show but a chair has a real purpose. the lion gets confused when confronted by the four legs of the chair all at once and rather than attack, it sits and waits. Likewise, when you have too many tasks in front of you confusion will set in and you won't accomplish much of anything.

Spring is such an incredibly busy time of year for me. Not only do I attempt spring cleaning indoors but the gardens need to be cleaned up too. A bit of early planting wouldn't hurt either. On top of that, I do taxes for everyone in this family and am grateful that is finally out of the way.

Mother Nature has discouraged me from doing much outside work so far, but I did manage to haul some rocks from a neighbour's house to my rock river last week.  I do need a few more though. This week promises better weather. I have a lot of dead stuff to cut down yet, as I left some of it over winter for the birds. It will be harder to rake the leaves out of the flower beds as it's been left so late this year and all my millions of bulb are growing well, and many are even flowering.

Spring cleaning got off to a good start but has now stalled as I got busy doing other things. Oh, and once again I'm adding fuel to my fire by doing various art projects. I've just finished a five-day course on drawing facial features and started another face drawing course this week with a different teacher. I'm also trying to at least watch the videos for a Sketchbook Revival course, and wishing I could find the time to do at least some of the class work along with the others involved. The card making course I started before Christmas still has not been completed as I keep getting involved in card exchanges with other students throughout the world.  I'm just finishing one of those now. So much to do, so little time, and it's easy to get confused as to where to turn next.

 Many people don't have trouble focusing on a task once they get started but they do have trouble deciding on what to do.  We all have to learn to get the chair out of the way and choose a task. Today I chose to finally post to this blog. Next, I will do my month end accounting for my business, and then I will get out to mail the latest batch of cards and do some garden work while I'm out there. At noon I'll watch a live presentation on attacking how to draw a face while I have my lunch. After doing some housework, or perhaps more gardening, I'll do my homework for that course. Supper is already made, thank goodness.  I'm sure I'll get distracted along the way, but I have a course of action and am bound to succeed at accomplishing some of it today.  I can already check the blog post off the list, eh.

Summer is Over

How was your summer?

Mine felt really short. It got off to a late start, with lots of rain.  Then the bugs came and after that it got too hot to do what we like to do most....Geocache. 

You know fall is upon us when people start to clean up their gardens. I've only recently started on mine.  It's way overgrown from the past few years of ..... laziness, I guess. 

Actually, I suffer from something they call Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I used to be very active, and my garden was beautiful. Every year it got a little bigger. I would divide some perennials and always have some left over after finding homes for as many as possible.  I'd dig up another piece of land and plant them there. Then my life changed, and after no more than 30 minutes just deadheading the plants, it's like someone pulls the plug on my energy supply.  The garden has now gotten way ahead of me and I don't like how it's been looking the past couple of years. 

My energy levels have not been bad lately (knock on wood) and the weather has been nice, without being overly hot, so I decided to just go dig and see if I can improve at least some corner of this tangle of plants.

I started at the far end of the strip out back. There is a peony there, and I won't touch that, but almost everything else is being uprooted.  Some of it I don't even remember what was growing there.  I saved wee bits of that, and discarded the rest. I moved  one patch of columbine over to be with the rest, and moved one small bunch of iris over next to the peonies, as I know they bloom about the same time.  The bigger patch of iris got dug out yesterday.  I just put them in a bag, and can plant them anywhere, any time or give them away. I do have lots more of that particular colour.  Right now, I suddenly have a bare spot large enough to transplant part of the old fashioned rose that's living at the corner of my vegetable garden.  I'll let the man handle the digging and moving of that.  It's prickly and he's tough.

Did I say vegetable garden?  Ha. It hasn't been that for several years now.  The deer always got more of whatever I planted than I did, so I gave up.  The birds kindly planted some blackberries, and I've let those grow. I usually get enough berries to make a few nice desserts and still put some in the freezer for winter months.  That's a much better harvest than anything I ever tried to grow in the way of actual vegetables. 

I do put a net over the blackberries,  to protect them from the birds.  Mind you, the birds still sit on the upper vines and push the net down so they get a good share.  All the berries I get, I notice, come from underneath, where I have to carefully reach my hands through the thorns to get them.  The easy ones on top are all gone. The robins this year didn't even seem to mind sharing with me while they were there.  They just stayed there, looking at me while I picked my share a few times.  I wish I'd had the camera with me for that.

While I usually really enjoy the fall colours, this year I find I'm sad to see the leaves changing. I guess I just don't feel like I've had enough summer yet.  The weatherman did promise us an unusually long and warm autumn.  One can only hope.....

I'm ready for Indian Summer. Bring it on!

Oh Deer, oh Deer

For many years I had a small garden in the back yard and various flower gardens scattered around the property.  I learned a long time ago that deer liked tulips and started planting early, middle and late varieties, so that no matter which ones the deer got each year (and they always got some) the others would still bloom.

It was always a big joke that the darn deer would wait until the one tulip that was left to grow by my side door was just about to bloom before one of these wise guys would suddenly chomp it down.  My hubby would burst into laughter.  Other people would tell me to get a dog.  I not only had a dog at the time, but he slept just inside that doorway. He never paid any attention to the deer.

In the garden I grew many things over the years, but had finally settled on tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. I liked to stir fry that combination for my lunch. I'd check the zucchini every day, waiting for it to be just the size I wanted. Apparently the deer liked that size too, as it would always have bites out of it, or be just about polished off when I'd decide to go out to pick it. If it was a dry year, the deer would bite off the tomatoes, suck the juices out of them, and then spit them back into the garden. I'm pretty sure they chomped on the pepper plants too, but I really can't remember now. I do know there was absolutely no point in trying to grown green beans as the deer really liked those plants.

Gardeners in this neighbourhood tried every kind of deer deterrent, including human hair and one male neighbour even tried peeing around his garden plot. Nothing worked. I eventually gave up wasting my money on what I had come to think of as "deer food" and I have not planted a vegetable garden since.

Then we had the winter with the really deep snow, and between that and the culling of deer about the same time in Lanark county (they were destroying too many farmer's crops too), and the increase in coyotes, the deer population went down considerably.  Thankfully I was no longer hearing stories every week of people I know hitting a deer.  The roadways had become safer, and it seemed the gardens had too.

  

I had just thought it would be nice to pull out the blackberries the birds had kindly planted in what used to be my veggie garden (AFTER this year's crop, of course) and maybe plant a real garden next year.  I rather miss having my own lunch time veggies growing here. Then this morning a neighbour phoned and told me there was a deer out behind her house and it had been there for at least 20 minutes. She told me to come on over and watch it with her. 

The grass is long in that field, and while we stood on the deck and watched, the deer stood in the shade of some bushes, happily munching away.  She knew we were there and stopped to look at us from time to time, but never made any attempt to move away from us. 

Eventually she crossed the ditch into the field on the other side, and then started walking towards the nearest house.  She seemed totally unconcerned that it was broad daylight and there was really no place for her to hide if she felt the need. 

I'm told there was a deer with a fawn in the field the other day. I don't know if this was the same deer, or another one, but I do know that they are not usually alone like this in these parts.  There have been as many as 17 deer in that field, all at the same time.  They think nothing of crossing the street to get to my yard.  I may not have the vegetable garden anymore (or the tulips either since they managed to get all three varieties a few years back) but I do still have an apple tree that they seem to like.  I found out last year that they are very fond of hostas too.  Oh, that reminds me.....I better get out there and put some Irish Spring on top of some garden stakes or I'll wake up some morning and find nothing but hosta stems.  Irish Spring, by the way, actually seems to work if you suspend it just above the height of the plant you are trying to protect. 

I guess the blackberries can stay after all.