Peeking Around the Garden

“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.”
― Garrison Keillor

A November Moment

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. 

Albert Camus

Maple leaf fallen on ornamental grass.

A sedum putting on a show.

Blueberry leaves surround rusty petal.

Yellow jacket put its pedal to the metal, and lost.

Windmill Sunset

A September sunset with windmill. Gentle breeze. Was in the upper 70s today. Clouds but no rain.

Tomato Bounty

I've gotten several gleanings from the tomato plants I am growing in the Grow Box, which seems to work and would work better if this gardener was better at staking up the plants.

Blackberries Are In

I've been eating on the blackberries for about 3 weeks. They are delicious!

And no rain to compromise their harvest.

Mint Stevia Tea

Tea, made today with fresh mint (an old plant I've had for years) and stevia (planted this year).

Very nice!

Raspberries Showed Up June 18

My raspberries are slow to get going this year. The first edible ones showed up on June 18.

A December bulb blooms

This is from one of the bulbs I bought on sale at BiMart in December. Planted in a container around Jan 1. And it worked!

Cherry Harvest 2013

The Lambert Cherry Tree is hanging, but really small harvest. The birds let me have some.

Whitetail Dragonfly

It's hard to tell, but there is a dragonfly perched on the top of the pagoda looking thing. Upper right corner of the picture. Based on my internet research, it looks to be a Common Whitetail Dragonfly.

All I had was my cell phone, so the picture is a big as it can be. The wings look like little black flags, but you can see in the pix that I linked to, it's an optical illusion. Called Whietail, because the body is somewhat white on top. But, my dragonfly doesn't look that way - more brown.

Will this really make for great tomatoes?

My new experiment - using a Grow Box for my tomatoes this year. I read about this planter in a garden magazine, for last several years have seen inserts about it; looked it up on line and everyone who uses it says it produces fantastic results! 

You get 16 qts of potting soil, and put it in the top part of the planter. Put in the plants, and then cover the soil with a coir mat that comes with the Grow Box. The stems of the plants poke thru the edge of the mat. This mat has some fertilizer built in that immediately begins to disintegrate into the soil.

The top part of the planter is placed on a bottom trough that you fill with water. The planter has holes in the bottom so that the plant roots will descend into the trough of water and stay nourished. You keep the trough filled.

What I found is that as I was assembling the planter and placing on the trough, it didn't fit as tightly or securely as the instructions said it would. The plastic on the trough was not in complete alignment. So I got out my duct tape and taped it together. I won't be able to move the planter until the season is over. But, I don't really think the planter was made to be moved around, even with a perfect match between the two parts.

Last Minute Bulbs to Flowers

Bi-Mart was having a great sale on bulbs at the end of December, right before Christmas, and I bought a bunch. Then procrastinated - let the bulbs sit til about 12/31. Then bulb planting frenzy.  I used containers and in the ground.

Here is a make shift container - garbage bag over a plastic milk crate, filled with compost and potting soil; then and planted with daffodils and tulips. This compost was home made, c2010-11. Just now using it.

I covered the bulbs with straw during the dead of winter.

Even though I wait til the last minute, the bulbs seems to do ok and come through!

Daffodil Difference

Was surprised to find this daffodil has too much ruffle for it's blossom and is curling in on itself. Haven't seen a daffodil difference like this before.

First Tulip - March 29

The first tulip of the year started to open March 29. Weather very springy, sunny and upper 60s.

First Daffodil 2013

Here it is! The first daffodil of 2013. These are the first to fully bloom in my yard - March 8, 2013. I have seen other daffys blooming earlier in yards that get full day sun.

Crocus Study

Here are some views of the first few crocus (croci? crocuses?). They've been out for a couple days.

Mini-daffy first to show

The mini-daffodils were caught blooming today. The regular daffodils are getting ready, but have yet to burst open.

Tips of Green

 
The daffodils are pushing through the winter, getting ready to do something!