Beetle update

My very brave and very sweet husband has been hand-picking the beetles off the sunflowers and dropping them into a little pail with a bit of gasoline in the bottom. I read this is the best, pesticide free way of getting rid of the varmints.

He picks a few off, the rest fly around buzzing like crazy, I start screaming and waving my arms, he sighs.

And then we do it all over again.

We've been taking the huge sunflowers down to get ready to rototill (OK, OK, he's been taking them down) and I am surprised at how much sticky sap is coming out of the splits in the stems (although they really are more like small tree trunks in size)

STarted collecting coffee grounds to spread in the garden and need to go and get a few bags of manure as well.

Ewww, ewwww, ewwwwww!

Acccckkk! There are japanese beatles on steroids in my garden. These things are bigger then 1/2 my thumb. Ewwwwwwwwww! Gotta research how to get rid of them. Ewwwww. I feel them crawling in my hair! ick, ick, ick!

Yup, just call me the great outdoors-woman!

Sigh.

Hey, it's almost fall...

Do you know how I can tell? Crisp nights? .... ummmm, no. The scent of autumn in the air? ... ummm.... no. Temperatures below 100? Ummmm.... no....

I can tell because it's time to rip out my garden, haul all kinds of collected coffee grounds (Thank you Starbucks) into it, spread some manure, spread some compost, rototill the heck out of the dirt and get ready to plant spring crops.

Yes, you heard me right.

We live in a weird gardening zone. We really have two full-on gardening seasons.

So I'm heading out there now to start cutting down sunflowers, trimming back tomatoes (I cut the vines back to about 1 foot long and can generally get a September crop of them) and looking at seed catalogs.

I'll let you know later what I'm planting.

It's already pushing 100 so I need to get out there and bask in the coming autumn.

Sigh....

2nd Compost bin started

The first compost bin worked so well we finally made our second bin. It is a bit more of an experiment (I can never leave well enough alone) because we are trying a rolling trash bin to see if it is easier to handle. I meant to take a picture but when we moved the first compost bin the dirt under it was amazing. Almost loamy and black and rich looking. I am going to put moving that through the garden as part of my gardening schedule so that more areas of the soil can benefit from being the recipient of the run off.

My friend Mary in Florida advises that if you can't put the compost bin directly in your garden you find some method of capturing the run off to use as liquid compost as you water your garden.

Cantaloupes, gourds and a sweet little three year old

Gourds and zinnias have taken over my garden. I am not planting anything right now but waiting until September to work up a big spot in the garden to plant spring crops.

But here's a quick trip out there this morning with my three year old granddaughter, Morgan.

A moment of silence please....

...something, some evil, evil thing crept into my garden under the cover of my ridiculous 13 feet high sunflowers and with malicious intent RIPPED UP ALL MY PUMPKIN SEEDLINGS!

I am ticked off!

I am enraged!

I am.... am..... furious beyond belief!

It is too late to replant them for Halloween pumpkins now.

I thought about calling the police but I don't think they'll care.

I thought about calling my homeowners insurance policy guy but I don't think they'll care.

And you may not care either.

But I had to tell someone about this before my sorrow and rage consumed me.

Sad.

Dumb pumpkin hating plant destroyers.

Sigh...

What I picked today ! AND amazing compost

Good morning! Over 100 already and humid. Ick.

So...I wandered out to my garden this morning and here's what I picked!


...and just in case you don't think composting is worth the effort...these tomatoes were picked from two roma classica plants. One plant is right next to the compost barrel and gets all the run-off from the holes on the bottom, the other plant is about five feet away.

...and speaking of tomatoes, now is the time we get ready to cut our plants back to about 1 foot and then we scramble to keep them alive through August. The ones that survive will set another crop of fruit for harvest in September and October. Cool, eh?

I have a date with a clotheline and some sheets and then an even better date with a swimming pool.

Stay cool!