Saturday, August 14, 2010
wildflowers
Alwife redtail hawks
I don't really know if these are the same birds. But to see three red tailed hawks together, it seems they may be Larry, Lucy and Lucky. I'd like to think so.
When I saw them, I was at Staples, printing an update of a poster and calendar for our community garden. After getting the printout, I drove two miles to the Belmont Community gardens and posted the new sign. A few minutes later, I again saw 3 red tails in the sky. I was glad to have my zoom lens. Maybe the same birds I saw in the parking lot. Maybe the Alewife chicks enjoying their freedom and seeing the countryside. If it is them, its seems nice that they are together still. They were very lucky to have 3 healthy siblings.
sunflowers!
I planted my sunflowers late (actually the first planting was eaten by chipmunks and it took me some time to replant in pots and transplant to my plot). The flowers above are all growing in other garden plots - not mine. I have just one in bloom now (below, a Teddy Bear Dwarf Yellow from Botanical Interests),and three or four more varieties budded up and coming soon.
fall planting
Its mid summer and I'm well into the fall planting.
I had a email today from Lesley who just moved from Arizona to MA and is wondering what she can plant in her new zone and new vegetable garden. Here in Belmont, my first fall frost is usually early October (maybe Oct 10), so we have about 60 days of growing left.Today I planted seeds for:
Carrots (St Valery)
Lettuce (Oak Leaf Mix and Prizehead)
I'm also watering every day to try to encourage seeds I planted last week (beets, lettuce and carrots) to grow. (Its SOOO dry!) I find I can never have too many carrots, as long as they are nice big long ones, so I'm trying for a good fall carrot crop.
What else can be planted now?
I looked up on the Johnny's Selected Seeds website for vegetables with time to harvest less than 60 days. Bush green beans, radish, all types of lettuce, spinach, arugula, broccoli, beets, collards, baby leeks. Winter hardy vegetables like kale are perfect to plant now. You can even offer cold protection by putting in a cold frame now and get several months (into December) of most of these vegetables here.
It’s a perfect time to start peas if you want to try for a fall crop. Its hit-or-miss and depends on how fast the weather goes from hot to cold this year. It usually goes too fast. I often try, but have never gotten a good fall crop of peas. But I like to try. I will plant some soon. I think tall and short shell peas (xx and Cascadia).
And garlic needs to be planted in the fall - I like to plant garlic in October. A bit of time yet for that. I will likely put this crop in my squash/pumpkin bed after its done for the year.
Some time back, I wrote an on-line calendar to use to calculate fall planting dates. Here's the link: http://bioarray.us/Skippy%27s%20fall%20planting%20calendar.html You can also get there from my side bar - near the top.
I think fall is also a very good time for planting perennial flowers from seed. If you can get a bit of growth in the cool fall weather, they will come up next year with a head start and do well. I have some poppy and delphinium seeds I'd like to experiment with.
Please leave me a comment and let me know if you're doing fall planting, where you're located, and what you're growing. I'd love to get new ideas. Thanks!
rabbit eats marigold
But the rabbit started in on the big yellow flower, and then he ate the smaller yellow flower, and then the leaves and the stem. Well, yes, that stem was hanging out over the path and probably did need clipping - but it did not need to be entirely consumed by a rabbit.
The Boston Globe had an article two days ago about the rabbits that are over running the Boston area. (Run, rabbit, run) They pointed put that one female rabbit (probably a male needed too) can produce 5-6 bunnies 2-3 times a year totaling lots. And bunnies mature fast, so ones born in the first two litters can produce additional litters of bunnies of their own in that one year. So 2 parents can make about 50 rabbits in one season!
Well, Skippy has decided he wants in on the fun. He loves chasing cottontails. So now when I spot one out the window, I tell Skippy and he gets the bunny to move on - fast. Thanks Skip! I think I already have enough cute bunny-eats-plants pictures. Now I need a bunny-runs-fast picture.
a sad story about potatoes
Yesterday I visited my parents and we dug potatoes from their garden. We were looking forward this. But we didn't have very good luck :(
Dad dug, I sifted through the soil and grabbed the potatoes, and Mom washed them. But there were hardly any. And the ones we did find were half eaten! Another critter! Its too bad. They had little tiny tooth marks and very large portions of the potatoes were missing.I thought the critter was maybe a mole. My sister suggested a pocket gopher might be more likely to eat potatoes. She says moles are more likely to eat worms and other insects. What the heck is a pocket gopher? Are there gophers in Massachusetts? And why didn't we have at least a hint there was an animal down there eating or potatoes?
Rodents eating vegetables seems to be a garden theme for me this year....
a happier potato story
From one All Blue plant, I found 4 potatoes. The other plant I dug was a Green Mountain (I think, though can't remember for sure). Three big potatoes from that plant. The yields are low because the bed gets sun from noon-3. With so little sun, I'm really glad to get this many. And they are so pretty!
And no critter damage!
Yippee!!
