Critters 1 (Fred)

As long as I'm waiting for good things to happen in the garden, I'll tell some gardening stories, starting with Fred.

Some years ago, just as the tomato plants were really starting to bear fruit, something would come in the garden at night. Whatever it was, it pretty much destroyed anything that was ripening. In particular, I found ripe tomatoes on the ground and melons ruined because something had bitten into them. Naturally I was a little upset. Not to mention annoyed that whatever was doing this was purely destructive, since it didn't seem to actually want to eat the tomatoes.

One evening, I happened to turn the corner into the garden just in time to see a large groundhog duck under the deck. Armed with the knowledge, I returned to the house and announced that I now knew the species of the culprit. That's when I discovered that this particular animal wasn't unknown to others in the family.

"That's Fred," I was told. "Fred lives under the deck. We see him all the time."

"Fred!" I said. "I'm going to take a shotgun to Fred!" (There's a convenient gun store on Rockville Pike, after all.)

This idea wasn't very popular, and I had to admit that it wasn't practical. For one thing, discharging firearms in the City of Rockville is probably illegal. For another thing, my experience with guns has been limited to a couple of times on the target range at Boy Scout camp and Israeli Civil Guard training in 1980. This seemed unlikely to qualify me to actually use a shotgun to any effect.

As it happens, Fred went away the next year, and so I didn't have to worry about critters for a couple of years. Until the rabbits came...but I'll tell that story another time.

Watching plants grow doesn't seem very exciting. And that's what's mostly happening. I'm seeing tomato flowers, and a couple of flowers on the zucchini plants. The cucumbers and peppers seem very small. I planted sunflowers around the edge of the garden, which should be pretty spectacular if it works.

We had 3 inches of rain this week (nothing the week before). Rain is good, although I think we could use some hotter weather.

I'm going away for a few days. It's not long enough to worry about watering the plants, but I will miss seeing the garden slowly change.

Waiting

This is a strange time of the year. There really isn't much left to do, since I've attacked all the weeds recently, and they haven't had time to grow back. (Don't worry, they will). The plants are all small but clearly getting established, and there isn't much to do but wait for the summer to come and the plants to grow.

I did give the plants a shot of watering yesterday, since they had gone a week without any rain. Of course, we got rain this evening. It's expected to continue through tomorrow, so that should solve the water problems for now.

And I see a set of flowers on one tomato plant. That's always welcome.

Almost Finished

Usually I buy most of my plants and then plant them in one burst. This year is different. I've been gradually adding plants over the past month (and preparing for longer). Today I put in the cucumbers, peppers, and watermelon. All that is left are the sunflowers. I want to wait until they get a bit larger since something eats the small plants. That's the reason I don't plant the seeds directly.

Here is a picture of the garden all planted:



I'm using straw to keep the weeds down. Don't know if it will work, and it is a poor substitute for daughters.

Here is a picture from another angle. I put in the supports for the tomatoes and cucumbers already. I own a wide variety of different types of cages, none of which really work properly.





























The garden at this stage always seems so controlled and perfect. If only it would stay this way, all hope and neatness, little plants still to prove their potential or lack of potential. It seems very exciting. Not long from now I know that the plants will be running wild, the weeds will be taking over, and I'll wonder how the critters can figure out how to find the good stuff to eat, what little seems to actually grow. But, for now, I can dream of this level or order and control in the garden all summer.

Sunday Update (Herbs, Today)

The Farmers' Market yielded the expected basil, and also some parsley and rosemary. Thank you, DB and HB! The rosemary is a "tender perennial" which in my experience means that it will last two or three years, but what do I know. I planted the herbs today, but held off on the cucumbers, watermelon and peppers since it is still kind of chilly at night. I'll probably get everything planted on Friday.

And I picked a bowlful of dill. Here I had thought it hadn't reseeded, but it just took a little while. Now I have lots of plants about 6" tall, many growing together. So I thinned them a bit and put the results in a freezer bag labeled "baby dill." I seem to remember that dill is really only available in the spring/early summer, and by July the leaves go away and it blossoms. Last year I didn't realize the schedule and so missed out on freezing dill for future use.

I also got a small head of lettuce that decided to wait a year to grow.

Plans

I realized that I never really explained this year's garden plan. Of course, that old military saying,"no plan survives contact with the enemy" applies here. (You might reasonably ask who the enemy might be? Let's see--we have cucumber wilt, rabbits, birds, not enough rain, too much rain, weeds...)

Last year, my successful efforts to grow lettuce and radishes were overshadowed by the CSA. So I decided to abandon those crops, and stick to a few things that interested me, were requested by my SO, or were likely to be usable in bulk. Thus I now have:

1. One big project is lots of tomato plants, including early girl, a paste tomato called "agro hybrid," cherry tomatoes, and one surprise (if it works, I'll post a picture). The total is 12 plants. I'm looking for volume here, since I never seem to grow tomatoes in the quantities some people manage. I figure I can always make sauce and freeze it.

2. I have great hope for cucumbers, because I am determined to defeat cucumber wilt this year. I finally figured out my problem a couple of years ago (so that's why the cucumbers died...). Last year I tried the floating row cover solution. You cover the plants in the spring (when the beetles are active) then uncover them once danger of infection is past. Didn't work. Either the beetles got in anyway, or I uncovered the plants too early. So this year I got county fair seeds, since that variety is supposed to be resistant to cucumber wilt. That's really the reason I wanted to start plants from seed in the first place.

3. I haven't had much success with Zucchini here in Rockville, but I'm hoping this year is different. (I'm the only gardener that doesn't get a disgustingly huge amount of summer squash, it seems). It may be the same problem as the cucumbers.

4. We liked the few onions we got from the CSA last year, so I planted a bunch this year. Since I grow garlic, this should not be too difficult. But I might have planted too many.

5. I try to put sunflowers around the border of the garden every year. I can't plant the seeds directly, however---something eats them as soon as they come up, but ignores them if they have true leaves. So I have to start them in pots.

6. Cooking with fresh chile peppers was a revelation a few years ago. Unfortunately, hot pepper plants available tend to be too hot or not exactly what I want. So I bought some seeds and have hopes for a few (mildly) hot pepper plants, which will provide more than enough peppers.

7. I also have a corner of the garden for herbs, including oregano, sage, chives (which all look good), dill (finally came up in great amounts, and I will freeze some this year), and basil (not yet planted).

8. There is nothing like watermelon in the late summer right from the garden. I hope to have two plants. (But the seeds I bought don't seem to have sprouted, so I guess I'll head to the garden store.)

And of course, the blueberries and raspberries. They've done pretty well in the past few years.

That's the plan. We'll see how much of it has survived by the fall.

More Planting

A little more, anyway. I put in the zucchini. I also put the cages around the tomatoes and the soaker hoses down. When everything is planted I will post some pictures of my system. (That's a fancy word for it.) Some more cool weather expected this week, so I thought I would wait until next weekend to plant the rest.

Mostly, I pulled up weeds in the parts of the garden I don't usually get to. Also, I tried to get all the raspberries away from the blueberry bushes. At this point, I always start to think I'm not going to get many blueberries, because the blossoms are gone, and the small green berries are hard to see. But I think it might really be the case next year.

One tomato plant didn't survive the transfer and wet weather of the past week. It's been replaced. Otherwise, they are all starting to show new foliage.

By the way, we had 3 inches of rain since last Saturday.

An inch and a half of rain!

Since I planted to tomatoes. They are now upright, despite the lack of sun. I only hope that it will clear up soon and get warm.

Tomato Time

I don't know whether this was a good idea...but the weather was right (yesterday) and the tomato plants were getting way too big. So I planted them. Five early girl, four "agro hybrd" (which are a paste tomato) and two sweet 100's. They all sort of fell over as I handled them, but I see that, today, after being watered yesterday and all the rain today, they are standing up.

Of course, now it is colder, and forecast to be colder for the rest of the week. I'm certainly hoping the Maryland extension service is right about the May 1 planting date.

Oh yes...lots of dill showing up. I guess it was just a question of waiting. I've left a whole area for dill plants on the side.