Sunday, July 5, 2015

Staggering Through The Garden

Actually, it was just my usual walk through the garden tonight, but I may have been staggering a wee bit since I'm fairly well p-double-ooped.

Yesterday we hit the wood working really hard.  We put in a very full day of running the splitter and stacking the wood in the wood shed.  After dinner (can't even remember what I made) and a long shower, I was ready for bed shortly after nine.

Along with the wood work, I did manage to strip our bed, wash and dry the sheets and get them put back on.  I did this mainly because my better half had asked me to take the down comforter off the bed and replace it with a light-weight blanket.  Seems Old Hot Body (as I refer to him) has been getting way too warm at night and declared the down comforter had to go.

The result of this change in our bed clothes was that even though I was bone weary from my day of hard labor (anyone feel sorry for me?), I slept very poorly because I was C-O-L-D all night!  I had thoughts of going up into the attic and getting the comforter from where I had packed it away, grabbing a quilt and snuggling under both of them on the couch so I could sleep comfortably.  (There was no way I could convince myself to do that in the middle of the night, of course.)

So today I managed to stall getting out to the wood working area until almost 11 a.m., and we quit right around 4:30 p.m. because of yours truly threatening to collapse if we didn't.

But back to the topic of this post.  The garden.

This morning before the wood working began, I had Papa Pea help me remove the Wall O' Waters from the cherry tomato plants and the two eggplants.


Even though our weather is still too cool for successful tomato growing, you can see the poor plants were getting too tall and spindly to stay in the wall O' Water protection.


Same with the eggplants that need room to spread out and look bushy.

Something else:  For two days now, I've noticed those little lovely (NOT ), attractive (NOT) white butterflies flitting about the garden.  They are the white cabbage moths that lay their eggs (from which worms hatch) in brassicas.  Although I've experimenting planting my cabbage and broccoli late this year to hopefully miss that cycle of the dratted insect, I couldn't do that with the Brussels sprouts.  They need such a long growing period in order to mature that they are prime right now for the moths.


With Papa Pea's help, I covered them with Agribon hoping it will protect them while the moths are in their egg-laying cycle.  Keep your fingers crossed this works.


The last thing I have to report on is the development of our haskap berries.  You can tell in the picture above that the berries are not large.  That's my little finger under the clump for comparison.  Each of our three bushes had a hay of a lot more blossoms than berries that have developed.  I'm not sure as to what to attribute that.  BUT we have noticed several crows in the garden lately (hopping around the haskap bushes) and upon close examination found several berries under the bushes that have big holes in them that could be from the crows pulling the berries off the bushes and having a taste.  Why didn't they eat the whole berry?  I think I know.

We picked a couple of the ripe looking berries for the first time today and tasted them.  Ugh.  Mine was so SOUR I spit it out.  I mean really sour.  Not just a little sour but so sour you couldn't help but make a puckery, eeuuuw-type face.  Even though they're dark blue, are they not ripe?  I suppose we'll give them another taste test in a couple of days (weeks?) to see if they've changed for the better.  If the crows have left any, that is.

Now I'm off to get ready for bed again tonight.  You can be sure I'll be armed with an extra quilt for my side of the bed.

If I can forget about that awful taste of the haskap berries, I think I'll sleep better tonight. 

20 comments:

Sparkless said...

I'd give anything to be cold at night. Right now I sleep sprawled out on the bed with no blanket or sheet over my body because even a sheet is too hot. Record high temps just about every day here and now the fires are starting. It's going to be a very long horrible summer here. I'd trade for your cold wet weather, that I can deal with, this heat not so much.
Your gardens are looking good. Weird about the berries. They must just need some sun to sweeten up.

M.E. Masterson said...

Your garden is beautiful! Things look like they are coming along nicely.
We have been experiencing some oddities in our garden this year that makes you say hmmm! Our squash plants like zukes are absolutely looking like normal but NO fruit! I am wondering if it is the weather playing tricks. My tomatoes are way behind the times...they are putting on fruit but very slowly...seems this time last year I was getting reds off by beauties. Well it will be soon enough I suppose.
The crows eating my hard work well not sure I would put up with that!!

Sue said...

What a bummer with the haskaps---I hope they "ripen" up a bit better for you.

Hubby teases me no end because I reluctantly gave up my flannel sheets at the end of May---and I've been complaining ever since. I'd have them on year round if I could just convince my better half, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. He has a good coating of "fur", so I guess I see his point. But wah!!--I miss them!
:D

Carolyn said...

Cold? I'd LOVE to go to sleep in a cold bedroom. See, you are the envy of all your blogging buddies :)

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

You are definitely a busy lady. And that garden of yours looks so tidy, it puts mine to shame. I took a photo of mine yesterday, and well, decided not to show anyone, ha ha!

Mama Pea said...

Sparkless - I thought about you when I "complained" about being too cold night before last. Sorry.

You could be very right about the berries needing warmth. The weather certainly does affect everything in the garden!

Mama Pea said...

M.E. - Thanks for the kind words!

I have read one other blogger who is not getting any fruits off their zucchinis this year. Mine haven't even blossomed yet, but now I'm curious as to how they will do.

Believe me, we are not feeling benevolent toward the crows right now. 'Nuf said.

Mama Pea said...

Sue - Isn't it the pits having to share a bed with another person? Good thing we both know how good we've got it and wouldn't trade for a anything, huh?

As for the haskaps, I'm still glad I stuck to my guns and didn't let hubby plant the bigger number of them that he initially wanted!

Mama Pea said...

Carolyn - So maybe I would have a business renting out my cold bedroom this summer, eh? ('Twould be a long way for you to travel each night though.) :o}

Mama Pea said...

Kristina - No fair! I've posted plenty of pictures of sadness and woe in my garden! Wait until you see the picture of my poor, dying pepper plants I'll post some time soon. Sigh.

Lisa said...

You get more done in a day that always amazes me.... along with your picture-perfectly beautiful garden(s)! So that's how you circumvent those moth bugs. We've been dealing with the worms on our kale this year. The most beautiful, prosperous kale I've ever grown.... with exception to the most green worms. Uggggh! Hope your crows find other goodies to munch on soon. And what great hope that you'll have some cherry tomatoes and eggplant this summer!

Dawn said...

I havent heard of haskaps before I will have to do a google to find out more I am a glutton for having a go a growing something different

Mama Pea said...

Lisa - Now that the tomatoes and eggplants are out of their warm cocoon, I'm fearful they will start to show signs of frostbite!

Those darn worms and other insects can really wreak havoc on the most beautiful crops. Not fair!

Those *$%#! crows pulled up (and left lying) half a row of under-matured radishes a couple of mornings ago. I was looking out the window and wondering what they were doing in that particular raised bed. You've hear of "four and twenty blackbirds baked into a pie?" Substitute crows for blackbirds!

Mama Pea said...

Dawn - Haskaps or Honey Berries are touted as being even more nutritious than blueberries and supposedly mature earlier and grow fantastically in "cooler" climates such as ours here in northern Minnesota. BUT they are supposed to be very flavorful, too, which our sample was not. Back to the drawing board?

Unknown said...

We go from a comforter, to 2 blankets, to 1. It's been so hot we have the AC on most of the day, yesterday was only 80ish instead of 100!

Mama Pea said...

Nancy - I'm not familiar with your area of the country but is this terribly hot weather you're having normal?

Sue said...

Still, they might just be a tad slow in sweetening. I wouldn't count out those berries just yet. And maybe it's because they are young??? I don't know. I just hope it works for you. They are a beautiful and interesting berry.

Sandy Livesay said...

Mama Pea,

How much more wood do you need to process and put up for winter?

I can so understand why you're tired........that's a lot of work :-) Before you know it you'll have all that wood chopped and ready to be used.

We removed the large comforter from the bed too, and in most cases it's warm enough you only need a sheet to cover up with.

I've never seen these type of berries you're talking about.
Hugs,
Sandy

Mama Pea said...

Sandy - We figure we use about 7-8 cords of wood a year, so that means we like to have 14-16 cords under cover.

I can imagine with the warm (hot?) weather you all have, you wouldn't need more than a sheet for covering at night!

If you are interested, you can go to the Search box on my right hand side bar, type in Haskap Berries, and that will pop up some posts I've written on them.

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