May 2017

Bird Zen (35 second video-Bushtits’ zen – test)

Had to wait until the end of May according to the experts, so I wouldn’t get “flower drop” and lose all the potential fruit to our labile weather like last year. But we chose two varieties which tolerate cold, anyway, so maybe plant earlier next year. These are Sweet Casady (sweet small heirloom type, indeterminate) and Oregon Spring, (a determinate early fruiting one). Now we just have to hope the deer don’t find them! I may put the dilute pepper spray on them, but it seems futile since it will get washed off with the frequent watering I do. Baseline pics of the ‘maters and early cucumber shoots. No beans yet, so I planted some more recently.

Throwback Tuesday-found pictures of the backyard from just after the landscaping! Found these on the computer whilst perusing…..

About 18 years ago, just after a couple of the vine maples put in the back, while they were still under control!

NOW, compare those with a couple of pix from last summer….(still no video capability)…..

May Flower display!

Some flows currently in bloom:

Plants recently in bloom:

May 5 2017

Video tour taken today, in 30-60 second segments. But, the site is having difficulties and I can’t upload them to the site. Next time, we’ll have to go with pix today.

We had salad from our veggie garden last night. To harvest baby spinach and butter lettuce, you can cut the largest leaves off as they grow, and then more leaves grow in. It also allows more light for the carrots and onions (scallions), which I need to plant differently next time. It produced enough salad for three already- we planted it March 26. The carrots, green onions and new set of radishes and lettuce still need to mature. I planted pole beans and cucumber along the back of the planters on May 1(4 days ago), to trail up the trellis. The cuke seeds turned out to be a “bush” variety, which trails over things rather than climbing (gotta read the fine print…who knew about that?). I can still use the trellis to loop the vines up before they hang back down,as long as the beans have some room to climb. What with the nasturtiums in most corners and the newest veggies along the sides, this is going to be one full, busy planter!

Today had a handful of nasturtium leaves, they taste peppery good (a sulfur compound, similar to radishes).

This is after harvesting all the first batch of radishes and the larger leaves of baby spinach and butter lettuce: more light for the rest