Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Summer Gardening

Well, I've certainly been MIA on this blog.  Definitely not so on A Garden Carried in the Pocket where I have posts scheduled into October.  I've been gardening and reading like a mad woman.

Since June has been so hot, my gardening has been for as long as it take for the sweat to begin burning my eyes, then breaks to read and cool down, then back to the garden.
 Late afternoon.

For a first year garden in an area with weeds of all descriptions (monster weeds), it is still doing well.  I hated when the broccoli and spinach finished, but squash, potatoes, onions, eggplants, and tomatoes continue to prosper.  

And the flowers, mostly perennials are holding well.  Given the old adage (the first year, they sleep; the second year, the creep; the third year they leap), things are going quite well.  It takes a couple of years for gardens to begin reaching their stride, so on that score, I'm content.


The major difficulties:  trying to keep it organic (and still survive the weeds, stinkbugs, grasshoppers, etc.) and the heat and humidity of a Louisiana summer.  We've lost 2 dogwoods, but of  the other trees we planted in the spring, sixteen are doing well.  If we can keep them going through July and August, I will be delighted.  And in the fall, we will plant more.

So....after working and sweating for nearly a week in temps up to 100 degrees and high humidity, the last few days have been a gift from the gods!  Cooler temperatures and low humidity and a fairly consistent breeze.  Refreshing, gratifying, invigorating.

I have been here since June 25, mostly by myself, but Fee has come down several times to spend the night.    

Wildlife:

--Tiny, single bird egg in big pot of geraniums and purple verbena.  Twice, when watering, I'd startled a bird from the flowers.  Last night, we discovered the egg, just laid on top of the soil, no nest.



--Baby bunny hopped out of the asparagus the other day when I was watering.  Tiny, fragile, trembling thing.  The mother has evidently made herself at home under the cabin.

--An armadillo has dug up the front flower beds in its voracious search for bugs.  Uprooted all of the pansies first, but they were ready to go anyway.  When they uprooted my dianthus, however, I had to transplant them to the back garden which is fenced.  I'm hoping for the best.  

--Yesterday, I communed with a HUGE raccoon on the walking path after Fee bushhogged around the field.

--Rescued a salamander that had fallen in the rain barrel.

--Fee has seen coyotes when on the tractor, but I have not.  Can hear them at night, though.

--Tree frogs are so loud at night, it is simply amazing--a raucous symphoy.  Must be thousands of them!

--Fee showed me a Mississippi Kite that was circling overhead. Aside from their subdued elegance, they love cicadas, grasshoppers, and hopefully, stinkbugs.

11 comments:

  1. Great garden! It looks wonderful! It's almost hard to believe it's just the first year. Very nice.

    I hadn't heard that adage about perennials before. I'll have to remember that one. I, too, have been busy gardening. We added a vegetable garden this year, so it's been particularly busy. The work never ends.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your green thumb is paying off with that beautiful garden. It's been cooler here and rather oft times rainy too. Yesterday the high was 70. Cloudy again this morning and more rain to come. Last summer we roasted as we suffered a drought. So good to see a post today from you, it's been a long time, as for me as well, I rarely post these days tho I'm trying to get back into the groove. Happy 4th. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Marie -- Thanks, you! Yep, gardening is a surprisingly time-consuming activity, especially when you have to harvest and figure out what to do with all of those vegetables! We may turn into tomatoes and have given away bushels. But aren't they good? And the squash, and the eggplant...


    Connie -- Our temps have been a blessing for several days now, but we could certainly use some rain. Happy 4th to you, too, Connie!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love hearing about life at the cabin. Sounds delightful. The weather has been "pinch me, I must be dreaming" wonderful for July in La. Ricky saw a Mississippi kite flying above our house this week. With all our cats roaming around, we felt the pickings might be slim here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. :) Hasn't the weather been great! Every time I think about, I grin. That's why I won't go home, the weather is just too nice.

    I bet the cats do keep down most of what the kite would be interested in. But aren't they lovely? He's welcome to field mice around here.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your garden is beautiful. all that sweat and hard work is really paying off!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks, Stefanie! We will see how things go when August gets here. Our little cool snap has about finished, and the heat and humidity are reasserting themselves. :\

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your garden is just beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  9. After ten days there, I came home yesterday. My own yard is a mess! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. DD and I have a first year garden, too. I agree about the grasshoppers, and we have the biggest, hairiest caterpillars that love chard. Keeping it organic is a must, so it's a race between us and the critters. The bunnies miraculously have not discovered the bounty...but I'm sure they will. Planted my pumpkins yesterday! =-) I think they and the slow watermelons will be growing along at the same speed. Oh well. It's an adventure! Good to see you again! I've been absent from my blog, sporadically posting, also.

    ReplyDelete
  11. :0 It certainly is a race with the critters! I haven't planted any pumpkins, but I was looking at the seeds I bought earlier and thinking it needs to be done quickly.

    Good to here from you, Debby!

    ReplyDelete

Good to hear from you!