Columbine

 

Each one of these blossoms is from a separate plant. I guess these started from a pack of seeds many years ago, and were dug up and moved several times before I settled here. I think at that point I may have bought another packet of seed, because I have several different types.

I have singles, doubles, and frilly triples. They come in all white, to shades of blue and shades of pink. I like the dark pink triple and a very dark blue in any form (I don't have it in single)

They got hit with screw fly a few years ago and I almost lost them. The fly has a little green worm stage that will completely strip the plant of foliage, weakening it. That happened one year before I knew what was happening (I actually wondered if deer were eating them) and it took several years for them to recover. 

The internet suggested sprinkling the plant with used coffee grounds, which I start doing as soon as foliage breaks in the spring. If I could just find out what works on leaf miners...I will go internet search that now.

Be well

T

End of May

 

I am glad to see that the columbine have recovered from several years of saw fly attack.  The Willow told me to sprinkle coffee grounds on them to deter the flies.  I was sure this spring that I had lost most of them, but they surprised me, along with all the perennials that go from nothing to two feet seemingly overnight.

 

We need rain, in a bad way.  We didn't get much snow last winter and this spring has been dry.  I have several oaks taking a big blow from brown tailed moths.  They are invasive aliens that look like a tent caterpillar and have hairs that can give a burning itchy rash and lung irritation if inhaled.

 

I am recovering from peeling a strip off my right palm.  I snagged my foot on a down electric fence wire while carrying a five gallon bucket with a broken plastic spool on the handle. The weight of me on the hand holding the sharp piece as I went head first acted like a vegetable peeler and took a quarter inch wide three inch long chunk of skin out of my palm.  

 

UGH.  Tough time of year for a hand wound that requires wrapping, and makes holding anything in the dominant hand painful.

 

Lucky for me I had some large sterile gauze pads.  I have been tearing strips of fabric to wrap around my hand and wrist to keep the gauze in place.  It works terrific, since the three bandaids required would stay on a minute at best,  Although I did have some band aid brand ones that stuck so well the plastic had to be chipped  and pulled off which was extremely painful.  A good squeeze of neosporin on the gauze seems to help keep it from sticking, the wrap-an old jersey torn in strips has been the best.

 

Oh yeah, typing is painful too.  And I did it a week ago.  Grrrr. 

Welcome to mosquitoville

June is moving right along!  Usually by this time of year, I can't imagine everything blanketed in white.  But the memory of ten feet of snow and below zero temps is still burned in my mind.  I can't believe things can survive those kinds of conditions!

The grey squirrel population took a big hit this winter.  Usually we have 8 or ten running around, but this spring we have one that slips in to the feeder at dawn and dusk.  Was it the cold and snow- or hungry raptors that annihilated the population?

Usually we have 4 or more nesting pairs of robins.  I can hear one singing through the open window as I type, but when I mowed the "meadow" the other day, not one came to hunt on the newly mowed lawn.

We don't have a lawn mower, so I borrow one from a friend.  You would not believe this old push mower.  The spark plug falls out.  The brake line is broken. The blades are dull from mowing rocks and stumps.  There are large floaties in the gas tank.  AND he runs it on chainsaw (mixed oil and gas) gas!!!

Prime it about 20 times, pull it twice, and it goes like hell.

So I just mowed for the first time this year.  I love "integrated" lawns.  Except for broad leaf plaintain...grrr. I also love perfect lawns like the game field at the Firebird's high school.  My lawn works for me, because if I don't mow it for a month or so I have a beautiful wildflower meadow.  :)

The dandelions had gone by, but the fescue had started to go to seed.  I wanted to wait until after the fescue set seed, so I could plant free grass seed when I mowed, but I just could not wait any longer.

I noticed a few black eyed susans (one of my favorite wildflowers) were gettting ready to bloom in the lawn, so I dug them up.  I pulled the evening primrose because the mowed stalks hurt to step on with barefeet.

I left the Queen Anne's lace, the yarrow, the red clover (the bumblebees were pissed as that was starting to bloom) the white clover, the gill goes over the ground, the violets, the hawkweed, the daisies.

The dog roses and blackberries trying to widen the perennial border got mowed.  They hurt to step on barefooted, but they hurt to pull up barehanded so it's a toss up. Besides, soccer balls and basketballs aren't supposed to go near the perennial border and a little negative reinforcement of stepping on a mowed over rose or blackberry sounds like Karma to this overprotective gardener.

Because I had let the lawn go to meadow, I set the old mower on the highest setting.  I am not sure why I did that, because the two times I mowed last year (the second time I mowed all the leaves as well....) I had it on the middle height setting.

I think I was afraid I might burn the lawn because it had been hot and sunny and dry, and our lawn has turned to crisp in the past.

 Peko thought it was the perfect height.

Yay June

Well we've finally had some nice warm weather! Three days of 80's, but it's supposed to cool down for the next few days.

The dandelions have come and gone.  I picked over the lawn for two days and collected enough blossoms for a batch of dandelion wine.  That burbled right away for some days.  Things have been quiet for a few days and I need to rack it (siphon it off the sediment) and let it settle for a few weeks so I can get it in the bottles.

The lilac put on a good show this year, but the blossoms are fading now.  The columbine are in full bloom, singles and double, blue, white, pink.  The rocket is in full bloom, and the first bearded iris opened today.

Hit and miss with the veggies.  Older green bean seed failed again, but the purple podded which I saved seed from last year has come up nicely.  Peas are up.  Older lettuce seed was rather a bomb, with just a few random lettuces and a lot of weeds.

We had a moose walk up the driveway and through the lettuce bed and then up on the lawn-I didn't see it, but I wondered what dug the big hole in the freshly planted lettuce patch and then realized it was a moose track.  I back-tracked it up the driveway and it was headed towards the lawn. Just took a short cut through the garden and mis-stepped off the path, lol.

Turnip greens overwintered and are in blossom.  It also blossomed last fall and volunteers are coming up all through the bed.  The collard green didn't overwinter or set seed this year.

Garlic planted last fall is looking good.  Onion sets have sprouted.  Older beet seed sprouted well.  Older dill, basil, parsley, marigold showed poor or no germination.  Older zuccini and summer squash seed appear to have failed, but older acorn squash sprouted at least 20% and have a few nice seedlings in several mounds.

Older pumpkin seed has a few seedlings coming per mound.  Sunflower seed germinated.  Zinnias have failed, but cosmos and impatiens are coming.

old cherry tomato seed has sprouted.  I have 5 out of ten, two year old asparagus crowns have thrown up one stalk each.  The largest one was snapped by Jenny the goat, who discovered the electric fence was off and after stuffing herself in the woods walked through the asparagus bed on her way to the gate.

I broke down and bought a six pack each of early girl and roma tomatoes, and one of cayenne peppers @ $2.50 per 6 plants. 

I had a bunch of potatoes left from three 50 pound sacks I bought last fall.  I also had started digging out the eyes of the ones we were eating late winter and wrapping them in a bit of paper toweling and sticking them in a plastic grocery sack.

I planted the sprouted eyes  a week or so before I planted the well sprouted leftover potatoes. I really wondered about saving the eyes, but those came up very well!! And it has taken a couple weeks for those long sprouted whole potatoes to start showing green, but it has finally happened.  I just have to keep hilling them, and then we shall see how they turn out.

I am really looking forward to some new red potatoes! Too bad the parsely didn't germinate, nothing like new reds steamed and served with butter and parsley! YUM!

I usually don't bother with potatoes because they take a lot of space, and I bought those 50 pound bags for $6 a bag last fall.  But, if I get any potatoes they will be basically free.  And I had fun trying some different techniques and making new space for them, so at least the ground is getting worked.

We are all starving for potatoes here.  Funny, Maine is potato country, too. But the supermarkets are only carrying California potatoes!!! I have been boycotting CA produce because of concerns about things drifting across the Pacific.  I won't say any of the key words.  But I have to wonder why CA potatoes are getting shipped to Maine.

I know Maine still has potatoes available because a truck carrying 40,000 + pounds rolled and dumped potatoes all over the place.

I guess they're shipping the Maine potatoes to California.