The grass looks shorter next to the lawn mower

It's funny how one's perspective can shift in just a few seconds.  As DH was walking from the driveway to the house, wading through the inches high grass on our front lawn, he thought to himself, "That grass is really getting too tall.  It needs to be mowed.  I wonder how long until that lawn mower gets here?"

As he arrived at the front door a few seconds later, he saw the box left by UPS this afternoon, containing the aforementioned lawn mower.  Contemplating the disappearance of his weekend leisure time, it suddenly occurred to him, "Gee, the grass isn't really all that high after all..."

New Birdbath

So, DH got a new birdbath for his birthday. He has wanted a "real" one for some time, and my attempts at discount artsy ones were met with...less than enthusiastic response. So, I finally gave him the green light, to go buy the birdbath of his dreams, so long as he counted it as his birthday gift from me this year. Why do they have to be so pricey, anyway?

He picked out this nice one. It is cement, I think, and very heavy. No worries about stray shots from the basketball hoop nearby knocking it over.

And it DOES look a lot nicer than the previous one.

So....how do the birds like it?

Not so much.

Part of the reason we wanted a bigger birdbath, is there has been some traffic congestion with the old one. The birds would line up on the fence above, waiting their turn. And we see some territoriality in display as well, with one bird chasing other birds away. When we saw a bird playing in the bucket used to fill the bath, we thought getting a bigger bath might help.

So, we have seen some occasional birds sit on the edge and sipping. But none have sat it it to really bathe or splash yet. And we have seen several of the smaller brown birds consider from the fence for 5 minutes or longer, finally convince themselves to swoop down over the birdbath, only to pull up at the last moment and fly away. I suspect the bigger birdbath may be too deep for them. Either that, or they just aren't used to it yet. We do plan to set up the old one again further away, but we are trying to give the birds some time to get used to the new one.

Barley, our youngest, said the new birdbath is nice, but he wishes we had told him we were going to change it first. The birds seem to agree with him.

Failed Tomato #4

Below is a photo of failed tomato number 4. You'll recall my earlier porno-graphic tomato posting.



















So, it's official. I need to stop buying the clearance tomato plants from the 3-Mile Island nursery.

PG-rated tomatoes

OK, so my vegetable garden is not doing so well. I harvested 4 peppers to make pepper steak, so that is one small victory. And we got 2 small (but VERY delicious) cucumbers before all the rest of the budding cukes shriveled up and DIED. No idea why we got 2 good ones even.

We've had a handful of tiny strawberries, and Teddy and I carefully shared the one fat blueberry from the bushes in front. The blueberry yield being low is intentional, as I nipped all the blooms off to encourage root formation for the first year or 2. Two buds got by me and started to fruit. The birds got one, and we got the other.

I am having a terrible time with tomatoes, though. This specimen at left is the second tomato to go from slightly orange, to red and exploding out of its skin in less than 2 days.

DH did a little research, and the problem is either that the watering is inconsistent (I'm trying!) or the side yard is so hot, it may be boiling the tomato in its skin and causing it to burst.

If we ever get another tomato ripening, I will pick it as soon as it starts to blush. Hopefully we will get one good tomato this summer, thought it is not looking likely.

If I were to add up all the produce we are likely to get from my gardening efforts, ignoring the cost of water and my time, it would probably come out to about $10 per vegetable. Good thing the world is not relying on my meager efforts toward relieving the food crisis!

OK, so now we come to the PG-rated portion of this posting. Actually, "R" might be more appropriate... Those of you with delicate sensibilities may wish to look away. I'll leave a big space so you don't accidentally view the naked tomato below.



ummmmm.....




well.....




what have we here?....





I spotted this in the middle of the night while watering my Earthbox container. I could see that something was protruding from the fruit, so I clipped it off the vine and tossed it toward the garbage can. I thought it was some humongous worm crawling out, and was so grossed out, I washed my hands when I went back inside.

In the morning, the tomato was still there, with the same protrusion, unchanged from the night before.

A few experimental pokes with a long-handled gardening tool, and I was assured that whatever that was, it was not a creature of any kind. I inspected my other tomatoes, and none of the rest show any indication of this mutation.

I asked DH to help me dissect it, but for some reason, he felt hesitant to slice open the, umm..., appendage. I was still freaked that it was some kind of bug, so I finally persuaded him to do the honors.

As you can see from the photo, the tomato, and its little boy-part, are entirely vegetal. HOW WEIRD.

No, that did not go into my salad.

Barley gardener returns

As summer approaches, my wee gardening helper has been slacking in his duties. When I asked him over the weekend if he would like to water the garden, his response was, "I thought they looked dry. I told Dad he should water them, but it looks like he forgot".

When I tried to lure him out with the opportunity to wreak violence on aphids, my aphid-hunter looked up briefly from his video game, and said, "Umm, no thanks".

I planted one of the Earthboxes we got with a replacement tomato plant (our first one is all wilted and looks terminal), but could not entice either of my gardening helpers to get interested in the contents of the second one.

So, today, on our way OUT the door to cub scouts, he of course wanted to water the plants RIGHT THEN. I managed to persuade him to put down the watering can, and we would do it when we got home. I figured he would forget by then.

Well, he didn't. We filled the can halfway, and he sloshed water around the strawberry plants enough to dampen the earth. I made a mental note to water after him anytime he tells me he is done, as he did not water the blueberry bushes in the center, nor is half a can enough for all the plants. But he was proud and enthusiastic, and it was nice to have my little gardener back for a few minutes. He even inspected the rose bush, which is blooming like mad, and declared the lacewings must be doing their jobs, because he did not see any aphids on there!

We've managed to pluck a few teeny tiny red strawberries from the front. They were sweet, but about the size of raisins. I am hoping they will get bigger over time. There is one blueberry ripening also. I removed the flowers as they bloomed, as blueberry bushes do better if you force them to just grow roots their first 2 years. However, 2 buds got by me, and I thought we would see how they come out. Something must have gotten hungry, because one of them is missing now.

Whoa! That thing is HUGE!

OK, I am trying really hard to get my work done, when I hear the title statement outside my window from my 7-year old. I can tell he is near the rosebush, and I don't want to blow my cover by opening the shades, so I go around through the front door.

He is pointing at the first rose in the garden this year, which budded last week. Now in its full flower, it is rather impressive looking. Amazing to think this was one of those disposable supermarket rose plants just 3 years ago. A good friend gave it to me when I was sick. I planted it outside when I got tired of watering it, to see if it could survive on its own. It is now a respectable looking 3' high rosebush.

At the suggestion we cut the blossom to enjoy in the house, Barley looks shocked, and says, "Noo, that's its first one! We can't take that!" My demanding grouch can be so sensitive sometimes.

Checking out the other plants in the front, he immediately noticed the coffee grounds around the blueberry bushes, and said authoritatively, "I see you put down some new dirt, mom. Good work." So, now he just needs a cowboy hat and some wheat stalk to chew on while hooking his thumbs in his jeans.

Will Starbux make them jittery?

I picked up a couple of free gallons of coffee grinds from my favorite coffee establishment. I had asked them to collect it the night before. That's a lot of coffee they go through in one morning! I've been saving mine, but after 2 weeks, we don't have more than a cup or 2. I plan to use it when planting my remaining 2 miniature blueberry bushes, to increase acidity in the soil.

I got to wondering if the blueberry bushes will absorb the caffeine at all? Will the blueberries keep me awake at night?

And then I remembered the worms! (thought you'd escaped that topic for a bit, didn't you?) If I feed the worms coffee grounds, will that make them more active? Jittery? Prematurely gray? Enquiring minds want to know!

Aphid Hunter strikes again!

Barley interrupted my conference call to signal to me that my cell phone was ringing in the living room. Good boy. He hovered at my door, waiting to see if I was going to come out or not. I was not, and I tried to shoo him away, and indicate that the phone could ring, it would go to voicemail. I just had no idea how to sign "voicemail" to a 7-year old.

When I did finally escape, he told me very solemnly that he thought my rosebush was in trouble. "I don't think it's going to make it, Mom" Why not honey? "Well, just come out and look, I'll show you." He started giggling when he realized I was still in my robe from the morning and had to throw on some jeans before I could go in the front yard. I had a lot of conference calls today.

The 3 foot rosebush--which is quite healthy, btw, and in no imminent danger of dying, was covered with aphids however. I'm afraid Barley and I have been a wee bit busy the last week, and have not been out manually scraping aphids off the bush in a several days. Luckily, it is still light well after quitting time, so we headed out with our popsicle sticks and cleaned the rosebush off. I think it will survive after all.

DH told me it was all he could do to keep Barley from bursting in on my conference call earlier to tell me the dire news about the rosebush. I love his enthusiasm for taking care of this rosebush. This may not be the most exciting thing to do on a spring evening, but it's time we spend together, and it does not involve electronics of any kind. I count that as a win.

Clay and worms

Ok, I have 3 miniature blueberry bushes waiting to get in the ground--and I can't get deeper than 8 inches into the soil. I've hit the clay layer. Despite being heavier than I want to be (hello Jenny Craig?), I don't apparently weigh enough to press my shovel into the clay, even when I stand on both sides of the shovel and jump up and down on it!

I'm going to have to get a pick-axe, I think. I hate this $%$#@#@ clay.

One bright spot is that we are on our way to getting 1,000 new pets! The worm composting idea has really taken off. Only Barley wants nothing to do with the new project. I was proud of myself for not bringing up my newest research project at dinner with my friends last night. Talking about worm composting over a spaghetti dinner just seemed like a bad idea.

DH has agreed to take on any task that I find too gross to handle. With no space to dedicate to real composting, and kitchen scraps being a fairly large portion of the waste stream coming out of American households, worm composting seems like the responsible thing for us as a family to be doing. Plus it beats the heck out of trying to dig a compost hole big enough out of this %$%^$# clay soil. But I digress.

Here is a link that talks about the advantages of worm composting, aka "vermicomposting".

I found 3 "continuous flow-through" manufactured worm bins that seem to operate on the same principles: Wriggly Wranch, Can O Worms, and the Worm Factory. The idea is that as the worms generate compost, they rise up to the top layer of the compost to get to the food scraps you are providing. When you have enough compost to harvest, you take the worm castings from the bottom tray for your garden, and rotate it to the top after you empty it. I like anything that minimizes my contact with the little wiggly things.

My friend showed me her Worm Factory, and I have to admit I was pretty impressed by how not-as-gross-as-I expected it was. Each of these can run over $100 - 150 after shipping, and worms are not always included. However, in the San Fran Bay area, there was a Craigslist ad for a West Coast dealer who offered a complete package for $100. Check your local ads for a deal.

Even better, a lot of municipalities offer the Wriggly Wranch free or discounted to their residents, as it eases pressure on the local landfill. It is not as attractive as the Worm Factory, so if you have to put it someplace where you will be seeing it in your backyard, you may want to think about getting the Worm Factory instead.

Some cities offer "composting basics" classes in conjunction with the discounted worm bins. Here are links for Alameda, San Jose, and San Mateo. Check out your locale as well!

If your budget is tight, here is a link to a page that shows how to make your own. You just need a tub, and good ventilation. However, being the wimpy, squeamish type that am, I prefer the manufactured versions that have layers.

Once you have your worm bin, you can read up on maintenance and troubleshooting on this worm composting blog! Wow, there are blogs for everything, aren't there? This probably isn't even the only one out there--just the first one I found. There is even a social network-who knew?

They don't look before crossing the street

Wow--there must be millions of little orange Monarch butterflies in the Bay area right now! The boys report they've been seeing them all week, but it was only today that my attention wandered far enough from my computer screen to notice them. (Note to self--when you get confused by why your cursor won't leave the bounds of your computer screen to mouse over the dates on your paper calendar, it is time to take a break)

On our way to and from (OK, to be honest, I didn't even notice them on the way TO), the movies, we saw hundreds floating across the road, sky, sidewalk. It was kind of like going to one of those butterfly pavilions at nature preserves, where you walk through the plastic strips in the doorway--you know, the same ones they hang on dairy cases at the grocery. Except the butterflies are floating around the whole county, not just one big room.

They seem to be migrating North, and they are just beautiful! And they float across the road at all heights, across the windshield, above the car, and even headlight level. I tried to drive slowly and carefully on the neighborhood roads to avoid hitting any. The people behind me sure appreciated that from all the honking! I complained to Barley about the buttterflies not looking before they cross the road, and he very patiently explained to me, "Mom, the wind is blowing them too fast, they can't help it!" So wise, he is.

I am trying very hard not to think about all the eggs they must be laying, the caterpillars that will hatch, and all the damage that caterpillars can do to new plantings. Nu-uh--just thinking about the positive right now and how beautiful they are!

Who's been eating my garden?!

One of the strawberry plants had 5 blooms on it already. Once the white petals had dropped off, I was watching it daily, as the little green nubs in the middle would grow into our first strawberries!

I went out to check on our little garden patch in front this morning, and I discovered a terrible crime had occurred! This morning, ALL FIVE of the stems had been bitten through, and the green nubs were lying on the ground, half-chewed up. This will never do--they didn't even get a chance to turn into strawberries!

Suddenly all the squirrels and birds frolicking in our backyard do not seem so innocuous. They seem downright menacing! I am tempted to deck myself out in camo and stake out the strawberry plants overnight to catch the culprit. Going overboard? Me? Why would you say that?

I found this site to research how to defend my strawberries from the depredations of suburban wildlife. Hmm, it says here that new strawberries should have their first blooms pinched off to enable a good root system to grow. Seems like maybe the critter may have done me a favor. This is similar to the advice I got on the blueberry bushes--don't let them bear fruit the first year. At least with strawberries, it is just the first round of blooms to be pinched off.

I bought these as bareroot strawberries, which was a kick. The garden shop clerk pointed me toward a huge barrel full of strawberry plants. I turned back, and said, no, I don't need something that big, I just want a few seedlings. She walked me over, like a slow-witted child, and grabbed a bunch from the top. They were very loosely packed, so they came right up, but I think they must have left a root tendril or 2 behind. She was not trying to be particularly careful with them. Then she stuck them in a plastic bag and handed it to me--not even any dirt! (Duh, Jo, bareroot--get it??) I could now see that they were actually 5 plants twist-tied together. Well, if they could survive that kind of manhandling, then they could survive my gardening!

At the least, this strawberry beheading incident is making me rethink the wisdom of setting up that birdbath in the yard...we are practically inviting them to come eat our garden, aren't we? I'll have to think about this now...

On the upside, my friend showed me her worm farm...and it really was not as gross as I thought it would be. Some fruitflies in the top layer, to be expected, but hey, it's outside anyway. Add kitchen waste and cover with mulch. Middle layer had the worms and all the earth they'd made in 9 months. And a spigot on the bottom layer for the worm "tea" to use as fertilizer. If I can get my boys to assist with maintenance, this might work after all. Since I want to plant 2 more blueberry bushes in the only open dirt the in the backyard, having a real compost pile is no longer going to work.

How clever am I?

Ah, the joys of working from home. I can hear my offspring come noisily from school, no matter how often DH reminds them, "Shhh, Mommy's working!". From my office, I hear the interrupted parade, as they both insist on watering the new plants before they've even unloaded coats and bookbags from school. Clever of me to pick the plot right by the front door for the herbs we planted over the weekend, eh? "I have to water my parsley!"-- music to my ears!

Barley is loudly hunting aphids on the rosebush right outside my home office window--I sneak a peek at him, but don't linger. If he realizes he can get my attention through there, he'll be forever banging on the window to say, "Hi Mommy! Look at all the aphids today!"

Barley did interrupt my conference call to announce that there was a bird in the bird bath--and it was splashing around! I didn't hit the mute button fast enough--the Manager I was talking with was very amused. Sigh.

I have to admit, I am quite proud of the new birdbath. When we were first shopping for the garden, I noticed the bath prices were a bit high, so I picked up a clay saucer instead. Well, the spot where I had propped it up on rocks was too low, and the birds disdained it completely. In an effort to convince DH that my $11 solution would work, to save us the $110 purchase of a completely unnecessary, but yes-indeed-nice-to-have legitimate birdbath, I looked around to see what else we had that I could use to prop it up higher.
My eyes lighted on this plastic frog statue left by the previous owners. It has its front legs(? paws? flippers?) raised, and I think it must have held a flower pot once upon a time. Unfortunately, the fingers that are raised up are not even, and so won't hold the heavy saucer in a stable fashion.

However, if I flipped him on his head, he does have a flat bottom! I moved it closer to the roses, wedged some rocks around his head and fingers (?) and placed the clay saucer on top. Voila! Here he is in all his funny glory, and to prove me right, the birds have indeed started to visit the new birdbath. And Barley got to see a bird actually splashing around in the middle, not just sipping from the edge. You can see why he felt this was more important than my call with a manager from my company!

Why carrots?

OK, so I discovered today that DH objects to having a vegetable garden in the front. Blueberries and strawberries are acceptable, as they are somewhat ornamental...but not carrots.

I expressed concern that Barley wants to plant carrots, and I am not sure they will fit in the Earthboxes we ordered. A friend did suggest baby ball carrots, which are fatter and not as deep, so we may try these. Anyway, as I tried to persuade DH to change his mind on the aesthetics for the sake of our youngest, he pointed out--"You know why he wants to plant carrots, don't you?" I had assumed my choosy eater had named one of the few vegetables he can bear to eat. Not the case. "Barley, why did you want to plant carrots, honey?" "Cuz I wanna see bunny rabbits!!"

LOL, oh dear. We live in the heart of suburbia. I don't think there are any wild rabbits around here...

Aphids tremble

Barley has taken a leadership role in the garden--that of aphid-hunter! "C'mon, Mom, let's go get the aphids!" beckons me to the 3 rosebushes in the yard. It must be too cold for them, as we have not found many. And there were none in sight at the Heritage Rose Garden. Popsicle sticks, and a twig with thorns sticking out are the weapons of choice. I figured just scraping them gently off the leaves would be enough, but Barley says we should look where they fall and squish them, or else they dig into the dirt.

We've made the acquaintance of one lacewing on the rosebush in the front yard. We are hoping it will invite its friends and family to the neighborhood. Apparently, hunting aphids is so much fun, homemade lemonade was not enough to distract Barley from his quest. The lemonade (recipe here) was made from my gardening friend's Meyer lemons. We did eventually take a break to have some--Yum!

No aphids among the roses

Barley's class went on a field trip this week to the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden. It was a nice day. They dissected roses, learned about male and female parts (I had no idea a rose lecture could be so risque!), and went looking for bugs. We found ladybugs, mites, spiders, but NO aphids.

Barley was delighted that I could show him aphids at home on our rose bushes. We spent 15 minutes hunting (and scraping off) aphids, and unexpectedly discovered a safe outlet for his aggression. He can kill aphids on my roses all day long if he wants to! We watered the blueberry bushes, and I bemoaned the shade from the big tree in our front yard. These bushes are not getting nearly as much sun as I had hoped.

There is a big hill at the Heritage Rose Garden, and we ate lunch atop it, enjoying the sun. Then all the kids rolled down it. We cautioned them not to roll over each other, and to stop before they hit the concrete at the bottom. Then we let them loose--wheeeeeee!

Earthboxes galore

My helpful gardening friend (of the blueberry bush giving nature) offered me the chance to get in on a group buy of these cool Earthboxes for just $35 incl. shipping:

http://www.earthbox.com/

Was thinking of trying this homemade version before this deal presented itself:

http://www.josho.com/gardening.htm

I told the boys they could each have one of their own to plant for the summer. Barley has decided on carrots, but he may have to choose something else as that may be too deep-rooted for this. Teddy is going to plant tomatoes (cuz he likes them on sandwiches, and I never buy any since the adults in the house don't care for them). When I tried to suggest we also plant some of the vegetables most frequently consumed by us (snow peas, cucumbers, strawberries) they informed me that I should maybe get my own. OK, so something about not going over $100 on the venture keeps me from jumping on that idea. Also, I have a feeling I may inherit 2 earthboxes if the novelty of gardening wears off, despite the kid-size gardening gloves.

Another good day--and blueberries on the way!

Had another good day of digging in the dirt. Backbreaking stuff--grateful for having a job that has me sitting on my butt in front of a keyboard most of the day.

Picked up another blueberry bush from a friend, and toured her magnificent house. She gave me a Misty, so my bushes are Oneal, Misty, Chandler from the door to the fence. (This info is for me later when dementia sets in, I don't expect you all are interested to this level of detail).

Anyway, I rectified my gardening gloves blunder by picking up another pair for Barley, and found inexpensive hand tools so the boys could each have a set ($4--that, I can afford!). Then we dug out holes for the remaining 2 blueberry bushes. Both boys helped with moving dirt, breaking the clay chunks into more manageable bits, digging out rocks, and bringing out juice packs and cookies. Hey, it's a different experience when kids are involved!

They both stuck with it for over an hour. Who would have expected that Barley, who used to freak out when even one speck of dirt touched his hand (ask me sometime about our first camping trip) would enjoy it so much? I put Teddy nominally in charge of filling in the first hole with layers of mixed soil. The two discussed, disagreed, took turns with the branch trimmer (for cutting through roots), argued about which dirt to put in next, but overall managed to work/play together quite well. Made me wish we had more dirt to plant stuff in. Who knows? Maybe it would be worth it to build that raised bed in the side yard I was fantasizing about.

Daylight savings time helped us get done. This morning, it seemed like half the day was gone before I was really ready for it. In the evening, though, the light lasted later, so we had time to finish before it was totally pitch black out.

A lovely day

Since DH needed a lot of time today to work on a shop project, I took Barley with me to visit the garden shop a friend recommended: Almaden Valley Nursery

Really NICE place--well organized, and wide paths between the viewings. Barley didn't even bring his DS in with him, he just ran up and down the paths, exploring all the sights. He discovered the goldfish pond, which reminded him of our visit to T&J in Florida last year. It got us both wondering if there was room anywhere in our little backyard...food for thought.

He was more interested in bird bath shopping than I expected, and helped me find some once he understood the difference between a fountain (see the bubbling water?) and a bath. He really wanted to buy one today, but with all the price tags being over $100 and the economy being what it is, I told him Daddy would have to come and look before we spent that much money. He asked more than once if we could please have Daddy come today? We ended up buying a clay saucer to prop up on rocks instead of a big pedestal one. I am hoping this will work for our feathered friends, and $11 sounds a lot better to me than $110 right now.

We also tried out several stone benches. Being time-strapped, I like the idea of plopping a bench down instead of maintaining a shade garden in the strip of dirt on the side of the fence. I liked the ones warm from the sun, but Barley said he liked the cold ones in the shade better. On a hot day, you could sit on a cold bench and get cooled down.

We bought 2 blueberry bushes: Oneal and Chandler, acidified soil, mulch--which Barley picked out. Got some gardening gloves, and a fake lizard (Barley had been very, very good while I was browsing all the plants).

When I was digging out the hole in the front yard, Teddy came and helped. He cut roots, broke up dirt, lugged over water--great having a second pair of hands. And he kept looking for worms or snails to gross me out--only found one. We got one bush planted before it was too dark out. Barley came to "help" just as we were finishing up, not really in time to do anything meaningful. But he was a bit put out that I had not bought 2 pairs of kids gloves (where was my head?). I will have to fix that quickly, as this was a serious barrier to any further interest! Barley did go out with a flashlight after dark to check out the new plant, though--so I guess there is some interest after all.