Updated the Plant Progress yesterday

I updated the 2018 Plantings page.

We’ve had another casualty, but some success as well (one noted by image yesterday).  We also ate our first blueberries and raspberries of the season (red and black).  It was still a bit soon for the blueberries we taste tested.  The strawberries keep getting raided by the critters before we get a chance.  To be fair, we have a lot more raspberry canes than we do fruiting strawberry plants so far.

Posted in Plants, Progress

strawberries everywhere followup part 2

Today, as I am yanking up my latest nemesis–purple loosestrife–I see a tiny blob of red.  “Huh,” I think to myself, “That’s new.”

Strawberries.  Three tiny ones on a plant buried in the front yard sloped portion’s masses of wildflowers and grasses.  Then I find another plant close by, also with red budding berries. Continue reading “strawberries everywhere followup part 2”

Posted in Progress

Watering, snipping grass, neglected compost and old foe skeletons

I did manage to get some time outside yesterday to do more than a round of watering.  Compared to last year, I’m consistently using three “can fills” per water from the rain barrel so far, where last year we barely needed just the one.  Most of that is due to the kitchen garden related plants, as well as trying to encourage some perennials that didn’t overwinter very well.  We haven’t been able to pick up the new rain barrel we paid for, but will when schedules align.  We haven’t needed it yet, so I’m not agonizing over the lack of pickup,  if it matters.

Note the two flying insect "shadows" you can see near the one cluster of fruit growing. I didn't even realize they'd made the shot.
Some of our plants have names (we’re odd). Shoobie, our northern highbush blueberry, was two years old when introduced last year, and this year’s crop is looking good for a three year old.

Continue reading “Watering, snipping grass, neglected compost and old foe skeletons”

Posted in Creatures, Oh noes!, Progress

Update on growing bits and seeds — second week of June ’18

Bought two plant seeds this week, black eyed susans and bachelor buttons.  I did manage to get them in a planter for the time being.  I’m still wary of the squirrels, though the susan seeds are so tiny they can’t possibly want to steal those, right?  I’m going to try stagger sowing them a bit, though not by much because the start is already pretty darn late this year. (Hullo, June!) So I only did some of each to start. Continue reading “Update on growing bits and seeds — second week of June ’18”

Woo! Unexpected progress…

My partner somehow didn’t get called in today, so we started building our first kitchen garden bed where there will be peas and corn and other things.  It was hard to get an angle where you could see the rough width, length from the window, but it’s not finished yet anyhoo.  We’re on break now, and about to head back out to finish digging a bit, then we’ll fill with wood and see how tired we are.  It’s been a long day for us. Continue reading “Woo! Unexpected progress…”

Posted in Plants

strawberries…strawberries everywhere

Last year we found out that along with our berry bushes, we had strawberry plants too.  It wasn’t long before I realized we had very large swaths of the yard and beds that were carpeted with their runners.  We haven’t ID’d what type they are yet.

It would be fair to say that our backyard is mostly carpets of strawberry runners.
Even if you don’t recognize this meme, the reactions hold true. On one hand, having a lot of strawberry plants is amazing! On the other…there are so many runners to make decisions about so we might actually get a decent crop of berries this year.

Continue reading “strawberries…strawberries everywhere”