Dealing with invaders

I have discovered that in the garden, as well as in life, where there is something beautiful or useful, there will be enemies who want to tear it down. I haven't noticed too many animals eating the weeds if there is anything more tasty around. And in both life and the garden I have to deal with the invaders.


In the picture you will see some yellow flowers, calendula (or pot marigold). The deer love them and eat the blossoms whenever they are hungry and the flowers are blooming. They seem to have no interest in the leaves. The plant in the foreground with the small purple flowers is hyssop. Around the plants you will see wire mesh that's supposed to go in the yet unbuilt raised beds, at the bottom, to keep gophers out. I'm using them here to keep the deer from stomping on my newly planted seeds and seedlings, on their way to munch the flowers.

To solve the hornworm problem on my tomatoes, I finally got some BT and sprayed the plants at dusk. And none too soon. Tonight I saw signs that yet another plant was infested, but I couldn't find the worms. So I hope I got enough BT on the leaves. I guess I'll have to spray every couple of days to keep them away. Tomorrow is busy with things outside the home, so I'll barely just have time to water. I wish more of the tomatoes would get ripe. So far I've only been able to pick from three out of six varieties. The heirlooms are getting huge, but not red. And I believe they are supposed to get red.

Invaders in the Tomatoes

Yesterday I discovered to my horror that there must be an army of hornworms in my tomatoes. I managed to pick off and kill about four, but could see signs that there were many more. So I decided to offer the two neighbor children a job -- a quarter for each tomato hornworm they could pick off, put in a jar, and bring to me. I did caution them to be careful how they handled the plants. They brought me a total of 14 worms, and I did away with them after paying the children. But when I went out to water this morning and cut off the parts of the plants the worms had stripped, I discovered that children can also do damage in their zeal to increase their funds. The vines had slid down from where they had been staked, spread out so they they covered adjacent plants (borage, peppers), and some were broken off, so I lost another four green heirloom tomatoes that way. However, I'm imagining I'm still better off, since I have a pretty good idea how much those worms would have eaten by this morning had they not been caught. And I did find two more this morning. As soon as I have a car again I will have to get some BT. I dare not turn the kids loose again without supervision.

I also have a mystery plant I'd like to grow on the slope next year. It must be native, since it grew on its own in two different parts of the property that are pretty far from each other. It is extremely drought resistant and requires no care that I can see. And it would provide a nice contrast to the purple and yellow colors already on the slope. I've been checking both the books on weeds and the books on wildflowers, but I can't find it. Does anyone have a clue? It's about 18 inches high and forms seed pods. I took pictures today. I have put them here. I show the whole plant, with close-ups of the flowers and pods forming. (Since posting this the first time, I've discovered this is milkweed, and after watching it for a season I have decided it's not very pretty after it forms its seed pods.)

It's beginnng to be harvest time.

And it is the harvest that makes it all worth while in the end. The tomatoes are starting to get ripe. The cucumbers have been abundant. I've cut my lettuce off and it's starting to grow more leaves. I also cut some chard off at the ground after reading it will also grow back new tender leaves.

The broccoli I planted couple of weeks ago is just beginning to sprout in the ground where I planted it. But the lettuce I planted the same day still hasn't begun to come up and it's going to be very hot again tomorrow.

In the bed outside the kitchen window the gopher has finally finished pulling the huge borage completely under. I'm glad it's kept him so busy this past week he hasn't had time or inclination to attack something new. The other seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago are coming up, but not the cosmos yet. Looks like I'll have a couple of zinnias, more borage, and more blanket flowers for the deer to enjoy. I was delighted to see that the yarrow I thought the gopher had destroyed is growing back. And the calendulas I replanted after her attack are beginning to get strong again, and the ones I had almost given up on are beginning to grow some green leaves.

In the bed by the pump house, the amaryllis have stretched out their pink necks toward the sun, as if they had simultaneously turned their heads to see someone. See top above. I like the contrast between the Dusty Miller and the petunias in the foreground. The picture is too small to really see the flat-leaf parsley, gazanias, and the thyme

The slope has not changed much, but the irises appear to be settling in and thriving. It will be time to collect some seed from the flax soon. The lavender side of the slope is what's in the picture above as of early in the month. The lavender is really about all that shows up in the bottom picture because I was trying to take in half the part of the slope I'm redeeming from the wild. The gazanias at the bottom don't really show much here, but they are there. My small tricolor sage just barely shows at the back. I ran out of pictures on the disk before I could I could get the other half of the hill. Maybe I'll have time to get that and the amaryllis by the pump house wall later in the week.

Right now I don't have to do much but water, sometimes feed (as I did today), and pick what's ripe. In another month it will be time to start transplanting , sow seeds for the winter garden, and divide the sage and lavender. But now it's time to enjoy.

The Gopher Continues to Strike

Since saving what was left of the Lamb's Ears, I've lost one borage plant, two nasturtiums, and one sorrel. I have one beautiful borage left which I expect to go any day now, and some blanket flowers, what's left of the marjoram and cat mint, my newly planted and now blooming camomille, and one other mint-like herb I can't identify at the moment.

Since I don't expect much to be left standing that I can see from the kitchen window, I planted a lot more borage seeds there today, some coreopsis, and some more blanket flowers. And I planted some old zinnia seeds that probably won't spout, but might as well put them in the ground as through them in the trash.

In a corner of the raised beds I planted some more lettuce. I also prepared some ground for planting a fall garden of greens, and transplated some chard into some empty pots. I should have more than enough chard for fall, since I also have two or three plants near the artichoke plants by the kitchen. Although they are all in the ground in that bed, so far the gophers have left them alone. The picture above shows one raised bed as it was a few days ago. That lettuce on the bottom appears to be in a corner, but it isn't. Those are newpapers around it which I'm using as mulch. I removed them today when I planted more lettuce. I also removed lots of purslane which you can see between the lettuce and the chive plant behind it. The bright orange spots on the left are nasturtium blossoms, which show up regularly in our salads. The lighter orange blossoms on the right are marigolds. The green in between is more purslane, which also acts as a mulch. We throw some of that in the salads, too. The yellow just outside the bed in front is wild mustard. I'm leaving it for the added color. The large green plants behind the flowers are tomatoes. Just out of sight in the front right corner is a very large dill plant. I'm following some book's advice about having a dill plant, a marigold and some basil near each tomato. But most of the basil is with the tomotoes in the other raised bed -- the one with the peppers, basil, one chard, and a nasturtium. No dill there.

Saving the Lamb's Ears

Yesterday I found out what was causing the Lamb's Ears plant to wilt so much. As I gently pulled, I saw that one part was loose, so it was the gopher helping herself again. This time I decided to fight while I could. I dug up the root divisions that were left and potted them, watered them good, and put them in the shade to revive. Today they were looking almost normal. Unfortunately, the gophers got their revenge by eating the roots of my two remaining nasturtiums. I must have caught them early, since they were still fresh. So I considered them a harvest, put them in the frig, and had part of the young leaves in our salad at noon. That way losing the plants wasn't a total waste. I stomped down on the ground to cave in the gopher hole to get my revenge, but I imagine something else will be gone tomorrow. I guess when I replant in the fall I'd better put the perennials in cages. Perhaps I'll plant daffodils, since they are supposed to be poisonous to gophers.

The cucumbers are doing very well. I seem to find another one ready every day. The zucchini is slower, but it's in containers instead of the ground -- to protect it from gophers. My container cucumber isn't near as healthy and is starting to yellow. I'm not sure if it's getting too much or too little water. It was also planted a couple of weeks after the others in the ground, so that could also explain why it's not producing more than blossoms yet. I hope the gophers leave my beautiful cucumbers in the ground alone.

I'm getting a few ripe tomatoes now, and I'm hoping the raccoons don't discover them before I get my share. They are planted where the gophers shouldn't be able to get at them. The days are cooler now -- in the high eighties, so garden work is more pleasant that it was last week when it was so hot. The plants are also enjoying the cooler temperatures.

Getting through the heat and beginning the harvest

July 31, 2006

I have spent more time wearing my bookseller hat and less time in my sunbonnet and gardening gloves since my last post. That means sometimes I've had to choose between gardening and blogging, and, of course, I chose gardening.

Since the last post I fed my plants that were beginning to look starved or starting to bloom, some fish emulsion. It didn't help the peppers much, but it seemed to help everything else. I picked my first tomatoes today. I've been picking a cucumber about every three days for the past ten days. I've harvested a couple of zucchini and a few small bell peppers. The tomato vines are loaded and it looks they will be getting more and more ripe ones every day. Cucumbers are loaded with blossoms and little cukes. So over all, the
veggies are doing well.

Wish I could say the same for my small herb bed beyond my kitchen window . (Pictured above.) The gophers think it's for them. I've lost two calendulas, my marjorem, and both yarrow plants. Something is eating the sorrel above ground and its almost gone. (Discovered next day it was gophers, and now it's gone, too.) And today my prized lambs ear plant looked wilted and almost dead. (See gray blob hanging over rocks a bit at front of picture.) And just two days ago I had been admiring it and thinking of how well it was doing and how I would be dividing it into more plants in the fall. I gave it a lot of water this morning and hope it revives. The picture was taken the morning after I wrote this, and it has revived a little . I'd think the gopher had gone after it, but it wasn't loose. I'd think it was our triple digit heat that we've had almost every day for two weeks, but it was a bit cooler today and yesterday. And I can't believe that one day without watering would wilt it that much. Time will tell. Maybe the gopher just nibbled a bit of it so far. (Compare the picture above to the same bed on May 20, bottom picture on May 20th blog, below. )

I finished planting the irises I was given last week since it was a bit cooler today. I spread them in every one of my beds to see where they will do the best. And that way if a gohper should go on a rampage, it won't get all of them. Though I understand that they are poison, so I wouldn't mind if a gopher did eat them.

It's time to start broccoli, and I have some seeds. It's time to think about what else I want to plant for the fall garden. It's just so hot this summer that I'm not sure I could keep the seeds moist enough outside. So much to do. So little time.

More planting before the predicted rain.

I’ve been too busy gardening to have much blogging time this past two days. I bought a lot of herbs and flowers to transplant yesterday and then bought some marigold to transplant today. I hope I have things enough under control next spring to grow from seed instead. But I wanted to see some instant color this year.

I have the bed by the pump house completely planted now. It contains three kinds of thyme, garlic chives, borage seeds, an Easter lily, the alyssum my neighbor gave me for Mother’s Day, some coleus I bought yesterday, a lemon scented geranium, two marguerites, gazanias transplanted from Mom’s, amaryllis in back against the wall, German chamomile and also the ground cover variety, and two kinds of parsley. There may be a thing or two I’ve forgotten. I did find my camera, but haven’t had time to upload the pictures to the computer yet. Business before pleasure!


In the bed I see from my kitchen window I have two kinds of yarrow, some marigolds, some coreopsis, some cat mint, some French sorrel and some seeds for Blanket Flower, borage, and a border plant I can’t remember right now. (See bottom picture, above.) When planting, one can only imagine what the finished picture will be and one has to keep that picture in mind when the bed is nothing but transplants and seeds. As Paul said, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. One has to have a certain amount of faith when planting a garden or one wouldn’t bother. I may or may not actually see what I now envision. I may have simply planted a feast for the gophers. One can’t make gopher cages for everything.

I also completed half the bed beside the driveway today. This is the bed where I divided the artichoke a few weeks ago. One is in the pot to protect it from the gophers. The others have to fend for themselves in the ground. I pulled a few weeds, planted one hill of light green zucchini in a cage and one hill of golden zucchini without one. I put in a marigold for good measure and planted a couple of borage seeds. I still have a tall red chard going to seed there. It looks nice in contrast, and I am looking forward to some chard there in the fall. I still have the part of the bed nearest the house to finish weeding and clearing things from. My husband got halfway through making the last raised bed there, and the frame is on its side against the shed behind the bed with the wire along side. It looks terrible, since it’s also very weedy, but first the plants had to go into the ground before the rain expected tomorrow. I like to transplant, and plant seeds, before rain is expected.

Last project today was to finish planting what I could in the fenced garden before the rain comes. I managed to plant a few green ice lettuce seeds, a few more French Breakfast radishes, some borage, and a few sunflowers (all seeds). My first pot of zucchini came up a couple of days ago, two cucumber hills are up, one of the old basil seeds (out of about twelve I planted) came up, and the tomatoes are making progress. I’m still worried about the bell peppers and basil transplants. Their leaves are yellow at the edges and they look unhappy. Can’t tell if they have too much food and water or not enough. I’m sure they have enough water. And the nutrients I put in the soil before planting were not chemicals. (See raised bed in top picture, above. Peppers are in foreground, with radishes around them. Tomatoes are in background with a couple of tiny basil in back, between them.) Yesterday I transplanted a borage (a volunteer which came up in a pot with a tomato). I felt the pot could not support them both, and if one had to die, I chose the borage. But I hope it will decide to be happy even though relocated. I added a marigold to each raised bed where I’ve planted tomatoes because they are supposed to be friends.

I would like to have done more, but I ran out of time today. Seems it goes so quickly in the garden. If the predicted rain actually comes, I may not get back to gardening until Tuesday. That will be good for the bookseller part of me that needs more time to get ready to exhibit at a home school convention in Fresno on June 9-10. When I get back from that, maybe I’ll finally get some pictures attached to these blogs.