My Not So Secret Garden

Someone has been digging in my newly seeded pots outside. I had a pretty good idea who it was but I couldn't prove it... Until now. I happened to glance out of the window earlier today and caught this rascal in the act. He knew he'd been caught and starting "clucking" at me. I then proceeded to scare him off of the porch. Sleepy bunny out in the garden I think my corriander is getting ready to be bagged. My book "Gardening in Iowa" says that when the seeds start to turn brown you should put a brown paper bag over it and tie a string around the bag. This is done to catch the seeds. My Pepper plants are getting so big! they are almost as tall as my tomato plants. The habaneros are starting to really produce. None have turned colors yet though. I think my moms ok with that though. These might be a tad too hot for her. Jer said we should put them in just for her ( she did say she likes to eat hot stuff) Harvest today: Lemon Boys,Better boys,bell pepper, green b...

Heres a cute picture of Obama defending her spot on the coffe table. I havent gotten to take many pictures of the bunnies outside. I get out in the backyard and all of my attention turns to my gardening. This is a really dark picture of a little cucumber. I always go out to check the garden before I go in for the night to see if I missed anything (If I dont get it the critters will) I found this little guy and a couple of his friends hanging out in the cucumber patch Here's the harvest for today: 3 tomatoes, an eggplant, a banana pepper, and one yellow bell that refuses to turn yellow :( Heres last nights dinner. It had so much garden items I just had to put it on here. Porkchops in an orange sauce Fresh Green Beans Eggplant delight (my eggplant and my onions fried up and topped with cheese) Lemon Boy tomato Baked Spaghetti Squash ( from a neighbors garden) Jer of course refused most of the vegetables, but he would at least try a little before he said no. He did however take a ...

I went out to the garden to inspect and collect yesterday, this is what I found. My cucumbers seem to have been affected by Powdery Mildew :( Everything I've read says to pull the affected leaves out. My plants aren't very big, if I pull more than 1 or 2 I'm afraid I wont have a plant left! I found a recipe for a baking soda mixtures that a couple people said might help. We'll see 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 quart of water couple drops of liquid soap We did lots of yard work yesterday. Robbie came over to help. This is him on our roof trying to clean out the gutters. They were really bad. There was even a newspaper up there! Apparently the tenants before us didn't feel this was anywhere near the top of their priority list. It was on ours though. Debris was catching at certain spots and making the gutters sag. Unfortunately one of those spots was right over our pond. Robbie was nice enough to help clean out the pond too. Our fishes love him I'm sure. This is Jer ...

Here is my harvest for today. 2 Better Boys, 1 Lemon Boy (Isn't it pretty), and lots of lettuce. I decided to clear out the remainder of the lettuce because the kind I had left is really not my favorite. (Its Bibb and not arugula ) I'm going to seed the patch again maybe tomorrow with arugula, spinach, red and green lettuce. I'm still having issues with the shoulders of my red tomatoes being green. Here is what I found out from tomatocasual .com : Intense heat or light is the culprit. Ways to prevent it are having good leaf cover, having a good potassium level, and selecting varieties that are not prone to green shoulders. If all else fails pick the tomato as it first begins to ripen and put it in a window. Here is a July overview picture of my garden. I like the way it looks now. Everything looks in its place and there's not nearly as many weeds as there was a month ago. Still waiting on my garden gate. I think it will be almost perfect then. The ear of corn that yo...

Jer found this contraption at or local feed store. Hook corn cobs onto the screws and you've got entertainment for the next couple of hours. As the squirrel tries to get the cob, the contraption starts to spin. The end product is a very upset squirrel either clinging upside down to the cob, or laying on the ground. After a few go's of it though they usually manage to get a cob off and eat away. FYI forgot to make it to the store to get more corn cobs :( This feeder is my peace offering for the squirrels I manage to tick off with the other contraption. I like to watch them eat from my living room window. It's especially neat when its raining or snowing. Every once in a while, the feeder will cause the critters to scrap. Yesterday one was inside eating and another came up from behind. The one inside tried to run out the closed side of the tea jar. Unfortunately for him there was glass there. He ended up almost knocking himself out and on his back trying to escape. Harvest...

As I walked out to my garden yesterday something seemed awry. Then it hit me. Try as I might, I couldn't stop the scream that came from my mouth "Oh my god they killed everything!" After that came the wailing. I'm still not completely sure as to why 911 was not called. Any spectators Ihad (and I'm sure I had them, the way I was going about) must have thought I found the dead body of a loved one in the back yard. Scattered about were the remnants of my tomato,pea,bean,carrot,beet,and cucumber plants. I have never been so upset in my life to be at the point of being physically sick... until yesterday. All that hard work gone. I thought of the many days I had worked until I couldn't move anymore. I thought of digging out the lawn in 35 degree temperatures. I thought of the money that had just flown right out the window. Then I was MAD. At this point if I had been the "They" I spoke of earlier I had run to the next county. Also at this point I began to u...

We have gotton our 3rd round of baby sparrows. I thouht it was a little late in the season for them but apparently not. They are very hungry ( and loud) babies. I got to my strawberry first! The critters did not get this one. And boy did it taste GOOD. Suckers I was supposed to plant sweet corn for Jer, unfortauntly that didnt happen due to the fact that I had a need to expand my garden and that wont happen until next year. So when this volunteer corn stalk popped up I left it there just for him. ( I think the squirrels took a kernel from the feeder and decided this was agood spot to bury it) Somehow the cornstalk has a little corn on it. I wonder if it will get big enough to pick. These are my bush beans. I thought they might never show any signs of getting ready to produce. Fortuantly they have begun to flower madly . I wonder how long it will be until I get some green beans? No sign of anything but reaching for the heavens with the pole beans. I planted cucumbers a while back an...

I picked this last week but I thought it was so nice I'd share it with you now. I used the eggplants in eggplant delight. It was very good (Jer even said it smelled good, heaven forbid he actually taste it) It consisted of my eggplants and my onions fryed and topped with cheese. Sophie and Obama enjoyed the carrot tops, while I enjoyed the carrots. Today I picked lettuce, more banana peppers, peas, and some garlic chives. Oh and 1 eggplant I got my first tomato last friday. It was off of one of my early girls. There was 1 more but something got it before I did. A storm last week toppled my early girls (bad stakes were used on those oops) Now I can not get them back up, they are too big. So now I'm left digging through them to find tomatoes. I found one that will most likley be ready tomarrow. Heres to hoping I get to it first. My herb garden is lacking soil. I have neglected to repot some of my herbs :( Despite that my onion chives have flowered. I did get about half of my herb...