Thursday, June 17, 2010


Storm clouds moved in quickly late yesterday afternoon. High winds and hard rain followed but it didn't last long and didn't leave nearly enough rain behind. June is supposed to be our wettest month but so far it isn't turning out that way. Most of my plants have enough mulch so I don't have to worry about watering every day. The garlic is the exception; it is ready to harvest but I never got around to adding mulch to the bed, so the ground is now too hard to plow. I will just have to wait a little longer for home grown garlic.

The squash and cucumber plants are growing rapidly, so I'm hoping to have some fresh produce by the end of the month. My tomatoes are behind schedule, as usual. All but one of mine disappeared shortly after planting out. I don't know if the rabbits ate them or if they were abducted by aliens, but they were just gone one day without a trace. Much to my shame, I had to go out and buy my tomato plants for this year. I have one heirloom that survived and two pepper plants. Well, maybe one pepper. One of my plants that I thought was a pepper has been growing across the ground instead of upright. Now I think it may be a ground cherry instead of a pepper. That is fine with me, I just don't remember starting ground cherries. Of course, it was back in March when I was in the middle of a challenging semester, so there is no telling what I may have done. My garden always manages to surprise me, either by what has survived and flourished, or by what I have inadvertently planted.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Today was the our first day with above-freezing temperatures since December 31st. The warm-up began Saturday when we went from a low of -7 to a high of 26. It almost felt warm. Today we had a high of 36, up from a low of 27 last night. It seemed positively balmy!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Winter Wonderland


The herb garden is idle with only the rooster to stand watch all winter.



The view was better when we moved here seven years ago. There were no houses behind us, only an open field. We don't see tree frogs anymore, and only occasionally do we hear an owl.

The wisteria tree in winter. If it doesn't bloom in the spring, its days could be numbered.


We received five inches of snow on Sunday, throughout the day and evening. It is so cold right now, only the beauty of the snow makes it worthwhile.