Hi, I'm Snickers. I live with Jen and am a guinea pig.



She has been busy catching up on house chores in between visits to her mom and dad, plus feeding myself and the other two guinea pigs who live here. So, I'm writing a gardening update for her. prrrr titter titter

It rained Monday through Thursday last week, so Jen couldn't really do anything. Friday and Saturday were hot, humid and sunny -- a good time for drying the soil. Jen expects that when she goes tonight (Sunday) after work to harvest, many tomatoes will have burst because of the sudden excessive rain.

Sadly for Shaggy, Scooby and me, the greens have all bolted. Jen keeps talking about seeding for a fall harvest, but she is a little overwhelmed right now and may not get to it. She has given us some yummy organic greens from the store. I appreciate that she grows veggies for us. They are soooo good!

Oh, Jen has a blog entry about puppy mills and schoolroom critters. As a guinea pig, I find the idea of being stuck in a classroom bad. Kids should be supervised; they can be mean to small animals and not realize it. It would also be lonely. In a home, there is a lot going on. Jen cuddles us, chats and listens to us. Sometimes I whimpered when I was lonely after my buddy Pumpkin died. Jen heard me and snuggled me so I'd feel better. That kind of attention wouldn't happen in a lonely classroom. You can read this blog at her 360 site.

And she says that I make her feel better. I try to.

Well, that's about it. It was fun chattering with you! Have a good "wheek" and God bless you all!

Jungle or Jumble?

A few weeks ago, my plants were small, but I had confidence that they would grow. I upped my hand-watering a little. And we have had soaking rain once a week. I fed them, too. Now the plants are quite large.

Only after watering (or rainfall) do I feed the plants. The first water should just be that -- water; this gets the plant's vascular (water/nutrient uptake) system going and hydrates the cells. Then I do a light watering with the food mixed into it. I suppose the watering is like an appetite stimulant for the plants. Plus, it provides water in the plant cells so the follow-up nutrients are circulated into the places that need it.

My plantings are mixed up, so to speak, this year. Instead of one section for each type of plant, I inter-planted. I think the corn is the only item I kept to one spot, which was half-planning and the rest circumstance. I'd have planted a second, later crop, but my personal schedule got in the way of sequential plantings. The planned part was that I seeded the corn in a recessed area of a raised bed. In The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, the author recommends this so that the bed stays better hydrated. It catches water and rainfall and holds it longer. We certainly have had the kind of sun and heat that corn seems to like. Mine's looking good, I think.

Overall, all of the plants have grown really well. I can no longer see over them into the adjoining plot as I could a few weeks ago.

Saturday morning I hand-watered. I transplanted a few basil plants that were small. Sunflowers were shading them, so I moved the herb to sunny spots.

My herbs in containers on my porch are growing extremely well. I hope to have photos soon. Meanwhile, here's some aerial photos.




Update: the Alzheimer's is more advanced than the doctor originally thought. Now my 3 sisters and I are trying to get her the help she needs, but the insurance is not making it easy. She needs a full evaluation that Geisinger health insurance will not cover.

Thanks And Garden Update

Thank you to all who read and responded to my entry to all praying believers. I want to explain now that more is known to my family. My mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. This has made the last couple of weeks quite difficult, especially for her and my dad. One of my sisters and I have taken turns staying with her. She still functions well; just needs a little help and most of all companionship in dealing with the emotional repercussions of this.

So, thanks to all for your continued prayers.


Meanwhile the weeds are getting a little ahead of me in my garden plot. Yes, we've had some decent rain! I've picked plenty of sweet pea pods, lettuce, basil and mint. The broccoli did better than I thought. Nights have been cool, and that may have prevented bolting and blooming of lettuce and broccoli respectively. Soon the tomatoes should be ready. Plenty of tomato plant "volunteers" have grown. Some I left in.

A Garden Joke

I can use a little humor. How about you? It's a necessity for sanity.

The Tomato Garden

An older man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig his tomato
garden, but it was very hard work as the ground was hard. His only son,
Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

Dear Vincent,

I am feeling pretty badly because it looks like I will not be able to plant
my tomato garden this year. I am just getting too old to be digging up a
garden plot. I know if you were here, my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me.

Love,
Dad

A few days later he received a letter from his son...

Dear Dad,
Do not dig up that garden. That is where I buried the bodies.

Love,
Vinnie

At 4 the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son...

Dear Dad,

Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That is the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love you,
Vinnie

Request to Praying Believers

My immediate family is going through a difficult time right now. Please pray for a healthy resolution, clear thoughts and guidance from God, peace and healing. I won't go into details. It would take too long. Thank you.

Saturday

If my family wasn't sending off my sister next weekend, I'd go to this workshop. P Allen Smith will have a container workshop in Egg Harbor, NJ, on July 14. Spending a few hours "playing" in the dirt under the tutelage of a successful garden designer would be fun. If I'd had more advance notice, I might have made it part of a beach weekend. Bummer.

What I saw yesterday while weeding in my plot reinforced yesterday's entry. It's dry. It dried quickly after recent rain. Most things are doing well, but I will have to increase my hand-watering. The tomato plants that have red plastic under them are doing the best. Penn State research showed that colored plastics affect plant growth. Red is good for tomatoes and strawberries. I don't plan to use a lot of plastics as I guess they are not organic. And some shred. This year, it will be useful due to the lack of moisture. The straw has proven inadequate, and no more compost is available. Here's a little history of plasticulture.

I added some herbs to my porch containers: pennyroyal, fennel, lemon balm, rosemary, sage, a scented geranium, and I think that's all. My porch smells wonderful.


This is the color of the sage I bought:

Growth

One of the gardeners has been providing aerial photographs of the community garden plots. I've put them in past entries. In this entry, I have put all three to show the progression.

This one was in 2006.


(It was post-gardening season, I believe, but not yet winter.)








This is June 10, 2007.

This is July 1, 2007. If one goes about one-half way up the photo, from the left, my plot is the one with the red spots.


Greenery is not the only fluctuation in the photos. Last year, especially with June floods in the mid-Atlantic, the soil was wetter. This year's photos show light soil; we've have much less rain.

My garden's not as green as some of the others. I spent more time working on the soil this year. And I'm solo. Many of the other plot-renters are couples. I don't plant numerous plants of any one kind. I intend to add as I keep this plot. Were I to add too much at once, I would be overwhelmed. It will look much greener in a few days, after the rain from July 4.

This year I added cutting flowers: mixed colors of nasturtiums, asters and larkspur in addition to the sunflowers and lisianthus I planted in previous years. Woodring's Flower Shop, a short walk from my home, has a Bellefonte shop and a greenhouse. That's where I got the newest seeds from. I also bought something elsewhere, seeds for lagurus, or "bunny tail"; no germination in over a month. Still, my spinach finally came up long after I planted seeds. I think the dry conditions have contributed to this, but that's just my opinion.

Romance of Country Life

When I was growing up, my younger sister and I often accompanied our parents on visits to my great aunt and uncle's home in Benton, Pennsylvania. It was "out in the country" compared to where we lived. Much of Pennsylvania is rural or forested land. Where I grew up was not a metropolis, but a small town. Still, my great aunt and uncle's home had a lot a of green space, a farmer neighbor on one side, and a creek next to the side yard that we played in.

My great uncle died when I was still pretty young, so I don't remember him as well as his wife. Uncle Claude Moore was a tall, thin man with silver hair and glasses. He was a brother of my mom's father. His wife Mary (born a McHenry) was shorter, plump (by the time I knew her) and wore her silver hair pinned up by bobby pins. Both of them were much like the traditional grandparent image.

It was easy to romanticize country life for me. And I still do. I do enjoy the conveniences of "town" life. The attractions of large cities do not elude me. I've been to NYC close to 20 times.

I think I'd enjoy living on a small farm. While scanning the hobby and crafts section of a magazine display recently, I discovered Hobby Farming, which does put beautiful fantasies in my head. In my aunt and uncle's youth, many people were trying to leave the family farm for the "big city." Now there are people going the other way.

It reminds me of the film Baby Boom with Diane Keaton. Her character is a New York City business woman who "inherits" an infant. Eventually she moves into rural New England, and falls in love the country lifestyle, and an attractive veterinarian.

(Before her transition, she tells a physician how country life is driving her crazy, putting her into the poor house, and that it has been way too long since she had sex. To her humiliation, she learns that he's a vet, not a people doctor.)

These hobby farmers choose to live an agrarian life. To learn more, check out the website and/or the magazine if you find it. The site has a wonderful gallery of photos submitted by hobby farmers.

Lost A Few Battles ...

... But It Looks Like I Won the War

Foil wraps and cardboard collars on plants in my plot and in containers on my porch have defeated the cutworms. I also removed grubs and squashed them as I worked the soil. So, my tomatoes, basil, and remaining brocolli seedlings are fine.

The next strategy will be implemented against the ubiquitous flea beetles.

They are on my mustard.

My black bean seedlings are also tasty to them.

They like my green and runner bean seedlings. Rapid sprouting and growth has kept them ahead of the damage so far.

You might think that more plants appeal to flea beetles than discourage them. I would agree, based solely on their love of our community garden plantings. We've grown a smorgasbord for them.

Leaf lettuce is left alone, so far. Onions and garlic chives surround my lettuce beds, which may be detering them.

I prefer organic. It is important to remember that organic methods have less effect on the environment, but are not always without hazards. Follow instructions carefully, especially with chemicals applied to the plants or soil. Wash all vegetables before consuming them.

Diatomaceous earth, etc.
"Diatomaceous earth is one of the more effective repellents, applied as a dry powder to the plants. Horticultural oils and some neem insecticides also have some repellent effect on this insect."

Garlic spray

Flea beetle photo from this web page, which has a long list of beetles:

What's Growing? What's Knawing?

I planted broccoli, concerned that they would develop heads right about the time that heat would make them bloom. So far, only a few survived cutworms and flea beetles. This is one of them in the photo. It's now much bigger (about a week later).


It's hard not to love perennials, especially tasty herbs like these chives. The pretty purple flowers taste better than the leaves.


This photo of last year (probably late July) shows that the chive bed was not as thick.

Grubs of cutworms and Japanese Beetles turned up in many shovels of soil while I worked in the compost. The curled white one is the Japanese Beetle. The fat gray grub is a cut worm.


I took this photo as an experiment. The camera is sitting on the ground in my lettuce bed.

One could say this is a bug's perspective.