Everything else!

78 degrees

I planted all but one of my planters(right), which I am keeping open for some eggplant and a couple of late season tomato plants.

What a difference a few warm days has made for the strawberries, notice they are still not bird-proofed.

This is my handy-dandy make shift cucumber (Straight Nine) trellis! Last year I grew bush cucumbers with relatively good success, but once I spotted my mom's cucumber vines growing on trellis, I knew I had to give it a try.

Not so sure the critter repelling spray worked as promised. I spied some critter damage on the closest cabbage and decided to go to Plan B. Let's see if little buddy can chew through chicken wire.

Cheery Belle - Radishes, Texas Sweet - Onions (for scallions), Cilantro, Texas Sweet - Onions and Buttercrunch - Lettuce.

Front - My sad little broccoli hiding under it's bulletproofing. Right and rear - Bush and pole green beans. Left - more Texas Sweet onions. Center a couple of Tam Jalapenos.

Right - tomatoes, front two are Fourth of July (early) and rear two are Fresh Salsa. Left - a row of Basil. Rear - more pole green beans.

Farewell my little Broccoli plants

74 degrees

These are what's left of my broccoli plants. It's on! This bunny was brave enough or liked where it was enough to start building a nest in a nearby raised bed, not smart little buddy.

Plan A, apply a stinky spray that is supposed to keep away small critters, which Luvs Bikes applied last night. We'll see how that works for now, I'm not sure what plan B is yet.

I finally recieved my Jersey Giant asparagus last Thursday and Luvs Bikes helped me plant them last night. Hopefully we'll have a little asparagus next year, for sure by 2012!

Round 2 - cool crops

54 degrees

I took a few minutes this afternoon and planted some cabbage and broccoli. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I will have a little time to plant some onions.

It begins!

50 degrees

I have today off and decided last weekend that I have to get my cool weather vegetable in the ground. So, I started off my afternoon getting all 7 of my raised beds cleaned up and prepared for their upcoming plantings. I put my cool weather plantings(lettuce, radishes and cilantro (more to be added soon)) in one of the two small 4' X 4' beds, the other contains strawberries I planted last year. I also laid down part of the weed barrier, that Troy suggested, in between the raised beds until I ran out the ground staples that hold it down. Hopefully I'll get it finished this weekend and get bark laid on it soon.

The strawberry patch is where my war begins. I planted them last year and they produced very few strawberries, which I expected, so I let the birds have them. I now that I think about it, it was my first mistake. If some kinds of birds migrate back to the same nest or even same area for the summer, I'm sure they will also migrate back to the same strawberry patch. Right? So this February, I decided to put up a bird feeder in the front part of our backyard. Hoping, that if I feed the birds they will stay out of my strawberries, mistake number two. As I'm looking out this morning, I see all the intimidating birds (cardinals, blue jays) are feeding at the feeder, the rest are roaming the yard and garden for anything else they can find to eat, I'm sure they will be excited to find strawberries and forget about the feeder completely. I have to get a bird-proof cover built for my strawberries, and soon!

This is only the beginning of my feathered and furry friend problem. There is a rabbit living in my back fenced in garden area, whom I'm sure will like the lettuce I just planted and strawberries too. Also, the squirrel problem, and this is an even bigger problem than the birds and rabbit. Last year, Troy discovered tomatoes that the squirrels dropped in the gutters on our house. I don't even know how to begin my war with the squirrels.

WTF?

19 degrees

Snow. There is nothing more to say.