Alert! Behind the Pampas grass lurked this turtle, where I was pulling weeds by hand. Good grief! A snapping turtle no less.
Gardening in the country is not about knowledge of plants, it is about, who’s going to have their way, man or beast? I’m not believing I’ve won. In May, I planted so many lovelies…hot pepper plants, ornamental umbrella grass….and the tops were eaten. Have the deer developed finer dining tastes? Oh, the farmer’s burros escaped. It was the hoof prints in the newly sown grass that was the 1st clue….
The silver artemesia is absolutely beautiful as is the other whitish ground cover. I have these in several places. The lushness of the beauty is almost indescribable until the day it all falls apart and thousands of tunnels appear under all of it and destroy the roots of flowering plants around it. Ground critters…moles! I googled this and accordingly have put coffee grounds all over the tunnels and have stopped the action. But this spring I found a complete huge flower plot destroyed and I had GROUND COVER growing there! I had thought it was rabbits! All of that is going to be dug up and thrown in the woods to thrive!
The sayin’ is that a sign of a good farmer is a red tomato by 4th of July! What a year! I had the mostest tallest, widest, flowering, HEAVY LADEN green tomatoes August 4th you ever saw. Back to google. I’m embarrassed to say I did not know that the tomato plants need to be pruned in extreme heat as the sun will just keep on producing more and more flowers. I wacked those branches and Russ will tell you the next morning we had red tomatoes out the yang yang! What went wrong was that that 100 degree sun burned the top maters…so lesson learned, not such radical trimming out of desperation next year. Nevertheless, here it is Sept 9th and still enjoying sliced tomatoes topped with tiny chopped onions!
Yes, I will be doing things a little differently next year. I carry water out of my rain barrels to so many scattered places, I’m going to gather my potted plants closer together. For me, potatoes, kale, other certain herbs are not worth the effort, certain ones are…I cannot grow a radish but excel with onions and zuchini….and RHUBARB! Then a certain very tall ornamental grass is beautiful till the day it lays down and covers up the flowers, it will be history…Things have got to change to make it easier for next year.
I am forever composting to where I have the best soil in the history of mankind and so everything grows…out of control, so now I have to move plants…and split them. Now #1daughterconnie has taught me to gather the seed heads for next year and the beat goes on.
A new baby in our family, MY new granddog! There is life after gardening…just have to find the time!
