Rain

I don't know if any of you have kept up with the weather in the Southeast, but it's raining again here. So far this summer, it's been one rainy summer.

We have mosquitoes to the glory. Around here, we can't have any standing water. In 3 days you'll see mosquito larvae. That goes for any standing water. I've seen larvae in the dogs' indoor water fountain. We have one of those 1.75 gallon waterers. I only fill them half way so I can give them fresh water every couple of days. I was taking the lazy way out. I don't do that any more. That was just plain nasty. The girls get fresh water every day, even twice a day.

Another effect of the rainy weather is frogs. LOTS of frogs. We have tree frogs here and lots of them. They like to hang out around our porch light at night. I also keep a small container for the compost pile on the railing so I can put my coffee grounds and scraps in it every night. Then I empty it the following day. Well...sometimes a day or two after I should. The frogs find out that flies and gnats love to do their thing in the compost tin. They'll sit around it at night and snatch up the flies and gnats. Right now, we have frogs the size of pencil erasers coming around. You know the pencil...yellow #2. Yep. Frogs that little get around pretty well. They crawl up the siding and hang around the porch at night. They're fun to watch on the window. Last night, I watched one stalk a small fly of some kind. Frogs sure do have patience, don't they?! I hate to say this, but they pop when you step on them. Yuk! I didn't do it on purpose, mind you. It was a bigger frog a couple of years ago. I watch going out in bare feet now. Uh huh. Sure do!

Any how, every few days the frogs mate in the ditches. They sing so loudly for about 3 days until they get their stuff done. The noise is so deafening that you can't sit out and talk. Then you see little frogs everywhere. It's like magic.

Well. Because of all of this rain, we lost a lot of tomato plants. The tomatoes rotted on the vine and the vines are losing leaves and are growing spindly. It's time to plant winter crops, anyways.

The strawberry patch is holding on. The plants are losing leaves from the heat, but they're alright.

The elderberry plot has grown by leaps and bounds this year. We had two flowering stalks which were promptly eaten by birds or something. Next year should bring some good heads. I didn't gather wild ones this year, yet. I'll be hard pressed to find some still holding on to the stalk with all of this rain. What's funny is, everyone born down here thinks they're poisonous. I love to make jelly from them.

That's how things are going here in our piece of heaven.

Take care.

Blessings from Our Garden

Here are some pics of what we've been getting from our garden for the past several days.

Monday's Picks

Here we have Ozark Beauty strawberries...about a pint, a few leaves of Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, and the last bit of radishes worth anything.

This year, the strawberries are abundant, but they are malformed. I think it's because we had warm weather and cold weather and back and forth for a couple of months. The plants would bloom then freeze. This happened several times and I had to remove the flowers every time. Some of the berries are really nice. Some are small. Anyhow, they all taste the same and I'm not out to impress anyone with my berries. We pick them a little yellow, as you see. This is because the birds will get to them if they are really red. Right now, slugs are the enemy. We'll eat these on Monday after they ripen overnight.

Tuesday's Pick

We have about a pint and a half of nice strawberries here. These will be eaten on Tuesday. Sunday, I made a vanilla pound cake from a very old recipe book that I have. It makes the most wonderful shortcake for berries! Yummy!

Today's Picks

There is about a half-pint of strawberries here. This is the first picking of peas. There is a gardening show on TV called Making It Grow. It is on on Tuesday nights at 7pm. I learned when to plant the peas from listening to the experts saying when they plant. Here in SC, you actually plant them in February! It worked. The plants are healthy, large and are filled with flowers and ripening pods. I had only about a cup of peas from this shelling. I put them into the freezer so I can get enough either for a meal or two, or use them in minestrone soup that I make. Next year, we're putting in a lot more peas. We're also going to plant them on a higher fencing as they are about 1-1/2 feet above the fence we have them on. Right now they're on a 2-foot fence.

I hope you enjoyed the pics that I finally got to take. I hope YOUR garden is doing well if you live in the Southern regions like we do.

Take care.

Night Walk

Tonight I asked Hubby to go on a night walk with me. I just finished baking a batch of double chocolate cookies and felt like taking a walk. It is hot inside and cool and windy outside. The temperature is about 75 degrees F, so it is really nice out. We took small flashlights and the dogs came too. We visited our back garden with the strawberry plants in it and our side garden with all of our tomatoes in it. We checked our driveway solar lights and replaced a couple that had fallen over. It is really neat to see how different everything looks at night. Our 'Eywa' is beautiful and swaying in the breeze. I wish I could get a good picture of it to show you! We checked our peach trees and oak trees that we transplanted a couple of months ago. The peach trees are in bloom. The oak trees are blooming and coming to leaf. We checked the chicken yard for rats...none there tonight. The chickens heard us talking and a couple of them gave out a little coo.

It sure is nice to live in the country. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else! If I HAD to live in the city, I'd make sure I had the whole yard in gardens and bird feeders. Luckily I don't HAVE to live in the city. No offense intended to anyone. I just don't see myself living in the city any more. I'm a country girl and love it!

Take care.

Flowers Blooming

You know it's Spring when the flowers start blooming.

Mini Daffodils

The mini daffodils are one of those surprise bulbs you get at the lawn center. It says daffodils, but it doesn't say mini anywhere on the package. Too cute! I love them. Pardon the weeds in the background. I haven't had time to get any further than this part of my flower gardens.

Peach Blossoms

Peach blossoms are so pretty! There are only a couple out right now. This means it's time to spray for bugs before the blossoms all come out. If you don't spray, some kind of bug will crawl up into the blossom and lay eggs so it messes up the fruit. Not a good thing! Yes, that's my house in the background. I have a picnic pavilion in front of it that you can see. The red shed to the left is the chicken hotel. The little white hut is our water pump house.

Strawberry Flower

Yes! The strawberry plants are still blooming. Actually, they've been blooming since December, but the frost hits them and you have to get rid of the burnt flowers. This next pic is what I'm talking about.

Frost-burnt Strawberry Flowers

These are prime examples of what a frost-burnt flower looks like. The frost kills the strawberry dead and you should remove the flower so that the plant puts effort into making more roots and flowers. Don't leave it on thinking it will come back. It's dead. Dead is dead. The plant will reward you if you take these off, so don't be afraid to pluck it. If you do pluck one, please notice that the center feels empty. That is a dead strawberry. So pluck away! Plucking or pruning off dead flowers is called dead-heading your flowers.

Take care and see you tomorrow!

Baby Strawberry Plants

A few posts ago, I showed you a picture of our large strawberry patch. We also have one for baby plants the I just couldn't turn under for compost.

Strawberry Nursery

Here they are. They are so tiny! I think these are the ones which came up from the seeds on the sides of rotten strawberries that I threw on the ground last year. The reason I think this, is that the plants are so tiny and they do not have a runner attached to them. There are about 135 plants here. This year they shouldn't bear fruit. They will grow and propagate themselves into another massive plot of plants. Next year, they will have fruit. I make a nursery like this in case something goes terribly wrong with the main berry patch. Then we'll have backups for planting next year. I do this with a lot of things. If you look up to the very top of this photo, you'll see another raised bed. This is my other nursery for herbs, onions and flowers that were too small to do anything with last year. I've already moved a lot of the small plants out of there and into their new home. In a little while, my herbs will take off. I have some onions planted in there, too. That is the green color you see.

So long for now. Until tomorrow!

Strawberry Plant Dilemma

In a previous post, I mentioned about taking strawberry plants to work. The main guy who asked for them came looking for me today. He didn't get but 2 plants! Whoa! So I went out and raided my garden and packed some so he could get a patch started. Even though these are more of the itty-bittys, he said he'd take them. Next time, I'll personally place them in the hands of the person who asked for them.

The land dried out a bit today. It wasn't sunny, but it was pretty nice. Our strawberry patch really looks sad. The water floated chunks of grass and leaves all over it. I hope they are OK.

I hope we don't get any more rain for a while. All of our plants need to perk back up. I better watch what I ask for. My version of 'a while' means one thing. But, to Mother Nature, it may mean drought. I hate to think that way, but it's possible down here. You never know!

Take care.

Strawberry Plants

We've been selling our extra strawberry plants this year. We have been propagating and using the Ozark Beauty variety for about 10 years. It seemed like a shame to till them under for compost, so we sold some. It's been fun seeing people and talking to them. Yeah. We don't get out much. Nor do we get much company since we live WAY off the beaten path. Actually, our road is well beaten! So we enjoy anyone who comes to visit.

Each couple who bought some plants had a story to tell. Some were getting a piece of country for their retirement years. Some were young couples just starting out. Some were first-timers with the strawberry thing. 'I've always wanted to try them.' they'd say. And I still had a bunch left over.

Sooooo...I took a bunch to some contractors at work - gratis. By a bunch, I mean several hundred plants. You'd have thought I gave them a million dollars. They seemed to really appreciate the plants and I showed them how to prepare them for the ground. I usually do this when I prepare the plants, but hubby chunked them out of the ground and put them into boxes for me. I was grateful for that!

Anyhow, one guy was left out and he really wanted some plants. Now, I don't have large plants left, just seedlings. Itty bitty ones, at that. So he's going to get a bunch of itty-bittys tomorrow. I hope he likes them. They may not bear this year, but he'll have a load of plants for next year! I got about 50 plants out of one of last year's itty-bittys.

I can't wait to see him tomorrow.

Take care. Happy spring planting!