Garden Delights

This Spring I decided to resurrect my gardening abilities after spending the last couple of years working on expanding my knowledge base in a totally unrelated field.

The drive to get the garden producing again was due to my need to fulfill the want for vegetables I only look at in the store. Hubby doesn't really enjoy eating some of the morsels I have known since childhood, so I make concessions. However, now I have the opportunity, I am going to take advantage. Seeds are relatively inexpensive compared to what they charge in the retail setting for the end product.

My flannel wearing tomato has gained in size appreciably and there are good sized tomatoes getting the red hue as of July 14th.

As you can see my early set tomato has gained company. In the row next to it I planted white potatoes that my sister had given me from  her kitchen cupboard. It is said they don't make good specimens for replanting but the only thing left to see  is how big they will be when they are ready to be dug.

When my focus was on picking berries the rains decided to come, and the weeds flourished since they were the ones inhabiting this space for quite sometime. One good thing was that the vegetables had an established start so they could withstand some competition until I got back to defending their position. The battle of the weeds will probably never totally end; over time there might be less.

Yes, solutions such as mulches etc...do exist, but I like bare ground best, with wide row plantings for vegetables suited to that method.

I like space saving measures with viney plants to try to keep them from swallowing up too much area. It also helps to keep the fruits, or veggies from getting so dirty, or wet that disease rots them before they are ready to harvest.

I am all for recycling materials for structures in the garden if I find them. Presently, I am removing a makeshift fence made by the previous owners of our property. They included some fence panels which I intend to place on the wooden fence posts in my garden to promote plant alternating rows from season to season.

I really like making/having the concrete reinforcing wire cages for use with both tomatoes and cucumbers.

Time to get to other things...So, I will leave you all for now.

Stay cool and safe !!! ;)

Time to Hay and See

The weather turned off dry for about 4 days last week. It gave my hunting mentor and neighbor time to do some grass cutting in my north pasture.

After raking and letting it dry down a bit he enlisted the help of one of his friends to stack those bales for him.They brought out four full racks and a half of another. Today, they are working on getting another racks worth out...

I like when he cuts the grass, because it opens up the vista for me to see what wildlife is passing through the field.

The past two years there had been a a turkey nest filled with eggs when the pasture was trimmed. No mention has been made of a nest this year, but I have seen a hen making use of the timber in the vicinity of the house.

This good sized Doe has a fawn in the area. She is constantly moving around in the fields close to the house.  A beautiful animal with very statuesque features when she strikes an observant pose. Her attention always drifts towards the homestead, because she knows she is being watched.

I enjoy watching  the family use the little deer plots I planted last summer for their own cafeteria. It isn't often in the daylight that deer are found eating there right now.

On the day they visited, the fawn was darting here, and there, excercising its young legs, putting on a show for whoever might be in attendance... ;)