Bummed Out Bumble Bees

A couple days ago I blogged about flowering edibles in the garden. It was quite hot when I was taking the pictures which included some shots of the multitude of pollinators that collect around the flowers. I commented on how hard it was to photograph the bumblebees because they would not stay still long enough for me to get a good shot. Yesterday and today have been very cold. A high of about 66 both days. For the middle of July, it is not normal. I came home from...

Pretty Flowers From Plants You Can Eat

Long ago I used to have a bad attitude about ornamentals. I looked at flower gardening as an indulgence, without the necessity attached to growing plants to eat. That has changed and I now not only admire beautiful gardens, but I have great respect for the gardeners who create them. Nevertheless, I’m a hungry man, so it’s mainly the vegetable garden for me. If I had more time, I would dabble in the artsy, but now I barely have time to secure the...

Buried in Berries!

The strawberries are dwindling. I believe we just had our last handful of extra sweet ones on our garden fresh greens topped with a little bit of Hook’s Blue Cheese. We’ve surpassed our previous best of 44 quarts with over 50 this year! We have 3 beds that are 20 feet by 4 feet. We try to rotate the strawberry beds through the garden by transplanting new runners from the oldest bed into a new bed so we always have one, two and three year old beds. I...

Corn Corrals

When I returned from Chicago yesterday afternoon, Judy let me know that a morning thunderstorm had taken the fabric off the hoop tunnel and had knocked down the corn. Fixing the tunnel was easy. The corn took a little more work. Corn does very well in my raised beds, but it is easily blown over by strong winds. The soil is soft and the corn is sitting up high and exposed to gusts. I’ve read corn will right itself after being blown over, but I don’t...

Easy Hoop Tunnel

I put up this tunnel to protect my cole crops from insects. It was very quick and easy. My son Geoff gave me the idea. I’m not sure who showed it to him. Material List: 12 pieces – 3/8″ reinforcing rod cut into 18″ lengths by my local lumber cut the material to length for me. 6 pieces – 3/8″ ID PVC tubing. Cut from 2 – 10′ lengths bought at my local Ace Hardware. I used pruning loppers to cut it to length. 2 –...

Chucking Woodchucks

Two day ago I caught momma groundhog. I posted about it and got a comment from Beckie who noted, “I am sure she will do fine in the wild, but be on the look out for the pups – they may be big enough to make it on their own.” We’ll, sure enough. I caught this guy this morning and put him out where his mother was let go. They seem to love broccoli, so I’ll keep trapping with the tasty stuff until I think I’ve got them all...

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