July

Get over it Peter, there are gorgeous flowers everywhere. The sweet puppy below gets into the blueberry bushes every chance he gets. Yesterday he dug two up and chewed the roots. This morning Margaret was sitting right near the blueberries and he was digging around in them.

I ran out of fruit for my Cheerios and went out and picked blueberries and put them right in my bowl. How cool is that? The first of the morning glories:
My new passion and addiction: Daylilies. I have planted over fifty of them and can't get enough. I want fields and fields of them. I do make sure all of them are cheap, you can order them on the net for $1-3 a piece, but these are from a nursery and Stop and Shop and cost $9 (two for $18 said the Russian guy) and $12. I'm not feeling guilty, I'm not feeling guilty...

The vegetable garden, despite my best intentions has it's problems. The butternut squash has powdery mildew that I think is traveling to the zucchini. The squash may not make it, but Bob said give it a try. There are very cute little squashes. Interestingly, the zucchini is less productive right now.

The lettuce has been cut back to see if the roots will produce. Not sure, but why not try it. The basil has been cut back to regrow. I made three batches of pesto and put them in the freezer in flatten plastic bags. That was fun. I dug around looking for baby potatoes today, but couldn't find any. I'm not exactly experienced at this. I think I have to work from the bottom up instead of top down.

The cucumbers are beginning to come in. They have been delicious. Margaret incorporated them into sandwiches for a ladies luncheon yesterday. Butter, smoked salmon, and cucumber slices on crusty bread. Yum.

I bought canning jars, because there are going to be a bunch all at the same time. Henry wants to make pickles.

Tomatoes are not ripe, but almost.

Green beans are coming in fast and the beets are almost ready to pick.

As I said the jalapeno peppers are not hot and so we are leaving some on the plant to see if they ripen hotter. The eggplant are white. We don't know if they'll stay white or turn purple. What do I know, I bought a set of seedlings at the plant store in Truro?

Best news of all is that Henry begins his four week vacation tonight. He's frantically trying to get stuff done, but is almost there. He had forty patients in four days, and a ton of paperwork to do.

I'm going back home Sunday to trade off Brady and I have some appointments on Monday.

This is too boring even for me, later.

Brady visits and gets busy

Think I'll move the strawberries.

Peter's request: no more plant or pet photos

First a lovely photo of Sueko taken a week ago. She came to dinner on a hot evening. It's a way I can set the table and do the dishes, instead of leaving them all with her. She liked it. Tonight she'll visit Mgt and Renner's house for the first time.



It's almost the end of Ben's visit and we've had great fun. We've been to a pond almost every day, Dyer and Great. He doesn't need more oceans with homes in Cali and NC.

I had planned to plant hydrangeas in the bin but the sun wasn't right. He wanted blueberries and so we planted blueberries. He did the heavy lifting because my back has been iffy.















Brady has been here a week. Even though all three dogs were soaked by the hose, he likes to drink from it.

We've been eating from the garden. We are about done with the lettuce. The green beans are here, and I have a colander full. Some bad animal ate most of the sugar snap pea vines. Damn.
We've eaten jalapeno peppers, as they mature they get hotter. Zucchini has been a hit, I've made sure to pick them when they are small. We aren't tired of them yet. I did plant a new rhubarb, the old one was attacked by cut worms. This one has a nice safe and deep collar on it.

I am waiting for the perfect ripe tomato.

Rose is at a music festival in New York State. It must be awfully hot. http://www.campbisco.net/artists.html

I've done no knitting to speak of and was "off" due to the all star break. I even read a few books. No Red Sox, no knitting.

That's about all for now. CB

Fourth of July weekend

Potato Leafhoppers

The devil is in the potato plants. I found a spray that is considered OK for organic farms. But reading the MSDS sheet was scary. I checked Sueko's plants and she has these bugs too. I'm conflicted.

Let the garden go to hell or spray the hell out of it? Just what I never wanted to do. They say the spray is made out of chrysanthemum blossom extract, but why do you have to wear a respirator and a full body suit?

Can you see the little tomatoes on the left?

We saw the Diving Bell and the Butterfly last night. We only watch movies when the Sox play a day game. Dad never likes movies as much as I do, or he is more a critic than I am. I like French movies, beautiful women and hapless men. The hell with Dad, it got 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.





Sueko had cucumber blossoms and I was jealous, and this morning I had them too.

We went to Fourth of July dinner at her house and it was too much. She looks so frail and the house is falling down around her. We left her with all the dishes to do and I feel awful. Mgt, Renner, Mattie and a couple from New York City were there. The woman is involved with documentary films at NYU and Mgt and Barbara had interesting conversations.

Mgt is just back from St. Petersburg and had wonderful stories. She brought me the best gift ever. Youk is the smallest, Varitek next, Pedroia, Manny, David. We thought Pedroia should be the smallest.

Speaking of Red Sox: Johnny Damon's "catch" yesterday was cool. I sent you the link already, Jon and Pete. http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200807043063364

At Joanna's graduation party a couple encouraged me to grow zucchini because it is easy and rewarding. I love the flowers and remember my Italian friends eating the deep fried flowers. Maybe I can give the eight billion zucchinis to Lauren at Hatch's.

Dad and I built another raised bed, this one for hydrangeas and clematis and roses. It is bigger than our bedroom.

Later

Catch up

I haven't written in the blog for a month because it seemed so "bloggy". I couldn't find my voice and certainly didn't want a magical/spiritual/look at me blog voice. I've thought a lot about this and decided that this blog will simply replace my long Sunday morning letters to Peter. Other family members had asked to get those letters. They can jump in as they wish. But this will be a private blog for family and close friends. No "DH" (dear husband) for Henry. Just talk.


What I want to do now is catch you up on the "farm" the Cape gardens and the "herd" the two dachshunds.


Vegetable gardens: Last fall I cleared the area in front of the house. (I've found that whenever I clear brush I end up at the doctor or ER with bug bites and so I'm leaving brush clearing to our almost ex-President.) Hank and I measured all areas of the yard last summer and this gets the most sun. In the fall I built up organic matter in the lasagna garden method. Settie helped too. http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm



This spring I built up the beds each time I planted rows of seeds or seedlings by adding three cubic yards of compost purchased at the garden center. I have five more cubic yards waiting to be shoveled, hauled, and shoveled again. I also have broken down hay from Mgt and Renner's construction site.



We have regular compost too, but more about that later.


Now how boring is the photo on the left? But look at the garden a month later.

But all is not perfect in paradise. The potato plants I have been so very proud of have a pest. They laugh at my organic solutions. The photo at the top of the post is a potato blossom.

I haven't decided what to do yet. I may just wait and see what happens.

It was bad enough losing half of whole rows of radishes and basil to Mr. Peter Rabbit, but this is harder to deal with. The potato leafhopper may actually be faster than Mr. Rabbit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/garden/05animals.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=peter+rabbit+must+die&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Flower gardens took second place to the vegetables that had to go in, but we have had fun making some beds right out the back doors.

This has andded a new dimension to the house and how we live. We have had amazing birds and squirrels and lots to see. We told Renner that the birdbath is our waterview.

Later. CB