The harvest to come

The raised beds; how they've grown!














Jalapenos















Serranos























Roma tomatoes
















Better Boy tomatoes




Next year's vegetable garden being prepped for tilling. It looks small as pictured, but that's a trick of the camera. I assure you, it's a fair-sized piece of dirt.

And I've included a gratuitous shot of part of the serpentine border. The rudbeckia take over after the firecracker lilies have all bloomed out, and the lilies bloom after the penstemmon and alium behind them have faded. One of these days I'll get some shots up to show the succession in that one corner. It was a happy accident, but that doesn't keep me from taking props for it.

Pico de gallo!

We are not exactly drowning in Roma tomatoes, but we have quite an abundant harvest which promises to get more bountiful as the season progresses. The jalapeno bushes have been very prolific as well, so what am I to do except make pounds and pounds of pico?

So much to do, but where do we start?

I've already let you in on our plans for a new flower garden in the back yard. I got most of the outline dug out yesterday, and though the actual digging was easier than I imagined it would be, the bed itself has taken on a much larger footprint than I originally planned on paper. We are going to have to hire someone to do the heavy work, or it will be years before we get this done. I'm not kidding. At least two years. Any of our neighbors can back me up on this. Once I get the outline completed, we'll call in our landscaping guy. It's nice to have a landscaping guy. He'll probably want his trailer back, though, so there's another chore to finish. Half a trailer load of topsoil has to be relocated, and soon.

Our raised bed kits absolutely must be in place by May 7 so we can get the tomato plants purchased and planted before all the good ones are gone. I probably shouldn't have picked this week to work night shift. It's going to rain all week, though, so nothing would get done outside anyway.

We also have to finalize our plans for an extension of our existing deck across the back of the garage. We know what we want to do, but there's an awkwardly placed retaining wall that has to be worked into the design. At least we have a reputable contractor, so that's one less worry. Oh, and we need to replace our garage door as well.

So. Raised beds need to take priority. Then the new flower bed. Then the deck. Well, the flower bed and the deck can be done simultaneously, since we'll use different contractors. But before the deck goes on, we may need to address the new rain garden location, so we can bury the drain pipe from the garage downspout first. Geez, it shouldn't be this hard. But it's going to be great when it's all finished. And whatever we decide, it's not going to be a catastrophe if we're wrong. I have enough of that kind of pressure at work, thank you very much.

Hurry, Friday

I need to garden.
I desperately need to get outside amidst the maple helicopters and grass clippings and get busy cleaning up winter's detritus. I have yet to clear the dried skeletons of last year's perennials to make way for the season's new growth. Old leaves are still blanketing the rain gardens and native plant borders, though they are no longer needed to protect tender shoots from cold winds and serve only to deaden the subtle colors of the newly bloomed columbines and native iris. The birdbaths and feeders need to be scrubbed and filled again. The new beds I so blithely drew on grid paper last week have to be dug, turned and amended with compost before I can even think about buying the new peonies, lavender, coneflowers, salvia and sedum that will provide summer blooms against the backdrop of the existing drifts of blue iris.
But, I dread the digging. The ground here is insanely rocky. There is no simple way to turn the earth; a shovel is a poor weapon against such stubborn, stony land. This job will require pry bars, pickaxes, rakes and maybe a backhoe to finish. Oh, and I forgot the hatchet and bow saw to cut the tree roots.
Maybe I'll just sleep on Saturday.

Another update on Oscar and other things

Relations have improved immensely among the feline residents here at Casa Nana. Oscar no longer hangs in the library, but has become an integral part of the pride, although somewhat low in the pecking order. Willow and Lily still have no use for him, but then Lily really doesn't care much for any of the other cats, sometimes even her own offspring. Longshanks and Oscar are pretty tight, and are often found sleeping in close proximity on couches, chairs and beds. Those two share a common history of living rough, so really not surprising that they bonded after all. Group grooming sessions are not rare. Peace reigns at feeding time, litter box visits are respected as the private moments they are, and toys are (for the most part) shared. All the cats have a bad case of Spring Fever, though, and the sound of a window opening brings most of them galloping faster than you can say, "SQUIRREL!" Soon it will be too hot for them to do much more than lie around like half-baked rolls of cookie dough, so we'll enjoy their antics while we can. Good kitties.

We're off in a couple days to sunny San Antonio to make the acquaintance of our little grandson. We met him over the Holidays, but he was pretty fresh off the showroom floor, so to speak, and not much of a person yet. He's got an actual personality now, so much fun will be had.

Looks like we picked a good week to get out of the Ozarks. Chilly nights and gloomy days predicted until next weekend. I really must get the gardens dressed and the raised vegetable beds started very soon, or I'll miss the boat. The growing season is long here, but I'd like to get the kitchen garden established before the heat of late Spring comes on. So far I'm planning tomatoes, cilantro, salad greens, bell peppers both green and red, jalapenos, poblanos, marigolds for insect control, and basil. I can't wait!

Mad gardening skills

I cannot believe it's late July in the Missouri Ozarks and our little garden bed tucked in at the corner of the house looks like this.
Our summer has been so much cooler and rainier than usual, up until the last two weeks or so. The past several days have been absolute steambaths, with temperatures well into the nineties and high humidity. Today we had a significant rainstorm and the air feels clean and cool again. If this is climate change, bring it on. I'm very glad I got the beds mulched three weeks ago, so they were able to withstand the heat wave and still look wonderful. I usually have a yard full of crispy critters by late July.

Another kind of critter is on my radar, though. There's a little calico cat hanging around the house. I thought perhaps she lived up the street, but she's looking gaunt and acts more like a feral than a stray. She's very hungry and seems to be looking for a quiet, safe place to rest when she's over here. I think she may be related to our big tom, Longshanks. They have similar coat coloration and the same haunting, pale turquoise eye color. We currently have six cats: Longshanks, Lily, and their four offspring, Rooster, Goose, Willow and Rowan. Rowan has a different daddy, a feral fellow we call Scrapiron. We haven't seen Scrap for over four months now. I'm a little worried about him.

And Parker has moved on to other spider adventures. She bailed on me sometime last Thursday, and is probably living in the parking garage at the hospital.

Another one-day weekend

I worked an extra shift last Sunday, making last weekend the first in a string of one-day wonders which is looming ahead for most of the summer. Our first pharmacy resident has finished her year with us and moved on, and her replacement will not be trained and licensed until well into August or possibly September. Lots of "opportunities" for overtime. Time and a half at pharmacist's wages is hard to pass up, and my bank account needs some heavy-duty replenishment. New kitchens don't come cheap.

But, I've just squandered a perfectly good day off, and now I have to work straight through until Tuesday evening. I can't really do much around the house, due to the general state of disruption brought on by the previously referenced kitchen remodelling, which also includes the garage and former dining room. I did manage to do some cleaning, and some laundry, but the weather was sort of passive-aggressively menacing most of the day, so the gardens were neglected. We've had such cool (for June) temps lately, I'm loathe to go out and work in the more seasonal heat and humidity which have beset us over the last week. My landscaper has apparently fallen off the edge of the Earth, leaving us with a roughed-in planting bed project at the end of the driveway. He didn't make much progress. I bought the plants for it weeks ago, and they are not looking so spry. Oh, and yes, he's the fellow who is supposed to be fixing the fence that was compromised by the heavy rains two weeks ago. I'm concerned that he's been hurt or has been locked in a dungeon by his neighbor. She's stolen him away from me in mid-project before.

I just have no ambition today. I did make some cosmetic changes to this humble little blog, so hopefully the blogroll is easier to read now. I've been jonesing for the loveliness of the Pacific Northwest and let that beautiful part of the planet be my guide for the newish pallette.

Who'll stop the rain?

By 4PM this afternoon, Springfield had endured unrelenting thunderstorms and a total rain accumulation of four inches. We've had erosion and runoff problems in the backyard since we moved to this house 24 years ago. In an effort to manage this problem, we constucted a 2 foot deep or so by 4 to 5 feet wide rock lined trench to control the runoff and minimize further damage. The resulting spillway, for lack of a better word, was a huge project that stretched over many years, and still is not completed to our satisfaction. The large collection area at the uphill end is deeper than the rest of the channel, and we had hoped it would hold water but the pond liner must have been breached by the rocks. It's also filled in with mud from some heavy rains earlier in the year. However, imperfect as it is in its current state, the spillway has afforded us opportunities to play with the landscape and attract wildlife, like toads and chipmunks, that we did not have in abundance previously. And it does control the runoff. Unless we have a 100-year rain, which we seem to get about, oh, once a year anymore.


This is what it looked and sounded like this morning at 10AM with just shy of two inches having fallen. The fence was just starting to lean.





This is what greeted me when I got home from work about 3PM. The fence had been pushed over quite noticeably by the persistent assault of swirling, pounding water. You can see the tops of the plants in one of my rain gardens just upstream from the fence. I don't think I lost any of them, but I can't see the sedges in the video. They were most likely completely submerged, but I'll find out later today or tomorrow if they're still out there at all.

Right, then, time to get out and grab a shovel.

Acknowledging your problem is the first step to recovery.

I am a birdbath hoarder. I cannot set foot in the local Wild Birds Unlimited establishment without drooling over the latest in ornamental avian ablation vessels, and you know how it goes, "You drool on it, you bought it!" This time I may actually have gone over the top. It is beautiful, yes. It is functional, being broad, shallow and sturdy. It is unique, looking like a Frank Lloyd Wright creation, and it was priced as if it were his last design. We now have six birdbaths. We also still have birds fighting over whichever ONE is occupied at the moment.

Pretty, isn't it?