April Showers, Bring Squash!

After a long ‘dry spell’ in writing (*insert pun-drum roll here*), I am finally back with a garden update for April. There has been work going on, believe me; I have just been bad at documenting it! Earlier this month we secured a free truck-bed worth of wood chippings and continued to procure various other garden building bits like lumber and addtional hay-bales for mulch. tristinmorgan andsaoirse42 came by for a few hours and helped plant the remainder of this seasons 'first seeds' (see list at bottom of post) and also took care of dog and garden for hubby and I on a weekend we headed out of town and the temperatures headed into the 90's - YIKES!

 

Also in the last month, we have prepped the raisin sweat boxes that were purchased from Jerry after the March UC Master Gardner class. The transformation of these boxes into working lettuce beds was accomplished by drilling holes in their bottoms for drainage and then lining them with perforated heavy black plastic. A layer of hay went in the bottom of each box; followed by a mixture of top soil, mulch and potting soil and a dash of blood meal thrown in for good measure. We currently have five of these boxes set up, with three more ‘waiting in the wings’ as potential berry growing stations.


BTW - the green 'caterpillers' all over the place are the shedding pollen pods of the trees that edge the North side of the garden.

 

The advantages to the boxes are portability (sort of – they are damn heavy when full!) which allows us to figure out where the best location for them is in the garden/yard and the ability to easily ‘copper tape’ them to prevent snails from feasting on our young lettuce sprouts. The bad news is, the top soil I got to mix with our potting soil as filler on these seems to be mostly clay. Hard. As. A. Rock: Once water hits it that is. And really, why would you want to put water on your garden?

 

Oh…wait…

 

However, the beds actually seem to be doing OK – so we’ll wait and see before we scream and gnash our teeth. *chuckle*

 

The main garden is coming along. Hubby has some fence work to get done, but the hay is keeping about 95% of the weeds/grass out. Except for the damn Bermuda grass. I have words that I could use to describe my hatred for this creeping, crawling, tunneling little weed. However, I know we have some delicate ladies in the audience, and so I will refrain.

 

Don’t laugh. I actually *do* know some delicate ladies. Really. Pinky swear.

 

The next ‘big’ step is going to be getting the sprouted seeds into the ground. Right now I am up in the air about this a bit, but I think we are going to be launching the ‘Squash-Sub-Garden-Project’ in the back of our (thankfully) huge yard. Why a separate location for the squash? See my list of varieties below the cut at the bottom of this message. That many squash will take over my current garden space in a matter of months. So, we’re going to do a ‘traditional’ (non-Ruth Stout) garden patch at the back of the yard and just let the squash and zucchini go *mad* back there.

 

“Watch out! That wild Crookneck is coming right at us!”

Sucessful squash planting doesn't even begin to describe these monsters:

 

So, next Saturday there are plans to hit Home Depot and rent the necessary rototiller while picking up the other ‘sub-garden’ supplies; like wire fencing to keep Tonda’s beasts…er…puppies…out when they visit – They are diggers. Nuff said…

 

I knowtristinmorgan andsaoirse42 will be busy at the farm next weekend, but I hope to co-optbedpimp and sirduckie for some work if I can. *grin*

 

The list below the cut gives you information on what is currently being grown. Once you see the list, you’ll understand the cut.

( Clip, clip, clip... )

Fuzzy Easter Egg Hunts

No, this is not a reference to Easter eggs lost in the back of my yard and ‘gone native’ with local bacteria. This is a reference to a Spring ritual that I have had every year at this house; It comes with living in an older district in my town, and with having “crazy-cat-lady” neighbors.

The fuzzy Easter eggs I am referring to are kittens.

 

Every year in early March, I notice that one or more of the local ‘mama kitties’ has become….well…rounder. Gravid. Basketball-like. Pregnant. This means at some point within the next month or so I will be on the hunt.

 

It usually starts with a *mew mew mew* sound from somewhere in the immediate proximity of our house. For a long time, the old garage was a preferred spawning ground, but with it torn down and Kallie living upstairs, the most recent batches have been found in the driveway side yard.

 

Not this year though.

 

This year mama kitty figured out that the garden is fenced off from the backyard – so no dogs. It also has nice shady trees in the North corner, an overhang with access to the houses crawlspace/basement and water via the upstairs kitchen sink ‘vent pipe’…

 

Pretty much kitty heaven!

 

Until this morning, when my dog Fritz followed me into the garden while I was watering and found mama’s nest in a matter of seconds; thankfully, no kittens where harmed in the process – but they may hate dogs for awhile and will certainly hate the sound of Fritz barking. *chuckle*

 

So, along with snapping pictures of the garden this morning, I got one of mama kitty. She wasn’t in her ‘nest’ when Fritz visited, and I counted at least five little black/dark grey kittens at that point. By the time I got the camera out, she was back and the ‘fuzzy Easter eggs’ are almost impossible to see against her own black fur.

 

But they are certainly audible….*mew mew mew*

Mama Kitty

 

I won’t be surprised if she moves them at this point, but finding them the second time is always easier!

 

*grin*

EDIT: Mama was away when I got home from work/school...


A pile of fuzzy Easter eggs...Looks like three black ones and one grey/white one...