Dog Days of Summer
The strawberries are last week's news. The "dog days of summer" are upon us. They are the very best time of year.
It's difficult to keep up with the garden just now. Squash are extending themselves what seems like feet overnight. Tomatoes are starting to blossom. We will have our first zucchini before the week is out. Early lettuce is going to seed. The snow peas are popping. The marigolds are in bloom. Horrible Japanese beetles have infested one of our apple trees. Just the one tree. After a run of 12 miles on Saturday, and another route 6 miles today, it has become clear to me that it is the only tree in all of our town that is infested. Raspberries are thriving.
What I won't be doing this year is rushing out in the heat of a 90 degree day with a spray bottle full of Dawn. This is what burned all the leaves off last year. Instead, I've ordered a supply of neem oil, and if they are present tomorrow morning, I will purchase and wrap the trees in row-cover.
I've got the next set of beets in the ground, and I should likely succession plant some greens to have when the tomatoes and peppers start. The peppers are still a little smallish, and I am wondering if this is because the bed where they are planted was one of those that I re-charged with our homemade compost, whereas most of the rest of the garden was recharged with a sack of manure per bed. Things are MUCH better than last year, and this has to be why.
Experience is paying off in a couple of ways. I do like the hands-off approach that growing berries - berries that are expensive at the grocery store - allows. I've got plans for a new strawberry bed next spring, doubling the land devoted to them, and we'll be transplanting raspberry canes into a full 8x4 bed in the lower garden - increasing the amount of garden given over to them by 2/3.
Yesterday was a perfect summer day. Hot. Humid. The sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze. I spent a lot of time listening to David Gilmour: Live at Gdansk ripping creeping Charlie out of the yard. A contractor bag full of the horrible stuff. Having thus liberated the lawn from it as completely as possible, there are currently three strategies in place. 1) burn it down with a propane torch, cover it with cardboard, and replace the dirt with topsoil, then planted in Dutch white clover and red creeping fescue. 2) rip it out and then flip the soil with a knife, fill in gaps & dips with topsoil, and replant. 3) Rip it out and re-plant.
I had to abandon strategy 1 because things were becoming a financial strain. Strategy 2 seems sound, but I started to feel bad when I was ripping too much grass out. Hence strategy 3.
Before the Creeping Charlie Purge
After the Creeping Charlie Purge
Prolonged vigilance. Trust but verify. We shall see.
Picked a lousy time to be planting a new clover lawn. While most of the area is in at least partial shade it was well into the 90's today, which is making watering mandatory.
One of the really fun parts of yesterday's project was simply being in the yard for hours and hours. I got to watch the sun pass over, watch which birds are around. Watch the tiny bunnies eating clover.
But the best part was making friends with a robin. This handsome fellow often shows up when I'm out watering. Yesterday he kept me close company while I was weeding. He was rewarded by my digging up lots of bugs and worms and a particularly disgusting looking grub that he happily devoured. This morning, he appeared to be starting a nest in the light on the back of our garage.
There is no photo of the robin yet, as I am possibly the worst wildlife photographer on the planet.
I spent a good chunk of the morning tying up tomatoes & peppers to ensure that they will not be blown over in the threatened storms tonight and tomorrow. We shall see.
Comments
Post a Comment