Posted on May 2, 2022May 2, 2022Duck pond wildflowers Blue eyed grass is a native wildflower that I was happy to see sprouting near the duck pond on my walk home today! A wild fowl! Storms approaching. (I made it home.)
Posted on April 19, 2022April 19, 2022Tuesday night and it might rain American beautyberry leaves aren’t quite as pathetic? The Maximilian sunflower roots we moved in winter are VERY happy. Zizia sp from Abby are perking up! It doesn’t smell like mint – maybe New Jersey tea I planted last year?? Agastache sp. from seed from Paula. Bag traps cat, baffles cat’s emotional support dog.
Posted on March 21, 2022March 21, 2022Heavens opening Mesonet says 2.03″ rain today for Norman. Paula and I took 15 min or so to try to drain some of the water off the low patio area. Hopefully this will also absorb slowly into yard. Briar moved in this picture but she spent several minutes staring at us like we were nuts. Why not either go play or go back inside? Why stand and get wet toes?? I discovered a tiny bluet in the transplanted prairie parsley!
Posted on January 3, 2022January 3, 2022Finally some rain (plus snow) Snowed Saturday overnight, so this is Sunday morning. Heated bird bath, much luxury. Hopefully the bit of snow kept baby cacti and succulents and Hedeoma safe with a low of 12°F overnight. Leaves and wire mesh stayed put. So did the towels. We’ll probably uncover again in a few days once the next deep cold snap is over. A season of extremes! This strawberry had a flower. Bad idea. Rain barrels all open so they don’t crack. Sugar peas definitely done this time. The rain softened the ground enough that the three of us managed to dig the shallow trench needed for the border (to keep Bermuda grass out of raised beds) in about 40 minutes before dinner tonight.
Posted on January 1, 2022January 1, 2022Big freeze again We covered the young mizuna, lettuce, wheat, and cabbage with leaves and towels. Now frozen on. Rain has already frozen after it fell. No glaze ice at least!
Posted on August 18, 2021August 21, 2021Assorted stuff Three hours to harvest and sort all this. First canning tomato variety fruit. I can’t remember which one, I need to look at spreadsheet. The marker is buried in dirt. Update: is Amish Paste tomato. Grass seeds did not wash away in rain. Whew. Intruder alert!! Possibly the frass of the offending hornworm??? Loofah gourd flower disintegrated in rain. A jewel of rain on succulent.
Posted on July 3, 2021July 3, 2021Growth in rainbow beds during rain – July 1 This rain barrel normally catches rain during light storms but Thursday afternoon’s downpour was too much. This barrel’s gutter downspout is often very aggressive and sure enough it hit the rain barrel perfectly. After the downpour (and after work), I got bits of sedum to press into the mud. Hopefully they can root since it’s supposed to be in 80s for a few days longer at least. If you zoom in, you can see I put two rows around each of the rainbow beds on the side slope. You may also note that the zinnias are doing well!! The back bed got smoothed down more by rain. See my previous post for how I continued shaping it on the next day (Friday). So glad I’m almost done with the major earth moving.
Posted on July 1, 2021July 1, 2021Tuesday… I’m behind This dayflower looked lovely after rain with purple coneflower and Rudbeckia in the background.
Posted on June 28, 2021June 28, 2021Quarter Gram = 1.76 kg I left this zucchini too long and it was 1.76 kg (about 3.9 pounds). Gram the cat weighs about 14 pounds last we weighed him. Paula’s moss rose has a lovely flower! Briar yawns. Photography of plants is borrrriiiiing. Several inches of rain is settling down dirt over geothermal pipes nicely. Once it’s not slippery mud, I’ll go spread it out more and continue leveling and shaping. You can see seedling ‘Will Rogers’ variety red zinnias on the right, and harder to see are ‘burning embers’ Linnaeus marigold seedlings near the peach tree, for quick orange. Briar looks over green and yellow bed. A triangle of Fordham giant chard with lacinato kale in the middle. The two scraggly plants are coreopsis recovering from being potted up for a month. Around it are dwarf marigold seedlings for more quick yellow. ‘Country gentleman’ sweet corn is flowering. Supervisor exhausted by his earlier brush with the monster zucchini. Book “Bean by Bean: a cookbook” by Crescent Dragonwagon. Lent by the Bean Queen herself, thanks Heather! Lots of interesting bean trivia. More focused on cooking than bean varieties (ie differences among Lima, green, cowpeas, lentils, etc, not varieties within those).