Category: Garden

Water woes

On By CarynIn Cats, Garden

Mr Tom, our neighbor’s outdoor cat, has taken to hanging out in our back woods, rather than just the meadow between our houses. I went back to see where he was hanging out and found that our ATS system sprinkler had a pool. Oops. Something (probably an armadillo) dug a burrow near the sprinkler head, and the hole filled with water. A problem for us, but it made a nice cool “beach” for cat lounging in 100 degree weather.

Photo description: White cat laying in the mud around a broken sprinkler head

My husband collapsed the hole, repaired the sprinkler head, and filled the area with rock to support the head and discourage digging. I asked him to also get a large flat paver, so there was still a place to lounge.

Photo description: Same area, but now filled with rock, a new sprinkler head, and a large flat rock.

The next water woe happened when the hose feeding water to the garden and the coop split, in the middle of the night, and flooded the area around the coop. That was not fun to find at 5:30 in the morning.

Photo description: Garden hose with a two inch slit at the top of the bend where it connects to a brass manifold.

I bought a new hose, and rather than running it along the ground, so the hose had to come up and make a tight bend to attach to the manifold, I used heavy duty cable ties to run the hose along the top of the metal fence, so it would come down to connect, thus avoiding stressful bends. We’ll see how it holds up.

Photo description: New black hose coiled on the fence above the manifold, secured with black cable ties.

The waterways around the coop still work, and the flood went around the hens’ doors and food. The birds in the woods were particularly happy that day. We really need rain.

Guardians of the Garden

On By CarynIn Garden, Wildlife

I hadn’t seen my little tree frogs in my garden this season. I was afraid that since I chose not to grow melons, they left for other places that were more friendly for perching. Turned out they just blend into the basil better.

Two tree frogs tucked into the basil leaves

Hibiscus guardian

On By CarynIn Flora, Garden, Wildlife
Green Lynx spider on a pink and white Hibiscus flower

We have a spider that hangs out on our Hibiscus bush. It is a very welcome spider, and especially welcome to eat the insects that come to eat my flowers. I am pleased with this photo because the backlighting really highlights the spider and the petals.

Where have they gone?

On By CarynIn Garden
Pepper plant with no peppers

I had about six green bell peppers growing on my pepper plants. I checked them every time I passed going to the chicken coop. I had one starting to turn red, and since I like red peppers better than green, I was hoping they were just not ready yet, and needed some time on the stem. Someone thought they were ready, and took them all. All of them, in one day. We have raccoons, fox, opposum, squirrels, deer, all of which could be capable of carrying out the heist, but I suspect my oldest dog Griffin. He was sniffing around the peppers, and is getting rather stubborn in his old age. I think he is more than capable of consuming six green peppers in a go, and still eat all his dinner. I guess we’ll see if pepper plants pop up in the yard next spring.

Real peaches

On By CarynIn Garden, Wildlife

A friend invited us over to pick peaches! So many peaches! It was our first time picking straight from the trees. The air was full of butterflies. There was even a butterfly ball; a ripe peach completely covered with hungry butterflies. iNaturalist identifies the species as hackberry emperor butterflies, at least the one I took a picture of, separate from its kaleidoscope.

Butterfly ball in a peach tree

After picking the peaches, we brought them home, gave them a wash, and laid them out on paper towels on the counter to dry and finish ripening. To keep the flies off (there always seem to be two in the house), I laid some nylon netting loosely over the top.

Part of our peach harvest covered in netting.

As they ripened, we tried blanching to remove the skins. We weren’t successful with a quick blanch, so kept increasing the boil time. We ended up with cooked peaches, but the skin came off well. We made peach puree by adding lemon juice and sugar and blending it all together. From that we have made peach ice cream and peach smoothies! Yum.