What? I grew a vegetable? Hurray! Now, I planted several mounds, and only one took and produced, but one is better than none! Like my “ever-bearing” strawberries that produced one edible strawberry all summer. Bleh. I’m glad I have other talents. I’ll keep learning about gardening, and keep trying, though. Maybe I’ll get enough peas that we can each have one, rather than cut a single snap pea into portions. It is good to have goals.
I really truly thought the heat of the summer killed these lilies. Last year they kept their long thin green leaves all summer, then bloomed in September. This year the area around my rosemary was just leaf litter. Surprise! Not dead! I read another blogger that called these surprise lilies, which I like much better than the oxblood or school house names, although all of the common names are appropriate.
Our puppy has discovered my herb pots. After checking the list of toxic plants (none of the herbs are on there), and noticing she only nibbles a leaf or two, I’m just letting it be. I do have a wire enclosure that I could put around the pots to keep the puppy out, but I decided it was better served around the AC units, at least for the next couple of years, to keep her from gnawing the pipes.
Did you know that puppies have two rounds of intensive chewing? The first is regular teething when their adult teeth come in, around 5 months depending on breed, and the second starts up shortly after, around 7 months, and can last up to two years. This second phase is what usually take people by surprise. My plan for dealing with these phases is lots of access to acceptable chew toys, and to remember that tired puppies are good puppies!
I saw this little brightly colored guy while I was picking basil to hang dry. With the naked eye, it looked like it had bright pink and blue stripes! My basil has been fabulous. I have three pots and they have all been producing nice leaves and surviving the heat. My thyme died after I rearranged the pots. Oregano seems OK, just slow growing. Cucumbers were a complete bust. Not a single cuke. Maybe I’ll just plant more basil.
I have learned something new. This in itself is not new; I enjoy learning new things and strive to do so often. What I learned about cucumbers surprised me, and made me realize how little I know about horticulture (this is also not new, the things I don’t know about are a vast expanse). I have learned that there are male and female flowers on a single cucumber plant. And, I learned how to tell them apart.
I have learned about this because I have three mounds of nice healthy cucumber plants, and no cucumbers. Nada. Zip. I thought a cucumber was developing, but then it withered away. It turns out that what I saw was the unfertilized stem of a female flower. The female flower has what looks like a tiny cucumber behind the bloom, the male flower does not. My plants have many, many blooms, but the usual pollinators are not visiting, maybe because they were all in the meadow with the wildflowers and these are closer to the house. Yes, we do have an exterminator come and treat the outside of the house, but not the yard or woods. I have seen bees in the meadow and in the front yard, but mostly just dragonflies and ground wasps around the cucumbers. So now I have a soft artist’s paint brush tucked in my egg apron so that I can pretend to be a bee and transfer pollen from flower to flower. Maybe we’ll see cucumbers before the vines die.
Critters and Craft 