It’s a Beautiful Day, or two, or three
We’ve been having the perfect weather here recently. After a weeks in the high 90’s and even peaking into the triple digits a few days last week, the 80’s are feeling GREAT! As a result I’ve been madly spending every waking hour I’m not working trying to get all my garden chores finished up. I think I could build a cat thermometer that measured the length of Dexter in order to tell the temperature outside. This day it was 98.
The onions need harvesting, the garlic is dry and needs trimmed and moved into the basement. Kale and sage seeds need harvested, beans and cucumbers need planted and everything needs a good weeding. While I’ve been out trying to get all my garden chores finished up, Dexter is not far behind doing his own work, mainly sleeping and being cute.
Now if we can only get some rain I’ll be one happy gardener!
How’s the weather/rain situation in your garden?
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Gardening Neighbors
Mr Chiots and I love to go on evening walks with the chiots. We walk the streets of our little lake community admiring gardens as we go. Since we’ve lived here for 10 years, we’ve been watching a few gardens grow and change, while most pretty much stay the same. We always used to talk about this beautiful little yellow how with lovely gardens.
We watched as they added a fence, new cherry trees, a retaining wall, a seating area, and edible beds. The residents of the house were a mystery to us, until last fall. A sign about the oil/gas in the area was prominently displayed in their front yard, so we stopped and chatted with Jimmy. A few days later, Heather stopped by our home and a friendship was born.
The first thing that came out of her mouth was, “I LOVE your gardens. I’ve been watching what you’ve been doing to them every day when I drive by on my way to work. This house and gardens was so ugly until you guys moved in!”. A gardening friendship was born!
Now Heather comes over at least once a week and we chat over coffee about gardens, plants, herbs, local foods, cooking and many other things. We also walk through each other’s gardens during different seasons talking about plants we love. Hardly a week goes by when plant isn’t exchanged between us.
When I decided to start a new series over on the Your Day Blog at Ethel, I know that Heather’s garden would be the first one featured. I really wanted to feature real gardens, like yours and mine. Sometimes we can spend so much time looking at perfect gardens in the glossy pages of books and magazines that we forget that real gardens are like real gardeners; they have flaws.
Head on over to the Your Day blog to see and hear about Heather’s garden. She lives just a few houses down. If you would like your garden featured in the Real Garden Series contact me using this form.
Do you have any neighbors that you can share your love of gardening with?
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The Benefits of Mustard in the Garden
“The advantage of sowing mustard are that it disinfects and regenerates the soil, it stimulates the life of the soil and curbs nematodes, especially potato root eelworm, which is why it is so useful to sow the seed. It gives the feared nematodes very little chance in the garden. Its effect on all plant life, including the crucifers, is not negative but positive.”
Gertrud Franck (Companion Planting: Successful Gardening the Organic Way)
‘Idagold’ mustard is what is used here at Chiot’s Run. A large bag was purchased from Johnny’s Seeds last spring and now it’s sown whenever I have bare soil that won’t be planted for a month.
Mustard is said to help suppress weed growth and providing a living mulch. That’s one reason I use it, I have had pretty good luck using it this spring/summer so far. I like to let mine grow to about six inches tall then I pull it and use as a mulch around the larger main crops like zucchini and potatoes.
I also overseed the areas where I plant potatoes. The book Managing Cover Crops Profitably, extols the benefits of mustard for mitigating lots of potato problems including blight. I let the mustard grow to about 6 inches then it’s pulled, laid around the potato plants and covered with straw.
Another benefit of mustard is that it’s easy to pull and doesn’t really self-sow much or become invasive (at least not the yellow variety I grow). Mustard will also winter kill in areas with cold winters, making it a perfect fall cover crop for a nicely prepared and mulched spring planting area.
I’d highly recommend looking into a few cover crops for your small garden. Not only will you increase the health of the soil, you’ll save money by growing your own mulches. You can find a cover crop that will suit just about any need you have, from weed suppression and soil building to disease mitigation. I’d highly recommend starting with mustard, it’s a great initiation in to the cover crop world.
Do you use companion planting methods in your garden?
For more reading on cover crops in the garden, I’d highly recommend these books:
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Quote of the Day: Paul Sweeney
How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy.
~Paul Sweeney
Last night we had the great pleasure of watching the fireworks display put on by our small lake community. Each year they collection donations from the residents and put on a fabulous display. We’ve lived here for 10 years and have only missed one year. This year we were lucky enough to enjoy the display on a friend’s boat, a completely different experience.
Fireworks have always been a tradition in my family. We usually spent this holiday weekend at the family cabin and we’d stop on a bridge in Wooster, OH to watch their fireworks display on our way home. Then we’d stop for ice cream and the holiday celebration would be complete!
Do you take in a fireworks display for the Fourth of July or any other holiday?
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From the Archives
Since a move is in our future, I’ve been going through boxes little by little to avoid having to do it all at once. I found a box in the attic of old photos. Growing up we had all kinds of pets, but guinea pigs were my favorite. When we were in the states, we always had one.
Even though we had several guinea pigs, his name was always guinea and he always was the same kind. We’d have him for the year we were here and then he’d be given to a friend when we’d head back down to Colombia.
I have fond memories of dressing my guinea pig up with hats and playing with him. Someday I’ll have a few pet guinea pigs again. They’re such fun little animals to have around.
What was your favorite pet as a kid?
