Winter seeds for the birds

Last fall, I cut down all the volunteer sunflowers that had grown in my community garden plot, and brought them home. I propped them at the top of the backyard, hoping the birds would appreciate them. This morning, I finally saw that they do! A few chickadees were picking on the sunflower heads. It’s nice […]

Like a sleeping red giant, a tomato glows

Here it is: my first tomato of the year!

Our current little bit of wildlife

What could the cats be looking at?

Strawberries: 3, Slugs: 0

It’s June, and that means strawberries. Big, bright strawberries. Handfuls of them day by day. I even remembered to put out beer traps for the slugs. Oddly enough I haven’t caught any yet. Nor have I found the characteristic circular bites taken of sweet, sweet berries. I wonder if the recent heat dried them up?

Meanwhile in other fruits…

…I picked an Alpine strawberry yesterday. As it was a bit dry and tough, I probably should have waited until after last night’s rainfall, but it was still a strawberry!

This heat is good for one thing…

My first tomato has set fruit!

If a squirrel can plant corn, I can too

It’s finally shorts weather, and I went a little nuts today planting warm-weather seeds. In my herb garden, where a squirrel grew some corn last year, I planted to some corn. Also a random packet of sweet basil, which may or may not sprout. In the pocket where I grow a tomato, I sowed edamame, […]

I love the smell of parsnips in the afternoon

It smells like victory. At the end of the season last fall, I dug up about two dozen well-formed parsnips, almost six pounds worth. Also the usual tomato, eggplant, and chile pepper. This was the biggest surprise, as I had never had any luck before growing carrots or parsnips. But last winter, I had enough […]

A bowl of cole

Finally my first harvest of Brussels sprouts, after planting them last spring! They grow so slowly. I think they didn’t even form sprouts until late in the summer. And of the four plants, only one has formed sprouts worth snipping, just barely the size of my thumb, and just barely starting to open. On the […]

Today’s ounce of raspberries

My late season of “everbearing” Heritage raspberries is coming in dribs and drabs. There are just enough flowers to keep the bumblebees coming back to the raspberry patch, and just enough fruits to keep me checking on them every few days. Some days, I almost get a handful of raspberries!