You'd think with a blog name such as "Grammilou's Garden" I'd be writing lots about gardening. Well, this year there's been a change. I began caring for the vegetable garden in 2003 because Jim, who had always been the gardener, was too busy with the Garden Centre to do the planting.
Last year the garden was not very successful. For example, the corn, though it towered over me (and there's a picture of that in the post of September 4, '10) produced only two ears that actually ripened. The rest never did. Jim thought that I had planted too late (it had been the 19th of May) and used a variety that took too long (peaches and cream, 70 days). He also wanted more variety of vegetables than I was in the habit of planting. So he took over this year. That is actually fine to me, as gardening is fairly far down the list of favorite activities for me. I do like weeding--because everything looks so nice and neat when you keep it up.
There were other failures last year besides the corn. We didn't pick any tomatoes or peppers or squash, very few scarlet runner beans and modest amounts of asparagus and fava beans. There were some rows of spinach, peas and lettuce that I sowed early that never even germinated.
I think these failures were due to the lack of heat last summer.
So this year he's in charge. Because he gets busy selling in the Garden Centre by the third week in May, with some sales earlier, he had the whole garden planted very early. I kept saying it was too early, but he really "lucked out" in that we've had only three nights of killing frost since the garden sprouted. We covered the beans, corn and tomatoes those nights.
So here's what the garden is at now. This is barely half of the raised beds. It looks pretty good. See the corn way in the farthest bed in the background? He did start that in the greenhouse in March while I was away in Chile.
The wooden frames in the foreground are covered with chicken wire and are there to protect the strawberry plants from predation. On Friday R. planted lots of strawberries. About two hours late we saw a deer in the garden. After chasing it out I counted 14 newly planted strawberries that were chewed down to a nub. Hope they survive!
When I went out to take some pictures of the garden I realized that the old apple tree in the deck was chock full of cedar waxwings. They were busy eating something around the blossoms. I'm just not sure what was there but they were surely finding something! I read about these birds that when they find a good source of food, such as a loaded berry bush they will eat until full and then continue plucking the fruit but pass it down the line to a bird that isn't satiated yet. Isn't that interesting!
I didn't see Mrs. Mallard, the wonderful mother duck who raised twelve ducklings on our little front yard pond last year (see the post published on June 2, '10) until recently. Last week when M. and I were returning from our daily morning walk we spotted her leading this year's brood into the small dugout just across the road from us. This year she has ten darling little ducklings following her. I was so happy to see that she's been successful again!
In the spring it's the geese who arrive first. Then the ducks, then the robins. Later on come the blackbirds. Last year there were really too many blackbirds around. They made life miserable for Honey, our small dog. I've seen them "blitz" her, actually "whacking" her on her back. They also seemed to be, pardon the language, "shitbombing" the back of the house where she usually sat on the step. So I was not happy to see flocks of this size swirling around.
They are very aggressive birds, and will even take an egg from a robin's nest and deliberately drop and break it. So I decided to enter the fray on behalf of the robins and other species. When I found a blackbird nest on the yard I destroyed it. There are lots of other opportunties for them to nest on our 20 acres, other than near the house.
This approach has seemed to be successful. We don't see them in the yard in the same numbers as earlier this spring. Hope that means a better balanced population next summer.
I don't try to be like a real floral arranger, just bring in some of the bounty for us to enjoy.
It was also the longest day of the year. Because we live quite far north our summer days are very long. If I'm not mistaken the sun rose shortly after 5 a.m. and set just before 10 p.m. Here's a view out our front windows a little before 10 p.m. The camera doesn't do justice to the gorgeous colours in the landscape when the late sun bathes it in intense golden light.
Their nest escaped my earlier predations because it was too high to reach, unless I got out our tallest step ladder. Now I'm sorry that I didn't try harder to get rid of them! Any time we are outside they "blitz" us, squawking angrily. Here's the female who can scold even with food in her mouth. The females are quite a bit lighter in colour than the males.
I can't remember the last time I had a "real" fall. There were some slips and slides while hiking in Chile, but no real headlong sprawls or pratfalls. But today as I was leaving the local grocery store with two large bags and a big plastic jug of milk I tripped over the curly edge of a mat and landed "kersplat" mainly on my left elbow. The tomatoes and a banana got smushed in the process, and my left elbow was royally scraped. The mat was there to keep the wet and dirt from outside confined, but that's what my elbow became intimately acquainted with. 
On Thursday I finished knitting this cowl for a dear friend of mine. It's pretty wild: three side by side cables going around the cowl, and knit in this variegated yarn. She had received a lovely white jacket for a present and wants to protect the collar area every time she wears it by wearing a cowl. I think she might need a thinner scarf also as an alternative. This looks to be pretty warm and might be too warm for some milder winter days.
