Our New Neighbor

Thu, 2 Sep 2010 18:23:04 -0700

We have a new neighbor. I must apologize, I was introduced and I’ve forgotten his name. I know he was named after a character, I think, from a Star Wars movie, so we just call him “Baby Star Wars”. He’s very friendly and always comes over for a visit in the evenings when we’re watering the garden.

I think he’s adorable and spunky and loves to play with sticks and leaves and just about anything you dangle in front of his face.

Although I had to explain to him that this behavior was not appropriate.

However, not everyone thinks he’s adorable. This is my Director of Pest Management.

She doesn’t like Baby Star Wars and considers him to be an invading pest. She spends her time telling him to leave and then chases him around the garden.

He just wants to play but they don’t want anything to do with him. I think it makes him a little sad.

Shared Garden

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:03:57 -0700

My neighbors/friends up the street have a long sloping hill behind their house. Early this spring it was covered in California poppies. Quite a beautiful site. They haven’t done much with it in past years so I convinced them that we should plant some veggies up there. The things that need lots of sun and space to grow, like corn, melons, squashes and pumpkins.

So, when the poppies died off we dug some holes and mixed in some manure and planted some seeds.
This is a picture of corn starts.

We’ve been eating corn for the last few weeks and today we picked the last of it.

We also harvested a few little watermelons, they didn’t do so well. I’m thinking we need more manure and compost next year. We never got any cantaloupes at all.

We also picked some delicata squash, which grew round rather than oblong...not really sure why that happened. Then there are the pumpkins for Halloween.

We got lots of pumpkins. The pumpkins always seem to do well. I like to put paper plates under them so they don’t sit directly on the dirt. They tend not to rot or get infested with bugs that way.

Rattlesnake Beans

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:57:40 -0700

A neighbor gave me some beans in the spring and told me to plant them. He said that they came from his father. That’s all that he said, so I planted them and they grew, so much so that we had to put bamboo extensions on the wire cages so they would have something to grow on, and still they grew. Then, they started to produce flowers, dark purple flowers, that turned into long, broad, purple mottled green beans. Beautiful beans that I couldn’t identify, so I turned to the internet to tell me what I was growing. Turns out, they’re rattlesnake beans.

Rattlesnake beans are an heirloom variety pole bean related to the pinto bean. They’re heat tolerant and
and heavy producers as long as you continue to pick them. Unlike other green beans that I’ve grown, they remain tender even when they grow large. This means if you forget to pick one day, they’re not going to be tuff and stringy when you cook them. The only disappointing thing about them is that they turn green when you cook them, the purple disappears.

They’ve won me over. I’ll be growing these again next year.

Moles

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:46:55 -0700

Moles are furry little blind mammals that burrow underground and eat worms. They like to dig lots of tunnels in places, like your lawn and flower beds, to store their worms and generally make a mess of things. In earlier centuries, in Europe, they were called mouldywarp, mould meaning soil and varp meaning throw, or essentially, “one who throws soil” or “dirt tosser”. We thought gophers were making the mess but it turns out we have moles.

Whenever I see the both of my cats staring at the same spot in the ground, I always go and check it out. Most days, my director of pest management and my garden supervisor can be found doing this......

Or the other thing they’re fond of doing on a summer afternoon is this......their own version of WrestleMania.

But this afternoon, Pest Management found a mole.

I asked Mr. Mole if he wanted to remove the dirt and leaves from his head before I took his picture and he indicated that he wasn’t interested in having his picture taken. (he startled me by jumping up and making lots of squeaky sounds so the picture is blurry)

So, we nudged him into a bucket and relocated him outside of our garden and away from the cats. No telling how many relatives he left behind.

First Peach of the Season

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:51:14 -0700

We picked the first ripe peach yesterday. It wasn’t as ripe as it should have been, I think Mr. RK was a little excited to taste the first peach. We’ll leave the others on the tree for a few more days to sweeten up. (They are very fuzzy peaches!)