Those are from my first picking on Wednesday, but there’s at least that much in the garden ready to be picked today and canned tomorrow!
Success!
I harvested the first of our garden’s bounty last night, a radish! It was a little on the hot side for my tastes, but Andy said it was good, so I guess that’s good!
On another note, the green beans (and sometimes the laundry that’s been hung on the line) are covered with these bugs.
What are they and what do I do about them?
“Is it a PONY?!?”
This past weekend, our landlord, Phil, brought over a few of his family’s horses to graze in the area just around our rental property for the next 6 weeks or so. The “painted” one is Buster (~24 yrs old) and the brown one is Pistol (a yearling). We’re told that Buddy is a relatively tame one, and Phil said we could probably put Meg up on his back. I think we’ll be waiting awhile before doing that, though. 😛
It’s the first time either of us have ever been this close to horses. We’ve certainly seen then before, but never for an extended period of time. Certainly, Edie is not amused by their presence and frequently feels like she must bark at them in an effort to scare them off. Pretty sure it wouldn’t take more than a swift kick from either horse to do some real damage to the beagle.
In other news, Brooke (and I…) did some yard work this weekend. I mowed the lawn and helped turn the soil in the garden, while Brooke planted some stuff in preparation for the growing season. To my knowledge, there are tomatoes, green peppers, onions, peas, soup beans, and an assortment of herbs planted already, with more to come in the next few days. The weather this week seems to be pretty conducive to gardening, so I imagine most of it will be planted shortly. Phil did recommend that we plant tall-growing items further from the fence so that the horses can’t get to them.
Overall, it’s been nice being able to go outside and do things. Back in Soulard, there wasn’t much (productive) to do outdoors, aside from going on walks, etc. While I’m sure we’ll be tired of yard work shortly, it’s kinda nice to be able to go outside and plant things, mow the lawn, wash the car, etc.
Considering that winter starts in Iowa around, oh, mid-September, we may as well enjoy it while we can. 😉
Progress and a Belated Thank You
First, a picture of our now in progress garden:
As soon as the weather warms up a little, some plants will go in, but it’s looking like that could be at least the weekend. A huge part of that was done by Andy’s dad on Saturday afternoon, so THANKS Jim!!
Second, we received an awesome baby gift awhile before we moved from the Nicholsons and I know they read this occasionally, so thanks Don and Kathy!
Since Meg’s a girl, I know I won’t have any problems convincing Eagle Scout Andy that she should be a 4-Her (not that there’s really any comparison!)!
Help!!
I was watering and checking on my plants that I’m growing on our 3rd story deck and noticed these tomatoes:
These are a lot more that I picked and threw in the trash because they look like this:
There are some that look like this:
…but I’m afraid they’re all headed in the gross direction. So, does anybody have any thoughts about what is causing this? And how to save the rest of the tomatoes?