kindergardens - week 6

It's rather ironic, I think, that Kim's kinderGARDEN post this week is about pests in the garden.  In my humble opinion, we've had more than our fair share this week.

You can read about our latest adventures with the deer earlier this week here.  That problem has been temporarily solved with bird/deer netting over anything remotely attractive to deer.  We've got it draped over everything, including the sides of Kiddo's morning glory house:

(which, as you can see, is recovering nicely a mere five days after being ravaged by said deer.  Here Kiddo is measuring himself against the morning glory - he is temporarily taller, but by tomorrow night the morning glory will have surpassed him).  We originally had the sides of our nets pinned down with earth staples, but the plants were getting cramped, so now the nets just sort of float on top.

1.  floating net over monster broccoli and cauliflower that aren't producing heads yet
2.  weeds - particularly the evil ground ivy - that are threatening to take over the world
3.  a barn cat (of course)

So far the nets have worked, but we're hoping to use some sort of deer repellent or CHEAP fence soon (Shayne's fishing line fence is a possibility).  One half-tempting solution?  A dog.  A big dog.  Actually, come to think of it, that would probably take care of the barn cat problem, too.  Hmmm...

We had a horrible problem with cucumber beetles last year, and they also showed up again this week.

 

Apparently they like hyacinth beans in addition to cucumbers, melons, pumpkins and squash.

We don't have many yet, so I am trying to control them without spray if I can.  I am surely probably being optimistic, but for now I am just hand-picking them and squishing them to death.  It's disgusting, but strangely satisfying.  The problem is they are speedy little buggers, so they are hard to catch.  Enter the dishsoap.  Does anyone else use this trick?  I fill a bowl with water and dishsoap and stir it up until it is nice and sudsy, then head out to the garden.

 Then I look for the enemy.

Once I find one, he gets doused in suds.

I don't know all the science behind it, but they can't fly when they're trapped in the bubbles, and they seem to get pretty confused trying to crawl, too.  So they get squished (I didn't take a picture of that part.  Sorry).  We'll see if this method works, or if we eventually have an epidemic like last year [groan]. 

Despite all the pests we've dealt with this week, not all of our visitors have been unwelcome.  We are having fun hunting for our goldbugs:

And this cute little guy showed up yesterday.  For all I know he could grow into a menace with a voracious appetite, but yesterday he was innocuous and cute.

And, probably to someone's shock and dismay, I planted our parsley half-hoping these guys would show up:

For a caterpillar, they are kind of pretty, and we love watching the swallowtail butterflies later in the summer (now someone will comment about what a terrible scourge they are and I will regret my naivete).

Besides lessons in pest control, this week we have also learned that 8- and 9-year-old seeds that you happen to find buried in the back of the shed (with mouse-y teethmarks on the corners of the packets) probably won't germinate.

We got some much-needed rain this weekend (much to our neighbors' dismay, who were trying to hold a wedding reception in their backyard).  I love our garden after a good rain - everything is so green (and the weeds are easy to pull)! 

We are hoping our garden really takes off as the sun comes back out this week.  Unfortunately, I probably won't get to see much of it, as I am frantically trying to get things done before Kiddo is out of school (Wednesday) and our week of Vacation Bible School starts at our church (next week).  Hopefully there will be time to run out and at least pick some lettuce for dinner - and squish a beetle or two while I'm at it. 

P.S.  Speaking of lettuce, we still haven't learned the concept of staggered planting, which means we have four rows of lettuce, all ready at the same time.  So if you need lettuce, feel free to come over and grab some....please? 

(linking up to KinderGARDENS)

uninvited guests

Deer are a product of The Fall.  I'm sure of it.

(I guess goldbugs aren't the only ones who like morning glories).

finding goldbug

Anyone else out there grow up with the book "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go" by Richard Scarry?

(found here - I am not savvy enough to figure out how to make the picture take you there)

It was one of our favorites growing up, and Kiddo loved paging through it when he was a toddler.  One of my favorite things in the book was finding Goldbug, who was hiding somewhere in every page spread. 

(photo found here)

Tonight, I found Goldbug.  Only he wasn't in a book.  He was on Kiddo's morning glories.

A little Google-ing informed me that he is a Golden Tortoise Beetle, loves morning glories and sweet potatoes, and will probably not cause enough damage to be worrisome.  Guess we'll just get to enjoy having him (and his buddy who was feeling camera-shy) around!

old

I found a gray/white hair this morning.

I prefer to think of it as "intensely blond."

kindergardens - week 5

It's been a busy week in our kinderGARDEN!

We finished setting up Kiddo's pole bean teepee and have been watching the beans find the holes in the landscape fabric as they sprout.

 

We tackled a flower maze, inspired by the one suggested in the Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots book by Sharon Lovejoy (speaking of, she is going to be one of the judges for the kindergarden contest!  How cool is that?!).

 Our neighbors probably thought we were out there making crop circles, but hopefully they will fill up soon with beautiful flowers!

We planted sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias, mexican sunflower, sweet annie, delphinium and poppies, and probably something else that I am forgetting.  Kiddo is very excited about having his own "secret room" in the middle of his maze.

Kiddo and I also planted some Indian corn...

(aren't they pretty?)

and I also started some sunflower seeds, hyacinth beans and several vine plants (cucumber, zucchini, cantaloupe, watermelon, acorn squash, gourds and pumpkins). The corn, sunflowers and hyacinth beans are all sprouting...

(hyacinth bean)

but we are still waiting on the vines.

Last night we harvested our first veggies from the garden - radishes!  We don't eat many radishes (but we had to grow them - they are the "R" in our alphabet garden!), but Hubby has several coworkers that really enjoy them, so he took a bagful to work with him this week.

In other gardening news, Kiddo found some volunteer marigolds in the path of his flower bed, so he transplanted them to a safer spot.

The morning glories on Kiddo's garden house have really taken off.  We've been measuring them daily as they grow.  The taller vines are already more than 2 feet tall and are growing as much as 3 or 4 inches a day!

Our blueberries are starting to blush a faint blue color!  I'm dreaming of blueberries on breakfast cereal, blueberry pie and blueberry pancakes.

And finally (yes, long post...sorry!), our mulch has arrived!  Kiddo was an eager helper last year, and he was equally excited to dive in this year. 

He insisted on mulching his flower bed all by himself.  Mommy and Daddy were not allowed to help.

How many more years do you think we can keep this up before he decides it isn't any fun any more?

(he's getting a better handle on that wheelbarrow now)

This little guy showed up in the mulch we got three years ago:

You'd think that one of these days, we'd just pull him out and throw him away.  But every spring he just gets buried again, only to show up sometime during the winter.  He's becoming a bit of a fixture, I guess.  Instead of garden gnomes, we have a garden...starfish.

To see what other kindergardeners are up to, head on over to The Inadvertent Farmer.  There are several new faces popping up, and lots of cool ideas percolating out there (and super-cute kids, too)! 

a new friend

Not all of the kittens next door are sick.

Thank goodness!

Kiddo has been checking on them daily.  This little guy is his favorite.

 

(He's kind of melting my heart, too). 

belated weekend report

Some pics from the weekend...

(Kiddo took this one...we made crop circles!)

(photo of Kiddo's cookie decorating skills, courtesy of Hubby)

It was a beautiful, fun weekend.  Except for a father/son cookie baking fest, we spent nearly the whole weekend out in our yard.  The three of us tackled several projects in the garden on Saturday (we're I'm getting a little carried away - details to come in this week's kindergarden post).  Sunday afternoon and evening were spent with friends, watching the Phillies, playing croquet and frisbee football and feasting on pizza.  Monday was a quiet day of puttering and just hanging out as a family.  It was fun and relaxing and perfect.

Now that Memorial Day has come and gone, we are slowly changing gears into summer mode.  We've got the air conditioners in the windows, Kiddo is counting down the last few days of school (9 and a half), Hubby has the grill up and running, and we find ourselves spending a lot of our evenings outside.  Love that.  Kiddo and I (and Hubby, too) have been working on our summer 2011 list, inspired by Meg's list that she does every year.  No big trips planned, but we are looking forward to several activities and some day trips. Will post our list soon.

Yesterday I made my first trip trip to the SPCA to drop off an animal instead of to pick one up.  Long story short, one of the neighbor's barn cats I have been babysitting got very sick, and after a discussion with our vet, I took her to be put to sleep.  I cried.  But she was so miserable, and I hated to see her suffer.  To complicate matters, Kiddo was with me when we found her, and he was heart-broken and upset over her condition.  So while he was at school yesterday, I took her "to get some medicine so that she won't feel sick anymore."  I felt relieved afterwards, but it was short-lived...when we went over to check on the cats this afternoon, I saw two other kittens that are concerning me.  I hope I don't have to make any more one-way trips with kitties, but I'm not overly optimistic.  My neighbor might have to do some convincing to get me to feed her cats again...this is more than I bargained for!   (Or maybe she won't ask me again if several of her cats disappear while I am in charge).    Is it silly to pray for miraculous healing for a cat (or two)?

Oh my.  Bed time.  Have a great night, y'all...may the rest of your week be blessed!