"Just because it's June, June, June!"

After last week's multiple days of rain, it was nice to spend Sunday outdoors, finally getting back into the garden to do some work.  Britt had come to visit from Indiana, and by the time she left to get back on the road it was after noon, although it was still pleasantly cool for working outside.  There were TONS of gnats and bugs from all that wetness, though.

We noticed that our marigolds in the garden were in very sad shape.  I don't know what we did to kill them, but they were not just stressed from the heat -- they were dead!  We found some volunteer marigolds and replanted them in areas where our bought plants had died back.

The rabbits had gotten another of our bell pepper plants, but fortunately, mom & dad dropped by with a couple of orange bells for us, so that was a quick and easy replacement.

Tasks accomplished:

• Replaced some marigolds
• Replaced bell pepper plant
• Planted cherry tomato seedlings in the obelisk in the garage garden
• Planted replacement nasturtium along the front retaining wall
• Planted muskmelon seeds
• Moved and planted short zinnias around the tiered garden and the raised beds
• Anna planted sunflowers in her garden, and trimmed up the lamb's ear
• Pulled back grass and laid down cocoa mulch and straw around raised beds
• Prepared potato box and planted some potatoes, then put hosta around it
• Put in pea sticks for the garden peas and sugar snap peas to climb
• Burned all the branches and sticks from last week's crazy storms
• Trimmed back some of the wildly-growing perennial flowers
• Weeded (mostly) the garage garden again

Needless to say, I'm moving a little slowly today.  That was a busy Sunday!  Now we're into a week of Cabaret rehearsals, but I'm hoping to take some time off work tomorrow afternoon to finish cleaning up the garage garden and put in the green beans, brussel sprouts, herb plants, and whatever other miscellaneous plantings we need to take care of!

Hassenpfeffer

Not much to report today.  We did some garden and flower bed clean-up -- the Rock Island school is looking for plant donations to put in around the building, so Nicole is cleaning out various plants from various beds, mostly hostas and iris.  I put in two different types of cabbage (Savoy and Ruby Perfection) in the very bottom garden bed.

All herbs in the herb pots are now up, and the carrots in the carrot pot also look pretty good.  I'm a little disappointed that more cucumbers didn't come up, but we still should have plenty for eating.

The rabbits have struck again.  Like last year, they tried to annihilate our edamame plants, but this year, they also took a swipe out of our beets.  I ground up some of last year's dried peppers and dumped it on the edamame, and will set up the scarecrow sprinkler to protect the circle bed.  Stupid varments.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

So... after almost a solid week of rain, we were finally able to get out to the garden today for approximately 30 minutes before it started raining again. Everything is really taking off growing... the side bed is beautiful, the edamame, black-eyed peas, and nasturtium are up, the peas and clematis are trellising nicely, the roses are growing like crazy, and the potatoes have gone absolutely mad. So, today, we built up the next level of our potato box and added more compost and potting soil (see photo on left). There's still not enough dirt on them, though, so we'll have to come back this weekend and add more.

Squirrels continue to be a problem. We've now rung the garden in onions, marigold, wormwood and castor bean plants, but we noticed that several edamame have been chomped. I'm looking to invest in an air rifle. Earlier this week, we put some sweet potatoes in a large container. We're going to try growing them that way this year, hopefully that will protect them from the squirrels/voles/whatever.

This afternoon, I hope to work on digging up grass (if it ever stops raining) or completing the cedar obelisk for the kitchen garden (if not).

"What kind of pyre? A pyre of fire!"

Flashback to fall 2010: Some absolutely beautiful sweet potato plants thrive in the fall garden, taking up a full quarter of one bed. The plants are huge, vining, and luscious-looking, and Bob and Cole anxiously dig them up, only to find... the tubers themselves have been gnawed down to stubs by some burrowing creature. Bob shakes his fist angrily at the sky and vows vengeance on whosoever wronged them in this heinous fashion as lightning flashes and thunder roars.

Back to the present: Yesterday, we worked out in the gardens, planting Cole's birthday presents (two of three Disneyland roses), and burning the shrubs we chopped down last week. The bushes burned very well, and as the sun was setting, and as Cole and I were sitting in the grass, watching the fire begin to die down, we heard a shuffling noise coming from underneath the walkway stones in the top garden. Sitting perfectly still, we saw the ground move slightly, and a dirty, stinking vole poke his head out from underneath. Earlier in the day, we had noticed several surface tunnels had been burrowed in the lawn and in the garden. This beast (or his kin) was responsible for the damage, and more than likely caused the great sweet potato travesty of '10.

Hefting his trusty metal rake (+1 to rodent-slaying), Bob slowly approached the stepping-stone. There was a tunnel leading in, and a tunnel leading out -- the monster was trapped underneath, with nowhere to escape. Quickly turning over the stone, the evil vole was exposed. A mighty battle ensued, and when the smoke cleared, only Bob remained standing.

We know not how many other invaders and evil-doers remain to combat, but today's funereal pyre should give them pause. These lands are under the watchful eyes of Bob and Cole, wielders of Volebane, and their noble vigil to protect good, decency, and vegetables.

"This is my boomstick!"

Something's been massacring our potted plants. Remember how our mint was all dug up a few weeks ago? Yeah. Whatever it is is back, and has also hit our cilantro, cumin, and (worst of all) our large pots for carrots and parsnips. I threw down some bloodmeal over the weekend, and things seem to have been left alone this week. I'm going to put some chicken wire in the pots and am setting up everything I need (a FOID card and a boomstick) for a "Plan B" if that doesn't take care of the problem.

Our sweet potatoes are not well, we lost one of our okra plants, and several of our broccoli seedlings didn't make it. On a happier note, though, everything else in the garden appears to be quite healthy. Our potatoes, onions, and garlic are growing incredibly fast. The tomatoes, peppers, and peas all seem to be doing well. Anna's sunflowers all came up, and I think I saw some peanuts sprouting yesterday.

Last weekend, we went down to Peoria and visited my friend Dave. We helped him begin landscaping a few beds in his front yard, and went with him to numerous plant stores (including the amazing Hoerr's nursery), and came home with a few plants ourselves. I got a chocolate beauty bell pepper (I'd been looking for them for weeks, and now have no idea where I'm going to put it, lol) and Cole got a whole passel of flowers (salvia, more hosta, coreopsis, daylily, who knows what else). Oh, and her Sunset Hyssop finally arrived in the mail last night. Clearly, it's time to start working on clearing out those shrubs on the side of the house so she can have a bed for sun-loving plants! (The bed in front is progressing: four stumps down, two more to go!)

Cat's in the cradle... err, mint...

On Saturday, I reported that I had to re-plant our mint, because it was damaged in a storm. The next day, it was all dug up again. I made another minor fix, and Tuesday night, it was dug up a third time, and this time, damaged beyond repairing. Clearly, this is not freak storm damage. Something has been digging it up (although leaving all the other plants around it alone). This is odd, since mint is usually a deterrent to most pests. I did a little research on the internet, and apparently, some cats associate spearmint with another member of the mint family, catnip. Ugh! So, there's either some crazy stray roaming around, or one of the neighbors lets his cat out at night who's decimating my mint.

So, yesterday, I bought some new spearmint plants ("Kentucky Colonel" this time, from Moonshine Designs in Milan) and am going to pot it and keep it inside, in the sunny three-season room. Hopefully it will do OK in there.

Yesterday was a busy day in the garden. I also planted the bok choy (see photo above) and celery in the kitchen garden (plot 1), changed the walkways to give us more planting room and moved the basil to the nightshade bed (plot 2), and planted peanuts and sunflowers (with Anna's help) in the tuber/misc garden (plot 3).

The kale is sprouting, as are the garden peas. The onions are growing rather impressively, and the potatoes are starting to poke through the surface. The new Thai and sweet basil, and yes, even the savory are all doing wonderfully in the indoor greenhouse. I'm going to move some of them outside today and begin hardening them off. I think I want to do a few more indoor starts: okra, some more of Anna's sunflowers, and the Cowhorn peppers for dad for Father's Day (I ordered them on eBay).

Tonight, if things allow, I'd like to make mounds in the three sisters garden (plot 4) and get the corn started. Possibly do some work on the herb pots, too, if there's thyme. Err, time. *kneeslap* :-)