rabbit eats marigold

This cute bunny is growing fast. He now eats a surprising quantity of my garden plants. I didn't really see a need for him to eat my nice big marigold. They can't taste good. They have a pungent odor and I plant them mostly as a pest deterrent.

But the rabbit started in on the big yellow flower, and then he ate the smaller yellow flower, and then the leaves and stem. Well, yes, the stem was hanging out over the path and probably did need clipping - but it did not need to be entirely consumed by rabbit.

The Boston Globe had an article two days ago about rabbits over running the Boston area. (Run, rabbit, run) They pointed put that one female rabbit (probably a male needed too) can produce 5-6 bunnies 2-3 times a year totaling lots. And bunnies mature fast, so ones born in the first two litters can produce additional litters of bunnies of their own in that one year. So 2 parents can make about 50 rabbits in one season!

Well, Skippy has decided he wants in on the fun. He loves chasing cottontails. So now when I spot one, I tell Skippy and he gets the bunny to move - fast. Thanks Skip! I have enough cute bunny-eats-plants pictures. Now I need bunny-runs-fast pictures.

today's harvest

My Chinese pole beans are ready! These are my favorite bean. Big and lumpy - a green and white color mix. They are crisp and tender even when they grow very big.

A friend gave me some seeds. I've grown them for three years now and have to make sure to save a handful of beans to plant next year.

fall planting

Its mid summer and I'm well into the fall planting.

I had a email today from Lesley who just moved from Arizona to MA and is wondering what she can plant in her new zone and new vegetable garden. Here in Belmont, my first fall frost is usually early October (maybe Oct 10), so we have about 60 days of growing left.

Today I planted seeds for:

Carrots (St Valery)
Lettuce (Oak Leaf Mix and Prizehead)

I'm also watering every day to try to encourage seeds I planted last week (beets, lettuce and carrots) to grow. (Its SOOO dry!) I find I can never have too many carrots, as long as they are nice big long ones, so I'm trying for a good fall carrot crop.

What else can be planted now?

I looked up on the Johnny's Selected Seeds website for vegetables with time to harvest less than 60 days. Bush green beans, radish, all types of lettuce, spinach, arugula, broccoli, beets, collards, baby leeks. Winter hardy vegetables like kale are perfect to plant now. You can even offer cold protection by putting in a cold frame now and get several months (into December) of most of these vegetables here.

It’s a perfect time to start peas if you want to try for a fall crop. Its hit-or-miss and depends on how fast the weather goes from hot to cold this year. It usually goes too fast. I often try, but have never gotten a good fall crop of peas. But I like to try. I will plant some soon. I think tall and short shell peas (xx and Cascadia).

And garlic needs to be planted in the fall - I like to plant garlic in October. A bit of time yet for that. I will likely put this crop in my squash/pumpkin bed after its done for the year.

Some time back, I wrote an on-line calendar to use to calculate fall planting dates. Here's the link: http://bioarray.us/Skippy%27s%20fall%20planting%20calendar.html You can also get there from my side bar - near the top.

I think fall is also a very good time for planting perennial flowers from seed. If you can get a bit of growth in the cool fall weather, they will come up next year with a head start and do well. I have some poppy and delphinium seeds I'd like to experiment with.

Please leave me a comment and let me know if you're doing fall planting, where you're located, and what you're growing. I'd love to get new ideas. Thanks!

sunflowers!

Its sunflower time! One of my favorite things to do is photographing sunflowers. Usually there's a bee or several bees on it. Today there were also bright yellow gold finches.

I planted my sunflowers late (actually the first planting was eaten by chipmunks and it took me some time to replant in pots and transplant to my plot). The flowers above are all growing in other garden plots - not mine. I have just one in bloom now (below, a Teddy Bear Dwarf Yellow from Botanical Interests),and three or four more varieties budded up and coming soon.

Alwife redtail hawks

Its been two months since we watched the 3 young red tailed hawks grow up on the ledge of the office building at 185 Alewife Brook Parkway. Today when I pulled into the mall parking lot to shop, I saw 3 red tailed hawks overhead. I haven't seen the young birds since the week they fledged. I often look for then when I shop here. Today they circled the lot, rising and dipping and looking very like very skillful fliers.

I don't really know if these are the same birds. But to see three red tailed hawks together, it seems they may be Larry, Lucy and Lucky. I'd like to think so.

When I saw them, I was at Staples, printing an update of a poster and calendar for our community garden. After getting the printout, I drove two miles to the Belmont Community gardens and posted the new sign. A few minutes later, I again saw 3 red tails in the sky. I was glad to have my zoom lens. Maybe the same birds I saw in the parking lot. Maybe the Alewife chicks enjoying their freedom and seeing the countryside. If it is them, its seems nice that they are together still. They were very lucky to have 3 healthy siblings.

wildflowers

aerial

My side yard garden has had better years. Its so shady! But the cold frame is filling up and tomatoes are s.l.o.w.l.y growing. I planted my solanacea (tomato related plants) here (instead of my community plot) for rotation this year.

Click on the photo to see what's growing.

squirrel and apple

Today I was watching out the window as a squirrel tried to steal my single apple from my little Fugi apple tree. I have a knee-hi over the apple to protect it from apple maggots. What to do to protect from squirrels?! I banged on the window and chased him off twice. He didn't come back by nightfall, but I think he will very likely find a time when I am not standing by and guarding my tree. I don't think it will be ripe enough for me for another month yet.

The real problem is having only ONE apple on a tree! It doesn't bloom much since the big Norway maple in my back yard is shading it more every year. The apple tree is small (a dwarf) but too big to move. Maybe the maple will fall down some day.

cucumbers and melons in the cold frame

My cold frame is overflowing with summer vines. Four cucumber varieties, four melons, one pretty little acorn squash plant. I'm admiring the mix of similar leaves that have all gotten mixed up together.

I didn't do good planning where to plant. No space to walk between trellises and difficult to search the centers of green rows for hidden green cucumbers.

I've been comparing leaves of the three curcurbits. All the same size and color. But cucumbers are pointed and star-like, melons are rounded and wide, and acorn squash has deep round lobes.

The flowers are also similar but different. Cucumbers a little bigger and bright yellow. Melon flowers paler, more delicate, and tending to look ragged from bee traffic. I'm looking forward to seeing acorn squash flowers - none yet.

popcorn ears

I was worried about my popcorn. Tassels but no ears. And then all of a sudden, I have a corn patch full of little ears. Even some big ones. Amazing how fast they form!

I think I may have had the same worry last year. Now that I see the ears, this seems like something that has happened before.

I've been meaning to figure out what to do to avoid corn ear worms this year. Last year they ate the tip of every ear. I haven't gotten a plan yet and it may be too late now.

I have one ear with bright red tassels! Now how did that happen? All the rest are pale yellow.

harvests

Here's what I harvested yesterday. Cukes, onions and carrots. I like having lots of BIG carrots.

chiogga beets

It seems that ]my Chiogga beets are different every year.

Three years ago (first year I grew them) they were very red and I could just barely see the striping and they tasted fantastic. Then the next year, they were tough and woody and pale. Now this year, they are striped like candy canes! And they taste great. They must be sensitive to the weather and/or my soil.

baby melons

This is a big challenge for me. I would LOVE to grow a juicy sweet melon this year. No luck the last few years. But the weather is perfect so far. Maybe I will be successful. My vines look long and full so far.

I have several types of melons growing this year: Anne Arundel, Crane, Charentais, Edonis (early Charentais type) and Sugar Baby watermelon. I don't know the variety in the photo, but I'm seeing lots of little fruits setting on my vines. I am looking forward to watching them. Once squashes set, they grow fast and my guess is melons are the same.

radicchio

I am very pleased with the radicchio I have this year. Even though only one in five plants headed, one head goes a long way. And its a beautiful red in our salads.

Most of my radicchio bolted - probably because the season warmed up so fast. My Chinese cabbage (Wong Bok), which is supposed to be a big head, didn't head at all. Just big furry leaves and then bolted into a big flower stalk. It made for lots of fresh greens for the compost pile. My savoy and red cabbage didn't have any trouble with the weather though. The savoy heads are ready for harvest, the reds will need a few more weeks.

This radicchio variety is Palla Rossa Ashalim (Botanical Interests) planted from seed on March 23. From the drawing on the seed package, it seems it should be a round head. Maybe my elongated heads are from the warm weather.

today's harvest

Pumpkins, summer squash, cucumbers, and even a few TOMATOES!

The onions were harvested last week and have now finished drying enough to clean them up a put them down in the basement.