New Garage Resident

We have a new resident in our garage:

One of the biggest toads I've ever seen.

In other garage news, we've ordered the windows and doors...including the garage door. It set us back a pretty penny. I'm not sure what I was thinking it would be, but that wasn't it.

Bad News From the Bees

Yahoo posted this story yesterday:

Bees in more trouble than ever after bad winter

The not so great highlights include:

• One-third of those surveyed had trouble finding enough hives to pollinate California's blossoming nut trees, which grow the bulk of the world's almonds.

• "There were a lot of beekeepers scrambling to fill their orders and that implies that mortality was high," said Penn State University bee researcher Dennis vanEngelsdorp, who worked on the USDA snapshot survey.

• The losses were extreme, three times higher than the previous year.

• EPA officials said they are aware of problems involving pesticides and bees and the agency is "very seriously concerned."

Among some of the interesting comments to this article:

Einstein said, that from the death of the bees, we had no more than 4 years, until we all died. Thanks Monsanto, for making this verification test possible....3 years, 250 days, and counting...Tick...Tick...Tick...

Interestingly, the following got mostly negative reviews. It's true, though; I don't know why it pissed people off:

European honey bees are an introduced, invasive species responsible for more human deaths every year than snake bites and lightening strikes. It's unfortunate that they have displaced so many North America's native pollinators. Perhaps this will allow those to re-populate and refill their niche.

And....lastly:

The good news is that there are bee raising methods that seem to be working, if they are practiced on a small scale. I know of several keepers in NY whose colonies have remained intact through the crisis. it's too early to tell, but let's hope that is still the case. We've really, as a society, got to start rethinking our love affair with the perfect lawn. The pesticide use, runoff and loss of habitat is a major drive behind many ecological ills. If we lose the bees, folks, we are down to hiring people to do hand-pollination. Wonder what that will do to food prices and availability? Anyone with an interest in this topic should research the small-scale beekeeping methods that are working, and modify practices to help preserve them.

Hawk Mountain 2009

Matt and I went with our friend, Angie, to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary a few weeks ago. It is located in Hamburg, PA, north east of Harrisburg. If you have never been there and find yourself in the area, go. It is so worth it, if only for the views:
Hawk Mountain is a valley in the eastern PA mountains where, by some strange happenstance, a vast majority of migrating raptors from the entire east coast pass through. Eagles, Osprey, hawks of all kinds, kestrels. Just a few days before we were there, a whopping 1600+ Broad-winged hawks came through. In one day!

We had beautiful weather, clear and not too warm. We could see 35 miles that day. Unfortunately, the winds weren't doing much which meant the hawks weren't, either. That is one of the problems with planning a trip ahead of time, you never know what you're going to get.

We did see several hawks up close, two Osprey flying above us. A few Bald Eagles waaay far off. Three sharp-shinned hawks having a serious argument right above us. Several piliated woodpeckers.

One year, Matt and I had a great time watching the hummingbird migration. Seriously. You could just barely make them out above the treetops, then all of a sudden you had, say, 8 tiny green missiles whiz past your head.

Their website is extensive, they've been keeping migration records for 75 years. If you plan to go, you can check out and see when various birds are most likely to be migrating. They have 'migration forecasts' on their website, too, based on weather. They also have an email update weekly, which is great fun to read.

The trails at hawk mountain are pack in/pack out. No trash receptacles. Scant restrooms. They also have extensive hiking trails for just hiking. Just watch out for bears and snakes.

Mystery Bug, All Growed Up

Several weeks ago I posted pics of this Mystery Bug on the potatoes. Still don't know what it is, but....

Here is what it looks like now. It is currently on a bean vine (or another one is).

Another shot. Great shadow in both, don't you think?

I still don't know what it is.

A Few Thoughts for Thursday

We had some rain here finally. I probably won't have to water the garden for a few days, which I'm thankful for because it takes me about an hour to do it thouroughly. I like watering the garden, don't get me wrong. It gives me a chance to stand still and look around at everything. But it is tedious.

The winter squash vines have vine borers in them. So far none in the pumpkins, though (knock on wood). For those of you unfamilliar with these evil beings, read this and this. I have been digging them out using the method described in the links. I hope it is enough. I also bought some (ahem) injectable nematodes and hope they do the trick. How often can you say to your coworker "OH BOY!! My Injectable Nematodes shipped today!!" It was worth ordering them just for that opportunity.

The humidity is just starting to really hit here, I think the A/Cs are going to go in soon.

Someone else wrote a very nice blog post about hard work, I recommend you read it. I totally agree. I think I would have liked to have answered that you can not get those veggies in the grocery store, which leads me to....

We have been eating sides of veggies out of the garden, thankfully. This is the time of year that reminds me why I do all this: the taste of the fresh-picked veggies. The beans are soooo good. The squash fresh and tasty. Peas are so sweet, and yes I'm still picking them (I can't believe it, either). The promise of fresh tomatoes and peppers and such. Can't wait.

Bunny the Vampire Slayer

I started digging my early patch of garlic a couple weekends ago with the intent of getting that patch clear so I could amend the soil and get it ready for some fall plantings. It didn't happen quite like that.

I got about 1/3 of the way in and I found a patch of loose dirt, like an animal had dug it up. 'Great,' I thought. 'A cat probably used it as a litterbox.'

I moved the dirt (gloved hands, thank you very much). Dug another head of garlic. Next to the pile of dirt was a pile of hay. I started to move the hay and there was a bunch of fur.

'Great!' I thought. 'A cat probably killed a mouse.' I started to dig around for bones and the pile moved.

It is a bunny nest. They have fur and their eyes are open, they probably won't be there for much longer. I'm going to keep checking every couple days, and then try to make sure the mom doesn't lay any more eggs there, as it were.

No pictures because I don't want to disturb them. I left the remaining garlic and sort of canopied it around them to shade them a bit more (see planting map above, the boxed in area).

*Update, the bunnies have moved on.

Bug Identification

Can I see this bug's identification? Anyone? It is on the potatoes, but the flea beetles are responsible for the leaf damage. Maybe it's going after the flea beetles??

Critters, Good and Bad

Bad critters first: flea beetles are devouring my fingerling potatoes. Look at this damage:
Close-up of a flea beetle. They are tiny, the jump as quick as fleas (hence the name), and I'm not sure if there is anything non-chemical that I can do about them:
A snake we recently saw against the garden door. Isn't it beautiful?

A turtle in the garlic patch.
And it moved into the radishes and parsnips.
I didn't do this on purpose, but isn't it funny?

Bees and Blueberries

I've been trying to finesse my picture taking and when I found the blueberry bush to be in bloom and full of bees of varying sizes I decided to try to get some nice photos.

This first one is of something that isn't a bee, but I don't know what it is. The wings were moving so fast you couldn't really see them with the naked eye, so the picture is especially nice.





































Another one of the strange bug










I've been trying to attract Mason bees to the garden, which is a variety of bee that is native to North America. They are smaller than European honey bees and aren't susceptible to the colony collapse disorder. I think this may be one of them.

Not what Sunkist had in mind

This is our dog, Max. Max is a yorkie and has a LOT of hair. We trim him 3-4 x/year just to keep him from dragging entire tree branches indoors with him.

(left) Max before a haircut
(right) Max after a haircut v


So. What to do with all the hair? Well, the great thing about dog hair is that it smells....like dogs!! Small critters that eat things in my vegetable garden are repelled by dog smell. (Some people are, too). Hmmmm.....


I have about 2-3 trimmings worth saved up in a ziplock baggie at home. I've also been keeping those mesh bags you get cherry tomatoes and avocados in at the grocery store.



Put some dog hair in a mesh bag, maybe half a cup or so. Fasten it off with a twisty-tie. If you have one of the looong bags, put another twisty-tie on it (like so > >). Cut between them. This way you can get 4-6 hair bags per mesh bag.


To keep animals like raccoons, bunnies, squirrels, The results from you labors, small bags full of dog hair, can be scattered around your vegetable patchand possums away. I've even had good luck keeping deer away from our patch.

I would also recommend this method in your flower and bulb gardens.

Weekly Veggie Patch Update 6/9/08

This was a productive week! Finally!

Pulled more Pink Celebration radishes, took some to David who asked if I had more to sell. Uh, sure!!!! They really do look nice. Some of them split due to the additional 1 inch of rain we got on Tuesday, so I kept those for me (my radish needs are not great). I think this is the most rain I’ve ever seen in a spring. Matt ‘n’ I took 5 bunches of radishes to David ‘n’ Junko’s on Saturday morning. It was very odd, it was bright, clear and sunny at our house. 2 miles away we hit a fog bank that continued the whole way into Gettysburg.

The sand I put around the peppers and beans seems to be working, but if one little piece of hay is touching the plant those slugs will find it and use it as a bridge. It’s amazing. I’ll need to plant more beans to make up for some that were devoured. I went up to put out some beer slug traps and found slugs on the onions, for crying out loud. I wound up picking slugs I saw on any plant and throwing them into the beer, cheering as I watched them DIE DIE DIE.

The bok choy got big! I don't know when to pick it. Peas are starting to form….just in time for 98 degree weather which will probably kill them before any kind of harvest can really happen. I pulled all the spinach, stay tuned for another post on that this week. I planted more bush beans where the spinach had been. The broccoli plants each have little broccoli florets on them (they’ve broccled!!), but I can’t tell yet if they are normal or if they have buttoned. Again, not great timing with the heat.

Melons have sprouted, too, I’m keeping them covered with milk jug cloches until I absolutely have to take them off. The pumpkins have sprouted, as have the pole beans. Cucumbers are starting to come up again, we’ll see if something pulls them out. Again. I may have to put cloches over these, too.
In other news, I picked one of the heads of romaine I had growing….and found a 2-inch across mama wolf spider with egg sack in one of the leaves. EEEWWWW. I’m not a big spider fan. I’ve gotten better, there was a time where I would have not eaten the lettuce, I may have thrown the lettuce across the lawn when I saw her. But this time I just gingerly picked the leaf off and laid it on the ground, then did the heebie-jeebie dance. And we did eat it, and it was good.

We also got in another 100+ of potatoes, so we only have another bag and a half to go, thank god. Only a few potato beetles found, one toad, and some of the blues are blooming!

We’re talking about getting a greenhouse, 10x12. If so, I could use that next year for seed starting. Better yet, I could use it for spinach and lettuce and carrots, etc, which would free up extra space for other things in the fenced garden patch. Sweet.

Weekly Veggie Patch Update 6/2/08 (June the tooth)

Everything is planted, really, I’m just waiting now for them all to DO something. I need to weed and such, but that’s about it.

Someone (slugs, probably) ate my 3 melon plants. I’ve replanted two of them from seed, they are both already sprouting. I put some sand around the plants, I’ve read this deters slugs. It didn’t. They’re gone again. Either it’s the slugs or the birds (or something else) are getting under the floating row cover I put over them. I’m going to plant seeds again and put a milk jug cloche over them this time, possibly weighted down with a rock. It’s strange, because nothing has touched the squash plants.

The beans are sprouting, slugs are liking them. I put sharp/coarse sand around them, and the peppers. No sign of the pole beans yet. The peas finally started blooming, though, and the pumpkins have sprouted.

I did seed some 4-Seasons butterhead lettuce, arugula, and bush beans in pots (2 each) to see how they do. I also started 8 of each of the heading lettuces inside.

Potatoes are coming up beautifully (see top picture), even some of those that I thought were rotted due to the rain. We still have 200lb to plant, hopefully this week.

Garlic looks good, if small, and the scapes are starting to appear, too. The asparagus we planted in the new bed a week ago is just starting to sprout up.

Over the weekend we made a trip to Olive Garden for dinner. We hadn’t been in a few years, I had forgotten how good it was. Afterward, we went to Home Depot and I found that their herbs were .30 cheaper each than Ashcombes, and most of their varieties had at least 3 separate plants in each pot. So I got 10: 2 pots of sweet basil, 2 pots of lemon basil, 2 pots of lemon verbena, 1 cilantro, 1 variegated sage, 1 arugula, 1 dill. So yesterday I planted 6 separate sweet basil plants in the hopes I can sell some to David the Lion Potter this summer, along with who knows what else he could use. I also planted quite a bit of the herbs I bought at Ashcombe’s a couple weeks ago, and have 9 plants total yet to go in.