July 16. This is war!

I've suspected something has been sampling my garden, but it's now confirmed.  I had a strawberry I've been waiting for, and today when I went to pick it, it was gone. Severed clean off the stem.  I'm suspecting birds.  Ironic that I feed them in the front of the house...Anyway, that prompted this evening's bird intimidation project.  Thank goodness the kids left CD's behind when they moved on (such yesterday's technology).  Between those and some aluminum foil strips, I'm hoping to deter the birds.  So Andrew, if you're reading this, no offense, but I hope the birds will hate "The Stokes" and "The Shins".  Krista, "Buckcherry 15" is your contribution.  I couldn't bear to put the John Mayer Trio out there (and in fact I may play that one tonight).  Cross your fingers this works--I want more strawberries!

July 14-Beans, beans, beans!

I truly believe if I'd been sitting on my patio (with a cold beverage), I could have watched the beans grow!  Apparently they are pole beans (or do all of them climb?).  Anyway, their long tendrils appeared overnight.  So off to Shopko again for another trellis.  Amazing what warm sunny weather will do!  We had the pea pods in a delicious salad, and I ate a couple more right off the vine.  The strawberries are teasing me, one by one.  Not as prolific as I'd hoped... The chard and beets are picking up.  I'm having trouble telling which is which because I think I threw the seeds in together.  How do I know when to pick the carrots??  I think I'll let them go a while--Scott thinks they'll stick up like the radishes.  I'm certainly learning by doing this year.  I'll let the photos do the talking.

Peppers

Tomatoes!

Eggplant

Beans

Sunday July 7

Sunday July 7, 2013
Happy belated birthday America!  We FINALLY put together a stretch of summer weather.  I don't believe we've had any rain in a whole week--wait, I have to take that back.  We had a weird sun/downpour on the 4th.  But our rainwater barrel has actually run dry, so tomorrow we'll have to use the irrigation system to water the bales/plants.  We've pretty much neglected the garden in the past few days, due to the holiday festivities.  But other than making sure they're watered (which hasn't been so labor intensive this year), there's not much more to do.  The weeds have remained non-existent since the grass has been pulled.  So I still take my morning stroll to see if anything needs to be picked, and yes, I've now had FOUR ripe, warm strawberries.  Glad I didn't count on them for pie, because they're just ripening one by one, but there's still more to come...Tonight I also picked 6 pea pods.

 The Zinnia seeds I tossed in are coming up nicely and will hopefully blossom soon.  The sweet potatoes are really doing nothing, and the chard has stalled too.  The peppers, eggplants and tomatoes still look good, and my beans are taking off.  We'll see how things go now that we're in the heat of summer (I hope!).  There's still some leaf lettuce left, but I've been told it will probably be bitter.  I guess I should pull it and re-plant more seeds in a few weeks. Until next time...

beans (left) peas (climbing), zinnias and strawberries (in side of bale)