Our Visitor

The other day, Gloria was looking out the dining room window. She saw something that surprised her. A snake in the bush just on the other side of the window. 

She showed it to me, and I identified it as an anaconda. I identify most snakes as anacondas. You know; the ones you want to stay away from. I estimated this visitor to be over 4 feet long.

Actually, it appeared to be a black snake which I confirmed with a search on the computer. Black snakes can grow up to 6 feet. They eat all sorts of small animals such as mice, chipmunks, frogs, moles, etc. So, that makes them something of an asset around the house. They are non-aggressive to people; attacking only when provoked. Believe me; I do not provoke snakes. Also, non-poisonous.
Our "buddy" eventually moved on, and we haven't seen him since.

Now in reality, I don't mind snakes, if they are on the ground. But when they get up above me, it give me the jitters.

The Unveiling - afterwards

After the unveiling of the fig trees, we waited and waited and waited for something to pop up. Nothing came up. I was just about to cut down the dead plants when Gloria mentioned that she saw some new growth at the base of the trees. 

Sure enough the trees were coming out. Now, at this time (6-28), there is significant growth and the plants look very healthy. I don't know if we will get any figs or not but the plants have survived one of the colder winters that we have had in a while. 

I'm not sure that we will do the "mummy" method again or not, but it was fun trying.

The fig trees after they had sprouted from the base.

Blueberry Patch 2.0

As you may remember, last year my son-in-law, Jerry, and I put up an enclosure around our big blueberry patch. It was made out of PVC pipe. I chose the PVC pipe as a cost saving measure. The whole thing cost less than 100 bucks. During the snow storm last January, it was torn up completely. 

The original "cage"

I decided when the weather got warm, that I would redo it with better material. 

In the mean time, my next door neighbor's son hit my mail box and tore it up. I made a deal with his parents that if he gave me 4 hours of work, he would pay off the cost of the mail box. Unfortunately, he is on the Mooresville golf team (no. 2 golfer and Sectional champion. Way to go Jake!) and wasn't available to do any work until he got out of school. That was at the end of May. That wasn't a problem because we only want to put up the netting when the berries are getting ripe, and that's now.

In addition, s-i-l, Jerry, was visiting again. So, I had two helpers. The first Saturday in June was the work day. We put in 15 4x4 treated posts with cement in the holes. I have a friend that loaned me his power post hole digger, and that was a big help. 

Putting in a post.

Checking for level. 

 

The next week Jerry and I put stranded wire across the post, and, then, Gloria and I put up the netting along with some straw to keep out the weeds. (Jerry and Suzanne had left.) 

The finished enclosure.

Along with the other two older blueberry plants, I guess that we will get a more than gallon or so of berries. 

It goes to show you that you should never go too cheap when doing a project.  It will cost more in the long run.

Gardening - March

Now is the time to plant those vegetable and flower seeds. I started mine last Saturday. Some of them have started coming up already.
I make my own seed pots out of news paper. Its simple to do. If you are interested you can Google  making paper pots, and I'm sure that you can find some instructions.
I started tomato (5 different varieties), cabbage, broccoli, peppers (5 different varieties) zinnia, geranium, petunia, celosia, and cosmos.
I started many more plants than I need, but will give the extras away to church members, who are also gardeners.  I think that its as easy to start a dozen plants as it is to start 3 or 4.
I start my seeds in the basement under lights. They seem to grow pretty fast. By the end of April, they will be ready to put outside to begin the hardening off process.
I may place some of the tomatoes out earlier using something called Wall-O-Water. These things keep the temperature around the plants up by absorbing heat during the day and giving it off at night. They are good to around 15 degrees.

 

Some of the seeds that have already popped up from the ground.

 

My set up in the basement.

With this, I can start 8 trays of seeds containing 32 pots each. 

The trays that don't have seeds popping up, yet, still have plastic wrap over them to help hold in the moisture. I water the pots every day to keep the moisture levels high. After the seeds are up for a couple of days, I will start fertilizing.

Outside, I have begun to to clean up the yard. We had a lot of tree limbs knocked down in the storm last January. It will take several days or longer. :)

Gardening - January

The new year is now at full speed. Unfortunately, for a gardener, things can be a bit slow. But, gardening never stops.
The weather, currently, is not very agreeable for out door activities. Last week, we had what some are calling snowmagedon. At the Glen, we got about 11 inches. That is the biggest snow since the "blizzard of '78". Fortunately, there was only a little wind with this snow. 
G and I shoveled the drive (~140 feet) twice. The snow blower was on the blitz. But, it has been repaired and is ready for the next snow.
Below are a couple of pictures of our yard. One of them will take some explaining.

The one on the bottom, is what I call the "twin towers". G calls them "the mummies". Either way what they are in reality  two fig trees. We have had them for 4 years. Currently, they  are about 6 feet tall.The last three years I have placed a huge amount of leaves around the trees, covering them completely. This has worked very well with the trees leafing out in the spring after the leaves were removed and producing some figs. The leaves were then spread over the garden area in which the figs reside. This kept the weeds down very nicely.
However, I made the "mistake" of showing G a web site that a fig grower exclaimed how he wrapped them in insulation and clear plastic sheeting and claimed it works great. The limbs of a fig tree are very limber. G wanted to try it. So, we did. The results won't be known until probably late April. Until then, our poor fig trees stand silently waiting to be unwrapped and drink in the sun of 2014. And, I'll have to figure out something else to mulch the bed with.

As I said, gardeners don't go dormant in the winter. So, you ask, "What do gardeners do to keep busy in the frozen months?" Well, they dream. Companies send us catalogs full of seeds and plants to buy to grow and eat and enhance the beauty of our gardens. It continues to amaze me how great a variety of plant life there is that God has created. I have, presently, about 12 different catalogs and will get more; I'm sure. I'll get multiple copies from some of the same companies offering discounts if I buy by Jan.31, Feb. 15, March 31 etc. Timing my purchase is important to get the best deal. Further more, I don't just look at them one time, but a multitude of times. It beats watching commercials on TV. 

I'll make my first order by the end of the month, so I'll have the seeds in plenty of time to do another thing that gardeners do in the cold weather; start their plants. But, that's another posting.

Blueberry Picker

We have several blueberry plants that we have had for years. Every early July my wife, Gloria, begins to pick the berries with a love that only a true aficionado has. She is the Juan Valdez of blueberry picking. She will pick no berry before its time. It has to be at perfect ripeness. I don't complain. The berries are always great.
We have to keep daughter number 3 away from them because she would eat them all at one time.

The berry patch

On a recent trip, G wanted to stop at a pick your own blueberry farm that we came across. So, we spent an hour picking berries. That's about a gallon of berries. They didn't last long.
The patch was about 100 yards long and 75 wide. The entire  patch was covered with bird netting to keep the critters out. There were plenty of berries to pick. I had to just about drag her out.

Blueberries are full of antioxidants, which are good for you, as well as other vitamins. I recommend blueberry cheese cake, blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes. You get the idea.
Some of the berries went in a berry cheese pie that she made for a family reunion. It was fantastic.

Ripe and unripe berries

Juan Valdez (aka Gloria the blueberry picker)

Fall Gardening

Fall has over taken me and all the chores are here. The leaves have mostly fallen, and I have started to collect them. 
However, on Tuesday, a young man, Justin, from church, and I got a pick up load of horse manure from down the road, and he spread it on the garden. 

Justin Spreading Manure

While he was doing that, I ground up some leaves to also spread on the garden.

Grinding Leaves

I was going to till it all in, but both of the tillers were on the fritz.
Today (Wednesday) I adjusted the Mantis and it ran better, but it wasn't tilling deep enough for me.
I took a look at the Parmi and found the problems. It was throwing a belt inside the housing. Because, a part that holds a pulley in place had become lose. I  fixed the pulley and replaced the belt and away I went. I got the whole garden tilled.
Tomorrow or Friday or Saturday (tga time), I will collect a bunch of leaves and spread them over the entire garden.