Since my DH retired it seems we are getting our garden planted later and later. We used to have dates by which things got done but it seems we are on 'Island Time' now, and things have changed around us too!! NASCAR changing the date of the Monster Mile race by moving it back 2 weeks is a real pain. We used to shoot for the end of May to be all planted and flowered in our beds. Then Sons Birthday, and mine 3 weeks later and the ensuing celebrations, it's all messed up. Can't put stuff in too early or it might frost......sometimes it seems the universe is scheming against our plans!!!! I guess we just have to do less partying and hosting and get down to the really important stuff......or IS that the important stuff???? :~) Nan in DE
Not sure but it sometimes seems the Nascar trials are on my little Chew Avenue. Can't be though as these folks talk on their cell phones and play heavy bass music sometimes at 3 AM.
You spent too much time trying to find that Richie, richie,richie bird and your garden got neglected. ;-). Seriously, congratulations on getting it all planted. I retired many years ago and it seems the planting has finished later every year since then. We won't even get some things planted this year because our season isn't long enough to make it worthwhile ;-(.
Oh Ross that isn't what I wanted to hear!! Seriously, sorry you missed a garden this year. Better luck in 2011!!
Billy, why doncha cross the bridge and head south on rt 13 for Dover and see one of the NASCAR races in person? 2 x a year, May and the end of Sept they go fast and turn left!! There is a lot more to it than cars going around in circles. And Delaware is tax free shopping too. Nanzi
Oh, I ain't dissin' NASCAR. It just don't spin my wheels,
but they aren't alone. We got two baseball teams, two basketball teams, two college football teams, and a hockey team that I can't get worked up over either. My gesture towards the irrelevant ends with football (two teams: 49ers & Raiders). The 9ers are more fun to watch (but not much since Eddie DiBartolo left), but the crowd is white on white. The Raiders are less interesting to watch, but their fans are the best. For the most part, they give me a reason to set myself down, on my one day off during the season, and do nothing, while watching others do serious damage to their own bodies.
A couple of years back, I couldn't even get into my garden until mid-May, because of all the April rain. That year and the subsequent year, I learned about leaving lids on germination trays when you put them outside to harden off (Fried! and I had to restart a couple of times). This year, because of good weather, I had peas in the ground by mid-March, and tomatoes by mid-April (an all time best for me, and only possible because I wrapped the beds with clear plastic to heat the soil).
"Lasagna gardening"/"sheet mulching" (no dig), in conjunction with drip irrigation, is the easiest way to garden, and the earthworms have never been so large. We just had our first tomato, Stupice (60 days), and 2 more are coloring up. The Marmande (67 days), and both the Glaciers (65 days) have green fruit.
The last 6 weeks have seen our garden explode (potatoes from 5" are up to nearly 5', where Mr. Coon hasn't trampled them, tomatoes from 6" -
12" now 3' - 4.5', summer squash from 6" in diameter to 4' now, and we get 4 salads a week from the lettuce, with a veritable tsunami of lettuce almost ready to plant). Melons not doing much (no plastic), peppers are putting along, and setting fruit but only 12" tall.
We had an unusually rainy May, and a couple of days of rain in June, most unusual for here. Our first 90°F day was yesterday, and today promises to be the same, but then it will cool off some.
Seems the gardening never ends One of our trellises is scheduled to be switched over from peas to climbing squash around the 1st of July, but the squash (Zucca) is setting fruit so I planted it as carefully as I could under the trellis. The peas are hitting on all 8 cylinders at present. Think I found the Scotch Bonnet peppers in a misplaced six-pack (3 in one cell). I re-potted and I'm leaving them under the grow-light on a 12 hr. cycle day/night, hoping to speed them up.
Glad you got your garden in. I doubt that you did any harm, except delay your gratification of that first tomato. From looking at the way our garden is performing, I think I could have waited another month, because with the good weather, the plants are movin' on up. In another 60 days, you'll have the best veggies at your NASCAR tailgate party.
Thanks for the correction. Well at least you know the way should you decide to go to the races. Oddly enough we do not go to the races anymore. We're both pushing at
70 yrs, and it's just too damn much trouble to get there 3 hrs early to get parking anywhere near the stadium, and Dover is so stinkin' bad at getting you out of their parking areas that it takes almost 3 hrs to get home, just 14 miles away. And the prices constantly going up was another, but not the deciding factor. We take the tv out next to the pool and float and watch. Getting DH a new tv for fathers day, the old 20 incher is getting too heavy to carry out and up and down steps to poolside. The new one should be a cinch.
Take care, and happy gardening. I was from S Jersey when I graduated HS(Woodstown) and lived in Piscataway, Plainfield, then Lakewood for
22 years til we moved to west of Dover 19 yrs ago. Nan
Ross, I've finally decided it must be the common yellowthroat that stays in the trees. The area behind us is swampy and that is one of it's habitats. All the others mentioned feed at our feeders, and I pretty well know their calls. Haven't heard the Richie bird in a couple of days, maybe he was just passin' thru. We are on a migratory path, it's so neat to see your whole lawn & woods covered in robins, flippin' over leaves in the woods. It looks like the woods are alive!!. Jack Russell terrorista loves to go give 'em hell every now and then, just 'cause. Nan
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