Tuesday 28 July 2020

July 28, 2020

Not much happening around here except for the everyday things which make me contented, the necessary jobs involved in meal making, keeping house, taking care of animals, and apart from a pandemic, a really great summer with lots of heat and almost the right amount of rain.

I laid out two soaker hoses in my vegetable garden, which, once again, is one of the best gardens I've had in years. It then rained overnight which gives much better results than any hose watering.  Maybe the success of this garden is about starting a lot of my plants from seed indoors, as well as having fresh seeds (ordered online during the thick of the pandemic). Or it could be that most of my completely full compost container got worked into the soil and it is a lovely, hot, humid summer.

I always love to look at the intricacies of plants. I don't have a fancy camera (in fact, it's just my phone) and I am finding that the new blogger does not provide crisp, vibrant images anymore. My header photo, for example is much brighter than you see here. Does anyone else find that to be the case?
Regardless, my peas are climbing and have little pods and beautiful white flowers with delicate curly-cue vines.


My three pumpkin plants (yes, I am aware that my garden is too small to house three pumpkin plants plus everything else, but all three germinated. What could I do??) are taking over the world and as the vines reach the edge of the garden, I redirect and let them continue to wind their way through onions, carrots, and beans.


The blossoms are so pretty. (Notice the squash beetle? Bastards.)


I always grow leaf lettuce, rather than head lettuce. This is almost too pretty to eat. 


I grew dill with the intention of making dill pickles, but we all know the story of my cucumbers, so now I just pull a bit off and squish it in my fingers to smell it. Heavenly!

Here's another colourful, although likely not edible plant. I did not plant flowers in my urns, as I was too late and all the good stuff had been scooped up by isolated, bored people. This coleus was a great alternative, grown by an independent green house owner.



Please imagine it to be more vivid than the photo is showing. It really is fabulous.

Blooming right now is my Russian sage, a perennial that is both big and little at the same time. The plants themselves take up quite a bit of space, but the flowers are small and understated, providing a "wash of purple" from a distance. I apologize for the out of focus one in the foreground. (No reading glasses at the time).


My header photo shows Russian Sage with Black Eyed Susan - a nice colour contrast.


Lastly, as anyone with "livestock" can tell you, sometimes something gets sick and dies. One of my brown hens was looking sick (purple-ish comb, listless, standing apart from others) and I likely isolated her too late, but I put her in a separate cage, gave her antibiotics in her water (and also put them in the water of the rest of the little flock), and a variety of food that she might like, but it was not to be. Now this morning, I saw another one had a floppy, although still red, comb and was starting to take that hunched - over stance that chicken owners are familiar with, so I managed to grab her and put her in the now disinfected cage with fresh antibiotic water and placed her in the shade, well away from the chicken coop. 



We shall see. I am preparing myself to lose a few more. It happens.

36 comments:

  1. I love seeing all your pretty flowers. Sorry about your chicken. Hope the others stay well. Have a great week.
    xoxo
    Kris

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  2. Your gardens/plants look fantastic. It has been a good summer for plants here, too. I am sorry about your chickens and hope it doesn't sweep through all of them. xo Diana

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    1. Fingers crossed. And yes, definitely a good summer for plants.

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  3. I love that Coleus - I had completely forgotten them - they seem to have gone out of fashion and yet a would have thought a lovely container plant. Sorry about the hen.

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    1. The greenhouse at which I bought these had a whole bunch of different coleus. They were all big and some even quite unusual. The fellow who owns the greenhouse always has something different.

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  4. Your Coleus are gorgeous! I'm so sorry about your chickens. I hope you don't lose any more. I hate to see any animal hurting or sick. Enjoy your day, hugs, Edna B.

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    1. Yes, I hope I've isolated this one quickly enough.

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  5. Did you plant beets? Borscht needs dill. Also, I love new potatoes, boiled with salt and dill. Yum-MEE!

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    1. I DID plant beets! I would definitely use the dill on new potatoes. Soon it will be time for me to scratch around at the base of my potato plants for little new potatoes.

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  6. It is amazing what good photos our phones can take. I bet the first photographers with those bulky instruments would have thought this was impossible.

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    1. It is quite remarkable. Now that I'm on a different computer looking at my blog and responding to comments, I see the colour isn't too bad. Must be my laptop!

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  7. Sorry you lost your hen...You are the second blogger I read who had this happen. But your garden looks wonderful! I love dill! We make a kind of Hungarian summer squash dish where it is grated and cooked down and then seasoned with dill and sour cream. I wonder whether it could work with pumpkin?
    And I love coleus, there are so many kinds. And they can be propagated in a cup of water so easily.

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    1. Dill and sour cream!! Imagine on baked potatoes, too. I have never propogated a plant that way, but I remember my mother starting new little spider plants that way.

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  8. Pumpkins taking over the garden must be a great scene. Your garden is marvelous! I'd like beets from your plot.

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    1. I'm looking forward to the beets. It's the first time in quite a few years that I've been successful with them.

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  9. Garden looking great. The coleus is something I forget about but it can look fabulous. Sorry to hear about the hens (maybe they have a "fowl" form of Covid).

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    1. Chickens can get all kinds of respiratory diseases. Once they get sick, it's pretty rare to have them recover.

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  10. The garden looks great. I think the extra time we have put into our gardens this year has probably helped. I have some tubs with make do plants in this year but like yours they look good. Sorry about your hen. I hope the rest will be ok.

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    1. Thanks. I even put a hosta (which I unceremoniously chopped from a bunch somewhere else) and some creeping jenny, which was growing in the ground from where I dumped a pot at the end of the season one year, into a planter and it doesn't look too bad now!

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  11. There's something magical about a pea vine. It must be because it just does it's own thing and is so cute about it.

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  12. My husband was quite pragmatic. He would say upon losing a critter “if you have livestock you will have dead stock. “

    I suppose he is accurate but I am very sorry you lost a hen. Hoping no more will pass.

    Funny I did the same thing this year with the coleus even the same variety . And photo issues be darned they are lovely!

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    1. Isn't that the truth about livestock and deadstock. Good thing I didn't name any of these!

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  13. I picked our first shell peas today! And there are still a gazillion out there. A good pea year! Would coleus do well in part shade? I used to have several as house plants and then kind of forgot about them. They say chickens are the hardest critter to diagnose when something goes wrong with them. Fingers crossed you can pull this one through. I put dill weed in A LOT of foods. Scrambled eggs, soups, cottage cheese, cucumber salad, potato salad, etc. Love it.

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    1. Absolutely, coleus does very well in part shade. My "front" porch, where those two urns are in the picture, doesn't get sun much at all and the coleus thrives there. Dill in scrambled eggs? I shall have to try it! Potato salad for sure.

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  14. Your garden is fabulous. I fear mine is largely dead due to neglect and being away from it for so long. So I'm thrilled to live in your glory here!

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    1. Yes, keep in mind, Jeanie, that I've been home this whole time, so I've been able to go out there and fuss and weed and water. It makes a difference. Your time at the lake is well spent.

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  15. Poor chicken lady. You've made her comfortable.
    Your garden looks fabulous. Lovely. Edible.

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    1. Thank you Joanne. It is becoming more edible as the weeks roll on.

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  16. Your garden looks wonderful. Mine is suffering terribly from the heat and humidity.. I'm sorry about your chicken and I hope this one gets better quickly.

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  17. Try growing your pumpkins UP - like on a bean fence. We built one out of a collection of old bike wheels lashed together. That worked just fine and got the pumpkins off the ground as well so no 'soggy' spots on the skins.

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  18. Your garden looks lush and lovely. I'm a dill person too, and garlic and rosemary, pretty much every herb that smells good!

    Sorry about your chicken. Thankfully you know what to look for, and hopefully it isolation from the others will ensure no others get sick.

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  19. Your garden looks amazing. Sorry to hear about the chickens. I certainly know all about that hunched miserable pose which lets us know that something is wrong and it is only occasionally that we can them right again.

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  20. Jenn so to hear that your feathered ladies are having struggles. I hope that all is fixed with the quick treatment. Your garden does look productive. ... Mary-Lou =^[..]^=

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  21. Hi Jenn :) Your garden looks like it's doing so well...I'm envious! I have been reading about the benefits of drip irrigation. I have a few squash flowers too, but they are all males, where are my little squash ladies??? I'm looking out for them! :) Oh I'm so sorry about your chickens...how sad for you. xx

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