Things making me happy right now.

There are several things making me very happy right now. The first of which is that our gardenia bush is in full bloom. I always look forward to this time of year because I know we will have lots of beautiful, fragrant blossoms. I apologize that these pictures are not scratch-n-sniff because the smell of a gardenia is amazing!! I've cut several blossoms and put them in various locations throughout the house in an attempt to make the whole house smell good.
The next thing making me happy right now are the calla lilies. I planted the bulbs about a year and a half ago and half expected them to actually bloom. Well, last year I got a few lilies and was quite pleased. Back in February, however, I noticed that there were holes in the ground where the plants were. I was quite confident that the deer or maybe some other mangy rodent had eaten them because if there's one thing I've learned from living here, it's that deer will eat anything and everything!! So I was extremely pleased to find out that not only have my calla lilies lived, but they are thriving. Whew!!

I'm not particularly a big fan of hydrangeas, but this hydrangea bush is so big and produces such large blossoms that I have a hard time not liking them. The blossoms can be seen through the window when you walk in our front door and we have so many that I have no problem cutting them and giving away large bouquets to people. So that makes me happy.

I'm thrilled that we have a couple (and only a couple) peaches growing. About a year ago I bought dwarf apple, peach and pear trees from Big Lots. Seeing as how the trees are from Big Lots, I had low expectations. Of course nothing happened last year, but I had high hopes that someday we would see the fruits of our labors. Literally. There's nothing on the apple and pear trees yet, but the progress with the peaches gives me hope. Deer don't eat peaches, do they?

Ever since I tasted my first fig at Grandma Palmer's house when I was about 23 years old, I've thought that Fig Newtons were a huge disservice to the fig! They really are tasty. About two years ago, I bought a fig tree from a local guy who sells fig trees as a hobby. The first year we had it, it produced maybe a handful of figs. Last year, we got ZERO!! I was devastated. But this year, the fig gods have smiled upon us and we have several tiny figs growing and I can't wait to eat them!! Deer don't eat figs, do they??

A lady I have become friends with through church is a master gardener. She has given us several plants and of all the plants we have planted in our yard, the ones she gives us seem to do very well and require minimal care. She recently gave us several more plants (including some Siberian Iris=wowza!!). Among the plants she gave me was a "Hardy Orchid". I have orchids growing in my back yard!! Can you believe it?!?! I don't need to take them inside during the winter or do anything extraordinary to keep them alive. So pleased am I.

Finally....and this is for the grandparents...how can I blog about things that are making me happy without posting a few pictures of this guy?!?! He makes me happy because he has a duck on his head....

and a monkey on his bum. Life is good.

The Fruits of our Labors

It seems like it's been a long journey, but we finally harvested some cucumbers. They taste good, but we figure they cost us about $25 each at this point.

About two weeks ago, we noticed that our tomato plants and beans had suddenly been given an unwelcome 'haircut' of sorts. When Andy noticed hoof prints in the dirt, we identified the culprits as deer! It's hard for me to comprehend that we live about 15 minutes

from the beach, but we can have deer in our backyard. To make things even more curious, I spotted a small crab on our back patio a couple days ago!! A CRAB!!

We seem to have put a stop to the midnight salad bar free for all by setting up some orange mesh construction fencing around the door to our garden and along the shorter sides of the fence.

The good news is that although our butternut squash seem to be taking over the entire garden, we are starting to see several squash growing. We had to build a trellis in order to keep all the vines from choking out our tomatoes and other plants. We also have a few very small watermelon starting to grow.

One thing's for sure, we will be better gardeners next year. We will know to start earlier and to start seedlings at different times so that we don't get a barrage of any one type of vegetable all at once.

I'm officially putting mosquitoes on notice

To all the mosquitoes out there, I'm officially putting you on notice. I came across an article several months ago that caught my attention. I was glad to see that Rocket Scientists are finally making a positive contribution to society. The article, "Rocket Scientists Shoot Down Mosquitoes With Lasers," states that, "In a lab in this Seattle suburb, researchers in long white coats recently stood watching a small glass box of bugs. Every few seconds, a contraption 100 feet away shot a beam that hit the buzzing mosquitoes, one by one, with a spot of red light." That pleases me to no end and I applaud their efforts.

You may be wondering why I glory in the destruction of mosquitoes or you may be thinking that mosquitoes serve a purpose of some sort, like feeding birds. But I, for one, have had it!!! Either the birds are not doing their job or we have a serious surplus of mosquitoes out here. On multiple occasions I have ventured outside for 5 or 10 minutes only to find that I have anywhere from 5 to 10 mosquito bites. These bites will often swell up to be the size of nickles and will itch for about a week. To date, I have not found an ointment, cream or remedy that seems to rid me of the incessant itching!! I hasten to add that Andy is practically immune to mosquitoes. They just don't like him...I'm so jealous!! I'm seriously considering creating a living will for the sole purpose of leaving my net worth (as paltry as it may be) to those Rocket Scientists in Bellevue.

The final straw was last Friday. After work, I decided to go outside and get a jump start on weeding the last portion of our garden so we could get our watermelons planted. I knew I would be out there for a while so I  wore long pants and sprayed Cutter all over my exposed face, neck and arms. After about 45 minutes of weeding, I noticed that my butt started to itch.  I thought maybe the cedar mulch we had put down was causing an allergic reaction of some sort (I am mildly allergic to red cedar). Then I noticed a few mosquitoes buzzing around, but not landing on, my arms. "Oh heck no!" I thought. I went inside only to discover that, sure enough, I had 6 huge mosquito bites ON MY TUSH!!!! Those nasty creatures bit me through TWO layers of clothes!!! Is there a worse place to have a mosquito bite?!?!?! Maybe up your nose, but that's highly unlikely....I hope. The bites swelled up to the size of quarters--or larger! It was like I suddenly had cellulite. The only thing I'm grateful for is that the bites have not lasted as long as they normally do. After a couple days of itching, I am now itch free.

So this is why I am putting mosquitoes on notice and why I laud the efforts of any scientist who dedicates their life to the highest of causes--killing mosquitoes with lasers. They deserve nothing less. 

Feeling Afflicted and Tormented

I've been feeling afflicted and tormented by weeds lately. Over the course of a couple months, we have been trying to get our garden and various other areas in our yard cleaned up and ready to plant seeds. It's a lot of hard work, and I wish I could say that we're almost done, but something tells me that planting a garden is only the beginning of pulling even more weeds.

Here's an example of how pervasive the weeds out here are. We have an electrical outlet near our garden (which doesn't seem to work) and with the way the weeds have taken over, it looked like it could be its own little biosphere up in there. When we were in NY, Andy's friend's friends mentioned that they had been invited to so-and-so's house for a "Garden Party". Meaning that they were going to plant a few window boxes etc. on someone's roof or balcony. I had to laugh. If gardening is that much of a novelty, I should just invite all my city-slicker friends to come out for a fun and exciting weekend of pulling weeds and then laugh when they discover the turmoil of weeds that just grow right back or having sore hamstrings from bending over for hours at a time. 

Anyway...here's a patch of weeds just outside our back porch before I attacked it:

Here's how our garden looked about a month or so ago. Some of the weeds were taller than me. It took 

several weeks of work to get it in better shape. I fully realize that thorns...briars...noxious weeds etc. were all placed on earth to afflict and torment man, but why must weeds be so perfect in fulfilling their divine purpose?? It would be nice for weeds to occasionally decide to NOT grow in garden beds. I'm just saying. 

Here's what things are looking like now. Here's the patch (pictured above) now. I planted come Calla Lillies and I'm a little unsure if they will survive through the winter, but at least they look good now. 

A lady I visit teach (and who happens to be a Master Gardner) gave me a bunch of cuttings of iris and other plants, so I fixed up the area outside our bedroom window. I'm hoping that by next year they will have grown in a bit more and I will be able to have a variety of fresh-cut flowers in some of the pots I make in ceramics class.

Our garden, which has been a nightmare of sorts is finally starting to look like it has potential. We have been more than a little discouraged with how well the weeds seem to grow out there, but hopefully that just means that our vegetables will have no choice but to thrive. After spending several weekends weeding and turning the soil, this is what it looked like a couple weeks ago:

This is what it looks like now that we've planted a few seedlings, lain down a weed-growth inhibitor and have put mulch around the walkway. We already have rosemary growing and have planted our beans, tomatoes, carrots and green onions. I hope those things grow well next to eachother. If not, we're toast!!

I'm also hoping that our dwarf fruit trees start making some serious headway. They have leaves, but I wonder when we'll actually start seeing some apples, peaches and pears. The fig tree we planted last year seems to be doing well. No figs yet, but I'm looking forward to them already. 

I now understand why some people have full-time gardners. It's a lot of work!!