Frau Zinnie

Finally! Tomatoes!

I am FINALLY getting some tomatoes to ripen from the garden. This has been the longest I've ever waited for a tomato harvest. I'm pretty sure these are the determinate New Yorker tomatoes that I grew from seed... the only variety that pulled through for me despite vole and tomato horn worm attacks!

I've had one- they taste so good! I forgot that's why I grow them; after this year, I was ready to give up completely!

There are four of these cute little butterfly moths on the purple butterfly bush today. Wonder what they are called?

Musical Plants

I'm pretty guilty of moving my plants multiple times in the garden before I finally find a spot that I'm happy with. I learned the hard way that baptista do not transplant well (after digging out a large one that I originally planted in front of an Endless Summer hydrangea, it turned black and died).

"Wolf Eyes" in its new spot.

After some lower dying branches were trimmed.

Here's a better view of the leaf damage.

I have higher hopes for my Wolf Eyes Kousa Dogwood. I bought it last year after reading about it in Fine Gardening magazine.

This year it didn't have much new growth, and I found vole holes nearby. Yesterday I decided to move it to a shadier spot (after reading a bit more online that they prefer more shade than sun) and hopefully away from the voles. It didn't appear to have as many roots as a young tree should have and some of the leaves were brown, but I'm hoping it survives the transplant. I'd hate to lose it. (Hopefully the leaves are brown from the heat and the sun exposure, not the vole damage.)

Next on the musical plants list? The grape vine and the bee balm. Oh and definitely some irises.

Halfway through August ...

Dear Nature,
This little plot of land has dealt with enough trouble this year.
Moles, voles and Japanese beetles,
And now three tomato hornworms on one of my only remaining tomato plants.
Stop the shit!
Thank you,
Jen

Migration season has begun, still no ripe tomatoes but plenty of voles

What a crazy last couple of weeks. First, we had an issue with our MAC, where we thought we might have lost all of our files (including all my images- yikes!) since I've been really bad about backing things up. We were offline for a couple of days, but Rob figured out not only how to retrieve the files, but get our computer back up and running again. Whew! (And now there are two backups of everything at the moment!)

First eggplant of the season.

In the meantime, we've been battling voles outside. After researching a ton, the only solution I could come to was to trap them. (The repellents have so far not had any effect on getting them out of our yard.) Now it makes sense what happened to all the tomato plants in the ground: their roots were being nibbled from underneath. My little dogwood tree and one of the new blueberry bushes is starting to look a little off as well, but I'm hoping I can save them.

I've harvested my first eggplant- a nice Rosita - and a couple of cucumbers and green beans. Oh, and the onions! This was my first year growing them from seed and they came out so nice! I'm in the process of drying them now. The garlic should be officially cured by Aug. 17- huzzah! There is also plenty of basil for the rabbits, which keeps them happy. So there are little triumphs in the garden this year, but it seems a lot harder than usual to get a decent crop.

Onions grown from seed!

Basil, parsley, carrots and their tops and dandelion (even red clover) is
what keeps the rabbits happy around here!

I've cut back on filling the birdfeeders since the voles got out of hand, but on Sunday five grackles made a pit stop at the feeder. I still had some nuts and suet, so I went out and refilled them. HOLY GRACKLES! I'm not sure why I actually like these birds, since they swarm and chase other songbirds away, but I guess someone has to help them out, right? There's been at least 20-30 birds at the feeders since, including right now where I can hear their squawks occasionally reprimanded by a bluejay. This morning also brought a pair of red-wing blackbirds to the yard (perhaps the ones I spied earlier in the spring headed north?), which confirms my suspicions of summer actually ending with the waning daylight and cooler morning temperatures. (Even though we've had some wicked storms- including one that had measured wind gusts of 80-100 mph last week!)

I guess this season is a learning period, helping me to learn all about the other vegetables I could grow besides tomatoes. I'm even beginning to entertain the idea of corn for next year... hmmm...

And of course, some lovely photos of flowers from the last couple of weeks from the garden...