Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A Garden Update

I'm suppose to be studying for my LSW exam.  I thought I'd slack and post some pics.
I don't know what's up with the strawberries but so far they're not doing so great.

 
The peas have been doing awesome.  But they're competing for space with the asparagus.  I didn't realize how tall the asparagus got or how much space the peas need.  We're going to have to move the trellis to the strawberry box next season.
 
How cool are the asparagus!  I'm so glad I finally planted some.

 
Do you remember the great seed experiment?  Probably not, that's okay.  But here are some random lettuce that popped up.  Love when the garden does it's thing w/o me.
 
Carrots in pots.  I have to.  My soil is too dense and rocky, the carrots just grow into these weird mangled looking things that no one wants to eat.
 
I know, I need to weed.  It's been raining a lot, so whatever.  But for my first attempt at onions and shallots, they look pretty good.  I love that I caught the Peanut in the back chasing after Big Head Pete.
 
Potatoes in the ground.
 
I had a ton of spaghetti squash pop up.  I gave most of them away.  I was going to give this one away, but by the time we came home for our honeymoon, it was too big.  So I moved it away from the tomatoes and over to the corner.  Turns out there were four or five of them, not one.  It looks very sad now, but it seems to be making a slow but steady come back.  We'll see.
 
Summer squash and zucchini are doing great.
 
Corn!  Hopefully this year will be more successful than last.  If it's not, then I officially give up on growing it.
 
I have tons of tomatoes.  But unlike last year when I wound up with 5000 cherry tomatoes, I planted a ton of heirloom tomatoes.  I do have a lot of tomato plants that popped up on their own.  I'm guessing either cherry or yellow bell...I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 
This is a pepper.  I don't know what kind, but a pepper.  The eggplants all died.  And I forgot to take a pic of the only surviving cauliflower.
 
Cucumbers, both pickling and regular.  More on that large wood trellis later.
 
The cantaloupe is looking kinda sad.  It did last year too.  I think I need new seeds.

 
The chive flowers have all dried out.  I keep forgetting to get them and make chive vinegar before it happens.

 
Potatoes in pots.  We'll see which do better.
 
We are guessing this is a spaghetti squash, but I don't really know...and no, it's not growing anywhere near the garden.

 
Now that the garden is bigger, I didn't plant as much stuff because I'm attempting to space the plants out properly instead of just cramming stuff in.  I'm curious to see if they produce more.  So far it's just been nice to be able to walk around the garden w/o worrying about stepping on stuff!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Great Baby Bird Rescue!

The day after we came back from the Family Honeymoon, we found three baby birds on the ground next to our neighbor's tree.  After we all freaked out a bit about what to do, we (now, when I say we, I actually mean the Hubby under my "supervision") put them in a t-shirt lined box.  I did some googling and found out that if we tried to take care of them ourselves, they'd only have a 5% chance of survival.  I did not like those odds.  So we hatched a plan to get them back in the tree.

Their original nest was destroyed, so we took an old nest that we found on a bush we just trimmed.  It was too small, so we placed it in this Easter basket, broke it up a bit so they'd all fit, then wire tied it to the tree.  This pic is from a few days later.  It's amazing how they went from small and scrawny to almost full sized so quickly.



Here's a pic I caught of them being fed.  We were worried they're parents wouldn't come back.  Apparently it's a myth that they won't come back to their babies if humans touch them. Birds don't have a great sense of smell, so don't be scared to don some gloves in put them in their nest if need be.



Maybe three days later, we noticed only two birds in the nest.



This one was on the ground now, bigger and healthier looking and not interested in being picked up.  I read that birds will spend 7-10 days on the ground when its learning to fly.
 
Here's a video from the cell phone of the bird trying to fly.


It took about two days, but eventually he took off.  One of his siblings flew away too; we never even saw him on the ground.  Unfortunately, the third one that the Hubby was calling the Runt, didn't make it.  We're going to bury him tomorrow.  I know I'm crazy.  What an adventure. 

We also have love birds in my pear tree who've been sitting on a nest.  I hope all their babies manage to stay put.  Lesson to be learned...always check the ground before you mow and look where you're walking.