Word of the Day

Cusstomer: A patron that isn't exactly a saint.

The weather has been great for my garden. Hot and humid. Just the right amount of rain and sun. Before I left for Rochester, I carefully staked and tied up my tomato plants. Five days later, I was shocked to see how much they'd grown. I actually picked my first three tomatoes. The plants had spread out and grown eight inches higher. I had to tie them again. On top of that, my zucchini are busy blossoming. I even picked enough of the male blossoms for breakfast. Fried squash blossoms. Yummy! My first picking of lettuce which I took this morning will provide enough salad greens for a couple of meals. The cucumbers had to be rebuked because they were climbing on the zucchini plants and the beans instead of the fence like they should be. I corrected them. Bad cukes, bad.

I noticed that my few remaining wild raspberry bushes, have an abundance of berries that look like they are just starting to turn pink. I may not have as many as I have had in years past but I still plan to make jam. The driveway excavators mowed down many of my wild raspberry bushes that line our driveway. Don't worry, they'll grow back. These are wild raspberry bushes. They love growing right next to gravel driveways. I'll make up for the dirth of raspberries this summer by picking more blackberries. Nothing seems to discourage wild blackberries. Not even the deer. I wish I could say the same for my new tame raspberry bushes. I'm going to have to do something to keep the deer away from them while we're not here during the winter and early spring after the snow melts. Deer seem to just love tame raspberries.

I've been trying my hand at adding new perennials to my flower borders. HTP and I spent a great deal of time this spring removing weeds from the flower beds. We do live in the wilds out here and green is the norm. My Grandmother's definition of a weed was anything green that's growing where it's not supposed to be growing. She was a master gardener. So, HTP and I removed anything that wandered in from the woods over the winter and quickly covered the beds with a thick layer of bark mulch to discourage future developments from that direction. Stupid chipmunks keep coming and burying acorns. Anyway, I also planted all kinds of additional perennials. My hope is that if I get enough green stuff planted, weeds will become discouraged. In the meantime, I go out on a daily basis with a full spray bottle of Round-up. I don't want blackberry bushes growing in my flowerbed.

Murphyism of the Day

Feinberg's Principle

Memory serves its own master.