I Used My Rain Barrel Today

I used my rain barrel today. It was quite comical. There I was pulling weeds from my back garden when I glanced over at the barrel and noticed about an inch of water inside. So, I slid it close to the squash and then dumped the water out near the squash. Yes, in this heat and through my neglect it is still alive (barely) and so is the cucumber.

One day I promise I will actually find some time to fix that rain barrel so that it can collect more rain if it ever rains. Between kids and work and laziness there after I’m too pooped to go out in the garden and it’s so hot outside and the mosquitoes are evil…. Yes, I know, “Excuses! Excuses!”

My accomplishments in the garden are as rare as the rain here, but like the rain when I’m out there I’m pouring.

The Cucumber Loves These Recent Rains

Almost everyday this week it has rained. I don’t mind. It cools down the heat and reduces the humidity and the sound of the rain is soft and drizzly. It is wonderful to listen to, especially in the morning when all the bugs and birds are singing in the rain. I swear I’m hearing ducks, but I don’t see them anywhere out my window. Maybe I’m confusing them with the odd croaks of frogs. 

On another note, during the few trips I’ve ventured outside in the rain to take the kitchen scraps out to the compost bin I have noticed how fast the cucumber plant is growing. It has tripled in size. It looks like we will have another year of cucumber salads and snacks. Luckily,  I love cucumber. I just wish some of the other vegetables I worked hard to plant would grow too. 

The unidentified squash I accidentally grew is also growing and very quickly thanks to the rain. Half of it dried up last month because of the intense heat so I was happy it recovered so well and quickly in the rain. At one time it grew so quickly and heavy one of the thick stems broke and this squash goo oozed out of the stem. I’m not sure if this happened during the heat or the previous scattered rains or this weeks rains, but I’m sure the weather here is really frustrating the plants. It is definitely frustrating me. 

I noticed the broken stem while trying to catch what appeared to be a stinkbug, a beautiful red orange bug with black spots and black legs. That is the second one I’ve killed recently. The other stinkbug was crawling within the mint.

The mint is growing very well too, but not just because of the rain. It just seems to be a very invasive plant. I don’t mind that either. In my miserable looking garden I will take any green I can get. The rain is helping out. For a week or so the heat was burning all my plants to a crisp, including the ones in the front even if I watered them. I almost lost my fig. All the leaves browned and withered and when I thought it was completely lost the rain came to the rescue and leaves grew back strong and green. 

So, for now this miserable gardener is quite cheerful for the abundance of rain (no hurricanes please) and the resilience of my wonderful, often neglected, plants.

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Cilantro Seeds, Rain, Rain…

I decided my two cilantro plants have given all they can give in this weather. They bloomed. The blooms died and then little balls began to form. I figured out these tiny green balls were the seeds. I left them out to dry for a few weeks and then a few days ago I cut down the dried up plant and collected all the stems with dried up seeds. I hand picked them all off and right now they are sitting in a plastic container.

I’ve never grown cilantro from seed. Do I plant them straight into the ground? What should the weather or season be like for best results? I guess I will have to do a little reading and a lot of experimenting to find out.

I am trying to do all of the same things with my parsley too, but it has not dried up and stopped giving completely. Next to it the recent rains have made the basil strong and it’s tiny leaves are growing large.

Many of my plants in the front yard are doing very well. In the back only the mint, the squash (I’m not sure which type yet) and the cucumber are growing strong. The recent rains have helped a lot. I’m not sure if I should just till up the rest and start all over. Maybe I should just begin throwing seeds out there again and see what takes and what doesn’t.

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I Got a Rain Barrel

This week’s Tuesday CSA pick up came with a rain barrel. There it was with a piece of paper, with my last name on it, taped to it. Had I not glanced to some of the plants to my left I would have missed it. It isn’t 55 gallons, 30 instead, but I’ll take what I can get for the price, $20. Now all I need to do is fix it so that I can attach a hose. I’ll have to ask my husband and neighbor to help. I will also be receiving another one soon.  Now all I need is some more rain!

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Caterpillar Hunt

Giant Caterpillar

Yesterday, taking advantage of the fresh breeze, the darker rain clouds and the fact that my husband could watch the baby I took a step outside to work in my front garden. As I pulled out weeds I reached towards a dead leaf on my bolted lettuce plants and pulled my hand away as quickly as I realized it wasn’t a leaf at all but a huge fuzzy caterpillar. Not long after I found a pretty green and white caterpillar on my parsley. Then I found the tiniest caterpillar I have ever seen on another lettuce plant. I collected them all and put them in a jar. I hated to kill them knowing they would turn into butterflies, but I hated to let them loose knowing they were already devouring my plants. If only my plants were stronger. I left them in the glass over night, the temperatures stayed cool especially in the shade thanks to yesterday’s heavy rains. I checked in on them this morning. They ate half the leaves I left in the jar for them and the giant caterpillar left huge droppings in the jar. The same dropping I found near the lettuce leaf the day before. It’s cruel to leave them in the jar, but I really don’t want to kill future butterflies. I also want my plants to survive. This is something I will have to think about, but I don’t have long to do so.

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They Just Keep Coming In

The cucumbers keep coming in. Watching them grow from tiny little nubs on the plant into large cucumbers from one week to the next is amazing. We’ve had them in salads, on sandwiches, as a side dish with lemon and salt…  I have also given some away to my mom and plan to give more away as they come in.

The cantelop is thriving too, but the best part is in our neighbors yard. It crawled into his yard between both of our fences. We joke about it, but still no fruit to fight over. We really wouldn’t fight. As much as he has done for us he can have several. Wouldn’t it be nice if several grew?

The watermelon is still struggling, but it does look stronger now and with all the recent and wonderful rain, it is bound to take off any day now.

My front garden looks great. I took a week to clear weeds a few weeks back and now the roses on all three rose bushes are blooming. I have so many I can take a few and place them in our new flower press. My avacado trees are filled with green leaves once again. Previously all the leaves had browned and wilted down or fallen off. New leaves have brought color back to my tiny trees. My magnolia still does not have any new leaves but it too is recoverying well. The leaves that managed to survive the drought are growing larger and when I look closely I can see new leaves coming in and out of the stems.

All the plants look great and the bugs…. what a site! I have seen an enormous amount of lizards, birds, snails, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs, and I have even seen several humminbirds. The humminbirds of course never stay long enough for photographs. I’ll snap a picture of one one of these days. I just need to plant more hibiscus in my yard to bring them in.

Unfortuantly, the water has also brought in a few of those large flying roaches. I’m sure they have a positive natural impact on the environment somehow, but they are the only bugs I can’t stand to see or hear. Have you ever heard a roaches pitter patter? It brings chills up my spine every time.

Today is a beautiful sunny day with a little bit of humidity. Our neighbor mowed our lawn yesterday, so it looks even better. As always I haven’t done much to the gardens, other than an occasional watering if allowed, weeding (if time allows) and composting. I just let nature take its course and wow, what a turn around. Next year we will be prepared with rain barrels so the plants wont be as neglected. 

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Sometimes When You Give Up Something Inspires You Again

A few days ago I went out in the backyard to dump my kitchen scraps in the compost bin. I gave a glance at our abandoned garden with the overgrown weeds and I thought, I should take a look if any other cucumbers were growing. To my surprise I noticed one hanging down in the middle. I was so excited. Then suddenly I noticed another one growing on the ground. I looked through some more leaves and found a third.

These were not little cucumbers either. They were huge, as you can see in the picture above. I ran back inside for my camera and called to my husband who was home and not at work this time and I said to him “follow me”. I had to say it once or twice for him to do it, but he finally did. When I arrived at the garden pile-up door (we still don’t have a gate, but instead a chair, some wire, a wooden board and a broom stick all in a mangle to keep our dog out) I moved the wooden board to the side and told him to come look.

I showed him what I found and he was shocked. Then we were shocked to find a fourth one. He told me right away to harvest them and I did. He grabbed one and said we would give it to our neighbor. I took pictures of course. He went back inside, then I went back inside and I waited for him to come back.

He said he told the neighbor about it being a tradition to share a 1/4 of the harvest with the neighborhood. He said our neighbor was surprised that we had 3 others as huge as the one handed to him. I smiled. It felt good to know that we got something out of our partial hard work and time.

Like my husband said today, “If I didn’t have to work 50 or more hours a week, I would love to be in the garden”. I believe it. I would have to add to that, “also if it wasn’t so hot”.

In the mean time we will just have to eat our cucumbers. We cut up the first one and ate half in a Cesar salad and the other half in just a regular green salad the next day. The cucumber smell….was so fresh and delicious.

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I Took Some Pictures

I haven’t been blogging much lately. To be honest there hasn’t been much for me to write about living an organic life, or not much I had the energy to talk about. However, I have taken pictures of my now-ugly garden, of the dried up topsy turvy, of the rain that finally came once again last week, of the organic Bummies diaper kit I bought for my baby after he outgrew the hemp cloth diapers, and the mother-in-law plant that seems to be fairing very well despite this heat and drought. The white flower from this plant I cannot name is also blooming. The flowers from this plant are not as pretty as they were last year.

The picture of my flower garden hurts the most. I put so much time and effort into it only to driven away by heat. I took pictures of the vegetable garden too, but I lost those when my computer crashed two weeks ago. My computer crashing is another thing that has kept from catching up on many things such as this blog.

September is around the corner and my hope is that the temperature will be cooler, I will have more time on my hand to work on the garden (my certification exam is early September) and I can take the kids out in the yard with me too (cooler temp).  I have the month marked off on my calendar for gardening. I will do it.

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I’m Melting

Between the heat and the many days without rain I feel like I’m melting. My organic garden definitly is. Even the strongest of plants are wilting. Where ever there isn’t wilt there are weeds and I at times feel defeated. We can’t water, but only during certain times… The rain comes only for a little while every two weeks or so and the rest of the time is too hot to be outside. It is too hot to be inside. I feel like I’m going crazy indoors. To conserve energy all the blinds and doors and everything are closed. The lack of sunlight is …..I’m too lazy to even write this entry and there are so many things I need to write about…the CSA veggies and CSA meat, the new recipes, my new camera that takes better pictures of all these foods and plants, etc… Maybe next time when the heat goes away.

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I love it! It is raining!

Finally It is raining a good rain. The smell of wet earth is wonderful. I am constantly looking out the window, opening the door and enjoying the change of temperature. Everything looks so refreshed. I’m tempted to tell my kids, “Let’s go dance in the rain!” Should I?

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