last gasp

first frost is upon us (it happened last night), a full 7 days past the official predicted date of october 20. i grabbed these zinnias and cosmos for a final bouquet, and brought the container plants inside. i'll try to get the garlic planted today.



as a consolation prize, we get to look at this beautiful thing from our back porch:

thinning seedlings/homemade bug spray

one thing that i am not cut out for is thinning. i just don't have the heart for it, and i need to remember this when i sow seeds. here is a row of carrots before and after thinning.




(you might also note all the small stones in the soil)

i tried to thin to 1-2 inches. i think i averaged about a half an inch, at best. i hate to pull up healthy plants. we've had some serious storms here in the past couple of days, and the soil in some parts of the garden is just washing away. i am particularly worried about the beets and the carrots. i built up a bunch of potting soil around them yesterday, today it was mostly gathered in the corners, and low spots of the garden.

in other news, i noticed some little bugs eating my green bean leaves,



(a close up of the bugs)

they looked to me like the type of bug a ladybug might eat, so i gathered a dozen ladybugs from a blooming shrub in the front of the yard. a generous supply of aphids inhabit that bush, so the ladybugs feed there. i captured them in cosmo's bug-observation-container, and released them onto the bean plants. they kept trying to crawl back onto me, instead of the leaves, and then they all quickly flew away. so much for imposing my agenda on other creatures (who, shockingly, have their own!).
plan B: i made a bug spray from a recipe i found in organic gardening. it consists of: garlic, onions, cayenne, dish soap and water. i tried it on the beans, and left a couple unsprayed, as an experiment. i haven't noticed an increase in the bug activity, and the beans are growing well. i need to keep applying it though, since it has been raining so much. something is eating the kale too, but i expected that. plants in the brassica family always seem to get nibbled on. i also noticed some small, purplish, aphid-looking critters on the tomatoes, but no damage to the plant so far. guess i will just wait on those.

i rescued a trunk load of beautiful stones from a dumpster in the neighborhood. someone was doing some sort of landscaping/masonry makeover, and a lot of limestone got thrown out. i've been looking out for some for a while now. i will use it too outline garden beds. i am creating a new one, which i hope to write more about next time.

peas pop UP!

that's a command. from cosmo. we planted them in the ground 19 days ago, and still, not a single one has sprouted. our next door neighbor's peas are up and growing fast, and so are the ones i started indoors, and transplanted to the garden. i am not sure what happened. the ones i started indoors were soaked for a day in a vitamin C solution. they germinated in 4 days. i used seeds from the same package when i direct seeded in the garden, but i did not soak them first.

i soaked a few more yesterday, and have planted them indoors today. i wanted to try again outside, but today it just feels too cold to put anything in the ground.

last week we had lovely weather, and i did a lot of digging in the garden. i prepared two more beds, and in the process of making paths through the plot, i ended up with raised beds. i feared they would collapse without some support, so i staked some boards around them. i think it all looks rather funny, but it will work. cosmo stays out of the beds if he has paths and stepping stones to follow.



i am so anxious to plant everything, but i know i still have weeks to wait.

sigh.

the glow

carl took this photo of the blue glow of the grow lamp, as seen from outside.
all the tomatoes came up yesterday, as did some pink cosmos, zinnias, and one marigold. today, i saw the tiny chamomile sprouts. all of these are seeds started indoors. the feverfew seed are several years old, they may not do anything. but then again, it has only been a few days.

in other news, i saw a pileated woodpecker in our tree, twice in two days! i was really thrilled, it was a first for me. yesterday, i could scarcely believe it. i saw it in the morning out our living room window. it landed, then quickly flew off, but not before i spotted it (the size got my attention) and identified it. this evening, i saw it again, from the kitchen window, on the same tree. it stayed a bit longer, i was closer, and i got a really good look. i called for carl, but he just missed it. i hope it hangs out in the neighborhood.

it is raining and raining and raining here in bloomington. we sailed popsicle sticks down the gutters tonight on our evening walk with cosmo. he loved it, and cried when we headed back up hill for home, and he couldn't float his boats anymore. he got to bring them to the bath though.