Fresh, fresh, fresh

I know the veggies I get from my CSA are fresh.  They pick & pack the same day, then I pick it up the next.   And they are definitely delicious (in a vegetable kind of way).  But yet, when I go out to my blueberry bushes (which are still protected from the birds) and get a handful of blueberries, they are even better.  The sugar snap peas that my daughter picks off the almost non-existent vines taste superior even to the ones from the farm.
I don't want to be a farmer, but it would be nice if I could feed myself  because picking and popping the goods into my mouth without any interference or additional steps just tastes better.

Damn the groundhog!

We just came back from a lovely week at the Jersey Shore (that would be the family-oriented Wildwood Crest, not the drunken party town shown on the TV show) and I was anxious to see my garden.  We'd had some wild storms at the shore and I was wondering if they'd affected my plants.
Well, the plants didn't seem the worse for wear from the rain, but I'll say that I came home to this:

I suspected a groundhog, but I wasn't sure.  Just in case it's difficult to tell, the leaves on the broccoli plants are mostly eaten (but it didn't eat the florets), the leaves & the potential sunflowers are gone.  Only the stem remains, sticking out like a mistake.  Also, in the background, the cucumber plants were chewed up.  I mean, really?  You couldn't eat something else?  Like the neighbors' stuff, maybe????

I have a lot of sympathy for farmers.  If I had to feed myself, I'd starve.  

On the bright side, the netting seems to have protected my blueberries.

Blooms!

Finally....
I've been watching my neighbors' lilies flower.  Day lilies, other lilies, fancy lilies--all different colors, styles, etc., but they have flowers.  It's depressing. Finally, this morning, I saw one bloom on one stem.  Very encouraging.
We've already eaten lettuce from our garden. Lettuce is one thing I can grow.  The rabbits (or groundhog) eat it, too.  I'll probably have to plant another few seeds, though, because I don't know if the other plants will come back.
My tomato plants mostly look pathetic.  One of them looks okay.  I think I grew it from a bigger pot.  It actually looks healthy.
This is the first year my sugar snap peas will probably not yield.  The ones in the sun are dying because the groundhog (or rabbit) keeps eating the leaves. Or maybe because they're getting too much sun.  The ones in the raised bed are dying because someone (rabbit or groundhog again, I assume) keeps eating their leaves.  Next year I'll plant them in the shade again. They seemed to do well there.
On a positive note, I still have blueberries and I think they are considering turning blue.  Caging the bushes was a good idea, but as my husband says, I probably could have bought blueberries for the next 50 years for what I've spent on bushes and fencing.

Obviously, my commitment to blogging is about on par with my commitment to my garden. I start out strong, then lose steam.  Maybe that's my problem: I need to set up the garden, then delegate the day-to-day boredom of weeding.

I planted more zinnias and also a few sunflowers. They may interfere with the sun on my tomatoes, if they actually take root and grow.  I have something else growing which could be another tomato or maybe that cherry pit finally sprouted.  Perhaps, it's just a weed--we'll have to wait and see.

A friend recently pointed out that I killed every plant I ever had in my four years of college. But I'm a different person--food is at stake here.  Or I can just own up to the fact that I really, truly have a black thumb and no wishing or hoping is going to make it otherwise.

I saw these flowers a few weeks ago in the apron space between the sidewalk & the street.  I didn't want to pull them up because they might be something cool.  As the weeks pass, I'm vaguely remembering that I may actually have transplanted some lily bulbs from the back yard to the front yard.  I think these may be lilies of some sort. What's interesting is that I have so many more than I had in the back yard.   I'm not sure what the flowers will look like. There are some other strange things growing as well that may be other lilies.  In any case, I will have to wait until they bloom.  It's only May, but the lilacs are done, the forsythia are finished, the azealas are dead for the season.  The lilies haven't even started.

On another, positive note, my husband helped my cage my blueberry bushes.  The birds ate every single one last year before they even turned blue!  I haven't worn him down planting the corn, yet, though.  He's very particular about where to plant things.  Tomorrow, tomorrow....

It's Mother's Day & I refuse to mow the lawn.  Is that selfish of me?  I'll be thrilled to it tomorrow--is it supposed to rain? I hope not.

Enough with the rain

Mother Nature is making up for her deficit, I think. We just had some serious rain for all of Sunday and last night and most of this morning. Torrents, downpours, cats & dogs. I think my seeds may have drowned, but I'm not sure yet.

My daughter & I planted sugar snap peas & carrots. Well, actually, she planted them. I was not allowed to touch them, for fear that my black thumb would taint the seeds, thus preventing them from growing. I did help her building a rather flimsy trellis, though.

I scattered some wildflower seeds (once they are cultivated, are they still wild?), but I ran out of seeds well before the end of my flower bed. And it's possible that they may have been washed away at this point.

My husband had a little fit when we discussed where to plant the corn. According to my daughter (and who am I to disagree?), corn cannot be planted in a box, it must be planted in the ground--it needs lots of room. But he doesn't want to plant things anywhere but in the box. He carried on about the berry bushes over there and the veggies there and the flowers there--doesn't he realize that it would look bizarre (and lopsided) if everything were in the same place? All the plants need different amounts of sun, blah, blah....

It's not as if he's the only one who mows--he just happened to do it last week.

Speaking of the berry bushes, I really need to get some netting if I want to get berries this year.

Rain, glorious rain

It's been an incredibly dry year so far--only about 24" of snow (as opposed to our usual 50" or so)--and hardly any rain. We hooked up the rain barrels early this year, anticipating that we might have a dry spring. So far, barely an inch in the second barrel and nothing in the third. But tonight, I heard a few drops on the sky light in the sun room. Whether or not that translates to real, honest water remains to be seen.

Of course, this is the year we are going to try to grow corn, which needs lots of water. And it would be nice to have some decent grass, too. But, we'll do the best we can with what we've got. I'd definitely rather have sun than rain most of the time.