Nothing To See Here ....

Give a man a fish and he has food for a day; teach him how to fish and you can get rid of him for the entire weekend. ~Zenna Scha

Nothing new here. It's hot, we have pillars (found yet another new one yesterday ... sheesh. We named him Quentin, since the hurricanes don't have a "Q" name.), my garden loves the weather (even though I don't), I'm already giving cucumbers away (we eat 1 - 2 a day and are harvesting twice that).

I did spray and dress my squash yesterday. I also squished a squash borer moth, little bugger. Hopefully I put the nylons on my squash in time, but I plan to saturate the socks with that poison regularly, so if eggs DO hatch underneath, the worms should die before they can do damage.

I actually harvested three squash -- but I can't have too much squash. Unlike cucumbers, I can freeze squash. You can only eat so many pickles.

In any case, that's all for now. A boring weekend (no, I'm not complaining... there's nothing wrong with boring!) and not a lot to say.

Have a great weekend!

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You Are an Intense Person

You are thoughtful and responsible. It's rare that you find yourself in a bind. You are naturally low energy. You have to nurture yourself in order to cultivate endurance. When you get tired, you slow down at first... but then you usually get a second wind. You are happiest when you reflect on what you have to be thankful for in your life. Happiness is a choice.

The Mountain Test

Mostly right :-)

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Pillar Place 2010

Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine. ~Jeffrey Glassberg

Busy day yesterday -- finished putting in my veggie garden. I still had more squash, cucumbers and all my broccoli and cabbage to plant. But the time I was done, I was about ready to collapse from heat exhaustion (I'm telling you what... the weather this year is NUTS), so I didn't get the paper and straw down. I have that scheduled for Monday (NOT Sunday, when they are calling for 90 degree weather).

I've already lost one of my summer squash plants, so I guess it's good my SIL gave me a few more, and my eggplant isn't looking too healthy. I have to assume it's the early heat before they've had time to really get their roots set. Very frustrating.

I planted parsley seeds for my black swallowtail friends, too. Decided to plant it near the rue I have behind the garden. When I was done, I glanced over at the rue, not really expecting to see any butterbabies (since the earliest we've ever found them was mid-June), but I guess the heat is making everything a little crazy.

I found one. He's bitty and was still black when I found him, though he shed his skin in the late afternoon and now looks more like an adult (though he's still only about 1/2" in length).

DD was gone for the day, so I got the privilege of naming him. I named him "Al" (short for Alpha because he's the beginning).

And thus Pillar Place 2010 begins ... a little weakly (last year we had something like 15 the first day!), and I'm wondering what happened to Al's siblings, though we did have a pretty massive thunderstorm on Wednesday, which would have been the day they hatched based on his size, so they may have gotten washed away (which makes me sad).

Behold Al:



Not that he looks like that anymore... They grow up so fast.

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You Are Engaged

You feel completely absorbed and intrigued right now. You're cheerfully busy. You're alert and completely involved with everything you do. You don't walk through life half-asleep. If you're interested and engrossed, then you feel incredibly happy. You are constantly curious and never bored. There's too much to be fascinated with!

What Kind of Happy Are You?

That's mostly right on!

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

It is utterly forbidden to be half-hearted about gardening. You have got to love your garden whether you like it or not. ~W.C. Sellar & R.J. Yeatman, Garden Rubbish, 1936

So, yesterday when I got up it was gorgeous out. After a solid 36 hours of rain, I was beyond thrilled, and decided (after checking the forecast for the next week) that it was time to put in the garden.

I went out in the morning and set it all up: squash here, tomatoes there, cucumbers along the back, herbs in that spot and the broccoli and cabbage in that last open area over there.

I put up cages for the tomatoes, cucumbers and the squash.

I had to make a trip to Agway to get a few more cucumbers since my seeds didn't do well, and since I needed to go to the library, too, and it didn't open until eleven I had to wait a little bit.

By the time I got back, it was lunchtime, so we ate. And then it was unbearably HOT outside!! We had temps in the high 80s! I decided I wouldn't put it in, but then after an hour or so of sitting inside and working on the computer, I couldn't stand it.

So right around 1:00 pm I went to put it in.

I dug the holes (LOVE my bulb planter), and DD helped by putting in a little Soil Moist and Osmocote (yeah, I know, not really "organic" but I make an exception). We popped in the plants, filled the hole with water and dirt and DONE.

Easy peasy ... except, I'd forgotten I had THREE not TWO winter squash and that I had three eggplant plants that I hadn't planned for. Okay, after some thought, I figured out how to squeeze them in.

Then, after I finished planting the EIGHTEEN tomato plants I'd dug holes for, DD says, "Um, Mom? We have more tomatoes."

"How many more?"

"Twelve."

Why on EARTH had I bought THIRTY tomato plants?? And how would I fit them into the garden -- a garden that was already packed full??

I managed... sort of. And now all the neatly organized tomatoes are a bit of a mess. I have roma with my rainbow heritage, and sweet 100s with my big boys. They're quite close together, so harvesting might be, er, interesting.

I ran out of steam before I got in the herb seeds or the broccoli and cabbage, so I'll do that today, as well as putting down the newspaper and straw for weed block. And then, God willing and the creek don't rise, it's done.

Thirty tomatoes... I must be out of my mind.

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I have a friend who just moved into a new-to-her home in Pennsylvania. The gardens there are beautiful and packed full of flowers, some of which neither of us recognize, so I thought I'd post the pictures here and see if any of you can tell what they are.

This first one is a small tree (bush?):



And this is ground cover:


Anyone?

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You Are a Creative Worker

You are a very personally expressive person, especially outside of work. Your individuality matters to you. You draw a lot of inspiration and energy from your own internal world. You get bored easily around other people. You are confident and competent. You tend to not make mistakes, and you trust your judgment. You are down to earth and practical. You achieve success one step at a time, by paying attention to details.

What Does Your Desk Say About You?

Actually, that's amazingly close!

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