tfpets
Chillin' In The Garden
I dont really have anywhere else to vent, and I hope you dont mind, I just felt like I needed to put some of the disappointments about my yard and garden this year down in one place. I look forward to Spring and planting so much every year that I'm often out in the rain plotting what I'm going to do with this space or that....Even my kids are in to "propagating"...I just wish they would quite propagating weeds and poison oak!
This year, 2008, I started out early....I started with indoor lights and heating pads, over 144 little seedlings were good to go, I had tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, etc.......I even had several varieties of gourds.
When the tender plants were ready to take outside to my portable greenhouses to harden, I was all set up!! They were on my deck, which is full sun, but somewhat protected, not completely in the open and exposed to the elements. They had been out there for two days when we had an unexpected wind storm, and on our property, the winds can gust up to 75-80 mph. It tossed my Greenhouses around like little toys, and destroyed nearly every plant I had.
Back in to the house, I started again. I only planted 72 starts this time. Mostly Squash and tomatoes. A few Pumkins too. I took them out to the Green house, they made it in to the garden! They were a few weeks old, very hardy, 4 inches or so tall (Yay Miracle Grow!)...and I added some nursery plants to the garden also.
Came out to the garden two days later, and almost every squach and tomatoe plant was eaten nearly to the ground?? Some raging, rampant bug that I had never had or seen before had scoured my entire garden, like locusts or something!! I'm not a big chemical user, but I was MAD! I used Sevin Dust....the surviving plants struggled along, so the next week I went and bought another 40 + plants for my garden.
I was at work one day when we heard a loud crack of thunder. Hmmmm. Thunderstorm. Lightening. Hail.....an inch of it, right there in my garden. Poor bruised plants...Hard to believe any of them survived! (Early May)
Now this Garden - 2 weeks later - Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Peppers, Squash, some of them beautiful Heirlooms, pretty colors of peppers, etc....then one day, blip, I watched as a tomato plant toppled over??? I've lived here for 12 years, and NOW I have gophers?? What the H%^*??? It had taken out about 10 plants at the roots already, mostly the heirloom tomatoes (He had good taste, at least)....So I flooded the holes and he seemed to leave the garden alone for a while....
So with what I had left, the plants were starting to look great, despite the high winds, the killer bugs, the hail storm, and the gopher with a taste for tomatoes.
On June 11, 2008 we were evacuated from our home due to a wildfire that it was later determined to be started by an arsonist. Many families lost their homes, we were fortunate that our home was spared. What did happen was that we were in Emergency/survival mode for over a week, and did not tend to the yard except to keep all water resources to take care of the pets. The weeds quickly took over my entire garden....The fire burned right up to my property, but we kept our pets safe! We were only at home during the day, and stayed at night in town with the animals we did evacuate. It took one month for our fire to be put out. Before our fire was put out, The Lightening Complex Fires started, once again devastating our area of Northern California. The smoke was so awful, I could only go outside and stay and work with my pets. I did not do any extra yard work. I have a lot to do over the winter to get ready for SPRING!!
So I will have a better year in 2009! I am already starting to look at my yard, looking ahead, and I will start gathering my seeds up and see what I have. Perhaps I will find some good buys online or around town!
Thank you for letting me vent!! Sorry for the long discourse, but I feel better now!!
Tina/tfpets
This year, 2008, I started out early....I started with indoor lights and heating pads, over 144 little seedlings were good to go, I had tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, etc.......I even had several varieties of gourds.
When the tender plants were ready to take outside to my portable greenhouses to harden, I was all set up!! They were on my deck, which is full sun, but somewhat protected, not completely in the open and exposed to the elements. They had been out there for two days when we had an unexpected wind storm, and on our property, the winds can gust up to 75-80 mph. It tossed my Greenhouses around like little toys, and destroyed nearly every plant I had.
Back in to the house, I started again. I only planted 72 starts this time. Mostly Squash and tomatoes. A few Pumkins too. I took them out to the Green house, they made it in to the garden! They were a few weeks old, very hardy, 4 inches or so tall (Yay Miracle Grow!)...and I added some nursery plants to the garden also.
Came out to the garden two days later, and almost every squach and tomatoe plant was eaten nearly to the ground?? Some raging, rampant bug that I had never had or seen before had scoured my entire garden, like locusts or something!! I'm not a big chemical user, but I was MAD! I used Sevin Dust....the surviving plants struggled along, so the next week I went and bought another 40 + plants for my garden.
I was at work one day when we heard a loud crack of thunder. Hmmmm. Thunderstorm. Lightening. Hail.....an inch of it, right there in my garden. Poor bruised plants...Hard to believe any of them survived! (Early May)
Now this Garden - 2 weeks later - Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Peppers, Squash, some of them beautiful Heirlooms, pretty colors of peppers, etc....then one day, blip, I watched as a tomato plant toppled over??? I've lived here for 12 years, and NOW I have gophers?? What the H%^*??? It had taken out about 10 plants at the roots already, mostly the heirloom tomatoes (He had good taste, at least)....So I flooded the holes and he seemed to leave the garden alone for a while....
So with what I had left, the plants were starting to look great, despite the high winds, the killer bugs, the hail storm, and the gopher with a taste for tomatoes.
On June 11, 2008 we were evacuated from our home due to a wildfire that it was later determined to be started by an arsonist. Many families lost their homes, we were fortunate that our home was spared. What did happen was that we were in Emergency/survival mode for over a week, and did not tend to the yard except to keep all water resources to take care of the pets. The weeds quickly took over my entire garden....The fire burned right up to my property, but we kept our pets safe! We were only at home during the day, and stayed at night in town with the animals we did evacuate. It took one month for our fire to be put out. Before our fire was put out, The Lightening Complex Fires started, once again devastating our area of Northern California. The smoke was so awful, I could only go outside and stay and work with my pets. I did not do any extra yard work. I have a lot to do over the winter to get ready for SPRING!!
So I will have a better year in 2009! I am already starting to look at my yard, looking ahead, and I will start gathering my seeds up and see what I have. Perhaps I will find some good buys online or around town!
Thank you for letting me vent!! Sorry for the long discourse, but I feel better now!!
Tina/tfpets
