stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

i don't mind birdies visiting the gardens and eating bugs but it sure would be nice if they could purge themselves of poison ivy seeds before they arrive...

today weeding in the ex-strawberry patch and looking along the fence there i've found (so far) three sprouts in the garden and one on the fenceline. at least i am seeing them before i'm touching them so i know what i'm getting into.

 

[flowerbug]

watered today. the pepper plants were showing some distress after having their companion plants (aka weeds) removed and i also wanted to be sure the beans and tomatoes were going to be ok through perhaps another hot day tomorrow plus no sure thing the rains forecast as chances for tonight or tomorrow will happen.

we have had storms go south and north of us the past several days.

 

[flowerbug]

when looking around online i didn't find many pictures of younger poison ivy plants that showed the cotyledons and the way the plant can be mostly green instead of reddish before it gets woody or is shaded.

so i took this picture this morning as i was finding plenty of examples in the old strawberry patch.

 

[digitS']

Looks to be,

fairly easily mistaken for a volunteer tomato.

A conversation with Mother Nature about such deceitful behavior may be in order.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

...A conversation with Mother Nature about such deceitful behavior may be in order.

the adult voices of Charlie Brown cartoons would be about how that goes...

 

[flowerbug]

[snagged from the other thread... and going to edit again]

while going out i noticed the thistles in the south field are getting fuzzy and hoped the neighbor would be willing to get out and mow them before the fluff starts flying.

...

ended up calling neighbor and he said it would be ok if i went out and used the trimmer to cut back the thistles.

looking at the weather forecast and radar i figured i could get out for an hour (about how long the battery charge lasts) and see how it went.

went ok, wish the battery would beep a few minutes before it ran out of juice so i could prioritize those last few plants that i ended up pulling out by hand but overall they got chopped back and are now getting rained on. i didn't get the whole field done (it's much larger than i want to do) but i did get the fuzzies and plants that were about to fuzz knocked down that were close to our property. i'll keep an eye on things over there as for sure every seedling i can avoid over here in the rocks is a fair amount of time that i will be saving. the trade-off for an hour here or there over in the south field is well worth it. also i do have to say that i do like how the field is coming along (other than the thistles. )

the rains are very welcome since i'd also watered some of the gardens but not all of them. plus i can now lay here the rest of the day and do not much at all (speaking of potatoes... )...

i know i'm worn out when i start looking for excuses to do other things. i do genuinely enjoy gardening, weeding, planting, harvesting, snacking, etc. but this last garden did need a good drink so after getting my bucket filled with weeds this morning i did give it a good soaking. it was pretty dry down 10cm and not very damp even below that even if the bean plants and weeds weren't showing any signs of distress i figured it was a good time to give it a drink.