Chuck's Garden Spot

Aside from all of the fruit, vegetables, and flowers we've been able to enjoy this summer, our garden presents other little gifts to us everyday, too.  Bumblebees have been an ever present part of the daily garden activity, working from the time the sun comes up until the sun goes down.  They spend all day moving tirelessly from flower to flower pollinating one plant after another. At sundown, on more than one occasion, I've found one sound asleep on the center of the last flower it visited. The bumblebees have helped filled the vacuum left by the decimation of the honeybee population. I'm very thankful for their presence.

 

So, just the other day, I walk into the house from the garden and find our cat Tinker sprawled on the dining room floor watching a bumblebee.  I have no doubt that Tink snagged the little guy in mid-air and swatted him (or perhaps her - make your own pronoun choice) to the carpet.  The bumblebee is walking in small circles as the fierce kitty watches.  B. Bumble is frantic and apparently incapable of flight.  Tinker is entertained.  There's something very sadistic about this.  So....I put my hand in front of the bumblebee thinking it'll just crawl onto my palm. I can then remove him to the great outdoors to at least hide and die in peace.  But no. BB instantly turns away from my hand.  I try again; same bumble reply. As gently as I can, I snatch him up between index finger & thumb. Once outside, I move to a mulched area near the roses, lower my hand and open my fingers.  B. Bumble instantly opens his wings, rises in a circle to get bearings, and flies directly back to the main garden. My soul provides a standing ovation. 

There's something new everyday in a garden.  Doesn't matter what season. All you have to do is look around a little bit.  It's there.  New things are happening regularly in our garden this year.  We've lived in the city for twenty-five years.  In that time, I've seen an American goldfinch once. They're pretty much suburban and farm meadow dwellers.  Planting extra flowers this year has attracted a pair of goldfinches that we now see periodically.  I'm hoping they take up urban residence each year now. I may plant thistle next year.  The same is true of hummingbirds.  I haven't seen one in all the time we've been here, but one is now showing up and someone or something is emptying the hummingbird nectar feeder every few days.  Another new resident, I hope.  Of course the sparrows, wrens, catbirds and the like are here regularly - all day every day - at the birdfeeders.  They're fun to watch, too, bumping each other off the perches to get to the seed and suet. The few butterflies we normally see are what you'd expect in an urban area.  But yesterday, a large beautiful tiger swallowtail paid a visit.  I wish I had had a camera in my pocket!  Last week a monarch of some sort came through and lingered.

 

Nights are interesting, too.  The bats come out at dusk and put on an airshow the Blue Angels could admire.  One evening recently, a meteorite crossed the garden from front to back.  I've seen a few "shooting stars" in my day, but none as brilliant as this one.  It must have survived well into the atmosphere to be so bright.  As it passed, I heard a distinct hissing sound.  Is that possible?  I'll have to look into it.  Then there was the firefly.  Here he is in late July blinking away with no one around to respond.  Must be a lonely little fellow!

 

Guess I'll head back out and see what's new since this morning!

Wow, it's really been busy with the garden!  Watering, picking, deadheading, and generally keeping up with everything.  There's one item, which I'm sure somone else has already thought of, but I hadn't.  We live in an old city home with a hot water heating system.  Because of this, we've never been able to install central air conditioning - due to the extremely high cost of running and boxing in all the needed ductwork.  So we have window units which actually work quite well.  Outside last week I noticed that the one ac was dripping water down into the small garden bed below it.  The spot was muddy.  But, except for the one square foot area, the rest of the bed was just moist to dry.  So, I stuck a two gallon pitcher below the drip.  In 5 hours, the pitcher was full! I used it to water the rest of the bed and put the pitcher back under the drip.  As the afternoon heated up, the pitcher filled even faster.  I had emptied the pitcher 3 times by the end of the day.  When I realized how much water the ac was sucking out of the humid air, I put another pitcher below another ground floor window. One the second day, they both filled 3 times.  12 gallons of free water!  I like "free". I bought a 13 gallon covered waste can and now store the water until it's needed which is every day right now.  I calculated that over the summer, hot days, cool days, etc. that I might average 6 gallons a day and save over 500 gallons of water. I forget how much the city charges me per gallon, but it's not cheap. Of course there's also the fact that harvesting humidity this way also conserves water.  It may not offset the use of electricity, but I would use the ac's anyway. So there's a little payback for me and the planet.  If you're in the same situation as I am with air conditioning, perhaps you could give it a try.

We've got this bar in our neighborhood.  The Commonwealth of PA has described it as a nuisance. It's frequented by a somewhat slimy crowd. As soon as night falls, they come out of hiding.  They appear from alleyways.  They appear from side streets.  They stumble off parking lots. Attracted to the darkness and the alcohol, they enter the side door not to be seen again until the following night.

 

I have a similar problem with a part of my garden. What is it about lima beans?  Do they give off some powerful slug and cutworm attracting pherome?  At dusk, I put out little cat food cans filled with that ancient elixir - beer - near the lima bean seeds and sprouts.  As night falls, they appear.  A slow moving horde abandoning their hiding places and crawling across the mulch. It's gotten so bad with them chomping down every new lima bean sprout and leaf that I've even gone out at night with a flashlight.  Armed with a shaker of chili powder I go to work, sprinkling every single one I see.  I'd use salt, but I think that's bad for the plants. In the morning, I survey the carnage along with the flies.  Dozens of dead roasted by the chili powder. More in the beer filled cat food cans.  And every new sprout chomped, some even before they've fully poked up through the soil. I hate to do it, but I think I'll have to get some of that slug bait ("Do not use near pets." Hmmmm) It must be how the Commonwealth feels about that bar.

 

In the meantime, I've started baby lima beans, bush variety, in 6 inch deep containers that I'm going to perch in some steps.  I'm hoping that's enough soil to have some success with limas and be high enough off the ground to keep the creatures away.  We'll see!

 

I think I'll go get a beer. I've got a few leftovers from the slug war.

Wow, it's been a great season for rasberries, both red and black.  We began picking 3 weeks ago, and tonight or tomorrow will probably end the season.  The crop has been large and sweet and absolutely worth all the blood I've lost to the black raspberry thorns!  I weighed all the packages we've frozen and it comes to ten pounds. That doesn't account for all that we've eaten already!  I don't know how that works out in little tiny grocery store boxes, but I have the feeling we've saved a lot of money on fruit this month and well into the winter.  This is an especially good feeling when you look at inflation and the way it's effected food prices.  And aside from that, we have the knowledge that there are no chemicals, preservatives, or other junk included in all those vacuum sealed packages.  (If you have the means to buy a Food Saver to vacuum seal food you want to freeze, I recommend the gadget highly!)

 

We also have tomatoes, zuchini, green beans, and peppers (bell and Hungarian sweet) coming in now.  You may not be aware that my wife Lois is a vegetarian, but that's the case.  And aside from Christmas, this is her favorite time of the year!  We finished picking the sugar peas last week.  But for the next month or so we will have a constant flow of vegetables to eat fresh or freeze for the winter, barring any calamities of course.  We do some canning, too, especially salsa made from the tomatoes and peppers.  We're still waiting on lima beans, onions, more green beans, and carrots.  Maybe the middle or late in this month for them.  It'll be a busy time, but more than worth all the work. Gardening is one of the most worthwhile and rewarding activities anyone could possibly have, even when it's a struggle.

 

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Fourth of July weekend!