Saturday, August 4, 2012

Garden fail, prehistoric slugs, giant squirrell, patience

Yesterday I canned up  10 jars of raspberry jelly.  I think this may be the last of the raspberries for the year.  I currently have almost two dozen jars of jelly, two gallons of RB infused vinegar working and 5 gallons of RB wine going.  And in the height of the season I was giving away raspberries to friends who showed up with buckets, because I couldn't keep up with the sheer volume..
If only the rest of the garden was going as well. We spent all that time  putting in beds in the sunny  areas only to have the sun disappear on us  when the trees came out of winter hibernation.  Honestly... we had no idea the trees would grow and shade so aggressively.  So, one winter project will be to hack off a bunch of limbs and prune  all the trees back.  Next  item will be to kill as many of the slugs as we can .  We  THINK its the astronomical number of slugs that live here that ate all the young plants before they could get going. We couldn't kill them fast enough. We unjustly accused the chickens of  getting into the gardens and doing the damage, but it continued long after they were penned up for the summer.  Then there is the soil.  We really didn't have time to  condition it before we planted.  We were in such a hurry to get SOMETHING in the ground before it was too late.  It was mid to late June before we got everything in this year.  We normally have the soil conditioned and are ready to plant by the  first of May.  Usually by the middle of June.... because we cold frame most of the beds, we are eating out of the garden.   We were just too late  in  planting this year and we took too many shortcuts to get it done 'in time'.  The great thing about gardening? There is always next year.
We are expecting much  fruit from our inherited trees.... maybe..... I went out to check on the chickens last week and heard a noise behind the pen.  I went to check and there was an enormous squirrell  up in the plum tree. He was plucking the  really large plums and taking one bite from them and throwing them on the ground.  This is unnacceptable!
Chickens: We are only getting a couple of eggs a day from the old girls.  The new ones have not yet started laying.  Patience!... I just need some patience.  I'm really feeling the sting of starting from the beginning WITH EVERYTHING in this new paradise we have moved too.
The new chickens will start laying soon.  I am just calling fail on the gardens this year and I am thankful for what  'old' Mrs. Murphy planted for posterity.   The berries, trees, flowers  and herbs she left behind  are the only thing giving me hope right now.  She set a fine example and left behind proof that it can be done.............   Just..... need.......... patience! 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Readers