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Taking care of the bumbles
I’ve always been skittish around flying insects with stingers. I blame my parents who potty trained me in the buff on the side porch, during which I was stung on the bumkin by a bee. When approached by a yellow jacket, I will actually take off in flight until I lose him. However, in the garden, there is one stinger I’ve found peace with – bumble bees! Mind you, the carpenter bees are still evil assassins that chase me for…
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Tomato Problem – Help!
This evening I discovered that the newest leaves on one of the main stems of a Brandywine tomato plant had dark brow speckles and blotches. Some had turned almost fully brown and crunchy. The rest of the plant looks healthy, save for some curling of the oldest leaves. The foliage is dark green and perky. The fruit are small and don’t appear to have any problems, and only the stem of the worst leaf had some brown legions on it.…
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In Bloom: Scaramouche Daylily
Woohoo! It’s two Wordless Wednesday posts in a week. I accidentally posted this week’s on Monday and took it back down. Lest you feel cheated, and lest these are no longer blooming next week, here is our latest daylily addition: ‘Scaramouche’.
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In Bloom: Black Oil Sunflower
I planted a handful of black oil sunflower seeds straight out of the birdseed bag. I doubt I will eat them since I don’t know the history of the seed and whether it was treated or not, but I will at least let the flower heads dry and set them out for the birds at the end of the summer. Leave a comment with a link to your Wordless Wednesday post!
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When the shovel hits the rock
Lazy workmanship during construction means a headache for the homeowner down the line. We’ve been building up a small garden area around the mailbox, and when I attempted to add one more plant, I hit a rock. No matter where I dug, I hit this rock. As it turns out, whoever built the house disposed of their extra concrete, asphalt and bricks at the corner of our driveway and covered it up with dirt. Thaaaaank you so much. It took…
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From Pest to Plate
Not one to shy away from sharing nasty pictures with you, here are my latest pest discoveries. The first are slugs. After growing cabbage and watching it sit in the garden and contemplating sending it straight to the compost, I needed another vegetable for the sautée we were fixing for lunch guests. I picked every last bean,two small squashes and several green onions, so I thought, “Why not the cabbage?” It was ready and basically flavorless. After I peeled back…
