Friday, May 25, 2012

A Death in the Garden

So much has gotten done over the last two days. Today it was pulling all the spring spinach out. It was starting to bolt. I froze one batch. The other half is in the fridge to process tomorrow. The stubs of the plants were tossed onto the compost. That compost pile just keep growing.

The chamomile was falling all over the place. So first I picked it. In years past I would pick each blossom at its peak, one at a time. Now I just grab a bunch and rip the tops off. Some are too immature but it takes so much less time. I haven't dehydrated them yet, but I'll get to that. Then I put some stakes in to keep them from flopping over. While I was staking things up I went to the front of the house. I have one section right as you drive into our yard that is covered in cosmos and zinnias. Well Kronos, my daughter's dog has been trampling the area. It is right next to our neighbor's gate. A neighbor that has a dog. The dogs love to play together and Kronos just gets too excited. The poor, poor zinnias. I put up two of my square tomato cages on the end near the gate. I'm hoping that will discourage more trampling. It might not. I replaced the zinnias with some that were too crowded in another spot. But this year it might be a very poor showing.

Yesterday was busy too. I took out some self seeded cilantro and put in the melon patch. I've got my tomato supports over them. Hopefully they will like climbing that as much as they nylon net I've used before. I put in three types. Halona, Hanna's Choice, and Ambrosia. Halona is an early cantaloupe. The other two are a bit later. I've grown Ambrosia in the past. It tastes divine, but it is hit or miss if it will produce here. If we have a hot summer it should be fine.

After I finished I wanted to photograph the area, but I couldn't find my camera. I looked all over for it. Then I came back out later and looked again. I really thought I was going insane. I knew I had it. I knew I took a photo of the cilantro harvest for Monday. I knew I put it back in my pocket. Heck I even checked the compost pile. When my husband came home I was out again too look and he came out to help me. He found it in five minutes. It was in the watering can. It soaked in there for hours. I keep the camera in my front pocket and it must have fallen out when I bent over to pick up the watering can. The funny thing is that I started putting the camera in my pocket so I wouldn't lose it. Before I'd bring it out and put it down and then forget about it. I was afraid I'd leave it out and it would rain. In my pocket it would always come back in with me. Oh the irony. I tried to protect it only to destroy it.

Now it is sitting on my desk drying out. I'll leave it there for a few days before I see if it has died a horrible death. The flash card is fine. I really hope the camera lives. I love my little camera. It is so small and takes such nice photos. For now I'm using my husband camera. It is a beautiful DSLR that he bought this spring. But I'm not bringing that one with me when I garden. It comes out when I'm done and my hands are clean. Then I can take photos.

But I hate to leave on such an unhappy thought. So here are some happy things going on in the garden.

The mustards are starting to bloom even if you can't really see it in this photo. I was shocked when I went out after the storm on Wednesday. The mustards had doubled in size in two days. The brown mustard is growing very well, but the yellow mustard is much smaller. Hopefully it is plenty to get a good harvest.

The zucchini and cucumbers are germinating.

The carrots are look like they are finally growing. They are always so so slow. But once they start to gain size they speed up a lot.

20 comments:

  1. I faithfully read your posts as they come in through my Outlook RSS Feed, and I'm generally not one to comment. Even though we are in much different zones I love watching the goings on in your garden - particularly this season since I am unable to get busy until later this summer myself. Thank you for the effort you put into this blog, and I am sorry to hear of the camera's plight. I'm crossing my fingers she survives. What are those ball topped plants next to the mustard?

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    1. Those are some bunching onion flowers. The onions were a hybrid. So I'll collect the seed, but won't know what will come out of them. Sometimes it is fun to play that way.

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  2. I hope your camera survives. I hung mine on a fence post once, then turned the water on it. It took about a week of drying out, but eventually it began working properly again. I don't know about being completely underwater though.

    Oh, I hope my small planting of spinach hangs in there for a while longer. With that one bed not producing, I didn't have nearly enough this year. I hope I get a decent crop next fall.

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  3. How shocked you must have been to discover the camera in the watering can!! I have to make an extra effort to remember where my camera is at all times. I have left one outside in the garden during a really damp day. It still worked but was never the same after that. I hope yours dries out and works ok.

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  4. I'm sorry, I just have to laugh, how did your husband know to look in the watering can of all places! But I am truly sorry that your poor camera fell in there, I hope she recovers.

    I did the same thing with the chamomile this year. I had a bunch of plants volunteering around the garden and I just harvested every flower off the plants before I ripped them out so that I could move the soil. I got a pretty good harvest.

    There's so much going on in your garden, it looks great!

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  5. Oh no, hope your camera comes through and dries out soon.
    Most of my greens are bolting except Swiss Chard.

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  6. Hope your camera turns out alright. I have seen cell phones dry out and work again so hopefully your camera will as well.
    The garden looks great!

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  7. Hi Daphne, I do hope your little camera dries out okay. Your veggies look great. I guess I need to do something with the little spinach I have. So far have just been eating it in salads. Nancy

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  8. When I saw 'death in the garden' I was thinking plant, not camera!

    I dropped my last point and shoot camera in the kitchen, where it hit the tile floor and expired. It wouldn't even turn on anymore. It will be a real test of yours to see if it survives the soaking.

    I do take my DSLR out in the garden, and it gets a bit dirty but I try and have clean hands when I use it. And I keep it around my neck on a strap, where it is (somewhat) safer!

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  9. I'm with Dave. I was thinking plant too. Our spinach is very close to being pulled too. We harvested a bag of it today. Thanks for sharing that little detail about chamomile. We're growing it for the first time this year. It's good to be ahead on the learning curve.

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  10. Any tips on growing chamomile ? I tried growing it(German) two times but no success. Also, how do you sow the cilantro ?

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    1. Chamomile and cilantro I let self seed (provided you can get them started to begin with). My current cilantro patch was created last year. I harvested the coriander and the old flower heads I tossed on this spot (they had seed on them still, I wasn't prefect in my harvest). This was last summer. It will come up all by itself if you let it.

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  11. Oh no! I hope your camera dries out OK :-/

    Our chamomile is doing well, too (and falling over)! Not sure how I'll handle all the flowers...one at a time seems so time consuming but it might turn into a nice meditation :-)

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  12. Oh no!! what an unpleasant surprise. I hope it goes okay when dry. And what an unusually great shot.

    Everything looks beautiful. I gave up on chamomile when I realized how prolifically it grew and how little I like drinking chamomile extract!

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  13. I can't get over how gorgeous your gardens are -- you really should be featured in some gardening mag, showing how beautiful and productive an urban garden can be.

    Sorry about the camera. I washed and dried my old cell phone, which is not something I'd recommend. I hope the camera survives..

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  14. I pulled out my spinach this weekend as well. It will be much missed even if it was not a big producer for me this year.

    I am with Michelle - how on earth did your husband know to look in the watering can?! I hope your camera dries out and survives as it sounds like it was a favorite of yours. I on the otherhand have been muttering about "accidentally on purpose" killing my camera. It is a newer version of my older camera model and it is NOT as good as the old one.

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  15. Hi Daphne,

    Just a question to your tomato cages, are they Texas Tomato Cage? I have been looking around in Oz but cannot find it for sales here. The TTC website indicates US shipping only.

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  16. The square cages look interesting, may I ask where they are from? Thanks

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    1. Sadly I can't remember where I bought them from.

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