Garden Delights

We've had the hottest summer on record here and today is the first day in a long time that has felt pleasant. In fact, today is so nice that I was able to open up all the windows this morning and let the breeze blow through the apartment. I also managed to walk to the garden and back without getting soaked with sweat. What a nice change.

Lupine perhaps? Whatever it is, it grows in abundance in the garden and is just coming into bloom.

Yellow Duo

The feral cat family was exploring all the possible uses for a small stone wall including seating, jungle gym, and bed. The three kittens (gray/white and black/white in front of mom and gray tabby behind her) are growing fast but they still know how to have fun. When I ran to grab the camera, they were in one big furry ball. The situation had settled down a bit when I returned.

End of June, Beginning of Summer

Earlier in the week the garden was beginning to resemble a jungle. I pulled carrots, picked beans (and then sacrificed bean plants in the interest of space), and tried to wrangle the sunflowers together behind the trellis. This is a "before" picture of what it looked like when I got there on Monday morning.

Everything has a bit more breathing room now that even more carrots have been pulled, bean plants composted, and lettuce picked for one final home grown salad. My concentration has shifted to fruiting plants: tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and eggplant.

Monday's harvest included a few more baby beets, beet greens, lettuce, beans, and some funny looking carrots.

Today's harvest yielded an impressive stack of beans, some fat carrots, my first hot pepper, and the rest of the lettuce (not shown).

A couple Mortgage Lifters are enjoying the sun and heat. It's my largest plant at the moment and has me dreaming of big tomato slices with salt, pepper, and olive oil.

In other news, one of the little stray kittens in the garden was enjoying a bird this morning when I walked in. I also spotted several gigantic scarab type beetles flying around after first hearing that dreaded low pitched buzz that they make. I've started wearing a hat while gardening mostly to avoid the horrifying possibility of one getting stuck in my hair.

Garden Update

We made it home a little earlier last night so I was able to stop in the garden and plant some seeds. It had rained REALLY hard over the weekend and the soil looked somewhat compacted when I arrived. It was hard to say where I had planted the first row of lettuce. My markers were all over the place and nothing was popping up yet. I gingerly added a few more rows of lettuce all the way to the left, careful to leave space for garlic (I hope it pops up). Thus far, I've sown green leaf, "gourmet blend", and a frillier green leaf that was leftover from last year.


Between the largest cabbage and the lettuce, I added one row of spinach stretching front to back. Peas from March 9th are planted under the left half of the trellis and I finished the right half yesterday. Many rows of beets are between the trellis and cabbages. I plan on harvesting their greens throughout the season as last year we nearly picked them clean without harming the beets. In the top right corner I planted three rows of radish and in the bottom right I planted 2 types of carrots.

The whole arrangement is slightly different from what I had originally planned. I reworked the plan after getting there last night and laying in some rows of seeds.

I figure the lettuce will be replaced by bush beans, the peas will be replaced by cucumbers on one half and squash on the other, the beets will be doing their thing through fall, ditto with the carrots, the radish will be replaced by tomato plants, the spinach will be a surprise (first year growing it), and the cabbages will fill out the rest for most of the season. In the picture above, the small cabbage-like thing farthest to the top right is cauliflower. Who knows what will come of that guy.

Oh, there is also the plan to have an eggplant seedling go in somewhere when we get the tomatoes. I am hoping to find either a Thai skinny or round variety. I don't think we'll be able to produce any of the big Italian varieties by the end of summer. I have seen other people successfully grow smaller types in neighboring plots.

Here are the traditional cabbages (two) and the brighter green Chinese cabbages (three). I expect to be harvesting the Chinese first, hopefully by summer.

Now we just have to wait and hope for a pleasant spring with sun all day and light rain at night.

By the way, there were lots of yearling kittens in the garden when I was doing my thing. A really wild looking long haired dark brown/black one with big green eyes was watching my every move.

Cha Cha Update

Cha Cha's found a very dirty sleeping spot. I'm not sure how long the plant is going to be able to take the abuse. It's shedding leaves daily. The other problem is the dirt being tracked around. I would feel bad taking away her tropical paradise but I don't feel like vacuuming every night. One good thing: she doesn't use it as a litter box.

Mao Mao is on vacation in the country this week, enjoying her freedom and some solitude. Cha Cha seems a little lonely without her.

Mao Mao and Cha Cha interacting

Mao Mao is curious but a little scared.




Sometimes they eat together.




Cha Cha takes a liking to Mao Mao's window seat.

It's a Cha Cha

We found Cha Cha two weeks ago. We thought we'd take her in, clean her up, and get her to a shelter to be adopted by a loving family. Apparently shelters in my neighborhood don't take in cats, no matter how adorable. So we're going to keep her. She's Mao Mao's new playmate.