Taking a Break

April and I are headed down to Sunriver with the extended family for a week's worth of vacation. April's Mom, Liz, is going to take care of the watering, cat feeding and chicken feeding duties. She gets three eggs a day as partial payment.

I mowed and weeded the corn last night after work in preparation of being gone a week. The corn is a mixed bag right now, but in retrospect it does look like it's going to be "knee high by July." I did add some organic plant food in hopes of kicking it in the butt a little to urge it on.

Something doesn't need urging is our volunteer sunflower in the middle of the front middle bed. I swear the thing grew three to four feet more just since last Sunday. Here's a parting shot of me standing next to it with my kitty, Bo.

First 'Mato of the Summer

Way earlier than last summer, as I stripped four of the six tomatoes, I found two green tomatoes on two separate plants. This has to be the earliest green 'matos I've ever had.


Isn't she pretty?

A Respite From Watering

I was awakened by an unusual noise early this morning: water dripping. A nice band of showers swept through late last night/early this morning. It was a healthy does of rain, enough that I did not have to get up and water this morning before going to work. However, it also rained enough that I decided to not ride my bike into work. I thought I may have wussed out a little bit as I drove in on a dry freeway, but my bike does not have fenders and my latest look at the weather radar shows that more showers are on their way. The Channel 8 weatherman blew that forecast. He stated that the first band of clouds would not have any rain and if we got any at all it would come early this evening.

Oh well, it all added up to my being able to sleep in a bit longer this morning and that was welcome. I did get some good hoeing and hand weeding in last night, working until after 8 pm. That left us pondering what to do about dinner at such a late time. So we punted and went over to a wonderful little restaurant on SE Belmont, Wild Abandon. We picked that particular place because they were participating in Bites for Rights, a benefit for Basic Rights of Oregon ("BRO"). We each had an appetizer and some wine and some of that money went to BRO. The food was fantastic and their prices are very reasonable. I strongly recommend this place.

A View of the Garden Mid-June

As promised, here are some updated pictures I took on Monday which happened to be mid-June.

First our "greens bed" with romaine on the left, buttercrunch lettuce in the middle and arugula on the right.


And here is a view of our garlic and dry beans.

The potatoes are doing great this year. This is a view of our upper back corner in which I planted our blue potatoes back in early/mid March.


Here are a couple of our tomatoes with some chili peppers in the foreground.


My birthday was last week and my Mother-in-law gave me this cool little critter. I think fits right in.


And a view of his snout.

I just love this colorful front corner of the front bed.

And I'll finish it off with a shot of our beautiful yellow rose.

Mid June and Garden is Rolling Right Along

I will endeavor to upload pictures tonight that I took on Monday. The garden is really filling in now. We planted a bunch more flowers last weekend to provide more color more tasty stuff for pests to go after instead of our food. Actually April planted all the flowers. We have one tomato plant that is looking scrawny, but the rest are really starting to take off and I even have a few blossoms. I'm going to strip the bigger tomato plants this weekend and work in some organic plant food into the soil around the scrawny 'mato and into the ground around the sweet corn.

We've been munching on salads almost every night with our sorrell, buttercrunch lettuce, broccoli and peas. We are almost through the broccoli, so I have to decid what to plant there next. I may try some more beets from seed. Our beets and cabbages that we planted from starts are all looking healthy and strong.

Tonight, it's time to for my weekly session with the hoe. It worked well last week.

I've Got a Sharp Hoe

When we got home yesterday afternoon from our trip to Sacramento, I got out my metal file and sharpened up my hoe. I did a little bit of hoeing then to get proof of concept. When I got home tonight from work, I hoed the rest of main two front beds. Then I hand weeded in the areas really close to plants. In less than two hours I had weeded both big beds. Cool.

I need to weed the corn tomorrow, but after that I get to turn my energies to other areas in the yard.

And tonight, we had our first full-on salad with just stuff from the garden. The salad consisted of sorrel, broccoli, peas and a bit of butter crunch lettuce. April added some bleu cheese dressing, bleu cheeese and parmesan cheese which really balanced out the lemony flavor of the sorrel. Yum. It was so cool to eat what has come from our land.

Feral Rooster of Oaks Bottom and the 3 W's of Gardening

This morning I rode my bike to work and my route takes me through the upper parking lot of Oaks Bottom on Milwaukie Ave. As I rolled through the lot on my way to the bike path, I stopped to chat with a gentleman who was walking his two dogs. I asked if he had seen the feral chickens I thought I had witnessed a couple of weeks ago. Just after he said no, he looked up said, "Wait, there's one right now." Lo and behold, a rooster was foraging around the edge of the area. Thus, I now have independent verification of at least one feral rooster residing in Oaks Bottom or at least on its fringes. We both wondered how long it would survie until either a coyote or a bald eagle would get it. I'm guessing somebody got backy chicks and one of them turned out to be a rooster which are forbidden to keep under Portland's laws. They probably let the rooster go to get rid of it.

As for the garden, we are now in the zone of the three W's: water, weed and wait (or watch). All of the first planting is in and all seeded plants have sprouted except for the most recent planting of potatoes and I expect to see them by next week. So now it is the routine of watering in the mornings when needed (and boy have we needed it these last two weeks), beginning the cycle of weeding and waiting for the crops to mature. There is some aesthetic yard work to be continually done, but that will get done as I get to it through the rest of the spring, summer and fall.

And because the garden work is now limited to that, we can escape for a long weekend down in Sacramento. We are driving down tomorrow for two primary purposes. For me, it is to watch the Intercollegiate Rowing Association championship regatta which is the national championships for men's collegiate rowing. In its 114 year existence, this regatta has never been held on the West Coast, until this year. For April, she will be visiting her high school, Loretto, and some high school friends because earlier this year, the order of nuns that own and operate the school announced that the school will be closed down for good after this year. And they mean it. The property has already been sold to a charter school which will take over the campus next fall.

On our way home, we are stopping in Redding to visit a friend that will soon be living in Santa Monica and then stopping in Ashland for the evening to spend the night with a friend ours who also has chickens. While we are on our trip, April's mom will come over and take care of our cats and our chickens as well as water the garden as needed.

Until next week...