Splitting Tree

The tree closest to the house is splitting and leaning. It leans on the wall in one direction and our house in the other. We've been taking it down a trunk at a time ('cuz it fills the bucket and it's hard work).

It's really sad. I've always liked that stand of trees. They shaded the living room and really helped cool the house. But they've been there practically forever. They were one of the first volunteers to come up (that we didn't mow down).

We've lost a number of them recently -- they've come to the end of their life span I gather and are becoming susceptible to boring weevils. Also their root systems are probably pretty tangled and taxed by now. They've been leaning away from each other for a number of years. If we realized what was happening, we might have culled the herd, as it were. But it's too late now.

A few of them are still ok, and hopefully as we take down the bad ones they'll improve or at least not get any worse. We shall see.

I got a little water on the lens taking pics of Loki out back while he helped us fix the sprinkler system. He's always so eager to help. ;-j

Loki Helps with the Sprinkler Head

I fear for the sprinkler head. ;-> Thank goodness we bought the brass one and not plastic or he'd've chewed it off by now. He can change the settings on it tho. I got a little wet taking pictures (as did the camera, sadly).

We shall see how watering goes in the future. Hopefully he'll get tired of the game. ;- j

Cherry Ripe

Ripe for the plucking.

It's Cherry picking time! Just half an hour up San Franciscito Canyon you come to Leona Valley and scads of pick-your-own cherry farms.

Steph and I went up there last weekend to pick cherries at a small family cherry farm called Amber's You-Pick Cherries. They handed us buckets and told us to go to it. Only warning: don't take the stems, just the berries.

Well those buckets would hold 5 lbs. of cherries. Surely we'd get tired long before that. Wrong! It's compulsive. There are just so many cherries -- and once you get started, it's hard to stop picking.

Amber's has 11 varieties of cherries, most of which were still available. We were encouraged to taste the cherries to see if we liked them, and I liked the deep purple ones the best -- Bings? Steph was partial to the yellow-orange ones, Raniers. But it didn't take us long to fill our buckets!

In fact, we each came home with over 6 lbs. of cherries!

It was windy -- you can see the leaves blowing.

Steph in the thick of it.

More wind-blown cherries. It was quite gusty.

A Ranier tree in front of the car.

Walking back from the port-a-places.

It's very family-friendly and picnics are encouraged.

Lots of families out for the day.

~*~

Well the cherries didn't last the week. ;- j

So Bill and I went back up to Leona Valley this on Sat. to pick some more. Amber's was sold out, but just down the road apiece was Rhodes Cherry Farm, and they were still picking. This time they gave us paper sacks -- a big mistake!

We were directed waay up the hill, but we could see there were cherries to be had closer.

Here I am plucking and plopping cherries right into the sack.

Bill found a tree he liked. I had to remind him he didn't have to pick every cherry off the tree!

It's just too easy.

I found a tree I liked. There must have been 100 lbs. of cherries on that tree!

I got real good at it. In fact, too good!

We weren't at it an hour before we knew we'd better quit. Here are our spoils.

19 lbs. of cherries!! We were lucky we had that much money along as they only take cash.

Washed and stored in the fridge (but not for long!) they fill 3 gallon ziploc bags plus a quart one to bulging. We've already worked our way thru over a quart, and thankfully we'll be divvying them up between Will and Steph and Julie and Eichling. Cherries for everyone! 8-]

Sq-ft Garden Grows...

The garden has really sprouted - we've had a lot of rains lately; our garden has been drinking it up!

Brocolli plant:

Brocolli plants:

Tomato plant - has one tomato already! Not sure if it will make it - looks like it has a spot on it - we'll watch it...

Tomato plants:

Lettuces - there are two different varieties in two squares - 4 plants per square:

Turnips - sown seeds - have to thin out:

Carrots in end squares - also sown from seeds - coming in much slower - will have to thin, too:

Fennel:

Cukes in 'bottom' 2 squares; mellon in 'top' two squares; the mellons have empty squares 'above' them - for spreading out; these would over-run into a neighboring square so the book said to allow two squares. I'm sure I'll have to coax them to grow in the right direction.

This is progress to-date. Weeding is really easy in this box.

Tina - your self-watering boxes sound interesting. Our cousin, Wanda, said she is using those this year. This space gets sun all day long - and the winds - so, I'll have to be mindful to water every day once our rains quit. Thanks for your comments! I'd like to see pics of your garden as you get it going. 8-)

Square Foot Gardening

David (white tee shirt) and his friend Jason are putting in a square foot garden for Jeane for Mother's Day. Here are her pics of the process with her commentary.

Jason did the tilling - he's used the machine before - it's quite a monster; speaking of monsters - we kept them in the house until we were done!

Jason did a good job!

Here they are shoring up the uneven ground to level the box.

Same here.

Shoveling the compost I made from behind the shed; already have a new batch "brewing" for next year - or some other need this summer...

They've added peat moss to the compost and are mixing it.

There's 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss & 1/3 vermicullite (that's the recipe from the sq-ft gardening guru.

Erecting the fencing to keep the monsters at bay!

Enter the monsters! (Tinker)

Main monster! (Scooter)

You should have seen Scooter trying to figure a way in! You could see his mind working - it was facinating... and frightening! ;-j

I think it turned out really well and the guys did a fantastic job!

I will finish up the box today by putting in the squares, stringing them along. I'll take pics of that, too. And then, of course, after I get all the veggies planted.

~*~

I kept myself busy last night with the garden. It's strung and ready to be played! ;-) Oh my poor ol' hands - I tell you, it was hard hefting the 3 40# bags of potting soil I added last night. It wasn't hard to carry the bags - just the lifting with my hands - once I got them in my arms, they were easy to carry. I then amended the dirt with some more peat moss and the vermicullite (the last two were light).

And...I wove the strings! 8-] Over-under, etc. Each direction (weft & warp?) is of one continuous string - only had to knot at the beginning and end that way for each. I did lenghwise first, then cross-wise.

Can't wait to plant. Good thing I didn't yesterday afterall b/c there was a light frost last night. I covered my veggies (sitting in front garden) with a sheet.

~*~

All of our plants are in their little squares...

Layout:

empty.....empty.....empty.....empty

fennel.....muskmellon.....empty for mellon.....empty

cucumber.....muskmellon.....spill-over.....empty

cucumber.....spaghetti squash.....spill-over.....empty

broccoli.....broccoli.....lettuces.....lettuces

broccoli.....broccoli.....green pepper.....gr pep

broccoli.....broccoli.....green pepper.....gr pep

broccoli.....better boy.....roma tomatoes .....cherry tom

The empties will be filled with carrots (across the top) and turnips in 4th row - seeds. It was really easy to plant. The bad thing is that the plants come in sets of 3 and 4 depending on the variety - that's how we ended up with odd numbers - I'll know to look for that and plan better next year. Also, we'll see what grows well and what doesn't to see what to plant next time, too.

It's supposed to t-storm today - so, now the plants are on their own to face the elements - of course, I'll watch the weather and cover them if it threatens to frost again. The ground wasn't very dewy this morning - that was good.

~*~

We had a light frost last night so I covered our garden....

Frost expected tonight again, so I'll have to do that again. I have metal skewers that worked perfectly to tent the sheet. 8-] The forecast says frost warning until 9am - but I can't keep them covered that long - but hopefully it will be ok - it's 35 degrees now - and, since they were covered, they should be "warm" enough. My neighbor didn't cover their garden - not sure what they have in there - and my neighbor across the street didn't cover her flowers in her wishing well.