Wednesday, June 17, 2009

June 17, 2009

Hmm, if you haven't noticed, there are no pics in my ever-popular Potato Bin page.  I was sure I wouldn't have problems since my garden buddy that hosts this blog site offered up her site to house my potato bin pics so they would never go down.  You may recall I had to spread the wealth after the Times article caused my file server site to overload my bandwidth (I'm cheap and won't pay for service since this is a completely free site, no inflow or outflow).  Anyway, I've emailed Judy to see what's up with the pics.  I have them elsewhere if necessary, but I don't recall the order they're in so it'd be wrong if I replaced the links back to either of my pic services.  Rest assured that the pics will be back as soon as possible.

As for the garden, I took care of some spring cleaning in the cool weather after the heat we've had of late.  In fact, according to Cliff Mass, we've had 29 day without rain, which was a record for spring in Seattle.

I needed to rip out some bolting spinach.



And as you can see, the spinach leaf miners had their way with the spinach yet again, so it didn't go into the compost.  Oh, and I didn't even attempt to save seed because this is a hybrid.

Another plant that unfortunately needed clean-up was the transplanted Spanish Lavender. 



I had big hopes for a small plant that wouldn't spread, but would attract bees like nobody's business to complete the bluberry triangle for proper cross pollination.  Unfortunately it's too late in the season for proper transplanting and this plant is too old to transplant well.  After hearing both those things from my Aunt the flower queen, I didn't feel so bad about killing it.  However, I do plan on buying a new one next  year. I love the space it gives me in the blueberry bed.  Heck, I'd have room for another blueberry plant, though I think I want to plant strawberries in that bed in front of the blueberries.  It would cut down on weeds and I could make a nice patch next to this lavender plant.

Lastly, I had to clean up some errant bumble bees.  They have found their way into our laundry room that's right under their nest. 



So far I've found three huge ones, two of which I've successfully transplanted outside.  My dad says as a kid they would catch them in their bare hands and wouldn't be stung as long as the bees couldn't see light. I'm not that brave, hehe, so I used a gallon mayonase jar, hehe.  Anyway, I say for their sake because if they are coming in through the holes in the ceiling for the pipes, that means they're in the attic and have got to go.  I really want them to have come in through the open back door and made their way to the laundry room (unlikely) trying to get back to their nest.  I am still holding out hope that I can keep this nest until they abandon it in the fall.  They did great on the blueberries and fruit trees, but I've got tomatoes and melons for them to pollinate for me soon.  Grrrr.

Hope you've had a chance to do some spring cleaning (the garage is another matter all-together, hehe). Enjoy your garden!

4 comments:

  1. Sinfonian,

    Thank you for vising my blog! :)

    You're right, the leaf miners did do a lot of work on your spinach! I managed to pick mine while they were young but the first batch bolted so quickly, they never got a chance to really get that big.

    I threw out my lavender in the beginning of the season too. It looked really twiggy like yours and all kinds of bugs would make nests in it so I just tossed it out haha. I did love the scent of it though so I'll probably get a new one as well.

    Would the bees really be a big problem if they're in the attic? I have bees that anually nest in the side shed every year so it's become the "bee shed". I put all my tools in the garage and leave that shed empty so I can have bees for pollination. :D

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  2. Bees in the attic... oh dear... better than bees in your bonnet... giggle... I'm just being a goof tonight!

    Nope, that's not going to be fun to get rid of them... sorry!

    I think that the robins are eating up the grasshoppers that have been invading my beds. I'm so grateful for that!!! Just found a nice bird bath to put out by my flowers... hoping to encourage the robins to hang out... and eat more bugs!

    Happy Gardening! Toni in Wyoming

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  3. Leaf miner have been really bad this year. My one row of beets was almost leafless at one point from the little buggers. Its a bit of a shame the bee's choose to nest in your house, definitely not the place you want them. I recall cleaning out the basement when we first moved to this house and finding a huge paper hive were the gas line comes into the house, not in use thankfully. I wouldn't have wanted to be living here when that hive was in action! I think I went through 3 tubes of silicon sealing everything up after finding that.

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  4. Glad to see you are out in the garden more lately! I wish my spinach that is being allowed to go fully to seed - would hurry up and get it done! I would like to pull the plants to make room for the mid summer planting of carrots, but the seeds are not developed yet and so the messy looking stand gets to stay even longer yet.

    Sure hope the bees are not in the attic (for your sake and theirs!)

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