So here it is, mid-June, and the gardens here are going a bit crazy. everything is growing fast thanks to frequent rain and relatively mild temperatures. We have had critter problems, though. Here’s our pole beans, for example.
They should be much bigger than this but something, we suspect rabbits, ate the top leaves off the plants after they got about 4 inches tall. The red stuff you see on the plants and soil up there is crushed dried red pepper, a type normally used for making kimchi. I buy the stuff in 2 pound bags off Amazon. Whatever critters are eating our plants seem to dislike this stuff enormously. It’s a relatively inexpensive way to repel the little buggers without having to resort to traps or toxic chemicals. You definitely do not want to handle the stuff with your bare hands if you have cuts or scrapes, and make damned sure you wash your hands thoroughly after scattering it around because if you accidentally rub your eyes… Well let’s just say you’ll have the delightful experience of learning what it’s like to be pepper sprayed.
We put in lots of cilantro this year. We were told by someone who supposedly “knows these things” that it would repel the critters eating our plants. It doesn’t. But it does taste amazing! I’m always astonished by the difference in taste and smell between the home grown stuff and even the “fresh” herbs we get at the grocery store. We bought a couple of bunches of fresh cilantro at Walmart in late winter for a special Mexican dinner we did and it was really rather sad. Had very little flavor. This stuff will knock your socks off. Bright, brilliant flavor and aroma… Damn I need to stop talking about food. I’m getting hungry.
MrsGF ran a batch through the dehydrator to see how that works out.
We planted quite a few carrots this year. We need to get out there and thin them out or it’s going to be a mess. Rabbits never bother carrots. Despite the Bugs Bunny cartoons, rabbits don’t like carrots all that much and they hate the green tops.
The onions… I don’t know what’s going on with the onions this year but they’ve been going nuts. I looked back at photos from the last couple of years and this year the onions are literally twice as big as they were at this time in previous years. I’m not complaining. I’m just wondering why?
The beets got hit hard by the critters. Almost all the beet tops were chewed off before we noticed and started putting out the pepper flakes. Some managed to survive but they look rather poorly. Just to make sure we get something we planted more. A bit late but we should still get something.
The celery is looking amazing as well this year. It’s already about 8 inches tall and looking beautiful. Celery is another one of those plants where there is no comparison between the flavor of the store bought varieties and the home grown ones. Interestingly, people are so used to the insipid flavor and aroma of grocery store celery that when they encounter really good, full flavor celery they think it’s too intensely flavored and don’t like it.
Let’s wrap this up with Doofus Cat…
That’s what I’ve started to call her because, well, that’s what she is, a doofus. I love her dearly and she’s a sweet heart but let’s face it, she’s just not very bright. The other morning she was trying to lick up a dark spot on the wood floor in the dining room because she thought it was a cat treat. Sigh…
She has her own comfy pillow back there in the office that she can snooze on. You can see it just to the lower left. But she’s decided she’d rather nap on top of the printer for some reason.
She is also a big kitty. She’s bigger than a lot of the dogs in the neighborhood. She weighs about 13 pounds and it’s all muscle. I’ve seen her do a standing high jump from the living room floor to the mantle above the fireplace, almost 5 feet straight up, without even straining herself.
grouchyfarmer 
Looks to me like your gardening is paying off very well and the cat is gorgeous.
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The garden is doing the best that I’ve seen in years. And the cat, oh, yeah, she’s absolutely amazing!
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I swore off gardens a long time ago. My folks had a “truck garden,” about the size of Texas, and I was the master tiller/hoe operator and sevin dust spreader. I learned to hate it.
But I can appreciate that others do a fine job of it, and seem to enjoy it.
My wife, she has acquired a succulent addiction. The ding dang things are showing up in massive numbers. So, she decides she wants a greenhouse. Well, she bought one, 15×7 from Amazon to try out. It wasn’t very expensive, it’s very lightweight, and I’ve spent the last several days sweating my ass off getting it up. It can be setup pretty quickly if all you want to do is put it together. But nope. I see all the things that have to be done to make it stable, and secure enough, to not wind up in the next county the first time the wind blows harder than a good burrito fart.
So, we put the GH frame together, and I made a treated 2×4 framework at the bottom of the GH frame. Leveled it. Fabbed 4 stakes out of 2′ long rebar, and 4 half inch nuts/bolts were welded together to make eye bolts (had to be half inch bolts because that size has a big enough of a nut, to drive the rebar stakes through.) Ran the fabbed eyebolts through the 2×4’s, hammered the stakes in with a 3lb hammer. Took my 3/4 truck to town and got a ton of washed river gravel. Wheelbarrowed the gravel in and spread it. Then put the cover on. They tell you to dig a trench and bury the cover material overhang, but I have bags for hauling shells, I still have river gravel in the bed of the truck, a light goes off, and I spent some time filling sack with river gravel and using those to weigh down the material overhang. Digging a trench in the heat? Or fill some sacks (you already have,) with gravel you need to get rid of anyway?
Many moons ago I made 2 4×8 tables, and C clamped them together to make a drum riser for a gig we were playing. Those tables have served me well in the shop all these years. One was sacrificed yesterday. I ripped it down the middle lengthwise, and made 2 2×8 tables out of it. I still have to go to town and get 8 5″ bolts to put the extra 4×4 legs on. Oh, and put a brand new coat of burnt oil on the tables. Yes, burnt oil. There will be a lot of watering, and leaking, and condensation, and have you ever heard the term oil and water don’t mix? Also, FYI, burnt oil actually looks pretty darn good when it soaks into the wood. Sure, I could go to town and spend 80 bucks on some commercial treatment, but I have burnt oil on hand, and it costs me nothing.
I’ve been doing all this in the afternoons, when the area gets some shade, didn’t get back in the house till 8 PM last night.
Have I mentioned, it’s been hot? Just the sweat equity I have put into this thing has been enormous.
So, I’m still not done with that damn thing, but I’m getting there. I have put in one simple demand, I want some tomatoes! Is that asking too much?
Oh, I’ve spent well over $350 on this thing to date, over what it cost her to get it. I am sure there will be more 😉 But, she’s a pretty good gal, and doesn’t ask for much.
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Oh wow! You should write that up on your blog! Hope you took pictures along the way. Sounds like a project we might have tackled back when we still had the farm but way to ambitious for me these days. Well, I say that now, but just wait a month or so when I try mounting 10 or so solar panels on the garage roof. Wasn’t sure MrsGF would okay that because that’s going to end up costing well over $1,000 materials even doing the work myself and between the roof, the new dishwasher, new computer, etc. we already blew a pretty good wad of cash here this year.
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I need to modify my earlier comment. The $350 total I mentioned, I mistakenly added some expense there I had in another very recent project, which was re-flooring a 12×12 outbuilding. I’s more like $120 added expense on the GH.
And a cat might be a doofus, but it’s still 100% cat. And cats are cool…even if they might have quirky ways.
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Quirky — That’s the term I should use! Less insulting than doofus. She’s over here now rubbing against my ankles because she thinks there might be cat treats in my coffee. Damn that cat is big! When she stands on her hind legs her head is right up at the level of the dining room table.
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I have a cat that got up to a bit over 30 lb. We cut him back, got him down to the upper teens. His belly doesn’t drag the floor when he walks now…
We just let him eat what he wanted, we kept food out. We had to stop that and limit his intake. Some critters don’t go overboard with it, some will.
Sounds like your cat is just big, not necessarily obese.
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She defintely is not obese. The Charlie, the other won, is, but Mercy is as sleek and athletic as they come, just unusually large for a domestic house cat, especially a female one. Even the vet went “oh wow” when she saw her for the first time. I’m fascinated with watching her walking because she walks like a panther or tiger with that long, loping stride, always on the alert for anything. She is one impressive cat. But then she does something utterly ridiculous like trying to lick up one of the knots in the wood floor because she thinks its a cat treat.
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I can appreciate that. I have my quirks too, but I know a knot in the wood when I see one…
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There is a blogger (you may know who he is) who has occasionally posted pictures of his cat … and that creature is HUGE! IMO, that’s unhealthy. (In fact, the cat has diabetes!) It’s been years since I owned a cat, but I don’t recall leaving food out all day … except perhaps whatever the cat didn’t eat at regular feeding time. But beyond that?
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We leave food out for them all the time and it hasn’t been a problem. Both of them are “nibblers”. and eat a bit whenever they feel like it. fWe just fill the bowl up when it’s empty. Weight hasn’t been an issue since they moved in here, either. Mercy is pretty much the ideal weight for a cat her size. Charlie could stand to lose a couple of pounds but also she hasn’t gained any weight either so we aren’t too worried about it. The vet says both are in excellent health so we don’t really worry about it.
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Well it went fine for a long time with food out all day. Next thing you know it wasn’t. Fat cat. We cut him back, and took away the dry food, which he got addicted to. “I need more man, I’m jonesing man, meowwwww.” 😉
Dry food is a treat now.
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