Corn

I would like to have my very own corn this year. To that end, I've built a deer exclosure.  We'll see how well it works. It's very flimsy. 

Morning Sighting

This family (or coven) of six deer tried to cross the creek and road this morning, but the volume of people traffic (including me and my dog) seemed to have turned them back- no doubt to dine in my yard instead. 

Tomato Cages

Have been deer munched so going behind a barrier.





- iPhone uPdate

Shoo!

I've got a couple of days off work and am putting a fair amount of effort into the yard. I believe that I have already done more work on the garden this year than all of last year.  Things are sprouting and growing everywhere, so it's not like I can stop and rest on my laurels.

The deer are a huge problem. They are shameless, and they are voracious. There is a path where they come up into my yard from Paul Robbins' yard, wander through the front, around to the side, poop there, and maybe detour briefly to the back bed behind the house. They have eaten back my tomato plants, but not killed them. I need to figure out how to protect them, while still allowing myself access to them. So I'm contemplating a small construction project.

The back bed has corn and beans. I thought that bed would work because the tulips that I planted years ago have come up each year and bloomed without getting eaten. But shortly after things sprouted, the deer made at least a brief pit stop, chomping the bean stalks and making big footprints in the bed. Before I left on vacation, I partially wrapped the bed in bird netting. That looks ugly but seems to have worked. I returned to find many weeds, mostly bindweed and the fleshy thing (saxifrage?).  I had to work my way through the netting to weed it, and cursed the infernal clingy stuff throughout. I bought supplies to make something better, but don't know what best to do.

I also want to protect the tomatoes, and yesterday I planted zucchini and sunflowers in the other small squares by the street. I know from experience they will need to be protected. I'm wondering about something for each bed, or something that covers the whole territory. But whatever I do, I want better aesthetics than I've got with the bird netting.

Since I have something ugly that works for now with the corn, the sunflowers and tomatoes and zukes are the priority.

Yesterday I had sauteed zucchini (from Whole Foods) a myriad of herbs from the garden. Yum!

I have blueberries marching towards ripeness, and many apples. I think it would be good to try to protect a few of each. Not sure if I can.

Random Garden Pix from the past couple of months

Spring Cleanup Continues

Got the grass mowed finally!  (Never got the last cut in last fall.)

Took out the trees along the north side of the house - a hickory, and the other maybe was an elm?  They were surprisingly big - more than 4" diameter.

Turned over the back bed. I took the invincible tulips and put them inside the fence in a line along the back.

New roof tomorrow!

Spring Blooms

Apple blossoms against my house

Dogwood

Green and Gold, which has settled right in

Poppies and Bluebells

Lilies bought this year

I wanted to capture the shade of red for reference

This brave little oak tree is the designated successor to the silver maple that had to come down. It's a volunteer from the big oak and I've been nuturing it for a couple of years.

Some kind of carex?

The native carolina vioet

Camassia

These are total volunteers (the dandelion came out).