Archives March 2015

This year the cold has held on and much of the wetlands are still frozen and covered in ice. This heron is one of a flock who had found an area of open water. They seemed to be hunting newly emerging amphibians or maybe small fish.
Great Blue Herons nest near here but migrate during the winter as they would not be able to feed. Our neighbors koi pond is a favorite haunt of the Heron.


Earlier in the day there were a score or more herons at this spot but by the time we arrived the number had dwindled to 2 stragglers and they took flight right away.
Learn more about the Great Blue Heron.

I photographed this Great Blue Heron in 2011 near Alexandria Bay NY.
The rain was pouring down and all I had was my d40 Nikon with the 18-55mm kit lens.

Since that time I have found better lenses are key to wild life photography. And patience.

One of the nice things about gardening is that it’s not all about gardening.
Last summer while watering the dill plants we found a caterpillar. Although we like to think of ourselves as up to date in the bug department we went to the Audubon book for an identification. It turns out it was a swallowtail butterfly caterpillar.



The butterflies lay eggs on plants favored by the caterpillar, in this case dill. It turns out that the swallowtail prefers plants in the Umbellifer family which included dill, parsley, fennel and carrots.
We brought the dill in to a safe spot so we could watch the whole affair with out interference from a hungry bird. In just a few days the caterpillar attached to the plant with 2 silken threads and began to harden into a chrysalis.



We watched for about 10 days and then with out warning the butterfly emerged from the chrysalis. We looked around and soon found the butterfly on the window sill. It had dried it’s wings but was not quite ready for flight so we removed it to a sheltered part of the garden and left it alone.
Here is a picture of the swallowtail butterfly on a piece of cardboard as we were moving it to the garden.



Next season we will keep a sharp eye out for the caterpillars and we will tell our customers to watch for them as well.

A week ago last Monday we were visited by a mob of 1st graders, most welcome visitors to the garden.
Early that morning one of the teachers from the Theresa Elementary School which is just around the corner from us, came with a request. “Could she and another teacher bring the 1st graders over for a visit?” Who could resist a visit from first graders !!
2 or 3 times a week young students parade by, hand in hand, for a walk around the block. We had often thought of inviting some of the children over but we never seemed to get the chance and now. here they were.

The teacher was Mrs. Walentuck and the other teacher was Mrs. Howard and they were in charge of about 35 or more inquisitive and very active children.
The day was blistering hot, in the high 80’s and the sun was hotter. As soon as they were down back we were met with a barrage of questions; “What’s this, what’s that, can you eat this, can I have a flower, my mom forgot my sun screen…..” It was great to see them and for the most part they were genuinely interested in the plants and gardens.

We finally split them into 2 groups, Phyllis took one and I took the other and we tried to give them an idea of what was going on from what we hoped would be a kids prospective.
They stayed for around 45 minutes but had to leave because they had another class right after that. The time went by so fast and we would have been happy to have had them longer.

Afterward the teachers brought giant thank you cards made from construction paper and with pictures of the kids in the garden. The cards were signed by all the kids.
Here are the cards.

I was going to write a post about the foolish way that Lowes is selling flowers at this time of year but that will have to wait for a day or so.

I cut my left hand index finger with scissors as I was clipping some fancy leaf geraniums for propagation because I forgot to be careful in with scissors in the greenhouse.

This particular plant is Mrs. Henry Cox and it has a very colorful leaf. For one reason or another we are left with a single plant and it is a few years old but has some healthy shoots that I wanted to clip for rooting.

In a case like this, when we have only one plant, we try to get the best yield without ruining the mother plant.
I was cutting into some very hard and old wood and was using quite a bit of force with the Fiskars garden scissors. All at once the scissors snapped shut and my finger was in the way.

I felt the pressure and held it tight because it was one of those times that you know it’s bad and you would rather not see how bad it was. I managed to keep the end of the finger gripped between my thumb and palm while I finished the last 2 cuttings.

Naturally my hands were covered with all kinds of dirt and were stained brown and sticky from handling the cuttings.

I came up to the house and washed my hands with antibacterial soap and dried it up. I let it bleed freely for a minute or so with the thought that this might clean any foreign material from the wound.

Then some band-aids and tape and it should be fine. The only problem is the cut is near the end of my finger and I need it to type. So I will take it easy and keep the posts brief for the time being.
I have had a tetanus shot within the past 10 years so that is not a worry. Tetanus shots are a good idea for people who work in soil and handle sharp tools. Thank God we do not have a giant wind chime order to tie.

It’s been a busy week, with the garden and other work around the house and yard.
We have picked lots of cukes for pickles. We grow eureka for bread and butter pickles and regal for the dills. They get washed and stored in the frig until we have enough to run a batch.
Finding the dill was a bit of a challenge.

Trying to call the grocery stores is an exercise in futility. After numerous hang ups, and goof ups, no we are not looking for dill pickles, we abandoned that approach.
We should have grown it but for some reason it was overlooked. It was a hectic spring with numerous emergencies and life happens but we will not forget next year!

We finally found some dill on Wesley Island at Cross Island Farms.
Dani, one of the owners, gave us a tour of the farm and a great deal on the dill. They sell organic vegetables, eggs, and more.

It looks like we will have enough for this batch but we will have to find some more.

The tomatoes were reaching a point where they needed some support. Many of our tomatoes like the super sweet 100s are indeterminate and tend to grow very tall. As a matter of fact a neighbor had one that was around 7 feet tall. These plants yield a lot of cherry tomatoes and especially if they are kept off the ground. In our case, where we plant 3 foot rows separated by a 3 foot grass access row, it is important to keep the plants where they are suppose to be so that we can mow between the rows. This way we can easily pick from both sides.

This means staking them with bamboo, a job I never looked forward to because the bamboo is about 1/2 inches wide and the hammer head is around an inch. Striking a solid blow every time is very difficult and the hammer head often glances off making it slow work at best and ending up with bruised hands at the worst. I thought there must be a better way.

While looking through a garden catalog I saw a post driver that is made from a length of steel pipe with one end sealed and handles on the sides. The idea is to slide the driver over the post and use the weight to drive the post. If driving a bamboo stake seems dangerous think about swinging a sledge hammer trying to hit a post. I have done it and it is not as easy as it looks.

Why not make a smaller version or the post driver for garden stakes? No reason why not so that’s what I did.

A one and a half inch piece of pipe would be wide enough so I checked with the metal supply and they had a piece that was about 2 feed long. The weight was good, not too heavy to use but enough oomph to drive the stakes. The metal supply company spun some threads on one end and I think they charged me something like $12.00 for the whole thing.

I bought a one and a half inch pipe cap for around 2 dollars from the plumbing section of a hardware store.

The cap gets threaded on the pipe. Hand tight is good enough.

The pipe is slid over the end of the stake. It’s nice to have someone handing the stakes because this method works fast.
Having a helper means there is no bending or stooping to pick up supplies.

Slide the pipe up and down to drive the stake, using the weight of the pipe to do the work.
If a stake should split the splinters are held safely inside the pipe.

The job went quick and easy compared to driving with a hammer. Now all the tomatoes are tied up with pieces of old t-shirts, just tight enough to hold them up and out of the way of the lawnmower.

Other than that we have just been busy trying to get things in order to move the “storage” greenhouse to the back of the property. That meant moving one of the boats up and putting it undercover for restoration. As a matter of fact we started a blog to document the progress. It is Collecting Fire Wood.
When fiberglass boats became popular the dealers would burn the wooden boats taken in trade thinking there was no value in these old relics.

They would strip the hardware and power then burn them in a pile.
The weather had turned more seasonal with 70’s and low 80’s and that makes working outside easier, and more fun.

The cherry tomatoes are coming in good and their first for us but they all are late compared to other gardeners. We started late this year but we are only a bit behind at this point. Growing so many cherry tomatoes was an experiment that is going well.

The main problem is how to get rid of them. Giving them to friends and family works fine but we had high hopes of selling them at farmers markets.

Farmers markets are fine to visit but for us the time spent is not productive. Our present arrangement does not allow use enough space out front for a proper vegetable stand.

So we will continue to experiment in the hopes that we can find a better spot in the future.

This year we are forced to buy basil starts to get a jump start on the season.



We have been very busy and have not been able to find the time to get anything started.
Since fresh basil is one of our favorite cooking herbs we settled on buying a 6 pack of starts to get the ball rolling.

In the past we would have had numerous flats of genovese, opal, Thai and lemon basil already to the size of first harvest but with everything going on and with no practical greenhouse there is nothing started at all.

So a week ago we found ourselves at the regional market, Syracuse NY. Unfortunately the power went out the night before so with no alarm we slept in and we were late, and the market shuts down between 2 and 3 so we were luck to find anything at all.

And if that was not enough we were in a rush and did not stop by the ATM. We had about a dollar and a half in change. But the young lady behind the table was satisfied with that and we were happy to find at least something.

When we do buy plants we look for fresh vigorous starts, with nice clean stems. We always look under the leaves for aphids and other unwanted hitch hikers. The soil should be moist and free from any hint of mold.

It’s a good idea to keep the plants in isolation for a few days after bringing them home just to be sure they are indeed healthy. Some pests can take a few day to show up. We don’t want to jeopardize the health of our other plants.

These basil plants were nice and green with big leaves and strong stems, not leggy at all. Someone had been taking care of them.

Now with our wet and miserable weather we still do not have the plants potted up but they seem happy on the window sill. We picked up a few bails of pro mix so when the dust settles from opening the store this coming weekend we will be ready to get at it, hammer and tong.