Dear Bindweed,

Oh sure, you're cute. With your little candy-striped bells.

But you and I are sworn enemies, so I shall rip you from the soil by the fistful and strangle you thusly:


Several hours of hand-to-hand weed combat later, the big bed is mostly rid of the weeds and garlic that had taken over.

Found a chrysalis in the weeds and relocated it to the butterfly chamber, hung it in the pear tree.
Good luck, buddy.

Lots and lots of ladybug larvae hatched today on the bunny hutch. Here's a pupae.

And here are larvae.

Peas are starting to climb the bed frame trellis.

Vintage Wine tomato is blooming. This one was started from seed by Carol.

Pear tree's about to bloom.

Strawberries are doing their thing.

Found Tigerina sleeping in the planter. Same planter on the same spot that we found her five years ago as a tiny little kitten with frightened blue eyes.

Here's the gardener's rest. After a long day of weed termination, it's a nice place to sit with a good glass of California sangiovese.

A mouse walks into a pub....

It's Jen again from Half Moon Bay. This week has been a lot of fun watching the progress of the little raised box garden. We've seen the emergence of cucumbers, lots of peas, beans, carrots, garlic, nasturtiums, sunflowers, zucchini and the continued growth of hoards of wildflowers and the tomatoes (I purchased starts that were well developed and flowering, as I don't yet trust myself starting from seed).

Unfortunately, 4 days ago I uncovered the garden only to find that something was munching on the sunflower seedlings. Spoke to Carol (aka mom), who thought it may be snails. She recommended I put out a beer bath for them (beer in a shallow dish), where they could drink themselves silly and drift off to snail heaven. So I did.

The next day, the beer was pretty much gone out of one dish, the rest of the sunflower starts eaten, a zucchini start was munched, an onion unearthed, and the bean babies had been massacred. Disgusted, I consulted with mom again, and we figured that the only thing routing through the soil would be a mouse. Since I live in an agricultural area, there are a lot of field mice, so it was highly likely that a mouse thought it had just found its own personal pub, protected from the owls and elements in the greenhouse, plenty of beer to go around, and loads of munchies!

So let's just say I left it some really special munchies last night and I don't think it will be back anytime soon.

Here's how the tomatoes are looking:

Peas are growing fast!

Zucchini-ettes

Cool bean!

Cucumber cuties

Very cute lil' nasti!
Saving a drop until later.

SWEET DREAMS, SWEET PEAS

Here's a nifty bit of recycling: this folding cot on wheels has been languishing by our shed for a year or so. Today I wheeled it into the garden to begin a new life as the trellis for my peas.
Aesthetically this might be a deal-breaker for some gardeners, but I think it'll look great once the peas climb all over it, and wheeling it in and out of the garden is easy-peasy.

As always, you can click the photo to see a larger view.

FAT BOTTOM FARM, OREGON (FBF)

May at Carol's Fat Bottom Farm in Eastern Oregon is spectacular. The next three posts are an attempt to the show the scale and diversity that one woman has accomplished and maintains. To be at Fat Bottom Farm is to feel very lucky indeed to share this private sanctuary. The eats are good, too!

This is a broad view of the garden from the southwest corner. Note the rows of irises midway. More of those to follow.This is the "cool garden" in the southwest corner of the garden, where the lettuces, onions, brassicas and peas live. Note the ladder and string arrangement for the peas and cukes.

The raspberry patch behind the lettuce.

Next section is tomatoes (still in hotcaps), beans and peppers.

Baby beans.





















Rhubarb in bloom.

Squashes, melons and quinoa are coming up soon here.This is the hops monster at the back of the garden.Here's the herb garden.
Here's a view from the garden across the lawn to the orchard, and a view from the orchard back to the garden.


Carol in her orchard.

Below the orchard is the creek, which is very high and full of cattails supporting the red-winged blackbirds' nests. Also a good place to spot horned owls and herons.

Or a mama quail, with droplets of dew on her back, on her nest of 18 eggs.

Various garden views.

Even the juniper tree is bearing fruit.

IRISES (FBF)

Fat Bottom Farm is also home to an assortment of irises standing in pretty rows in the garden.