Rain and Lavender

Just got back from the Lavender Festival at Los Poblanos and Los Ranchos. We learned how to make a yurt by hand from Dr. Bruce Milne, Director of Sustainability Studies at UNM! Yurts are uber cool!

The wind is coming up and it's starting to rain, thankfully!

Happy Summer Solstice!

Happy Summer Solstice everyone! It dawned cool and pink a few minutes ago. It's 60 in the Garden Shack, some clouds. Still no rain last night. We have buddage! The Rattlesnake Pole Beans have beautiful purple and pink flowers on them, the tomatoes on the porch have five or six buds, the Caserta squash, one of the pumpkins & a sugarbaby watermelon are all blooming! There are also new flowers on the oregano (I'll be cutting those back tonight). Have a great longest day of the year!

Where's Mike?

This morning dawned crisp & coolish so I threw on a sweater & ran out to the garden to see if Mike was enjoying the new dill plants that I bought and planted for him yesterday. But...Mike is missing. I searched in the dill, fennel and parsley & so far, no Mike. I hope he hasn't become Jay food. The Jays were drinking out of the water tank this morning and it's close to the herb garden. Hmmmm....

We have new mysteries to solve however. In preparation to planting the San Marzano tomatoes, I went out the front door to turn on the water at the east side of the house. On returning for the plants I ran into this guy. It looks like a Mournful Sphinx Moth Enyo lugubris lugubris but they aren't supposed to be here! This is what the caterpillar will look like if he finds a mate and she lays eggs.

Also, while thinning out the garbanzos and getting the extras ready to give to friends, all of the white winged doves in the snag suddenly took off like bats outta hell! Sure enough, not a second later, a Cooper's Hawk streaked by all tight and streamlined like a jet fighter. She missed the doves and lazily circled back around a few times. I wish she'd focus her attention on the house sparrows. But there it is...I can't really manage what lives and dies here. IF (and that's a big if) I pay attention to little things like micro-environments and water, some of my plants will survive for a time and if that happens, insects will surely follow. The birds will eat the insects and each other. I will eat the fruit of my labor, save some of my seeds and the whole thing will begin again next year. I've committed to growing organically and sustainably. This little pastoral paradise is NOT a movie or a glossy garden design magazine. This is life in its wild and green glory. This is farming. Who knew that farming could be so entertaining?

Creature Feature Continued

So I think we may have solved the mystery around "Mike" the Monarch Butterfly caterpillar (I felt I had the right to name him, since he was eating my dill). Seems that Mike is not a Monarch butterfly (nor will he ever be) at all. He looks like a Black Swallowtail, which is interesting because I've seen some flying around the house. I am trying to upload another picture of Mike type caterpillar from a butterfly conservation blog (the program won't let me right now), It's www.butterflygardeningandconservation.com. The site describes this caterpillar's life cycle and habits. Sure enough, "Mike" is attracted to dill, fennel and parsley, all three of which I have growing in the herb bed. Also, according to our Field Guide to the Plants and Animals of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque, Black Swallowtails are common here. I've now got a sneaky suspicion regarding the "bird droppings" that I've been noticing for the last few weeks on the Caserta Squash and wild grapes. They may not be bird droppings at all. Oh boy!

Other creatures are enjoying our farm during these halcyon days of June. Beside the truly amazing number of ant and beetle species(we've had a Ten-lined June Beetle hanging out by the front door lately), several species of birds, lizards, toads and mice quite happily either wander in and out, or have set up shop. The occasional skunk wanders in for a visit now and again. By its web I "think" we have an absolutely amazingly talented orb spider in the west side yard. The east side yard seems to be the preferred environment for a wolf spider or two and some centipedes.

The Western Scrub Jays who built their nest in the cypress trees on the east side of the house are still here, or at least their fledges are. Chuck and I aren't sure, but suspect they may be double clutching this year. Swallows are nesting above my head as I write this and I just watched a kingbird capture and devour a huge bug (it looked like a moth but could be a cicada). The ladder-backed woodpeckers (we’ve had Downy and Northern Flickers too) were here this morning and continue to harvest their stash of acorns out of the Russian Olive snag that Chuck insisted (happily, I gave in) we allow to remain standing.

This snag is a perch for nearly all of our avian visitors; gold finches, white wing and collared dove (arrgggghhh), blue grosbeak, Cooper's hawk and a very occasional oriole. We also receive semi-regular visits from our neighborhood roadrunner who seems to find the hunting successful due to the fecundity of our subsidized house finches and European sparrows :-)

Creature Feature

Last Sateurday I bought some plants out at my fav garden oasis ~ Plants of the Southwest. I wanted some dill, so I bought two plants, even though they were crawling with butterfly catapillars. I chose two plants that didn't have catapillars on them, brought them home and confidently plopped them in the ground where they proceeded to flourish. Yesterday, I walked out to water and the foliage on one of the baby dill plants is completely stripped. It was obvious immediately what the problem is, because the culprit was and continues to be happily and greedily munching away in broad daylight. Incredible! The little bugger is brightly colored and not at all well camoflaged. Even I could pick him out at 50 paces. A Jay could probably see him at 100 yards, and yet....he continues munching in his merry way with complete and utter impunity. What is this? I thought it was a monarch, but now looking at him compared to other images on the net, his patterns don't look quite the same. Is it a Monarch or not? At any rate, even though it's quite obvious that he is going to destroy my dill, I cannot bring myself to despose of him. Much too beautiful. I think I'll just wait and watch what happens. Besides, it'll give me an excuse to go back to Plants of the Southwest this weekend.

Kind of Quiet

It's been pretty quiet on the gardening front. Plants are just growing along at their own pace. Bailey dug up two of the lemon cucumbers (BAD DOG). Found some squash bug eggs on the underside of the Caseta squash the other day and have been monitoring daily and wiping them with a biodegradable soap solution. The squash is blooming! Still no rain. It's ranged from about 62-95 in the Garden Shack, but only tomatoes and peas in there right now.

Poblanos are up and hardening-off on the porch along with more basil. The basil is growing S-L-O-W-L-Y this year. I'm impatient! My self-seeded thyme looks like it will fail, but the coreopsis seed from last year is definitely coming up! YAY!!!! Sage, dill, chives and evening primrose planted last weekend are all doing quite well.

Peas and beans have all grown about 2” inches this week.

I'm thinning this weekend and giving the extras to friends. Anyone need some plants?

Sunny with a chance of more sun

62.5 Garden Shack. Overcast, high clouds.
Black Valentine stringbeans (west side) are all up as are most of the sugarsnap peas (east side) in either of the side yards. The pumpkins and gourds are too. Still no sign of the coreopsis which was my own seed.

Used most of the chard and mustard greens in the caldo verde that I made Sunday. Just in time, 'cuz we've got ourselves some white flies.

Garden shack. The NM #6s are coming up. Some (homegrown) thyme. Still only 2 San Marzano tomatoes. Still no lemon balm, sage or Poblanos in the Garden Shack.

Hardening off on the porch are San Marzano tomatoes and basil. They are both doing well. I think I'll try containers for some of the tomatoes and try each variety at different porches.

All seedlings are still standing even after the visit from the skunk last night. We'll see......

Tuesday night 6/8/10 95.5 @6:30

Nice evening. It was 100.5 in the Garden Shack a half hour ago. 1 new San Marzano and several new NM #6s are up. YAY! The yellow pear tomatoes that I pulled out from the porch to harden off were dry as toast. Better put them back in the shade.

Looking for a really nice tarragon chicken recipe. Anyone have one?