Ick

Today I spent a half hour cleaning the woods of poison ivy. I picked up a deer tick for my trouble. I wish I knew which plants they tend to climb on. But I suppose if they are anything like the wood tick Gabe is looking at above, on our screen door, they'll climb whatever they find themselves at the foot of.



Really? The screen door? The inside of the screen door? You are one dumb bug.




I guess I've lost my energy for getting all squeamy when encountering ticks. The best I could muster was a tired sigh. I fetched a wood chip to carry the critter, and learned something new: playing with wood ticks is rather fun.

What amused me so was transferring the tick back and forth between the screen and wood chip. How easily the tick rolls from one surface to another! The way they grab on is somewhat like a monkey crossed with Velcro.

I'll be getting a poison ivy rash on my elbow in a few days, no doubt, since I let a vine smack me there. But I think it will be worth it. The infestation back there diminishes every year. Now if only I could say the same for the ticks.

What a Difference a Vacation Makes

If you have an awesome neighbor who takes great care of your plants while you're away, then going away for a week can be an amazing experience. When you see your garden every day it can be hard to appreciate just how much is going on. The above image is of the garden when we left for Texas ten days before this next image.

The corn literally exploded while we were gone, going from about shin high to waist high. Having never grown corn before the growth is unreal for me to behold.

Here is another view of the corn from before...

...and after. I pulled back a little on this image to show how the tomatoes are also taking off. The hot weather has really been what the garden was waiting for. While I still haven't put the Solar Pod to any use aside from killing things, the Solar Cones did a great job of accelerating the various melon plants.

I've tried watermelon half-heartedly before and failed miserably at it. These three watermelon plants are already doing way better than anything I've grown before and it isn't even July yet. The early melon varieties are already flowering, though I failed to get a good picture of them. All in all I'm very pleased with how the cones helped them along through. the cool spring weather

I really like interplanting, but it occasionally goes horribly wrong when you're planting new varieties. I'll have to wait for fruit set to tell you which variety of squash I planted with my pole beans, but they are out of control. The saving grace is one of the vines can train through the corn, another through the garlic, and another through some empty space left by the failed parsnip bed. With the length of the vines already I have doubts as to my ability to keep them free of vine borers. I've killed two adults already that were tanking up on the nearby milk-weed flowers, but I know if I've killed two there are many many more laying eggs, which are damned hard to find.


The Earth Box tomatoes continue to do very well. The black cherries are taller than me now with the help of the box, and about as tall if you take the box away. I'm 6'5" so they're doing great for New England. Though I'm not sure how I'm going to support any additional growth. I'm holdining a harvest of snap peas. Oregon Sugar Pod II to be exact. I can't say enough good things about this variety of pea. They taste great even when you harvest them late, as I did since we were away. They're incredibly prolific, compact, and heat tolerant. While I'll keep trying new varieties this is a staple for me.

Here I am tucked in amongst the corn, with the Oregon Sugar Pod II Pea plants in the foreground.

The happy gardener has many peas!

A Passion for Growing

The ground was bare and frozen stiff this morning. I am worried about the strawberries, which I neglected to cover in straw for the winter. It was hard to get inspired to take care of them at the end of the season after the animals had eaten every last strawberry.

But now the snow is falling again. Hopefully it'll keep up enough to give the strawberries some protection.

But back to fond memories of the past growing season! Here's a little plant that really grew on me:



It's some sort of passionflower. I bought it, of all places, at the grocery store, on a silly whim. I hope I left the tag on it, because it looks like there are several varieties of passionflower, at least one of which are native. Hopefully it's Passiflora incarnata, purple passionflower.

So I was seduced into buying a $10 plant I knew nothing about. I then plunked it unceremoniously into a corner of the veggie garden and proceeded to neglect it through the heat of the summer. It failed to do anything of interest, so I ignored it. Then in September or October, I did a double-take at the six-foot vine that seemed to have shot up the fence overnight. That one branch of green continued to grow as other plants in the yard were going dormant. And the deep green color stayed until I was forced indoors by cold weather.



These plants have amazing, colorful flowers, and they are rumored to have edible fruit, but at this point I'm in love with it's hand-shaped leaves and elegant coiling tendrils.

I hope it won't be too massive for the fence to support.