March 2013 – Cat's Garden

Cat C L Uncategorized March 30, 2013

The weather must be changing, even if it doesn’t seem like it sometimes. Last night we saw our first scorpion in the house. We don’t get a lot of them, but because of where we are we do get scorpions. We do have a pest control system built into the house walls so that keeps most of the bugs away. But last night I saw the first scorpion of the season in the house. Bill stepped on it since I was barefoot – no more worry about that one. But we must be changing seasons for them to show up.

The weather has been strange. The past couple of days have been overcast but warm, in the 70’s. Last night only got down to 62, so that is a change in temp. Especially since earlier this week we had night time temps down in the low 30’s. They keep saying we may get rain, 40% chance for tomorrow, Easter. We even have a 50% chance on Wednesday. I’m not holding my breath on it, we’ll see if we actually get any. But it is overcast with big billowy clouds.

Now that we have the fence in we’re starting to look at planting some more things. Its nice having a lot of room to work in but its going to take a lot of work. We’re already looking at putting in some sort of retaining walls and filling them with dirt so we can plant shrub/trees. We get such wind we do need some sort of wind break. When we got those 40-50 mph winds our back patio got covered in dirt and leaves. And a neighbor from across the street came over when we were just breezy up here. She was amazed. She said it was calm at her house. But at least now she realizes our problems.

I had talked with my neighbor a couple of weeks ago and mentioned that we get windy. She understood windy, but she said that they don’t get much wind at all. So she was a bit skeptical about what I was saying. Her house seems to be in a low calm spot, relatively speaking. She said they rarely get much wind at all. But next door to her is essentially a greenbelt and that might break the wind for her. But now that she’s been to our house, she understands what I mean when I say that we do get wind.

When we got that windy spell all the dirt I have moved got blown away. The problem is that I need to have dirt in order to get something to grow, and I need something to grow there in order to hold the dirt. We’ll figure something out.

Cat C L Uncategorized March 23, 2013

Go figure. Yesterday (Friday) they said today’s (Saturday) forecast was a high of 86. That has now changed to a high of 70. It’s already noon and we are not even up to 60. Hopefully we’ll get to 70, but we’ll see.

The deer are not happy with the fence. They keep coming up to it and looking in, like kids staring at a candy store they can’t go into. I figure they’ll get over it. But we did get a bird feeder up. And the birds have already found it and are coming. We did find some old niger/nyjer seed. The birds won’t eat it but we put some outside the fence, just trying to get rid of it. Well the deer like the niger/nyjer seed.

The greenhouse is doing great. The squash plants have blossoms so hopefully we will get squashes soon. The herbs are doing very well. Even the berry bushes are putting out new leaves and growth.

I have had one unusual problem. I set some seeds out on a tray, it came with those compressed round soil pods. You just add water and the pods expand. Well, not a single seed has sprouted in that. I don’t know why. I find it odd. I don’t think the soil would be the problem, but I don’t know. I may add some more seeds to them and see what the problem is. Since everything else in the greenhouse is doing fine I don’t know why these are not sprouting. It may take some investigating. I don’t think its too warm in the greenhouse since everything else is happy. I’m not sure why they haven’t sprouted and its been over a week. I put geranium and impatient seeds in the the tray and I would think they would have sprouted by now. Something I have to look into.

Cat C L Uncategorized March 14, 2013

Go figure. I planted how many daffodils and only one came up.

I know, be thankful I got one. Maybe the others will bloom. But its mid March and that’s the only one so I’m not real hopeful. Maybe we just didn’t get enough cold. I don’t know.

But the fence has come along nicely. Its 6 feet tall and will hopefully keep the deer out. That remains to be seen, but we can hope.

supplies

construction

lots of fence

portion of front fence

I’m rather excited about the fence. I’ll be able to actually put plants out in the yard. I’ll be able to plant the new roses. I’ll be able to get some stuff out of the greenhouse! Now if the deer will just cooperate and stay out.

Cat C L Uncategorized March 8, 2013

The fence is coming along well. Most of the columns are done and almost all the posts are in. Next week they should put up the fence sections. Then we’ll actually have a fence and be able to keep the deer out.

But weird weather – this morning we woke up to fog, cool weather (we made it to 64) and heavy mist with light rain later in the day. We need the wet weather and I’m sure the plants are thrilled to get the moisture. Tomorrow should be similar weather. Next week we’re supposed to get into the 80’s. Summer is on its way.

Cat C L Uncategorized March 4, 2013

Okay we have a problem after that wind. My bougainvillea is naked – it has lost every single leaf. It was a new plant and looked nice. But its only naked, not dead so I’m sure it will come back to life. I may need to find a new place for it. Right now it is sitting on the stairs so it is out getting the full force of the wind. I may have to move it someplace where it still gets sun but maybe a bit less wind.

The real problem is in the back. All that dirt I moved in the back then seeded with buffalo grass seed, well the wind moved it. Don’t know exactly where it got moved to, but I’ve got some definite bare areas again. Of course, that is exactly why I’m trying to get grass to grow there. The back patio is also full of dirt, weeds, twigs, and leaves from the wind. We’ll have to use either a blower to move that dirt out of the patio or we will have to sweep it off, but somehow we will need to clean that back patio off. But the amount of dirt on the patio is much less then the 3 or 4 wheelbarrows of dirt I put on the ground. So I’m sure the rest of that dirt is off some place else. I’ll have to do this all over again – move dirt and throw seed. Sure glad I still have some seed left over.