thinned seedlings: first season's salads

Yesterday I was more aggressive about thinning my baby lettuces and beet seedlings and ended up with this season's first salads!


pre-thinning (left side is leftover summer basil)

I reserved the little regular-variety and freckles-variety romaine leaves for husband Kurt's beloved Caesar salad. Separately, I tossed together all the butterhead and leaf lettuces, along with some beet seedlings.





I still need to thin the carrot, cauliflower, and broccoli seedlings. But I can't show you photos of those beds yet because they're too gruesome: I've been slacking in the weeding department. Are they still "seedlings" when they're at least three inches tall? Hmmm.

preparing fall veggie garden

The triple-digit heat took a break and also brought us some clouds and breezes this weekend, so I finally got myself out back to weed and prep the overgrown raised beds. I worked in our homemade compost into the existing soil with my hands (and have the roughed-up skin to prove it) and re-set the drip lines. I also let some of the horseherb stay because it seems to serve as soil-cooling "mulch". I also left, for now, the stressed, but generally okay pepper plants, basil, oregano, sage, and thyme.



I sowed the following seeds to transplant as soon as they're ready: romaine, butterchrunch, and mesclun mix lettuce; swiss chard, kale, beets, carrots, dill, cilantro, broccoli, sorrrel, and spinach. I still want to add some fall annual flowers into the mix, too!




I think I've discovered what's preventing this mexican feathergrass from thriving.

Clarification

My cat never actually catches up with the squirrels, she just enjoys stalking and chasing them around our back yard. So, if she helps scare away the squirrels, it’s fine with me because I don’t want them eating my vegetables.

Squirrel deterrent

I know I’m not alone in my frustration with squirrels’ incessant digging lately. Today I got some help from our (adopted former-feral) cat:






hidden cat, bold squirrel


satisfied

Curious beautiful oxbloods

I didn't plant them and they seem to bloom a little later than others I’ve noticed around town. I’m always especially curious about my hereditary plants: who chose to put them in that stark location and when?


yesterday morning


later yesterday morning


today

My first tomatoes and squash

I still need to get some mulch down around the edges and in between the two veggie beds, but I finally planted my first tomatoes--two Little Porters and one Juliet--and two crookneck squashes. (Pictures coming soon.) After we harvest the late spinach, I'm thinking of replacing it with cucumbers.

Some little critter is eating the basil in the herb bed, so I planted two new sweet basils in a pot in a different part of the yard. I ALMOST planted them in my cat's favorite flowerpot but couldn't bear to deprive her.

Great yardwork weekend

Variegated Society Garlic


Three other new Society Garlics



I spent hours pulling nutgrass--a subject deserving its own post--the past few days, so I rewarded myself with five new Society Garlic plants in the front yard and several blue plumbago plants in the back next to the spring veggie beds. I'm drawing a complete blank as to the name of that maroon-leafed (cat and dog memorial) bush between the plumbago.

The tiny green things you see spaced horizontally from left to right, starting at the pansies, are the beginnings of the spinach I seeded less than 3 weeks ago.

Cat-Themed Garden Progress Report

The broccoli heads are still small but steadily growing! Recently I've had to cover them during the nights' freezes and once forgot to uncover them the next day, so they're catching up on some sun now.

My feline director of photography insisted on getting herself in the photo here--I did leave the little garden gate open, allowing her inside.

The next two photos show her true colors. Apparently chasing a pecan across the weed fabric surface--cat hockey--is far more entertaining than chasing a pecan across any of the many other surfaces available in a backyard. Ripping the weed fabric in the process is simply icing.

Fortunately, we put down the layers of newspaper and weed fabric several months ago, so this method of passively killing grass to prepare for a Spring garden bed has probably already worked. Now I just have to keep rescuing stray torn-up newspaper pages from the back fence corners.

My Cat's Gratitude

After 3 days of getting treated to my homemade bison-apple loaf, you'd think my cat would be curled in my lap, purring uncontrollably. Not exactly.

Today, I was fiddling around in the kitchen while the cat sat on her food-bowl table, meowing. I ignored her because I'd just fed her 2 hours earlier. As I was about to leave, she jumped off her food table and stared at me with her freaky (very occasional, thankfully) "I'm a reformed feral cat and I can't help it: I'm going to bite you now!" look.

I tried to stare her down--an effective method with the dog--but that didn't work. She hurled herself at my leg, holding on just long enough to give me a quick bite then ran away. She actually drew blood through my jeans! Ingrate.

But I still love her.

A Real Holiday Treat for Your Dogs and Cats

Thunderheart Bison, out of San Antonio, treats their bison well: not only are these bison grass-fed, free-roaming, and antibiotic/hormone-free, they're killed suddenly and instantly out in the field before they even have a minute to panic or be fearful. I eat very few critters, but sometimes I eat these humanely raised bison.

Your dogs and cats (especially cats because they're solely carnivores) will really LOVE you if you cook them some ground bison with diced organic apple. It's that easy: combine a pound of ground bison with one egg and about a half a diced apple and form into a loaf. Bake it at 350 F for around 20 minutes or until it's medium rare. Bison is leaner than beef, so be careful not to overcook it.

If handling meat disgusts you, wear latex gloves and mix it together and cook it on some foil--all disposable and your skin and utensils never touch it.

After it's cooled off, mash it up a little and serve. Instant pet bliss.

They're Not "Gleaming" Hardwoods

But I actually prefer the non-gleaming ones, which have a little more character. Our Husky and kitty like them, too. Ha! I was really trying to resist posting a photo of them, but I couldn't resist after all. It's unusual for Huskies to get along with kitties because they usually consider kitties prey--yum! So, I'm lucky.

Moving On...

Laura Hall's trial's over for now. If she's released on bond pending appeal, I'm sure that news will hit the mainstream wires/airwaves very quickly.

I might attend Robert Springsteen's (so-called "Yogurt Shop Murders") retrial, which seems to be scheduled for January 2008, assuming I 'm in a position to take off work then.

You, too, can train your cat to stay out of the kitchen while you fix her food! It's just not rocket science--cats aren't THAT much different than dogs in this department, at least. Here's what you should do: cat runs into kitchen to food bowl & begins meowing incessantly & loudly & you're barely AWAKE, fumbling w/the can opener as said cat meows even louder & more incessantly.

Scoop up cat and toss her (gently) out of the room while saying, "OUT!" several times as you do it. Cat will immediately try to run back in as you're trying not to cut your sleepy fingers on the tin cat-food lid, requiring you to drop everything, chase & scoop up the darling kitty again, tossing her out of the room w/a firm "OUT!" After the cat stays out of the room, you say, VERY enthusiastically, "OKAY!" The cat might be momentarily confused, but just steer her to her food as you repeat, "okay!"

You'll probably have to repeat this whole annoying routine several times, but I swear, darling kitty eventually catches on & will stay out of your hair while you fix her food. And I have a reformed-feral cat, so I know it can be done w/other cats. Just thought I'd share...