Sex in the Garden

Sex in the Garden - Anole Love

A garden friend, who has also written numerous popular garden books, lives in a great cottage surrounded by a delightful, ever-changing garden. Weeding and maintenance chores could easily seem overwhelming in her lush green world but she makes a point of exploring it every morning, even if only for 20 minutes. She watches for plants that need pruning, deadheading or moving but she also mentally notes the health of her garden and the identity of potential pests. When talking about her garden she'll often begin telling stories of her garden's small residents. They provide the joy we all hope for. She considers all of her residents part of an extended family. 

This is a philosophy I embrace and thrill every time the garden critters let me observe something personal. My joy with having a garden and possessing a gift of observation lets me pay attention to the other worlds in my relatively urban habitat. It reminds me that I'm a part of some much bigger than me.

Occasionally some opportunistic photo opps pop that can't be ignored. I watched, frozen, mesmerized and feeling slightly guilty. Anole love is one of those moments. These two let me be a voyeur for awhile. It took several minutes for me to realize the camera was only one door away. They let me capture one photo as if uncertain they should move. Once caught on pixels they fell sideways, together, into the shrub behind them, and completely out of sight. Thank you.

Corona Clipper Sharpening Tool AC8300

No longer a question, sharpen with Corona’s Sharpening Tool

To prune or not to prune, that is the question, or the pruner’s the thing, or off with his twig. Take your pick. Gardeners tend to get silly about their hand pruners, especially a good bypass pruner. The moment gardeners hit their landscapes they can be compared to successful detectives, rarely caught without their pruners or holsters. Roses need to be cut back, deadheading is never-ending, and dead branches must be removed. These are necessary tasks keep gardens healthy and productive. Sharp-edged tools provide the best cuts and help keep plants healthy.

We (as a group) tend to be foolish about tool maintenance. A few dedicated tool tenders clean their tools after every use. Most of these gardeners grow lots of roses and they’ve learned the hard way the value of cleaning their pruners. Many excellent gardeners are almost married to their pruners but neglect the nurturing and care of quality pruners. 

When was the last time you actually cleaned and sharpened your bypass pruner? 

Prior to buying the Corona Clipper Sharpening Tool if  I needed to sharpen the pruner I’d ask my significant other. My doing this always meant

Keeping Dogs Out of the Garden!

Dogscape on the Cheap

Anyone trying to establish a new garden knows what your four-legged fur friends are thinking. My drooling Labradors are thrilled by the smell of fresh compost and the texture of diggable soft dirt. 

Experts have their recommendations. 

• Train them to stay out: Dogs resist training (a fact that is obvious the moment you leave the house) 
•  Apply repel chemicals: Smelly chemicals meant to repel them rarely does but instead it does the opposite 
•  Install barriers: Small garden fences get expensive as do invisible fences and ugly hot wire. Dogs still might jump over or simply ignore the expensive collar 
• Plant prickly ground covers: Prickly ground covers take too long to grow. 

The dogs rule in the yard unless you have a fence around it – OR…. Consider my great dogscaping idea, something that’s free and I’m loving it – the dogs aren’t but they understand. 

Prudens Purple Heirloom Tomato

It Takes Just One Tomato to Make a Meal

       
If you’re one of those people who lives by the credo "never eat anything bigger than your head," the Prudens Purple Tomato is wrong for you: the fruits of this heirloom variety weigh more than a pound! More important, they’re not just big, they're tasty too.

A single Prudens Purple tomato, my hand for scale

After a puny tomato crop one year, I decided to try different varieties; planting them in my Germination Station a month before last frost and moving them to peat pots after the true leaves had developed. I only sowed seven or eight seeds, though I did get 100% germination. The remaining seeds were sent to family members up north. I set my seedlings out in early March (in Houston), and occasionally fed them some mild organic fertilizer. Thanks to a couple of cool snaps in May (50 or 60° nights) they set fruit and were producing by June.

Easy Gardener 14 x 45 Foot BirdBlock Netting

The $64 Tomato - Avoid Sacrificing Them to Wildlife

Every spring extra tomato and pepper plants are sacrificed to critters, whether intentional or accidental, and every spring there is always a question about what will survive greedy wildlife. There’s not much to be concerned about in my urban/suburban backyard – birds, occasional rabbits, possums, and of course the guileful squirrels. Covering my four-foot square garden with wildlife netting in the past never created a snug shelter and the netting was easily worked through and under. This year I tried something different using wildlife netting. 

Rather than rolling out Easy Gardener’s 14 x 45 foot BirdBlock Netting  and draping it over the garden, this year I cut small five and six-foot sections. Ten-inch tall tomato plants were placed in the garden and sheltered by large tomato cages that were immediately wrapped around the sides and over the top with netting.  Using the practical and versatile pinch-style wood clothespins I secured netting to the cage. Using a couple landscape staples I secured the nearly inconspicuous netting to the ground. 

Super hoops are the best inventions for gardeners!

The days have been windy, the birds have been plentiful, and the dogs have been curious. Oak leaves are scattered all over the garden thanks to howling wind. With all of these threats looming the plants remain untouched. The squirrel war victory, at least for a while, goes to me. They apparently don’t think working their way past the dogs and the netting is worth the effort. 

Have a Compost Tea Party in Your Garden

After a wild morning at the office, a cup of tea can hit the spot and soothe those frazzled nerves. Tea warms and nourishes, plus it’s easy to make: you just steep some leaves in hot water and presto: it's tea time! The plants in your like an occasional drink of tea, too: they like compost tea. It soothes and nourishes, too, and it’s easy to make, too.

Solid compost releases nutrients and microorganisms into the soil as it breaks down. Compost tea is the same, only it works faster because the good stuff is dissolved in water. If your garden plants need a drink of some healthy compost tea, you don’t need to assemble complex plumbing and string extension cords. It’s easy: all you need is some compost, some water, and a bucket.