Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Prophylactic

My grapes are wearing rubbers to protect their sweet vulnerable flesh from the depraved ravages of the birds.
Standard plastic rubber
 Like the good public health nerd I am, I am testing two methods of prevention: the plastic bag and the paper bag.  Random gardeners on the internet claim good results with both methods, but I want data, people.
Risky paper rubber

Monday, July 16, 2012

When the Tree Falls



A derecho took out my tree.  No, I had never heard of a derecho, either, but apparently it is a counterpart to a tornado - a strong fast storm that (unlike a twister) moves straight ahead.  The storm knocked down half of the bradford pear tree, which fell perfectly between Noah's bedroom and Noah's pet sunflower.  After some excavation we found Noah's garden gnome unharmed beneath the wreckage.  My lucky boy.  I was not so lucky.  The storm took out the bradford pear, the bradford pear took out an apple tree, and the apple tree took out my raspberries.  All of that landed on my herb garden.  We sawed the branches up and piled them by the fence awaiting the tree service to take down the rest of the tree and chip the whole mess, but the entire back yard now looks quite woebegone and battle weary.  Too much heat, too much wind, not enough water.

On a happy note, the lilies and phlox have indeed bloomed.  The garden goes on.