I took myself out this morning to buy tomato plants. I saw a private party selling them for $1.75/plant and the plant list had San Marzano. Unfortunately for me they sold the last five to one person yesterday. I did pick up: Rutgers, aka Jersey Tomato; Yellow Pear; Amana Orange; Black Beauty. I also got a zucchini plant.
When I came home I went online looking for San Marzano but they are sold out everywhere. I usually buy my eggplants online because I have a wider choice, so I did some online plant shopping: Midnight Queen and Black Beauty Eggplant; Summer Squash; German Winter Thyme, new to me; Sweet Basil, Italian Parsley; Albion Strawberry. I overwintered sage and rosemary, I'll go to the nursery next week for Italian and Thai basil. I also buy mint to put as a trailing plant in my hanging baskets on the veranda.
Look what I found when I was pulling out the dead wood from the Russian sage plant.
It's a tiny horse hair nest with a little organic material and a piece of blue plastic. It must have blown out of the Norway pine by that flower bed. Such workmanship!
I spent about an hour pulling weeds in one flower bed. I didn't get far.
I have developed a intolerance for heat, even when it's not all that hot. If I feel ok I'll go out later when the garden isn't in full sun and put in another hour. Mark told me he will put off hauling manure until Monday in order to clean up the flower beds tomorrow. He's been dealing with trees and vines and all matter of organic mess.
Plants are quite expensive, like everything else, so I am going to use what I have for my flower pots. I have an abundance of wild catnip and wild violets. I'm going to put these in my pots. I'll buy a few marigold and petunia plants, but the majority will be what I dig up around the farm. Even when they aren't blooming both of those plants have nice foliage. I cannot justify the cost of annuals. Before I can put the pots on the veranda (we got into the habit of calling the open front porch 'the veranda' because we have another porch, which is screened), I need to paint the ceiling and the floor. I started in 2020 and then my mother died and that was that. Last year I did nothing. We have a lot of catch-up around this old place.
I guess that's the report from the Northland today. If I survive the weeding I'll probably have more to say tomorrow.
10 comments:
That nest is beautiful. Was the hair from your horses? I'm wondering what bird built it. Is it tiny enough to be a hummingbird nest? Maybe an oriole. They incorporate interesting materials. At our local park they used to nest near the playground, and find ribbons and tinsel and other things. No doubt the baby birds liked them.
It's 2" across and 7.5" in circumference. Tiny. It would be my horses mane or tail hair, there aren't any other horses around here anymore. It's perfectly made. I don't know much about birds so I don't know which makes nests like this. We do have hummingbirds but I haven't seen an oriole in at least a dozen years. I'm going to keep it in my office. Something more my son can shake his head over when I die!
Sounds like a hummingbird nest. Beautiful.
Thanks for the info!
I am very impressed by all your activity! This year we are going to save a lot of San Marzano seeds and I will send some to you.
Oh, thank you, Lori! I didn't do much but it's more than I have done, so it's a step forward.
That nest is so lovely! I'd definitely be saving it.
San Marzanos are really good, but basically any home grown tomato is better than a store-bought. My dad's tomatoes were the pride of his garden. I have to have them in the greenhouse here or else our growing season is too short to really get any. I got a couple of plants from a friend, bought two and have planted a bunch of others, a bit late. I intend to basically fill one greenhouse with tomatoes and the other with cucumbers and chilis/peppers. I've tried eggplant several times and even cheated last year by buying quite a mature plant that already had a bunch on it. They never do very well. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Do we have a longer growing season than you? I have no problem with tomatoes. I don't know what you could be doing wrong with eggplant. I grow them in very large pots now, but I used to grow them in the ground. I don't do anything special, I add composted manure to the soil, mix it is and plant. they are in mostly sun. So, I don't know. I thought of you when I picked up the nest, you are always finding things in nature.
That little Nest is Magnificent. I keep things like that in my Naturalist Collection Jars to Display... Nature and it's Creatures always leave me in Awe.
It's so perfectly made, and made from my horses hair. Can't beat that!
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