Reworking the garden

It's not the prettiest picture. But I've been spending time re-working the bed next to the south side of the house. The reason for the change? Gophers. They finally found a way through the wire somewhere and devoured nearly everything in the bed. (Here's the first post where I made the bed originally and the second post where it's completed.) Now I'm happy to say that it lasted a long time, and perhaps if I didn't have school occupying much of my time, I could have stopped the invasion. But that wasn't happening. So I'm putting gopher baskets in on top of the wire and making it a permanent planting.

Which is rather odd for me in a way. I was trying to think "when have I ever planted a rose bush?". I don't think I have, except for the occasional transplant of a miniature rose that I received as a gift. I have always kept my roses in containers. Now, they're getting a permanent home, interspersed with a variety of herbs and flowering plants. Wonder what that will be like?
Here's a picture from the last of the side garden's "hayday" in 2008:

When this is done, I'd like to finish "the orchard".

Lost in my studies

So instead of being in the garden, I've been lost amongst tomes of books. The study of herbs has most of my attention. They're harder to learn than just the vegetables in my garden. And the garden suffers from my inattention. But I find I can only really pay attention to work and my graduate studies.

I miss blogging. And I miss gardening.

Spring has me looking more closely at the herbs, and lately, what catches my attention are seeds.

One of my beds was finally raided and cleared by the gophers. The dahlia in my profile picture is gone. I was out last Sunday trying to decide what to do. I think I'll see which of these herb seeds sprout. Jing jie (Schizonepeta tenuifolia) seems like a possible candidate. Then I'll make the bed a permanent planting, with individual gopher cages.

The gopher invasion had me a bit glum on Vernal Equinox, so I tramped around the edges of the garden looking at my weeds. I have a large amount of chickweed (Stellaria media) and plantain (Plantago lancelolata) growing everywhere. I decided to try and make salve. Added some Salvia apiana and Salvia mellifera leaves which gave the coconut oil a pungent smell. It's not to bad for a first try. But next time, I'll try and remember to have small containers to put it in, ready to go. I spent part of the afternoon madly looking for sampler honey jars to put the finished salve into, so I can share it with some friends and family.

The only other accomplishment was planting catnip on the deck for my cat. He was particularly happy that Spring is finally here. (I think he's getting bored with the dried stuff.)

Losing Battles

I've been reflecting on my last post. Frankly, I guess I'm resigned to the fact that the web is the web and hypertext will always be what it is. I've decided just to leave things be and "get over it" or "snap out of it" or whatever else it is that I'm concerned about.

There are far worse things that happen at sea.

For example, sawflies. I've had an annual problem with them on my pear tree. But this year, it's been too much. There was enough of an infestation that the tree dropped all of its leaves last week. And the pears are going to have to be stripped off, with the hopes that it won't kill the tree. If I had applied myself to the problem sooner, perhaps I wouldn't have lost the crop.

I tried to find Spinosad which was recommended by Pam Pierce who was "Battling a Swiss Chard Pest". I couldn't find Spinosad, but found "Patrol" at a local hydroponics shop. So far, it's killed the nasty critters. They look like a mix between a caterpillar and a slug. And they eat the leaf down to the veins. It would have been a great year.

Young pear before the sawflies devastated the tree.

Cabbage

Not bad for a cabbage that was full of holes in November. This was the cabbage the caterpillars were bent on devouring (see my previous post "what's bugging me".) Now it is ready to pick. It's not as solid as I could have wished for, and it only measures 7-inches across, but I'm glad to have a cabbage. Four more are about to follow - that is if the sow bugs don't eat them before they are big enough. I was out hunting snails and slugs tonight and noticed dozens of sow bugs eating one of the lower leaves. I looked for the "salad bar" sign but found none.

I wish I could find the tag in order to remember the cabbage variety.