Alstroemeria

Alstromera

The Alstroemeria that Cindy planted in the raised bed out behind the garage last year is doing so well now that she decided to put in a few more along the fence on the north side of the house.

In fact, she went hog-wild and bought fifteen plants and put them in.  The varieties she chose were Jenna, Anouska, Rachel and Third Harmonic.

They looked great.  For about a week.

Then the neighbor's mow-blow-go gardener decided to spray the emerging Thunbergia on her side of the fence with a well-known herbicide (you know the product I'm talking about) because he thought they were weeds.

Unfortunately, overspray from that product seems to have drifted through the chain link fencing onto our new Alstroemeria, which are now looking a little worse for wear.

We're hoping they will survive, but Grandma would have said they were looking a bit peaked.

Tomato Forest

Cindy planted most of the tomatoes this year in the oldest and largest of the raised beds, and they seem to like that environment.  In fact, the plants have grown so large that it's rapidly becoming a tomato forest.

Some of the plants are even drooping over the sides of the anti-varmint protective panels, and there are already lots of tomatoes forming on the plants.  LOTS of tomatoes.

Which, of course, makes them attractive to varmints.  Yesterday morning I looked out the back window at the bird feeder and saw Big Mama and three of the junior ground squirrels under the feeder stuffing their faces with bird seed.

I don't know what's become of the other four baby squirrels from this litter (see Baby Boom); maybe Mr. Gray Fox is starting to make some in-roads on the pack, but at least three of them are still alive, well and eating everything in sight, including any of the tomatoes and tomatillos they can get at.  We found a half-gnawed green tomato at a gap between the anti-varmint panels around the tomato forest in the largest raised bed; there was just enough room for this tomato to push into, and just enough room for the squirrel to eat about half of it.

Since these tomatoes are all plants Cindy has hand-raised from seed, we need to find a way to plug that gap pronto, or else the squirrel pack will find a way to get in and there really won't be any tomatoes for us.

We Might Have Known

We should have known that the temporary fencing around the tomato in the grow bag would not prove to be much of an obstacle to the California Ground Squirrels.

We went out again yesterday evening and found that they had climbed over the fencing, chewed through the nylon Cindy had put around one of the tomatoes they had chomped previously, and then, apparently not liking the taste of nylon, moved on to take a bite out of one of the green tomatoes.  The varmints also left a half-eaten green Tomatillo in the driveway, too.

Tomatillo

I love the Chinese-lantern shape of these Tomatillos, which are also planted in a grow bag in front of the garage.  The paper thin outer husk covers the developing fruit inside, as we were well able to see from the cross section left for us by the squirrels.

We may have to re-think the grow bags; there's just no way to protect the plants and the tomatoes and tomatillos on them from the varmints.

The problem is that right now there is just no vacant space in the garden where we can move these plants so that they would be inside one of the enclosures protected by the anti-varmint panels.  All the spaces are now planted with other tomatoes, squash and beans.

We will have plenty of fresh produce this summer, but it's still annoying to have the varmints start sampling it before we get any of it.

When Will We Ever Learn?

I had planned to take a picture this morning of the tomatoes that Cindy had planted in the blue grow bag and put in front of the garage door.

The plant is from a cutting of the very vigorous plant from last year that she finally had to tear out earlier this year to make room for more plants.  She rooted the cutting, planted it in the grow bag and hooked it up to her drip irrigation system.

The plant has continued to be vigorous and is now loaded with tomatoes, including two that were getting redder and plumper by the day.  We thought they weren't quite ripe yet, but thought they would be ready in a couple of days and Cindy put BLTs on the menu for next week.   First tomatoes of the season, yum.

So last night when I went out to bring in the key to the garage, I took another look at the two ripening tomatoes.  And noticed something missing.

Like a honkin' big chomp missing out of each of the two ripening tomatoes.  Guess the squirrels thought they were ripe enough.

So we did the traditional closing of the barn door after the horses, or in this case the tomatoes, were gone.  Cindy put some old panty hose over the biggest tomatoes, including the bitten ones, and we circled some of the plastic fencing around the bag and closed it with clothes pins.

Not that that will really stop the little varmints, of course, but if they go for those particular tomatoes again, they'll just get a mouthful of nylon.

We'll probably see them wearing the nylons around the yard next.  Or see them on the news sticking up convenience stores.  We'll know who they are by the tomato seeds on their furry little nylon-covered chins.

Oriole Nest

Oriole Nest

One of the great joys of warmer weather is that we can sit out on our front porch and watch the neighbors jogging and walking their dogs, so we weren't surprised the other evening to see Mari and Harmon out walking their Dachshund, Hector.

What surprised us was the palm frond they had found lying in the street with the Oriole nest attached to it.

We were fascinated by the intricately woven nest constructed mainly of coarse palm fibers, some of which had been forced through small gaps in the frond to anchor the nest in place.

There were some small fluffy pads in the interior of the nest, but those were the only signs of occupation.  The chicks had evidently hatched and flown before the nest fell down.

We've seen Hooded Orioles in our backyard in the past, but they usually don't stay long since they prefer to eat nectars and fruit rather than bird seed.

We're always thrilled to catch a glimpse of these beautiful birds.

Steps Go Up... And Down

Our new garden steps go up, as well as down.

I felt the need to point this out since Cindy's dad told her he thought the steps went in the wrong direction, so I thought I would shoot a few photos that show they really go up from the canyon, as well as down to it.

We also put in some steps going up along the edge of the canyon from the area where the compost bins now sit.  We will eventually install an iron or steel hand rail along those steps, but for now it's a nice way to get up to that part of the yard.

Cindy has spent the past week scraping off some of the excess dirt from the area that will eventually become the small orchard, and building a small retaining wall beside the new barbecue grill pad.

Somehow that piece didn't get figured into the plans for the project, but it needed to be done for erosion control.  We left the stump of the Jacaranda tree in place after we had the tree taken out several years ago, so that stump will also help control erosion in that area.

Jacarandas are beautiful trees all over San Diego at this time of year, but they are really messy trees; the beautiful purple blossoms fall all over the place, they continually shed tiny leaves and the seeds get all over everything, too.

I think Cindy did a really good job on this little wall.

Cindy's Wall

Anti-Rabbit Device

Val, this one's for you.

You mentioned that the Colorado rabbits were eating the leaves on your sedum plants.  If the plants are just getting started and you want to protect them until they get established, you might consider making a few of these protective cages to put over them until they can hold their own against the rabbit onslaught.

Cindy makes these out of quarter inch hardware cloth, which she cuts with a Skil Lithium Ion Power Cutter, a very useful tool.  She uses plastic electrical ties to secure the top and sides of the cube.

Because you make these cages to suit the particular circumstance, you can make them any size you need them to be.  If you also run some weed block staples into the ground, that will prevent the critters from just knocking the cages over to get at the plants.

They're not the prettiest of garden ornaments, but they give plants a chance to develop to the point where they can stand on their own against the varmints.

And then you've also got a new power tool that cuts through a whole lot of other stuff like buttah.

Another Neighbor Visits

You Can Tell By The Ears

I looked out the kitchen window this morning, not really expecting to see the Gray Fox Cindy saw Wednesday morning, but decided it was worth a look, just in case.

Instead, I saw another neighbor that had stopped by for a visit, a Cottontail Rabbit.  Unfortunately, because she had to shoot through the window screen, this is the best picture Cindy could get of the rabbit before it scampered off.

It has been several years since we last saw a rabbit in the yard, so this confirms our suspicion that they are still around out there.

It's a good thing all the veggies are firmly protected by Cindy's Anti-Varmint Panels, or else there would be no veggies this summer.

What a shame that would be.