We woke up the barn-door fowl this morning! The rooster was crowing like there was no tomorrow. I asked myself, “Why did the chicken cross the road, roll in the mud and cross the road again?” The answer came to me immediately, ” Because he was a dirty double-crosser”!
We had our coffee by the fire while the rooster was getting dressed. As he jumped on the fence and began his morning serenade, we told him not to give up his day job! We perambulated through the garden making mental notes of today’s garden chores.
The twine around the Fava Beans somehow broke mysteriously and the poor beans were laying horizontal screaming for help. Mary did a quick exam on the twine and discovered it was cut by a pair of sharp scissors. Mary revealed she was the culprit; it was an accident.
With great surgical skills, Dr. Mary reattached the twine and the Favas were again upright smiling at the sun. She was knotty!
Over once, double reverse, and then tighten; an old surgery stitch!
Mary was dressed in her surgical gown but no face mask was required. I stood at the ready in my nurse’s robe passing her surgical tools like trimming scissors, and spare twine, as I read from Grey’s Anatomy on how to stitch up Fava beans. The twine did have to show its insurance card so it could be properly billed!
Proper dress during major surgery is essential!
Post-operative photos revealed full recovery as in process because we can now see the Fava beans that are ready to be cooked!
These plants went wild! They grew five feet tall and were loaded with beans!
Just behind the beans were Mary’s sweetpeas and now they are blooming every day. We drink Activa, a drink based on yogurt and it comes in small white plastic bottles. Mary removes the labels, puts them in the dishwasher and voila, we have sweetpea flower vases. The colors are pulchritudinous! (You will have to look that word up!)
Sweet peas are the ultimate easy-to-grow summer flower, for color in the garden and for cutting for bouquets. These super-scented floral powerhouses will produce buckets of blooms in a kaleidoscope range of shades all season long.
They also grew five feet tall and require a ladder since they are 30″ off the ground to begin with!
Further examination of the garden revealed Mr. Lincoln was ready to bloom even though he has some powdery mildew on some of the leaves. Mr. Lincoln is a hybrid tea rose that typically grows to 3-5′ tall. It is noted for its large, extremely fragrant, deep velvety red flowers that appear in late May and repeat bloom throughout the summer. The flowers are fully double. Foliage is dark green
Did You Know? The fungal disease powdery mildew is a common problem in gardens, infecting a wide variety of plants and reducing the quality and quantity of flowers and fruit
First, remove infected portions of the pants. Use plant clippers to remove or cut back the portions of your plants that have visible powdery mildew on them. If you notice it on a few leaves, remove them from the plant and do not compost them (which can allow the spores to spread). Wash your hands and clean your clippers with alcohol wipes to further prevent the spread of the disease.
Soap sprays made by mixing liquid dishwashing soap (in amounts from one teaspoon to one tablespoon per liter) with water have been used to prevent fungal infestations with great success by thousands of home gardeners. The soap acts as a desiccant in contact with powdery mildew.
Baking soda alone isn’t effective in controlling powdery mildew, but when combined with liquid, non-detergent soap, and water, it works well as a preventative. It is less effective as a cure once the fungus has taken hold. If you know a plant is affected by powdery mildew year after year, as is the case with many monarda, phlox, and lilacs, spraying early in the season, as well as weekly applications (and reapplying after rain), might prevent mildew that year.
At the first signs of infection on a plant, remove the leaves that are infected with powdery mildew, if there aren’t too many, and spray the rest of the plant. Spray any susceptible plants located nearby, too.
To control powdery mildew on plants, mix together:
- 1 tablespoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of liquid, non-detergent soap
- 1 gallon of water
Pour the mix into a sprayer, and evenly coat all areas of the plant, including the underside of leaves and stems. The soap helps the mix spread and cling to the leaf surface. Discard any unused mixture; it loses effectiveness over time.
It is amazingly bright!
We went to Los Alamitos to get the final pre-surgery check and saw Dr. Rucker, a great man. We chatted with him for quite a while and told him the blood-pressure story. We said the ol’ ticker was in good shape and that I might need a sleep apnea test plus I was due for a physical exam in a few weeks. We were happy with the results.
Then it was off to Old Ranch for lunch where we met up with Vicky and Irene. Vicky got her pie and she was tickled to death. We had a wonderful lunch and visited until about 1:00 pm.
Mincemeat Pie for a special lady!
We returned home and worked in the garden for a couple of hours. In the backyard, Mary addressed the mildew on the roses while I laid out another 50′ of soaker hose and planted three cantaloupes. Mary planted some additional strawberries and I buried another 5 gallons of cuttings from the kitchen; our worms love me!
In the front yard, Mary planted some Daffodils while I dug a bag of compost into the front planter. I got about 20% of the planter ready now but tomorrow I needed another four bags of compost and some peat moss (and a new arm).
Michele liked the idea of a vertical planter so we sent her one to her home as a surprise. We think Michele will enjoy this as she loves to cook and t is perfect for herbs in addition to strawberries and other small to medium-sized plants.
Merry Christmas Michele, just a little early!
Our upholstery man came today and brought the dust ruffle for the master bed and a set of cushions for the ballroom window seats; they look great! Now, no one can see the dust bunnies1
Mary fixed a great salad for dinner while I cooked up two salmon filets complete with Dill directly from the garden! I thought to myself, “What happens when you put Nutella on salmon? You get *salmonella*
I remembered having to make money when I was going to college. An easy way to make money is to take photos of salmon dressed in formal human clothes. It’s like… shooting fish in apparel.
We had dinner and watched a movie until 9:30 pm at which time we expeditiously headed to bed and crashed.
