tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46577159622569073042009-11-05T18:36:58.123-05:00Gardening at the western gateway to the Finger Lakes region of New York State, in a little village along the Erie Canal(USDA zone 6).LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-32674956951172976302009-08-29T21:41:00.007-04:002009-08-29T22:25:06.907-04:00

Disaster has struck the garden. I'm 99.9% sure I have late blight. Yesterday was the first day all summer that I didn't go out in the garden. I went out this morning and Mystery Tomato #5 (Regular leaf pink beefsteak seed saved from an unkown tomato) had some splotchy water soaked looking leaves towards the top and some stems turning black. I ripped it out immediately and disposed of it. I've

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-78691914742372425392009-08-26T20:21:00.006-04:002009-08-26T22:12:54.312-04:00

Someone on one of my tomato forums is downsizing his gardens and generously offered to send out his extra tomato seeds for the dirt cheap price of a self addressed stamped envelope (!) How excited was I? Well, they arrived today and this is what he sent me:William's Striped- a red and yellow variety with the distinction of being striped both inside and out. Seeds to this variety had been saved

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-27520143808828052842009-08-16T18:17:00.003-04:002009-08-19T18:31:19.319-04:00

Yay! The tomatoes are here!!! Stupice and Silvery Fir were neck and neck coming in earlier this week (around the 12th). I think Silvery Fir (pictured) won by a nose. It's not raining tomatoes yet but they are starting to trickle in. So far I have harvested 3 SF and 2 Stupice as well as 1 Black Cherry. My SIL came up from MD last weekend and brought me some Jaune Flamme from plants I had started

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-4108606344038892172009-07-27T18:40:00.004-04:002009-07-27T19:15:13.172-04:00

It looks like my tomatoes are ok (knock on wood). Black Krim was the subject of my ammonia experiment and that seems to be what the problem was. Brandywine looks fine. I keep checking them everyday. I retied a bunch yesterday to improve circulation and I'm debating whether or not I should prune- I'm on the fence. I've never pruned before and I doubt it will help if the blight decides to darken

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-44542929685041710822009-07-23T18:12:00.007-04:002009-07-23T19:37:05.687-04:00

Crap. I may have found late blight on my Brandywine tomato plant today. The weather has been pretty wet and cloudy this season and although I started my plants from seed there are a lot of other gardens in the neighborhood and I'm pretty sure most people buy their plants-some from the big box stores. Last week I retied all the plants to try to get more air circulation between the plants and I try

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-46064771030631559252009-06-14T20:51:00.003-04:002009-06-14T21:07:53.702-04:00

This Eastern Tiger Swallowtail has been hanging around here for about a month. My little 6 year old neighbor calls it the "Big yellow butterfly" she's tried to catch it but it's pretty elusive. I'm not sure what kind of bush it's sitting on, it was planted by the previous owners it has tiny pink flowers in the spring. Heritage bloomed yesterday, Eden will go any day now. Something keeps

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-167166033319637802009-06-11T21:32:00.010-04:002009-06-12T22:46:11.812-04:00

I've been a lame blogger but a busy gardener lately. I guess it's better to garden than to blog about it and not actually do it. I caught Winter Sowing fever and have planted a ton of containers. I have planted out most of the annuals. I am still starting new containers of perennials. Most of the veggie garden is in, I still have 1 quadrant to go-squash and cucumbers. The pea fence is totally

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-51871829837328101332009-04-15T21:46:00.004-04:002009-04-17T20:14:17.292-04:00

The new roses have arrived! I had a nice little package on the stoop when I got home today-it was like Christmas all over again! They were all neatly packed in damp newspaper and arrived in great condition. I'm going to Syracuse later this week where my friend Renee has a freezer full of fish heads and guts that she'll give me to put under the roses. My lovely husband thinks I'm nuts.I decided to

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-23071360577793032582009-04-08T20:04:00.007-04:002009-04-08T20:44:05.346-04:00

What a wild week! I had to go to Connecticut last week for work- rumor has it we had beautiful weather here while I was gone. I came back late Thursday night: the lawns had turned green and I saw my first Daffodil on Friday (4/3). Then the winds picked up the temperature dropped and on Saturday we had rain/sleet/snow and back again. Sunday was nice: sunny and in the 50's then the wind picked up

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-10147851679762660982009-03-28T22:17:00.006-04:002009-03-28T22:58:58.854-04:00

Yay! My first flower of the season. Friday was a beautiful, sunny, warm day and the crocuses came out! Today was equally as nice, I dug up a quadrant of the garden and planted the peas. I really need to come up with a better plan for the pea fence, the one I have is chicken wire on two poles. It keeps trying to roll back up. It looks jacked up.The seeds are coming along nicely. I potted up most

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-45691247992957472082009-03-13T16:54:00.006-04:002009-03-14T08:20:25.274-04:00

I went to the garden show today. It was so nice to see color! It amazes me that they can create what they do. I took a lot of pictures, mostly of the labels for the plants I liked so I could look them up later. It's nice that we can take pictures for ideas and inspiration but some people need to realize that this is a public event not a private photo shoot! There was a guy taking picutes of

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-83476498738155401682009-03-07T08:07:00.006-05:002009-03-07T09:02:22.167-05:00

Thursday I was walking to the parking garage after work and saw some bulbs starting to emerge from the soil. They were up about an inch- I'm not sure what is emerging, maybe daffodils. I'm moving to a new office next weekend so I probably won't be able to keep track of that little garden going forward. New building is across the street from a church that has a beautiful garden-I need to get a

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-74927915059753735082009-03-04T18:26:00.002-05:002009-03-04T18:42:57.947-05:00

An update on the rose cuttings I took on July 12. Like I stated before: the class given by derRosenmeister was excellent. It was the hottest day of the year and I had a long hot car ride in front of me after class. Some of the cuttings didn't make it but the ones I did after the class using what I had learned are doing really well. 3 survived from the class: 2 "The Fairy" and one "Thor". The

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-26048767503668278792009-02-14T08:28:00.005-05:002009-02-14T08:39:49.755-05:00

The weather guy said this week that "Winter's back has been broken" it got up to nearly 60'F this week and all the snow melted we finally got to see the lawn (then it snowed again). I'm skeptical. I think God is jerking our chain. It happens every year. I'd like to think we're well on our way to spring but I don't want to get lulled into a false sense of "green". I bet we'll see a lot more sub

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-30112364604026666182009-02-02T19:03:00.005-05:002009-02-02T20:36:43.362-05:00

I ordered seeds the last week of December and they arrived on Saturday. Wooo Hoooo! We are sunk in the depths of winter right now so the thought of green growing things is like a faint ray of light in a cold sunless world! Wow- I'm sounding pretty dramatic! I love having 4 distinct seasons but honestly, it has been a really LONG, COLD, SNOWY winter....DH and I can't remember the last time we

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-2303426661379187492008-09-21T12:08:00.004-04:002009-02-02T20:03:14.148-05:00

....Well, not yet but he's gaining on me. The weather people were waffling on whether my area would get hit or not on Thursday night. I was out in the dark covering up my tomatoes. False alarm. I kept the big sheet of plastic hanging on the garden fence so it's ready to go when Jack arrives. Heritage is blooming (see photo) I forgot it doesn't have much of a vase life until after I cut it. Whoops

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-60400605416879391792008-09-14T12:37:00.007-04:002008-09-14T13:33:39.484-04:00

First regular sized tomato was harvested September 2- a Super Sioux. Since then the Garden Peach and Green Zebra have decided to join the party. I ate everything so fast I forgot to take pictures. Whoops. I have posted a pic of cherry tomatoes from the farmers market in one of my favorite bowls (by Richard Aerni a nationally known local artist). I wasn't at all scientific-I haven't weighed or

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-84780298135024840882008-08-23T10:50:00.009-04:002008-08-23T11:37:28.318-04:00

Veggie garden is being assaulted on 2 fronts: squash vine borers and powdery mildew! That coupled with the green tomatoes has left me very discouraged. So far we have had 3 ripe (peacevine) cherry tomatoes 4 more are ready to come in. I harvested 1 black beauty zucchini and another cucumer and a green serrano- the serrano wasn't hot at all. We had a couple of cool nights (down in the low 50's)

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-86190547430028711572008-08-14T20:59:00.003-04:002008-08-14T21:31:52.993-04:00

I think I may hav 2 potential zucchini's-it looks like 2 zucchini plants each have a female flower, fingers are crossed! It also looks like I may finally get some tomatoes to ripen-one of the cherry tomato clusters seems to be changing from green to an orangey color. I believe it is the peacevine tomato. Most of the seeds I have planted are sprouting. On the flower front-Sweet Promise and

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-72844192443747191752008-08-07T18:18:00.004-04:002008-08-07T19:18:12.780-04:00

1 more crookneck yellow squash (total:3) 2 Amira hybrid cucumbers (total:3), 2 really small, red Serrano chiles (total: 12) and enough lettuce for 2 1/2 side salads (total: about 4 side salads). Everything tastes so good! The squash have been really tender, the cukes were AMAZING-refreshing and crisp. I haven't had the chiles yet. I'm thinking of putting them in an omlette tonight. The salad

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-32013944596859542432008-08-05T21:17:00.004-04:002008-08-05T22:00:19.873-04:00

I found this ugly little guy hanging out amongst the rose cuttings in the shade of the maple tree. It's a cicada, it's pretty big -a little bigger than my thumb. Everytime my husband hears one he says "sounds like summer!". They emit a kind of raspy sound when it's hot and humid. You can listen to cicada songs on wikipedia from all over the world but they don't really sound like the ones around

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-32683153122192260722008-07-27T22:24:00.006-04:002008-12-09T11:52:38.152-05:00

Look what I found in my FIL's butterfly garden today- not only a butterfly but a Giant Swallowtail butterfly. The largest butterfly in N.America (I looked it up). His butterfly garden is great, it's not very big but it's a nice jumble of butterfly loving plants, we watched the bees and butterflies coming and going all day. I aspire to that kind of garden. Picture was taken with my new camera-

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-75379153591692874622008-07-26T09:32:00.002-04:002008-12-09T11:52:39.597-05:00

Look who I found passed out in the squash blossom this morning! They were in there for at least an hour, barely moving and then another bumble bee came in and woke them up. It looks like they had a good Friday night! On another happy note: My Meyer Lemon tree (see July 1 post) has 2 blossoms on it. A tiny bee (? hover fly) was hanging around it this morning and I see telltale signs of pollen on

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-68524830270956505752008-07-20T16:26:00.000-04:002008-12-09T11:52:39.714-05:00

...Actually, I prefer to think of myself as a specialized assassin. I only have a few victims: aphids, japanese beetles and garden slugs. I haven't seen aphids in weeks, I think I got them all. Japanese beetles started to show up a week or two ago. I haven't seen a lot of them and what I have seen has pretty much ended up in my soapy water dish. I'm a big chicken and won't work without my green

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657715962256907304.post-46604076216717540262008-07-19T09:46:00.000-04:002008-12-09T11:52:40.014-05:00

I had a visitor in the garden this morning. I was sitting in the sunroom drinking my coffee when I saw it swoop down. I wish my old camera (kodak easyshare) was working, it took great pictures. This is taken as a still from my Canon video camera.I think it's a Monarch, I looked it up in the image gallery of "Butterflies of North America". He seemed to really like my marigolds in pots on the deck.

LJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10870598205223330744noreply@blogger.com0