Despite the complete and utter lack of rain, the school garden is in great shape. Just look at all those strawberries I picked yesterday, and it’s not even June yet. Luckily, the deer haven’t figured out how to crack my strawberry defenses. Give them time. As some of you may recall, the deer mowed down every one of my two-dozen plants last year leaving only stems. That makes this year’s fruit doubly sweet.
The garlic I planted in the fall came up. Huzzah!
The rhubarb looks great as always. It doesn’t ask for much. I like that in a plant.
Here, a Painted Lady butterfly enjoys the chive blossoms.
The cherry blossoms have come and gone on the Nanking and Montmorency cherry trees. In their place, I’ve spotted a whole bunch of young cherries, which the birds are eradicating one by one even though they’re not even remotely ripe. There’s one bird, a finch song sparrow I think, who keeps energetically cheeping at me from the exact opposite side of the cherry tree’s crown as I circle it with my accusations. It’s almost as if I’m the one invading its territory instead of the other way around (there’s no nest in there, I checked). My arguments have fallen on deaf ears. It’s hard to stake a valid claim on a tree against a bird when you don’t even know how to fly. They don’t take you seriously at all.
I tried putting a net over the tree, but I can’t reach the top and the netting keeps falling off and blowing away. I’m worried some unsuspecting animal is going to get trapped in its web. I base this fear on how many times I’ve ensnared my own hand during this process. Instead I may settle for netting a few individual branches with a zip tie so we at least have a prayer of seeing some ripe red cherries this year.
What else? Oh, the oregano, thyme, lavender, and sage came back this year. That was nice. They’ve never come back for me before. The rabbits or some other nibbling thing chewed a hole through my plastic chicken wire enclosure for the collard greens, kale, and cabbage, but so far they haven’t done nearly as much damage as the deer have done in the past. The peonies are almost ready to bloom. The ants are standing sentry on the swollen bulbs, putting up their little fists whenever I come near. The tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings from Waltham Fields went in over the weekend, and we’re trying tomatillos this year, too. I just put my seed-grown cucumbers and melons in yesterday.
We’ll see what June brings!
Wow ... imagine if you were a Native American and you were depending upon this garden to feed your family. I have great respect for them. Even though, as it turns out, we don't have any in our immediate family.
Posted by: Mom | May 28, 2015 at 09:04 AM