What's Up Wednesday

This week...

My Current WIP (Work in Progress): No writing related work done last week. I'm back in editing mode this week. 

Quote of the Week: "Time is the coin of your life. You determine how it will be spent. Do not allow others to spend it for you." ~ Carl Sandburg

What I'm Reading: I started "A Bad Day for Sunshine" by Darynda Jones Sunday evening. I haven't had a lot of time to read this week, so I'm not very far into the book. I enjoyed her Charley Davidson series so I have high hopes for this new series.

Random Thoughts:  I look forward to summer all winter long and then when summer gets here with it's high 80 to 90 degree weather and humidity, I look forward to cooler weather. Too bad there's no place in the US where it's about 75 degrees with little to no humidity year round. 

Random Photo of the Week:

The container garden that I wasn't going to do this year now has flowers as well as the vegetable plants from my nephew.

This I know for sure...

I had decided that I wasn't going to do any container gardening this summer. I didn't want to have to fight off the squirrels. They like to dig up my flowers and either dig holes in my vegetable planters or they take a bite out of whatever vegetable happens to be growing and then leave it there still hanging on the vine.

My nephew stopped by on Wednesday and brought me a planter with three extra plants he didn't have room for in his vegetable garden. So I am now the owner of one summer squash plant, one acorn squash plant, and one cucumber plant.

I'm not sure how successful I'll be in getting anything to grow that the squirrels won't take a bite out of but I'm going to give it a try again this year, I guess.

This I know for sure...

I'm trying container gardening again this year after taking a 2 year hiatus. I've never been successful because my vegetables were always raided by squirrels. Either they would dig up the plants before they were barely started or they'd steal what did grow. If they didn't steal it, they would leave the tomato or cucumbers on the vines, but take a bite out of each one.

This year I'm trying to grow yellow squash, cucumbers, basil, green peppers, radishes, sunflowers, daisies, johnny jump ups, and asters. When I first started I kept the various containers inside until the seedlings had a pretty good start. I thought while they were indoors, they'd be fine. Instead my cat would pull the plants out of the dirt and leave them beside the pots like so many dead corpses.

I've had the plants outside for a few weeks now. When I first put them out, I put a few pieces of hair in each pot. Someone told me the scent of human hair would keep the squirrels away. Umm, not so much. They left the plants alone for about 3 days and then dug in each pot. I was able to save most of the plants. I lost a lot of the johnny jump ups, all of my daisies, and all but one yellow squash plant. 

Desperate, I googled how to squirrel proof a garden. One of the first remedies I came across is putting coffee grounds in the pots. Since I drink coffee every morning, coming up with the grounds isn't a problem. I put a few grounds in each pot, around the rim of each pot and on the porch floor near each pot. Guess what it works, but you have to reapply the grounds every couple of days or so otherwise the squirrels do come to visit.

So if you're trying to garden and are having squirrel problems, give your plants a little coffee. It helps the composition of the soil because coffee grounds have nitrogen which improves the soil structure. It also helps keep away snails and slugs if you have problems with them too.

What's Up Wednesday

This week...

My current WIP (work in progress): I met with my critique partner Monday after a short hiatus as she recovered from surgery. I didn't realize how much I missed our meetings. I left feeling inspired and that I can get back on track.

Quote of the Week:  “You are the guardian of your joy. Don’t let anyone take it from you, and especially don’t let it slip through your fingers while you’re paying attention to other things.”~ Unknown

What I'm reading:  Nobody But You by Jill Shalvis. This is the 3rd book in the Cedar Ridge series.

Random things:  I think I mentioned a few posts ago that I'm trying container gardening again this year. It's just a few things. The last time I tried, I lost most everything that grew to squirrels. Right now, I just have seedlings started so I haven't put them outside yet. Instead of having to fight the squirrels, I'm having a hard time keeping our kitten out of them. He keeps pulling the plants out of the dirt and leaving them next to the pots. 

Random Photo of the Week:

                                               Somebody enjoying the sun.

Mother Nature finds a way

I've always wanted to have a vegetable garden unfortunately, I live in a city neighborhood where backyards are at a premium so planting a garden is next to impossible.  Here's a picture of my backyard that I share with a neighbor.  I think it's all of about 4' X 6' in size, although the grass is pretty green despite the lack of rain we've had this summer.

Last year I decided to try container gardening.  I have a friend who has had great success growing tomatoes and such on her porch.  I bought pots and soil from a garden center and seedlings from our local farmer's market.  The zucchini and pumpkin plant my nephew begged me to try and grow had tons and tons of blossoms but never did go past that point. My tomato and green pepper plants grew nice and tall and actually started to grow vegetables.  I'd go out every morning before work and look at them and water them if necessary.  And then the squirrels and a homeless bunny found my plants.  Every tomato and pepper had a bite out of it.  Soon, the squirrels started taking the smaller tomatoes off the vine and leaving the half-eaten pieces on the sidewalk around my porch. So while the wildlife enjoyed my efforts at container gardening last year, I didn't so I decided not to try again this year.

And then about a week ago, I noticed this plant growing out of a crack in the cement along side my back porch stairs.  Yep, it's a tomato plant that must have seeded itself from one of the squirrel's left overs that I missed cleaning up.  I tried to take a close up of where it's growing out of the crack but you can't really tell. (See next picture.)  So I'm watering it and have tied it up to a porch post and am keeping my fingers crossed.  It has a ton of blossoms, but no actual fruit yet.  

The next thing will be who will harvest any tomatoes that might grow -- me or the squirrels.  I'm betting on the squirrels.But even if I don't get any tomatoes, it's pretty cool to see Mother Nature at work and how one partially eaten tomato a year ago managed to grow into a brand new plant this year.