furtive fauna REMINDER + red, green, & brown

 
1. REMEMBER: Last day to turn in furtive fauna shots you've taken is tomorrow (either send me the pic or the link to your posted pic--check the link for details). Oh, heck. Scratch that. YOU HAVE the ENTIRE WEEKEND to paw through and find something. The more the merrier, right? I'll be back in town late Monday, so Tuesday I'll see what you all have come up with.

2. Fall bounty.

red

green

black cat, pink tongue & day's harvest

3. New plot for lettuce, etc.; arming against gophers.

Couldn't find wire cutters, so to add another width of wire, I just folded it over and hung the rest of the role on the stakes. Patience is not always a virtue...

 

brown

Here, most of the dirt is back, and new bag o' composted manure is poised to be added: this is right when I ran out of calories and had to stop. =) MAN those bags are heavy if they've been sitting in the rain--woah!

4. Sprout update: the pak choi cotyledons are up (cute!), I think I saw ONE beet sprout (mind you, this is before the brutal rain and HAIL storm yesterday afternoon), broccoli continues to advance VERY slowly, and so far no clear action in the kale department. Hoping if it clears up a BIT today I can finish the lettuce plot and plant it!

QUESTION TO GARDENERS: So, are beets normally kinda slow to sprout? It's been wet and cool, so that may have affected things, but man, that pak choi POPPED up right away. Eager! =)

5. Soon, I will post more pics from last weekend soon--there's a few more goodies in there, plus a very cool factoid I learned.

6. This weekend we're off to the San Luis Obispo area for a biobabbler family gathering (LOVE my family--SO fun), and there's a parade involved (that we attend, not run). We'll see if we get out into nature avec Nikon. =)

bb

You'll NEVER believe this...

I certainly didn't.

Tuesday I plant "three sisters": squash, beans, corn in one plot (well, 60% of one plot). Seem to recall average germination is in the ball park of 9 days (off top of my head) so figure I'll be watering dirt for some time.

This morning (Sunday) I see about 3 things coming up, that look like this:

What?!? I KNOW that is not squash and I know that is not bean and I know it is not our ordinary weeds. I think:    The CORN SPROUTED in 5 DAYS?!?

Woah. That is IN-sane.

I had NO idea it could be that quick.

So I note that, freak out, water things, and then take off for a hike.

Spend the next 8 hours away, driving to, then taking a great hike in, Yosemite NP (and I'll be posting lots of pictures from that soon).

I return, let chickens into their yards and freshen up the water in their "pools" ('cause it's so freakin' hot) and go water the garden.

THIS is what I see in the 3 sisters plot:

baby squash!!

that's more corn sprouting, partially hidden by dead grass (I'm so clever...)

more squash and corn

Color me shocked!

AND, I think the sunflower seeds have also sprouted, and I planted them WEDNESDAY!!

Check it out:

Has anyone else had an experience like this? Please lemmeno if you have.

I know it's been hot, but really...

wow.

Stunned and Amazed by Nature, as ever,

biobabbler


P.S. So, next day I'm not exhausted from the hike: Burgess Buttercup Squash "Days to germ" = 5-10 (so that's on target, but the EARLIEST possible time); Good Mother Stallard Pole Bean Dtg = 8-16, which makes sense as I've not seen it yet; and last but not least, Hopi Blue Corn Dtg = 7-10. So, the corn is officially ahead of schedule and the squash is not, but WAY on the earliest possible day. Beans: still thinking happy thoughts, hoping they'll a) arrive, b) not get eaten by everyone as tiny sprouts.
PPS I was wrong on the sunflowers. This morning (Monday) I now see them up, and they look a little yellow, not great, so we'll see if it lasts. Gave them a good soaking, so maybe that'll help?