Mad Dog in the Garden

Today as I was working in the garden, I thought my almost year old miniature Dachshund would like to come out and spend some time in the garden with her mama. That was a very bad mistake.

Mad Dog (also known as Maggie) came outside and was very busy exploring the surrounding area.  Mad Dog decided to see what I was doing and before I knew it, she had turned over the remaining tomatoes in the flat. That flat had each of the transplants labeled and now it is Mad Dog's guessing game.

Mad Dog got her name over the months she has lived in our house. When she came to our home from Burnside, Kentucky she weighed a mighty four pounds and was half as long as she is now. When she joined Beanie and Jimmie she kept them moving and grooving. She would lay with Beanie on his pillow and kiss his muzzle.  He begrudgingly started to like the young upstart.

Jimmie finally had a playmate. She would play tug of war and chase him through the house at break neck speeds.  If you are in their way, you better watch out. They will run you down.

It has not been all one sided on the learning curve. Jimmie and Beanie introduced Mad Dog to their favorite food, sauteed squash with garlic. They also taught Mad Dog to bark at anything that moved. She is the first to bark and the last to stop.

I will have to make Mad Dog and the boys sauteed squash from the garden for her upcoming birthday on the 23rd, but I am pretty sure my plants won't be big enough. The reason I won't have anything out of my garden yet is that I spent a goodly part of tax season sick with an intestinal parasite. I thought I was going to have to die to feel better. Instead, it made my foray to the garden late.

Squash is coming dogs, just be patient.

It's HOT HOT HOT

Summer is here with a vengence. The temperatures have been in the 90s for the last few weeks of May and that is entirely too hot.

When you have lived in South Florida, you know what being too hot too early means-hurricanes.  You may be wondering how you can predict hurricanes by the outside temperature.  If the spring brings extremely hot temperatures real early, there is a tendency for the Atlantic Ocean to heat up very early. Hot ocean water makes water spouts off the African continent start to become the starts of a tropical depression.

You may be thinking I am a pessimist, but I distinctly remember the spiders coming in early in June last year. Organic gardeners know that the bugs and wildlife have built in weather forecasting equipment. Somehow they know what the fall and winter will bring. Heavy acorn production, spiders all over the place early in June, squirrels building massive nests and extremely hot weather lead itself to a very cold winter of 2010-2011.

Well, here we are again. It is hotter than Hades and most of us think we have died and ended up there all ready.
What is this winter going to be like?

Spring has not sprung yet (written in March 2011)

Contrary to the fact that the home improvement stores have transplants of every kind and shape available, our first frost free day is April 15th. We have seen snow in late March and early April.

That is not to say that we don't have things to grow. We currently have eight boxes of Sugar Snap peas, five buckets of broccoli, 2 boxes of cauliflower, two boxes with lettuce, two boxes of cabbage,two boxes with spinach, and two boxes with herbs. Everything is doing well and our broccoli is forming heads and side shoots.

Our order for Parks Nursery was large this year and I have new ways to start seedlings this year. I pulled entirely too many "biodegradable peat pots" and peat pellets. The system I ordered from Parks will be subsidized with an order from Johnny's seeds and a few items from Burpee. This garden is going to give more vegetables this year.

As everyone knows, a real garden is always a science experiment.

We are at it again (written in February 2011)

All these folks here in the Atlanta area are nuts. That is N U T S, nuts. The local Home Depot has tomato plants already. Everybody from the South knows one thing for sure and that is if March comes in like a lamb, you can bet your bottom dollar, it will go out like a lion.

It is entirely too warm for February and we can be assured that winter is not over. Some folks were talking about this very subject in the garden center at Home Depot and we all thought it was way too warm this early.

Spring has not sprung, and winter is still here.