Powdery Mildew

Sungold

Grant's Gardening Poem

Rather than have a Wordless Wednesday photo, I thought I would display someone else's poetic garden writings (with permission, of course).

      Kendra, armed with her garden and cat 
      Treads the green between can and can't 
      Blooms to one side, brooms to the other 
      Touching life, a whispering earth Mother 
      Encourages, discovers, enthralls and provides 
      A calm to beseech in all things alive 
      A bid to sink toes deep into warm soil 
      Steeped with the fragrance of sweat, blood and toil

Thanks, Grant!  Your wordsmithery is always a delight.

All A-Twitter

A few people have heartily suggested that I start a Twitter account, and link it to the blog.  Since I can't bear to see my friends and readers disappointed in my lack of technological advancement, I have given in, and I have given it a predictable yet appropriate name.

Here it is:  http://twitter.com/LeavesInMyHair

A random bonzai photo... just because.

I do need to expand a bit, make new blogging friends (garden-related and otherwise), have more interaction in the blogosphere... perhaps Twitter can help with that.  My greatest motivation to get posts out on time is knowing that there are a few of you out there who are looking forward to more of my gardeny blathering.  :)

Haha, I actually said blogosphere.  Dork!

Do you have a Twitter, blog, Etsy store, comic, etc?  Advertise here, and I will definitely check it out. 

Where is Grumpy Cat?

 Grumpy Cat demands affection... NOW.

Lately she is Absent Cat.  On friday afternoon I got to come home early (it's our one perk at work, when we have 3-day weekends), so I managed to catch my neighbor in front of her house.  I took the opportunity to ask her about Grumpy Cat... does she know if it has a name, if anybody owns it?  I said that the cat had suddenly taken a liking to me, so I was hoping to give it little treats if it wasn't getting love anywhere else.  The neighbor said that nobody on our street knows who the cat belongs to, that she sees it around often too (crossing along the top of the back fence).  Then she wouldn't meet my eyes, and said that the cat was "pretty wild" and kind of stuttered and looked sad and said she was glad that I had been able to form a bond with the cat... oh, and that it was good for the cat too.  On one hand I was happy that it didn't belong to anyone (egads, am I subconsciously adopting her?), but on the other hand it definitely felt like the neighbor was hiding something.

Facts I know about Grumpy Cat:
1.  He is really a she.  It looks like she's a "fixed" she.
2.  She is comfortable indoors and prefers to be there.  Until she decided she liked me, she was always peeking in the bedroom door, rather than the living room door, as though looking for someone.
3.  She loves tuna.
4.  She is ridiculously afraid of hoses and spraying water.
5.  It took her over 6 months to trust me... and most animals trust me immediately. 
6.  She acts like our backyard is, and always has been, HER domain.  She is protective of the house's inhabitants.
7.  There is a little spot on her side that, when rubbed, makes her flip over in hilarious ecstasy.

My theories on the feline's origins are:
1.  Grumpy Cat belongs to the neighbor, and she was embarrassed or weirded out that I was befriending her outdoor, unfriendly, collarless cat (hence the "hiding something"?). 
2.  A sheltered Grumpy Cat belonged to the elderly couple who owned the house before us (they owned it since it was built in 1984).  She was "released" outdoors when they left (or died... I still haven't explained the translucent image of a white-haired, muumuu-wearing woman seen a few times in the backyard and bedroom!).  The lady who rented the house for 3 months between us and the original owners chased the cat out and sprayed it with the hose, thus causing it to be traumatized.  Neighbor was very close friends with the owners (which is true, she has told me this).
3.  Grumpy Cat really lives in the adjacent cul-de-sac... our street doesn't really socialize with their street, so no one here would know the cat's origins.

Either way, Grumpy Cat is now missing.  Did the neighbor bring the feline indoors, to protect it from me turning in the "unowned" neighborhood cat?  I haven't seen her since, and her pattern for the past few weeks had been to wait for me outside in the afternoons, and hang out under the zen bench at least every weekend morning.  I had broken down and finally got her some real cat treats (rather than give her just tuna... which I hear isn't that good for cats)... now I have no mammal to give them to.  I wish I'd asked the neighbor more questions!

Crape Myrtle wishes it could be just a little bit taller

Tomato Hornworm

I called my Mom this weekend, and she described these finger-thick "hornworms" which are chewing the heck out of her tomato plants.  Light green, single spike on the hind end, terribly cute, and ravenous appetite.  Oh dear, my half-inch long ones on the Mr. Stripey tomato are suddenly not so cute.  They're only the thickness of a pencil lead, and since they're so tiny and weren't doing very much damage I was just going to leave them be.  I rushed to the garden to check... and yes, they've doubled size in a day, and both of them had taken out an entire leaf already.

 Nom nom nom... 

When I first noticed one, it was less than half that size, and the spike was towering straight up, almost half the length of its body.  And yep, you may have guessed it from the photo... I have removed both of the hornworms from the tomato plants, and they are now living happily in a little storage tub with plenty of tomato greens.  I'm such a sucker for creepy crawly things, and can't stomach squishing them (haha, that's what husbands are for, right?  And he's not home yet).  So now they're pets for the time being.  At least the Mr. Stripey tomato has enough leaves to spare so far... jeez, these things are voracious.  Hopefully I can support one long enough to see it turn into a Sphinx moth (otherwise known as Hawk or Hummingbird Moth)... should only take 3-4 weeks.  I will have to keep an eye on my plants, though... where there's 2, there's probably more!

Here's a nifty website that describes them:  http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/vegpest/hornworm.htm

My Dad sent me a few photos he took of one of their hornworms... it is beautiful!

 How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail...

... and pour the waters of the Nile, on every golden scale.

It also really, really reminds me of the caterpillar in Alice In Wonderland.  Something about the blues and greens in the photo is magical!  And despite what he's done to the yellow pear tomato, those eye spots are amazing.  Alas, due to his transgressions he has moved on to the, uh, great tomato field in the sky.  Here's hoping for a speedy recovery of my parents' tomatoes!


What's the most destructive pest you've had in your garden?

Nasturtium Invasion

The nasturtiums had a large growth spurt after I fed them with fish emulsion.  I have them in last year's strawberry pot, and I was hoping it'd become a bush of peppery salad additions.  Instead, only the climbing type survived (Spitfire), and long vines began invading the path.  We left on a 3-day vacation, and returned to see that a vine had grown across the entire bottom of the doorway!  I kept pushing them aside, and wrapping them around the pot.  Then as a joke I hung a few strands over the porch light... by morning the nasturtiums were jubilant in their newly found access to sunlight, and within a few days there was a flush of flowers. 

So I hung more, and more, and eventually some grew long enough to reach a hook above meant for christmas lights.  I had thought the sudden change in position would stress the plant, but it only keeps getting happier.

Streeeeetch!

You can see the small terracotta strawberry pot in the bottom right-hand corner in the above picture.  I hardly ever water it... the only explanation is that the roots must've gone down into the soil where the drip system is active, so I am loathe to move the pot.

Where all the birdseed goes