Seven sunflowers down. Maybe 1 more will die soon.

Definately Dead and Not Dead, Just Sick

The drama over Alexi cutting off all of the leaves from one side of my sunflowers is still brewing. Five have completely dropped their petals. I decided to cut the heads down so there is room for the survivors to get big. My biggest sadness is that these are the sunflowers from Katie and Ayden's Garden.

I am just burned up that this guy shows no remorse. He feels completely justified. He's told his wife he cut the leaves to protect their pepper plants. He told me he cut them because they brushed him when he walked by. He told the garden president he cut them up because they had bugs. Five of the cut plants have dropped their petals. Today Alexi said this happened because I didn't water them properly. When I pointed out the non-cut plants right next to the others were fine, he shrugged and said his peppers were having a problem just like everyone elses'. What do short green pepper plants have to do with sunflowers dying from their leaves being cut? I don't know. It probably has the same thing to do with sunflowers being plants they fed to cows in his village (even though he told me he grew up in Kiev?)

I'm not dead, just sick. For about three weeks I was dealing with pain in my ear. I went to the doc a week ago and was given steroids and antibiotics for inner ear, outer ear, and throat infections. Last week was ridiculously hot and humid. Luckily, the dew point and humidity were so high, it didn't dry out the plants much. Today, I've got an off-and-on fever. I've taken photos this whole time and I'll load them soon. major stress in the garden has been a bit prohibitive to garden time too. Soon.  More soon.

Tropical Minnesota...

...is not just the name of the tanning salon on Main Street in Hopkins where I still have credits for 60 minutes of tanning from 4 years ago.

Our heat index is expected to be over 100F for most of the week. My spinach bolted within a week of going in the ground - I didn't get any harvest. I hope this weather will help the peppers. Lots of watering this week.

I "installed" 4' plastic fencing around my plot to keep Alexi (Valentina said he cut my plants) from getting at my plants and to burn off my frustration. The birds are loving it. They know that they can land on my beds and nothing can get at them, not even the people-critters. Happy little birds.

I'm knitting like a knitting fool. Knitty's Winter 2008 Dead Fish Hat pattern. I finished one last week and I'm nearly done with #2.  Pictures to come.

1:30am and some really strange thunder has finally started after 1/2 hour of lightning. It's gonna be weird. I'd love to open the windows, but I've finally gotten the humidity in my apartment under 75%, so I've got to stay buttoned up.

Border Wars?

I haven't been to the garden for a couple of days. It's going to rain tonight, but I wanted to water with plant food to help my peppers which are really stumpy. I noticed one of my sunflowers that is supposed to get 10+ feet tall has bloomed at 6 feet and the sunflowers next to it were also ready to blossom and were turning kind of yellow.

All of the leaves on one side of the plants were cut off. I'm certain it was Valentina. First she's upset about the wild bird feeder, which I took down. Then the thistle feeder was knocked down. Now the leaves are cut off my sunflowers. Yes, the leaves did hang over the "border," but that happens all over the place. Mr Tse and Anatoli have plants that hang over the border, but mine were cut.

I understand that the lower leaves may have been hanging over their plants, but how does a leaf that is 5 feet in the air bothering a plant that is 15 inches tall.

I think I would take this better if they would have talked to me first. I feel really disrespected. When I came in, I called their apartment and left a message. Ticked as hell, I was tempted to trim all of their stuff hanging over the border - bushy flowers and onions that haven't been trimmed, but I'm above that. (I think?) Good fences make good neighbors, so I've decided to get some fence to take care of that part of the boundary. Also, I re-hung the wild birdfeeder. So there.

Hey Shorty! What's up Stretch?

My sweet peppers are too short. They are all under 14 inches. One has fruit and the others have buds. It just doesn't seem right.
I decided to check out the University of Minnesota site and I found a paper with basics about peppers. I think the plants are short because of all the weird weather we had - they need warm weather to grow and all of the flux, they just couldn't get in the mood. It warns, though, that high temperatures will cause the blooms to fall off. I haven't noticed anyone's pepper plants. The tomatoes are tall so maybe their peppers are short too. I'm going to water with plant food for the next couple of days and see what happens. It's over 90 again today so fingers are crossed.


The sunflowers are getting really tall. I've learned that the stalks are really tenacious. They'll do whatever they can to get at the sun and grow tall. They seem to grow from the ground up rather than the head stretching to grow up. One plant was growing through the mesh I've put up for the climbers. The "shoulders" of one leaf set were caught on a horizontal section of the mesh. The stalk kept growing from the base and the stalk was forming a "c" shape because it was pushing up, but was caught. It's free from the mesh now and the leaves that were hooked on the mesh died.

I have a clump of 6 or 7 sunflowers that are planted close to each other. I noticed early on that they were wrapping around each other to follow the sun and get the most sun possible. I put a large tomato cage around them to contain the stalks so they wouldn't fan out and shade the neighbor's plants. This has worked well. The plants are growing straight. They lean against the cage which reinforces it and keeps them all in check.

Four of the sunflowers are planted in a row on the border with Alexi/Valentina. They were blown by the big storm last night so they were leaning over the neighbor's plants. They are about 6 feet tall and since they are in a line, there isn't much I can do to keep them together. As a short term solution, I put a large zip tie loosely around the stalks, tied cord to the zip tie loops and tied the cord to a tall stake six feet away. There is a lot of extra cord on each tie so there is some flexibility as they grow, but I hope they will get back to straight, anchor well, and I can remove the cords. I'm mentally planning a Plan B, but no run to Home Depot yet.

Lovely, lovely weather

FINALLY the weather has turned to summer in Minnesota! No tornado warnings every three days. No 50F nights. It's been in the 80F's several days in a row and the garden is loving it. I always watered every night, but it's crucial these days. Crucial, but with good results.

The sunflowers are nearly 6 feet tall. One tomato plant is over 4 feet tall and the rest are catching up, even the tomato ball.  There is fruit on almost every tomato plant, but nothing to harvest yet. Peas are more than knee high. My Asian long bean plant is up to about 6 feet. Squashes are blooming nicely and starting to crawl. The peppers are still really short, but one pepper plant - less than 1 foot tall has 1 pepper on it that is 5 inches long and of good size. They maybe short, but willful. I'll focus on giving them plant food the next week or so.

All well and good. Alexi/Valentina asked me to take down the wild bird feeder. It's hard to get exact meaning but either it happened or they worried it would happen - the wild birds would/might/did eat Valentina's strawberries and may destroy all of our tomatoes. I think this is  a worry more than a fact.

I didn't see any fruit-eaters at the feeder and strawberries in unestablished gardens have not done well here at all. The birds are everywhere and can't be helped, they just don't want me to encourage them to come to the garden.

I've kept the thistle sock feeder though. Goldfinch and other thistle-eaters do not eat tomatoes. It's "fallen down" once, but I suspect Valentina knocked it down. She's lovely, but when Alexi asked me to take down the feeder, Valentina was literally at his elbow whispering in Ukrainian as though she was telling him what to say. When I left the sock feeder, she whispered to him again, he asked if it was a feeder and I said yes. She tsk'd me. It's back up in such a way it can't be blown or knocked down without effort. I have no ill will towards Valentina, I just think she's nervous for no reason.

I've been quiet and not in the garden much lately - nothing beyond the requisite. I hurt myself and I've been laying low.

More soon.  Happy Summer!

Watering the garden

Don't forget the birds [update 7-7-1]

I'm doing what I can to get close to nature as I can. Tending my garden barefoot is one way to get close to bature, but birds are becoming another. The wild bird seed I bought earlier has only attracted little brown birds. I've seen goldfinches in the garden, but not at the feeder. I've learned they prefer nyjer seeds and they prefer a small, softish perch, so I bought a thistle sock. It works! The goldfinch have found the food and are singing about it.

[When I was outside the other day, Alexi told me the birds coming to my feeder were eating his wife's strawberries and would eat the tomatoes. Well, that's what I read from what he was saying. His English is pretty good, but Ukrainian to English means that he's not that great about using articles and conjucating verbs to indicate past, present, future. So technically, I'm guessing he was talking about the birds eating the strawberries in the past tense, not future. No problem, I took down the wild bird feeder. I left up the sock feeder. I think Valentina (Alexi's wife) is upset about this, but I know goldfinches aren't going to eat fruit. Does anyone need 7 lbs of mixed wild bird seed?]

They call this a shelf cloud

Second day of 95F+ = severe storms = no need to water

Can you hear the music from Jaws?
Danger approaches.

The weather man on the 5pm news is very excited. Tornado warning: There are "take cover immediately" warnings for places to the west. Also 2" hail. The rest of us are in a severe thunderstorm warning which means rain and wind is coming and tornadoes may follow that.

My afternoon plan was to hang out by the garden with a beverage and a book, but I got side-tracked. I'll watch the storm from my sofa.

It's not all about snow here.