Category Archives: garden

Ants?

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I love hummingbirds.  A few years ago I was lucky enough to see a nest in one of the trees in our back yard.  The food is easy to make (one part sugar to four parts water) so why buy it?

HF001

Hummers aren’t the only creatures that like the sweet syrup.  So do ants. They serve a purpose in the big scheme of things but I’m not a fan of ants.  On my hummingbird feeders.

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I’ve used this natural ant repellent for several years and it works great.  Plus it’s cheap.  And harmless.

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These tiny, syrup, sucking insects don’t like ground cinnamon.  So I mix cinnamon (use the cheap stuff) with some petroleum jelly and slather it on the pole about 12-16 inches close to the ground.

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Then I throw/shake extra cinnamon on the mixture on and around the base the pole just so they know it’s there.

I also sprinkle it on the top of my feeder.  The cinnamon/petroleum jelly mixture can also be applied to the top if your feeder is different.

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No more ants on my feeder.

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Of course I replenish the cinnamon as needed when I refill the feeder or if we’ve had a lot of rain or wind.

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Remember to replace the hummingbird food and thoroughly wash the feeder at least once a week even if there is still food in it.  Heat will sour the mixture in a few days. I usually fill my feeder about half way so I don’t waste much food.  I’d rather refill it more often than have sour, cloudy food for those amazing little birds.

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Clean, full feeders make happy hummers.

Any volunteers?

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I bought a couple of asparagus ferns for our deck three years ago and planted them with a few petunias in the same flower pot.  I wanted to keep the ferns from one year to the next so I pulled out the spent petunias and brought the ferns inside during the cold months.

Last summer some petunias tried to emerge from the soil but the plants never got bigger than four small leaves.

A blooming petunia surprised me a few weeks ago.

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At least one seed got enough sunlight and water to make it.  And yes, that is a solar light that I just left in the pot.  No, it doesn’t get enough light inside to glow at night.

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Perhaps more will plants will grow and bloom once these pots get back outside.

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If it ever warms up enough.

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Greenish thumb

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Last year we planted tomatoes in our front flower beds.  The front of our house gets more sun than the back and I wanted to grow some tomatoes.

And keep them close enough to the house that the deer wouldn’t get them.

deer

But a chipmunk decided to make himself at home and steal the tomatoes.

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By that time the plants were too large to do much of anything so we reluctantly shared.

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This year I decided to be a bit more proactive and make the plants less accessible.

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Half-inch hardware cloth (it is not soft like cloth) rolled into 18-inch high circles/columns.  I secured the circles/columns with wire and put some duct tape around the tops to keep from getting scratched when I had to pull weeds, pick ripe tomatoes, etc.

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I wedged the tomato tag from the seedlings in the back between the overlapping screening.

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Red Beefsteak

So far so good.

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L to R: Red pepper, German Queen, Red pepper

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L to R: Roma, Cherry, Better Boy, Red Beefsteak

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Roma

 

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Roma

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Husky Cherry Red

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Husky Cherry Red

 

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German Queen

I followed Martha Stewart’s suggestion for tying up the floppy plants using old panty hose.

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Better Boy

I even tried a couple of red pepper plants.

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Red pepper

From the top clockwise: Beefsteak, Beefsteak, German Queen, German Queen, Better Boy

From the top clockwise: Beefsteak, Beefsteak, German Queen, German Queen, Better Boy

Question:  Why do some tomatoes split or get those lines in them as in the beef steak above?

Those German Queen tomatoes are huge!  They aren’t the prettiest but measure at about 6 inches across the widest part.  Very meaty and makes a great tomato sandwich.  I had not heard of them before but decided to try one plant this year.  It’s an heirloom tomato so I will save some seeds and try to start my plants from seed next year.  Looking forward to eating more fresh veggies soon!