Us Versus the Wildlife

We’re getting ready for the garden tour on Saturday! I hope my local readers will join us!

There are five gardens featured in the upcoming garden tour "What's Growing in Mountain Brook? (Legally)", Saturday, August 28, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Each garden has unique surprises awaiting you, from magic to medicinal herbs to heavy production. There are many different ways to garden---discover some of the different things these Mountain Brook gardeners do. Also enjoy the plein air artists and the relaxing day outside. Tickets are $10 per person and are available at the Mountain Brook Library, from Board Members, or by calling (406) 314-8232. Pick up your map to the gardens at the Library on Garden Tour Day. Tours start at each garden 5 minutes after the hour and leave plenty of time to wander around, ask questions, and enjoy the garden. Your center for bathrooms and refreshments is the Mountain Brook Community Library.

The painter who will be in my garden is coming for a visit this afternoon so we can meet each other and she can see where she would like to set up her easel.

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We have begun the annual fall battle against hungry, marauding wildlife. I have come upon the husband, more than once, yelling at the deer to get out of the apples. Over the weekend, he put up an electric fence:

Will it keep a determined bear out?—maybe not. It will, however, dissaude the deer from getting in there and munching on anything they can reach. It’s an interesting setup; the control box is mounted on the garage, a wire is attached to the fence around the porta-potty and then from there around the trees, back to the other side of the fence and finally to the garage again to complete the circuit. I just have to remember not to walk into it on my way to the mailbox.

I will need to pick apples soon, in any case, as the Lodi, State Fair, and Red Wealthy are close to being ready.

I also bagged the clusters of grapes—the ones that were left, anyway, because this year, the birds did not wait for the grapes to ripen—with organza gift bags.

If this works, I will do it earlier next year. I think I will also refrain from pruning grapes next spring. A hard pruning did wonders for the one vine that was struggling, but the rest of them put out a lot of foliage and that was it. My grapes have made it clear that they do not want to pretend they are in Tuscany. They have no desire to grow in a neatly manicured fashion. They need an arbor of some sort to trail over. The husband has said he will look at what he can do, but that’s a ways down on the to-do list.

I’ve got seven gallon bags of frozen tomatoes ready for the first round of salsa-making today. I have at least that many tomatoes (possibly more) ripening in the laundry room. It looks like I planted my tomatoes over a nuclear waste site. (I am really good at growing tomatoes, for some odd reason, and my technique consists of sticking plants in the ground.) There will be more than enough for us. Some of my Oregon Star paste tomatoes—which I grew from seed that I saved from the biggest one last year—are huge. This one weighs 14.7 ounces. Once it ripens, it will provide seed for next year’s crop.

I do tend to pull the tomatoes as soon as they have any pink on them and let them ripen inside. Less temptation for the ground squirrels.

The husband is enjoying Minnesota Midget melons with his breakfast and I’m waiting for a few more watermelons to ripen. The peas look good, but unless it warms up a bit more in September, I doubt I’ll get a second crop. We did cover everything last night because of a frost warning. The temperature was 35 degrees when I woke up, so that was probably a good call.

I am about ready for gardening season to be over. As soon as the tomatoes are done, so will I be. All that’s left will be cleanup and the application of some chicken and pig manure.

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I am trying to work through the rest of the material I had set aside for summer T-shirts. Frost warnings notwithstanding, we could still be in the 80s for much of September. Once the fabric is cut, the T-shirt takes about half an hour to assemble—save for the hems—so I’ve been making them here and there as I have time. After the shirts are all made, I’ll have a marathon coverstitching session and do all the hems.

I’m also making a pile of stuff that needs altering, mostly hems. I have one top, in particular, that I would wear more often except that I don’t like the length of the sleeves. They aren’t really short sleeves but they aren’t really elbow-length sleeves, either. It occurred to me the other day that it will take me 20 minutes to shorten and hem the sleeves to a better length on the coverstitch machine.

And then I’ll get started on making some long-sleeve tops and hoodies for cooler weather.