New England June 2014

I know QB. If those ducklings get here, one of the first thing I'm doing is posting pics here.

lyndeeloo wrote:

NHGardener wrote:If it were up to me, the whole yard would be edibles and no mowing.  

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Can't agree more!!!!         

+++++++222222!

And lyndeeloo, that is one bizarre looking, but cute, strawberry!

Hooray! Ducklings are so cute!

OMG!!!  They are adorable!  Look at them peeking out.  They're like, what the heck?!...she throws us in this garden and expects us to eat slugs that are bigger than we are!

Did you name them yet?

KillerOne, KillerTwo, and KillerThree.

My friend said her slug population has gone way down since she's had ducks.

CUTENESS OVERDOSE!!! 

Congrats they are so cute.  I want to hug them.

I envy you.  Its a wish I'd hoped to fulfill a few years back but didn't.
I hope you keep us/me posted on their growing up and advantages and if they are females, the eggs for breakfast.
Adorable.

Just love those fuzzy little quackers! Keep the baby pictures coming. Those of us who can't have ducklings or chicks can ooh and aah over the photos!
Maybe you could name one Sluggo.  

What is pine pollen?

Saw a hummingbird bee too - friend told me what it was

Very cool
Thank you!

mollyhespra wrote:Images of pine pollen.

Wow. Does other pollen look like that too? I just wonder what the difference is visually between pine pollen and other pollens.

Well, I don't know about visually as in microscopically but I can tell you that the main difference IMHO is sheer quantity.   This year in particular, EVERYTHING is dusted with a fine layer of yellow pollen (at the least) and at worse, is absolutely COATED in it.   I don't know of any other plant's "pollen season" that is visually as striking as pine pollen is.

I've heard the native Indians used to gather it up from lakes and ponds (where it tends to accumulate around the perimeter) and use it as a type of flour.  There's that much of it floating around.

mollyhespra wrote:Images of pine pollen.

That's amazing! I never knew. Reminds me of bee pollen. No sense in washing it off the veggies any more.  Wonder if we get all those benies from breathing it in?
  
CC

Brrrrrr!!!  36 degrees at the weather station nearby last night.  I live in a cold hole, so I don't know what that translates to at my house, but at least I know we didn't have a frost.  I need to get me one of those thermometers that records highs & lows.

Maybe it's a good thing those starts were still in flats because I was able to bring them all into the 3-season porch.  The peas are liking it, though.

 

mollyhespra wrote:Brrrrrr!!!  36 degrees at the weather station nearby last night.  I live in a cold hole, so I don't know what that translates to at my house, but at least I know we didn't have a frost.  I need to get me one of those thermometers that records highs & lows.

Maybe it's a good thing those starts were still in flats because I was able to bring them all into the 3-season porch.  The peas are liking it, though.

 

Not that surprised! It looked like downtown Springfield was remotely possibly going to drop to the high 30s, despite The Weather Channel not saying that it was going to be that low! 

Below average night temps for June! I did some approximation math and my thermometer indicated that it could go sub-45 F easily!

Looked likely that downtown was going as low as 43 F and 
possibly 42 F.

My thermometer out front across the street from the town hall shows that the minimum temp was only 36 F!  I dunno if that's right, because I should have cleared it again!

I think that would sooo be a record low! 

Even 42 F could be a record! I doubt it dropped to 36 F. wunderground PWSes aren't reporting that low.

First green beans of the year!  Oh boy, can't wait for dinner tonight!  

Woo-hoo, Lyndeeloo!  Looks yummy...!

Thanks AtlantaMarie.  And a couple of turnips to go with the beans. Dinner is shaping up nicely for tonight! 

Wow - green beans already? Amazing. My peas, altho now starting to flower, haven't shown a pod yet. Some of the plants are still tiny. Maybe they didn't get watered consistently enough.

Speaking of water, it's pretty much every day now. I watered yesterday and thought it might be okay to last till tomorrow, but I see a couple pumpkin plants that are drooping. Also when I was picking strawberries I noticed the strawberry soil is very dry. Doesn't seem to be impacting production or taste tho. Getting one of these a day now:



And here's the latest on the garden protection team:

Lyndee, nice looking beans and turnips and protection service

NHG - the babies are adorable!

Lyndeeloo - I'll be there for dinner!

Love those ducklings.  Adorable.
I noticed some tiny tomatoes on two of my tomato plants, a Mountain Pride and a Patio tomato, both in containers.
And in the pea rows the earliest planted is showing a few, very few, blossoms starting.  I'm leaving the asparagus alone now.  They are starting to come up very thin, and since they've been producing since May 1st when I got the first couple, that's long enuf to harvest them.  Now I'll let them grow into asparagus ferns for the fall and winter.
I've got some Fuji baby apples on the dwarf tree but nothing on the peach nor the Honey Crisp apple which didn't have any blossoms this year.   I'm sorry about the peach tree since those were the best peaches I ever ate.  Another gardener who makes videos that I follow in Oregon, didn't get any peach blossoms this year either.  I wonder why that happens?  Anyone know?
The cherries are forming but I can be sure the birds will get them before us.  They always do.