Plea for gardening advice

I planted this baby carrot from seed in late spring. It somehow survived the Evil Squirrel Excavations of May and the Great Groundhog Scourges of July and August. I carefully watered and weeded around it, showered it in encouragement and nurturing thoughts. I was encouraged by the healthy-looking leaves above ground and decided to harvest it before the frost.

I know it's supposed to be a baby carrot, but this looks more like an embryo carrot. I SO do not have a green thumb.

No wonder the groundhogs and squirrels left it alone; it wasn't worth their time! They were probably laughing their guts out.

I've never had a particularly green thumb. I also planted a tomato plant from seed. Like its baby carrot counterpart, my tomato plant seemed to flourish. Yet I've only managed to harvest four (4) baby tomatoes so far, while my neighbour's baby tomatoes are practically jumping off the vines because they're so heavily laden with fruit.

I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong. One possible problem is that I'm using planters. Another theory is that the plants know that they're just going to get dug up and eaten by the neighbourhood groundhog, so what's the point anyway? But that doesn't explain why my neighbour's vegetables are doing so well and mine aren't.

Gardening advice welcome!

Groundhogs are giant mutant squirrels

A couple of days ago, Jeff peered out his home office window and saw the groundhog nibbling on our deck plants. I ran down with my camera and only got one photo, and had to take the photo through the window screen.

He looks smaller in the photo above than I remember. Or maybe there's more than one groundhog feasting on our outdoor natural salad bar.

Gnomedude has suggested a spray mixture of hot oil plants like chili peppers, but warns that I'd need to keep re-applying. Or we could go with structural deterrents like mesh fencing or screen.



Peter Alway pointed out the following:

Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mamalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Tamiasciurus
Species: Hudsonicus
Common Name: Red Squirrel, Pine Squirrel, Chickaree

Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mamalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Marmota
Species: Monax
Common Name: Woodchuck, Groundhog

Peter says that taxonomically, Marmota Monax is, indeed, a giant mutant squirrel. :-)



Phillip2637 writes: "I used to work near Sheppard Ave., just east of where it crosses the Don Valley Parkway. Sometimes at lunch I'd walk across the bridge to Fairview Mall, visit some stores -- often a fruit and vegetable place -- and then walk back to work. In nice weather there was often a pair of groundhogs, sitting together as if they were an old couple, on one of the cement supports at the edge of the DVP. I enjoyed watching them just taking in all the activity, so I'd throw pieces of apple down to them or whatever I had.

Then there was the day that I couldn't get home because they'd eaten the entire overpass...but, hey, they were cute.

:-)"






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Giant mutant evil squirrels

I was coming back from my daily power walk late yesterday afternoon when I saw something moving in front of the house. At first I thought it was a giant mutant squirrel but then I realized it was the groundhog our neighbours have been talking about.

It looked pretty healthy, with sleek shiny fur and lots of padding. Padding largely gleaned from eating my plants, I'm sure. Little bugger. When we came home from the cottage, one of our potted plants had nearly all the leaves and flowers chewed off, leaving only stems. Grr.



I chased the groundhog around the side of the house. Tried to get a photo of it with my iPhone, too, but the shutter was too slow and I only got a blurry shot of weeds instead.



Clearly, the neighbourhood squirrels have called in reinforcements. I couldn't help thinking of the Lord of the Rings movie when the goblins in the Mines of Moria call in the big Cave Troll to attack the good guys.

Well, I refuse to be intimidated. The groundhog has already made several attempts to infiltrate my basement office via tunnels beneath our house, razed my lettuce, attacked the mailman...but the war is not yet over. All right, I was kidding about the mailman, but it's only a matter of time, really.

Any tips on how to discourage groundhogs from vandalizing our garden would be much appreciated.



Speaking of Evil Creatures, I just received a package in the mail from my friend Seanan McGuire:



How can something so evil be so cute? Seanan's reply: "He brings evil under the guise of ADORABLE, that you might not suspect the depths to which he is capable of sinking!" :-)

Speaking of cute/evil packages in the mail, I'm excited to announce that I'm now the proud owner of a Nerd Ninja Doll! Photos/details in the next Blathering.

The squirrel in the photo is standing on a book I'm currently reading, The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison, which my niece was kind enough to lend me. It's SOOOOO GOOOOD! I'm about halfway through and am finding myself slowing down so it will last longer.




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Cartoonists, herbs and serging

Above: Patricia, me and Kate at Ryan's Cartoonist Photo Shoot. Photo by Ryan Couldrey.



Ryan also took the photo above; you can see the rest of the photos in his Cartoonist Photo Shoot on Flickr.



Has anyone out there ever used those dry peat pellets? They're amazing little things, aren't they? They look like mini coasters at first but add water and TA-DAAH...



I'm using some to start some seedlings. It still seems like such a magical process to me. I take a small envelope of tiny dots, sprinkle the dots over these expanded coasters, and a few weeks later (in theory, anyway) GREEN LIVING THINGS appear! That (in theory) grow up into BIGGER LIVING THINGS!



I mostly like planting things that I can eat. Yesterday I planted summer savory, thai basil, sweet basil, cherry tomatoes, forget-me-nots (can't eat those, but I like them anyway), parsley and something else I forget.

Speaking of cooking, thanks to my friend Ray for the belated birthday gift:



Can't wait to try some of these recipes; I've never cooked Mexican before and have been intrigued (and hungry) when Ray's told me about recipes he's made from this book.



Last night, I decided to rethread my serger from scratch (yes, again). Some of you may think me crazy, but there was a method in my madness. First of all, I figured I could use the practice; I don't want to stay scared of threading forever! And it was MUCH easier this time around, only taking me about 15 minutes instead of over an hour. It's mainly the lower looper thread that's a challenge, I find, but even that is handleable with a pair of tweezers and some patience.



I also wanted to use different coloured threads so I can get a better grasp of what all the threads are doing when I make adjustments to thread tension, stitch lengths, differential, etc. I'm starting to save and record my experiments in a binder that I can use for reference in the future.

I also played around some more with doing a rolled hem, which requires opening up one of the side covers and changing the needle plate setting. Considering I've only had my serger for one week today, I figure I'm doing okay.

And y'know, I think I'm ready to use my serger on an actual sewing project...

Babylon Five Virgin update

SPOILER WARNING: The blog below focuses on my reports while watching Babylon Five for the first time. An LJ feed is also available. If you haven't seen B5 yet and don't want spoilers, please DO NOT click below.

Season 3, Episode 54: Severed Dreams
Season 3, Episode 55: Ceremonies of Light and Dark
Season 3, Episode 56: Sic Transit Vir





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