New in the Garden 7/12/11

I just picked up a few goodies that I still haven't figured out a place for yet. This is an unfortunate habit of mine. Maybe I'll eventually ditch the lawn altogether and fill it with my goofy nursery finds? ;)

Just bought, haven't yet planted-

*2 Heavenly Blue grape vines
*2 Hinnomaki Gooseberry - one yellow and one red. This is a Finnish variety, so I'm thinking that our low temps here should be no sweat for berries that can tolerate Scandinavian winters.
*4 Basil - Three Genovese and one Amethyst.
*1 Rosemary
*1 Nero de Toscana Kale - the bunnies LOVE this stuff!
*2 Mints - one chocolate mint and one "chewing gum" mint. These were the girls' choice.
*1 "Cheyenne" pepper. Seriously, this says Cheyenne and not Cayenne. I have never heard of this one before, but it was $1.99 and it's already loaded with peppers and blossoms, so I had to take a chance on it. ;)

Now as soon as this drizzle stops, I get to go and wander around the yard to try and figure out where these babies are going. If it weren't for the deer, I think I'd take advantage of our fugly chain link fence out front and pop the grape vines in out there, but if the deer like grapes as much as they like cherry trees, that wouldn't fly too well. Hmmm....

Our Guests in the Pasture

We've been seeing this doe here and there a lot lately, but this is the first time that I got a pic of her and her babies in the front yard.


Click on a photo to see it larger.


We usually see these turkeys up in the back pasture, behind the goats. In fact, I stumbled upon the place where they have been bedding down when I was cutting down some scotch broom to feed the goats. A fawn came rocketing out of the brush and about scared me to death. Besides the sneak attacks and the tree nibbling, I actually don't mind having the deer around too much. They are welcome to all of the grass, dandelions and scotch broom that their bellies can hold, I just need them to leave my poor baby cherry tree the heck alone, and we will all get along just fine. ;)

Trees... and not much else

I have been gloriously, self-indulgently lazy since the girls went back to school last week. I haven't harvested, picked or canned a single thing since the great apple-a-thon a week and a half ago, and I suppose that it's time to get back on the horse, as it were.

The one thing that I did get done was to get our new plants in the ground. Rather, I told Bill where to plant them and he did. ;) We put in an Arbequina (Spanish) Olive, a "Ukraine" highbush cranberry, a Himrod Grape and a horseradish root. Knowing that food will soon become harder for the deer to come by, and that they will then naturally look to my tasty plants for nourishment, I safeguarded them as best as I could. Don't laugh -


My bitty olive tree

Until we get a deer fence in place, lets just hope that the deer will find the tomato cages and saran wrap are more trouble than eating my tree (all 5 bites of it) is worth.