Snakes and Squirrels and Lack of Water
This morning on our walk with Siris, we saw a bullsnake and what I think was a baby coachwhip snake. It's amazing how well they blend in with the environment: you think you're paying attention to your surroundings and then suddenly there's a snake you didn't see, stretched out full-length, less than five feet in front of you on a wide-open road.
The other morning we heard scrub jays making a big fuss about something off to the side of the road. There were three of them in a juniper tree, and one was diving down and rolling around strangely in the dirt. Mike suggested they were yelling at a snake and sure enough, there was a bullsnake crawling on the ground close to the tree. We followed it for awhile until it found a hole that it could disappear down into.
Mike shot some video of it.
The snakes are desirable to have around the house, though of course I don't want to step on a rattlesnake. They eat rodents that carry disease and that eat my garden. Squirrels ate all of my mom's cucumber seedlings, and they've been munching on my squash and cucumber plants. I looked closely at my summer squash plants the other day and saw that there some squash that were almost big enough to eat: but the ends had been eaten off of every single one. The squirrels have also been eating leaves of the cucumber plants and the baby cucumbers. So I re-purposed the chicken wire row covers I had used earlier this spring to keep the birds from eating my seedlings, into enclosures for the squash and cucumber plants. This will make it a major pain in the ass to pick the ripe vegetables but the only alternative (not having the cages) would result in not having the vegetables at all. I won't be able to open the cages to access the plants after awhile because the vines of the plants will intertwine through the chicken wire. I'm hoping the wire is strong enough to support the plants. I may have to add stakes at intervals around the circumferences to reinforce the wire.
Now that monsoon season is here, we've been having thunderstorms every afternoon. Yesterday, we had a good long one that let loose lots of rain. Even with all the rain, though, it didn't penetrate very far. When I took advantage of the damp and overcast conditions after the storms to transplant some seedlings, I found that the soil was still bone-dry less than an inch down.
My new pressure canner is making its way across the country to me. It's now in Denver. Probably another day to Albuquerque, and then another to get to Dixon. My tomatillo plants are looking very vigorous; it's time to find some recipes for green salsa.
I learned something important the other day and luckily my life does not depend on being able to live off the bounty of our gardens: We did not water the fruit trees sufficiently in the fall or this spring around the time they were setting fruit. I can find only a single apple on the apple tree. I don't see any fruit on the two peach or the apricot trees. Last fall, I thought that the peach tree had some kind of disease because the tips of the branches were wilting and turning brown--I was watering it, so I ruled out lack of water as the cause. Evidently, though, it was insufficient water. And in the spring, I waited until after the last frost and the onset of the warmer days to start watering the trees. I figured they didn't need much water until then. I was very wrong and the consequence is no fruit. I'm happy that the trees otherwise seem healthy. Lesson learned.
The other morning we heard scrub jays making a big fuss about something off to the side of the road. There were three of them in a juniper tree, and one was diving down and rolling around strangely in the dirt. Mike suggested they were yelling at a snake and sure enough, there was a bullsnake crawling on the ground close to the tree. We followed it for awhile until it found a hole that it could disappear down into.
Mike shot some video of it.
The snakes are desirable to have around the house, though of course I don't want to step on a rattlesnake. They eat rodents that carry disease and that eat my garden. Squirrels ate all of my mom's cucumber seedlings, and they've been munching on my squash and cucumber plants. I looked closely at my summer squash plants the other day and saw that there some squash that were almost big enough to eat: but the ends had been eaten off of every single one. The squirrels have also been eating leaves of the cucumber plants and the baby cucumbers. So I re-purposed the chicken wire row covers I had used earlier this spring to keep the birds from eating my seedlings, into enclosures for the squash and cucumber plants. This will make it a major pain in the ass to pick the ripe vegetables but the only alternative (not having the cages) would result in not having the vegetables at all. I won't be able to open the cages to access the plants after awhile because the vines of the plants will intertwine through the chicken wire. I'm hoping the wire is strong enough to support the plants. I may have to add stakes at intervals around the circumferences to reinforce the wire.
Now that monsoon season is here, we've been having thunderstorms every afternoon. Yesterday, we had a good long one that let loose lots of rain. Even with all the rain, though, it didn't penetrate very far. When I took advantage of the damp and overcast conditions after the storms to transplant some seedlings, I found that the soil was still bone-dry less than an inch down.
My new pressure canner is making its way across the country to me. It's now in Denver. Probably another day to Albuquerque, and then another to get to Dixon. My tomatillo plants are looking very vigorous; it's time to find some recipes for green salsa.
I learned something important the other day and luckily my life does not depend on being able to live off the bounty of our gardens: We did not water the fruit trees sufficiently in the fall or this spring around the time they were setting fruit. I can find only a single apple on the apple tree. I don't see any fruit on the two peach or the apricot trees. Last fall, I thought that the peach tree had some kind of disease because the tips of the branches were wilting and turning brown--I was watering it, so I ruled out lack of water as the cause. Evidently, though, it was insufficient water. And in the spring, I waited until after the last frost and the onset of the warmer days to start watering the trees. I figured they didn't need much water until then. I was very wrong and the consequence is no fruit. I'm happy that the trees otherwise seem healthy. Lesson learned.
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