Wordless Wednesday

Bah! Catalpa Trees and Poke Weed

Catalpa trees and poke weed make me nuts.  I pull thousands of catalpa seedings out of my garden.  You can't just pull them up with your hand. Their roots get a strong grip in the ground before they grow stems big enough for me to see.  I now garden with pliers in my back pocket.  I use them to grab the section of the stem right as it meets the ground.  A good hard yank with the pliers in that spot allows me to pull most of the catalpa seedlings without having to dig them out.

I live in a historical neighborhood.  One of the original requirements for building in the area was that the property owners had to plant trees on their properties.  Apparently, in the Victorian era catalpa trees were very popular.  The Victorian residents of the neighborhood planted them all through the neighborhood.  I don't have one, but my neighbor's catalpa tree hangs over my back yard.  They have lovely flowers, but they drop obnoxious seed pods that readily grow into catalpa seedlings. A couple of weeks ago, I pulled out dozens of seedlings from my front yard, and I still see more that I will have to take care of soon.

What weeds or weedy plants make you crazy?

Sowing Leeks

Today, I sowed leeks directly into my back yard veggie bed.  I used my nifty weeder that my neighbor, Gaynell, gave me for Christmas.  It's perfect because it's about 1/2" deep which helps me to measure the depth of the little trenches that I made for sowing the leek seeds.

I sowed a couple of seeds every 6 inches.  When the seeds germinate and grow a little, I thin out the leeks until there is about 1 leek every 6 inches. As they mature, I will put little 1/2 toilet paper tube collars around the bottoms of each leek to blanch them so that I will have a larger edible portion of each leek.

Happy, Happy Pea Day

My wish came true:  my sugar snap peas finally came up.  It's been such beautiful, warm weather for a couple of weeks.  I hadn't seen my peas yet and I was starting to get worried.  I planted them along my alley next to my fence so that they will climb the fence.

Last year I planted them too late and didn't get much growth.  I was beginning to think that I had done something wrong this year.  I went out today to plant new pea seeds and I saw that they had sprouted.  I can't wait to taste them.  Sugar snap peas are one of my favorite treats.  I bet that they won't even make it into the house at harvest time.

Pop Up Potatoes

I checked my potato containers this morning and I found potato sprouts in all of them.  I'm so excited that they are coming out. Now if only I could see some peas popping up....

Wordless Wednesday on a Friday

Lou Murray started a Wordless Wednesday for gardeners.  Here's a link to her website where she explains what Wordless Wednesday is.  I'm a Wordless Wednesday cheater.  I posted on Friday ; )  I'll get with the program next week.

Surprise Lettuce

I let my lettuce go to seed once the weather got hot last year.  I intended to collect the seed, but I never got around to it.  I didn't need to collect the seed.  It has sown itself.  Good Old Mother Nature is much sharper and a lot less lazy than I am.

This lettuce looks like it might be red sails.

I have no idea which lettuce this one is.

The sad part is that these lettuces look much better than the ones I started inside a couple of weeks ago.  I guess the lesson here is that I will do better with my lettuce if I direct sow it than if I try to start it early inside.