Faith, bluebirds and heirloom seeds

Good morning. Got our first "real" cool snap this morning. It was 39 according to the weatherman. Never fear.. it wont last long!! LOL.
Hoop house is doing well.

My sugar snap peas have found the trellis.

I don't know what I was thinking with the mustard seed.

Here in a week or so I'm gonna be thinning big time.

If you look closely on the right there is spinach just coming up.

On the left is some collard seedlings

Collard seedlings on the right

Rows of lettuce on the left.

I ordered seeds from an online company that sells organic heirloom seeds. Meaning they aren't full of chemicals, haven't been genetically altered and I can use the seed harvested to replant. Majority of the seeds on the market right now are hybrids. Which doesn't mean a bad thing it just means you have to buy more seeds next time. Heirloom are the same price and you only have to buy seed one time.

I don't like the idea of the genetically altered foods. Like corn for instance, is genetically altered and has a chemical built in to make the worms that try to eat it die. Well wouldn't it make sense then if we as human eat it in a larger portion that we will suffer some kind of drawback. Id rather flick the worm off, not that I'm a fan of worms... yes i know they wont hurt me.. but i still use my glove to throw their miserable hides to the ground and smoosh. (yea yea yea i know smoosh isnt a word... but it just sounds like something one does to a grub)

Funny story, every evening about 5-5:30 there is a group of bluebirds that sit on the power line next to my house. They swoop down and feed on the crickets in the grass. I like watching them. So the other day i was weeding and planting in the little gardenette and found some grubs, my first inclination was to smoosh them then I had a better idea. I put them in a box then about 5 o'clock I put them on a mat out under the high wire... lets just say they didn't last long. After the feast had been made one of the birds flew down to the mat and was looking all over it... I guess he wanted more. I'm wondering if i can train the bluebirds to come inspect my tomato plants daily????? Not that Ive had huge issue with the worms.. i murdered them before they could get a toe hold, but it would be nice if the birds would just make a pass or two and check them out. Ive been told if you keep a tray of peanuts that it would attract the blue jays... a natural predator of the horn worm. I shall surely try this tip this coming spring.

Ive decided that gardeners have faith. Somewhere in the word it talks about having faith the size of a mustard seed, have you ever seen a mustard seed????? Its a speck, a little round speck. I think it takes faith to put a seed in the ground and "trust" it will come up and produce food or flowers. They also have patience. It takes patience to wait on the plants to produce. I do not have a great deal of patience. This is evident by the fact I don't get turnip or beets because I nibble on the greens. Well nibble is mild ... I'm worse than those caterpillars I battle. Its killing me to leave those tomatoes hanging on the vines until they are plump and red. Right now they are a pretty green and would make wonderful green tomato relish or fried green tomatoes. Sigh.... but I'm waiting... and waiting. Getting all the more anxious all the time.

Murder in the garden, and random rambling

My little prince William and I were watering the garden this morning and I noticed one leaf on one of my tomato plants looked a little odd. When I looked a little closer it was a horn worm... OMG a worm.. eating my precious tomato plant.. the nerve of that creature doing what it was created to do. If youve not seen one of these creatures they are ugly. They are the exact shade of green as the tomato stalk with this horn thing sticking up and boy can they munch down on a tomato plant quick.

If you know me, you know i cannot stand bugs, lizards(shutter) or creepy crawly things. The lizards and I have an agreement in the garden. You dont get on me.. and i let you live. So far we seem to be holding up each others end of the deal. On that note.. did you know lizards wont eat lovebugs?  I watched a little lizard on my rose bush eat, what I thought were lovebugs but on closer look he was eating little aphids. The love bugs swarming all around him. Those things are so nasty even a lizard wont eat them. Anyway.. back to the bugs... I aint touching that creature on the tomato plant... so i had an idea and it worked quite well. I went inside and got a pair of scissors and just cut him in half while he was munching. And i left his dead carcass there for all the other bugs to see what happens to creatures that eat my plants. By the way.. they bleed green. <shutter>

On this same topic of murder. I watched a video on Youtube.. oh my why have i not discovered Youtube before now???... anyway, one of the ladies i met on youtube has a farm in southern canada. She raises goats for milk, cheese and soap.  Rabbits for meat and chickens for eggs and meat. She grows all her own veggies in a garden during the summer and she has a heated hot house she raises things in the winter.

I would love to get to the point that I only bought certain things at a store. I think i would need to get past my mental block about goats milk. Ive never tried it so i cant really say i dont like it. I love feta cheese, which is a goats milk product. We'll just add that to my bucket list.

I would be content as all get out on a little farm. Well.. as long as i had the internet i could pop on and chatter daily. My little half acre is starting to look like one. My goal for this winter is a green house of sorts. And I would love to fence in a little area in the back for some chickens. No rooster needed.. just a few hens. I dont know that i could actually clean a chicken. I know how to do it, I watched dad do it a couple of times...LOL and theres always youtube...lol you can see anything on that.

Anyway.. its almost 5 am, its quiet... i miss the sun coming up early. Y'all have a great day... its lawn mowing day today.