Monday, June 8, 2009

Potager Update--The Good, The Scary, And The Really Ugly

Let's start with the really ugly.

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Radiant radishes ruthlessly ravaged.

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Did slugs do this? How can anything so soft and squishy bore holes in something as crisp and crunchy, not to mention zippy and zesty, as a radish? Or do we have other garden thugs eating away at our crops?

Next up is the scary.

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The pea patch that ate the Wench. 

It was close, but she did make it out alive, and with the first peas of the season. Perhaps we over planted AGAIN.

 

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The blue honeywort that ate the delphinium. 

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But the delphinium is getting ready to bloom so guess it's not minding too much.

And now we come to the good.

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'SAGBUTT' strawberry

Thanks, tel, for gifting us with our first strawberry plant. It seems to be thriving on our patio.

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'Violetta' fig

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This one makes us giddy with anticipation. I'm dreaming of fig jam and fig pear sauce. Yummmmm!

 

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The first peas--'Golden Sweet'

We also have some pretty flowering herbs.

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Chives

 

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Sage

 

And this last pic is for Matron over at Down on the Allotment.

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Diva Dog with garlic, shallots, and flowering chives

20 comments:

Matron said...

Big Hugs to Diva Dog! That is such a smiley picture! Thank you xx

Michelle said...

Could it be sowbugs that ravished the radishes? I've seen similar damage done by them to some of my veggies. Everything else looks really lovely!

Phoenix C. said...

I hadn't realized sage had such lovely flowers!

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

We must have the slowest peas in the whole area :) Yours look great! Hope you can figure out who's eating the radishes.
Diva dog looks very cute!

Karen said...

Moles don't eat radishes, do they? I don't think slugs eat stuff underground, but I could be wrong there. Sorry, what a bummer. Guess there are certain garden pests that even your darling dog can't scare away! I saw my first snap pea flower today, finally. I planted mine really late, though. Love your purple-flowering one! Hey, how's the patient? Healing well?

our friend Ben said...

Ouch, your poor radishes! And I too am growing golden snow peas this year, and had no idea the plants would get so doggone big, either! (Mine are finally blooming but not yet setting pods. Soon... ) Speaking of dogs, what a great photo of Diva Dog! Our Shiloh is growing so fast we're tempted to change her name to Kudzu! I'll have to send you photo updates...

Jennifer MacNeill said...

Too bad about your radishes! In the one photo it looks like they're screaming:D

RantWoman said...

What a great pic of DD and the garlic, etc!

True confessions: I am not a big fan of radishes, so I would be half-tempted to let whatever eat them as long as whatever does not also eat other stuff that I actually care about. Of course, I assume you planted radishes because you like them and that is some ugly carnage!

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

Ewwwwww, that really is ugly unlike Diva dog who is real pretty. Ha, the name of that strawberry made me laugh, who thinks up those names?

OK, now I have fig envy as mine seems to have dropped all its fruits. Darn!

Safi Crafts said...

I love this post. More alliteration please! You guys crack me up.

A Cuban In London said...

I have to admit that the first picture reminded of 'Famine' the book I read earlier this year but then the post got better with the rest of the images. Many thanks.

Greetings from London.

Unknown said...

Good thing you have that strawberry in a pot, or it might eat your garden. From 10 strawberry plants last year we ended up with several hundred plants. and the beginnings of a strawberry lawn. We've been getting a quart and a half to two quarts a day during this last week. Almost more than we can eat!

Curmudgeon said...

She is definitely smiling, Matron. She's such a great gardening companion.

I'll have to go research sowbugs, Michelle. We can't find any creepy crawlies either above or below ground and nothing on the roots either. But the holes are made on the shoulders once the radishes heave up.

Neither had I, Phoenix C. Only one of the four sage plants flowered this Spring.

Our peas are on steroids, Catherine! We planted them mid March.

Curmudgeon said...

Oh no Karen! Not the moles! Yikes! I thought they invade your lawn? Or is that voles? More research... Patient is healing up nicely. And Diva Dog is finally back on her normal exercise routine. The cats are most relieved as DD tends to harass them when she's under exercised.

The yellow snow peas are most sweet, OFB. We haven't managed to cook with them as we've been eating right off the vines.

I agree Jennifer! The holes are so round it looks like they are crying out for help. LOL!

Hey RantWoman! Actually, you are not far off the mark. The greens in the front bed got nibbled on. But the greens in the back bed--where the radish carnage happened--are all doing well. Hmmm. Well we do like radishes, but am willing to sacrifice them for the greens. I can plant radishes again and they only take 30 days.

Curmudgeon said...

Hi YE! We got the tree last year so this will be its first crop. It only has about 6 figs on it. And I sure better get me some figs before the critters get to them or I will be one unhappy Wench!

Hey Jean! At least some good will come of this. Wing Nut is going to use radishes as an example of "bad bug" damage for the Junior Gardeners' Seminar at the nursery this weekend.

That first pic is enough to give one nightmares, Cuban! Something was definitely very hungry--not a single radish was spared. Ruthless!

Hey tel! I'd love to get rid of our lawn and replace it with a strawberry lawn! Wing Nut brought home a few 'mignonette' alpine strawberry plants and I've managed to kill off 2 and the third is barely hanging on. But yours has about half 5 berries on it. Woohoo!

Unknown said...

I just went out and counted the berries on two of my plants that I think are related to yours. I have about 50(!) on each (including those already eaten), though these had time to establish good roots over the fall and winter. Interestingly their leaves didn't really die back until spring. One of my relatives in South Seattle has a strawberry lawn. It's not quite as neat as grass, but much tastier.

The alpine strawberries are less, um, vigorous. I had one that did OK last year but got too big for its roots or something, got sick, and died. I have a seedling from its fruit I'm letting grow to see what happens. They don't really runner, which is what leads to the taking over of the yard. A well-rooted plant might put out 10 to 15 runners, which left to themselves plop down a plant, and then that plant puts out two to three runners, and then -those- plants put out two to three runners! This was my experience, anyway, the entire strawberry patch spread about 10 feet even after I thinned and whacked it back. I planted most of mine in the corner of a retaining wall too, so they could only spread in two directions!

If your plant is healthy, it'll probably make lots of little baby strawberry plants if you can find somewhere for the runners to root. Most of mine produced poorly last year, but then runnered like crazy later in the season. I'm getting the first runners already.

Today: enough for pie plus three cups.

Kerri said...

Those poor radishes! Something sinister is happening for sure! Sorry I have no suggestions, except maybe voles.
How lovely though to have figs, peas and flowering herbs, not to mention a delphinium and delightful strawberries!
So sorry to hear about Wingnut's mishap but glad to know the patient is healing well...and receiving such comforting companionship from Diva Dog. What a good girl!
Your garden is looking good, girls!

Renee said...

It seems I made a blog post similarly titled to yours. I wasn't plagiarizing - promise!

Your pea photo is adorable. How funny!

Those poor radishes! I had 32 radish plants bolt during our extremely hot weather and I thought that was bad. I hope you figure out what ate those.

I love your website. Are your sagbutt meetings limited to those who live in Seattle? Or, is it open to those who live in the suburbs?

MulchMaid said...

What a fun place you have here, curmudgeon! Thanks for the visit to my blog.

I'm in envy of your fig. Mine is the same, I think, (Violette d' Bordeaux or some such) and also went in last year, but has no fruit yet.
Very sorry about the critter damage to the radishes. Bugs can be SO totally annoying.

Jared said...

Same thing happened to OUR radishes! Whatever ate yours trekked across country and nibbled ours, too, though not all of them.