Deck the Halls with..... Holographic Tape???

After spending the whole morning working in the garden and feeling the birds' eyes bore through the back of my head (namely, "Mr. Mockers"), I decided to head out to the local nursery in search of something to protect my berries. Mr. Mockers is my mockingbird with the most personality out there, if you consider evildom to be a personality trait. He is pretty effective in the early spring in chasing out all the blackbirds and crows from my yard but come berry-time it's a new ballgame. Every time I try netting the relentless winds here tear it down and take branches and plants with it, and the price of the "Scare Owl" was a little too scary for me - so I settled on a roll of Holographic Tape. And of course some parasitic tomatoes attached themselves to me on the way to the register! I figured I would go ahead and pick up some disease resistant hybrids since we still have over 90 growing days left this season and to ensure my canning season would still happen on schedule. I decided on La Romas. I have never done Roma tomatoes before but these should all ripen at once so that is ideal for canning sauce. Ah, garden insurance... never needed that before, but I guess that's what comes once you start relying so much on yourself to provide that good stuff come winter! Next year I will do my research and order hybrid seed and start my own, won't be without them again!

Tape & Romas

It's hard to catch it on camera, but the yard is now festooned with shiny tape from my berries to my bean seeds I just planted this morning. It looks like a disco out there in the wind. I have read that is in ineffective against mourning doves, which is just fine with me since I have oodles of them, love them, and have never had a problem with them eating crops. I really hope the tape doesn't scare away bees, though.

I noticed my first tomato is almost ready!

I decided to put the LaRomas into a bed I just opened up this morning, squeezed them together since they are determinate. (Determinate tomatoes are also new to me!)

Other than that, I kept very busy all morning. I planted my 2nd crop of Edamame, Dragon's Tongue and Golden Wax Beans and sowed more Oregano, Cilantro, Dill and some random flower seed into the beds' open spaces. I also hauled out some of the PVC pipe that was made to cover all 4 raised beds in the winter and used a couple of pieces to make big hoops and planted Yard Long Beans and some more Japanese Climbing Cukes there. I have cucumbers on the deck in pots, but since I added a bamboo roof for a little shade, they aren't producing enough for pickling, but those are the ones I can easily grab for salads. It's really hot out there now and I am glad I got most of my list done since tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. Weatherman had called for rain last night, then changed his mind, but as I was sitting by the back door reading last night - the sound of rain! Lots of it, and it lasted about 45 minutes. I was pretty happy about that since watering from a hose never seems to quite do the trick in the heat of summer.

It worked!

The gnats are gone!  The IndoorPharm spray worked wonderfully, and the best part is that it didn't hurt even my tiniest seedlings!  I am still going to repot into new peat pots today because they need more room, but overall, this product saved the day - and the tomato season! 

I have attempted to post pictures of our homestead and plants on here, I hope they work.  It is my first time using photobucket so there may be a few kinks I will need to work on.  

Today is "Bird Day" around here.  The kids and I are going to be mounting/hanging our bird houses & feeders along the fence in hopes of relocating our feathered friends a little further away from the raised beds and new berry patch.  Time to get to work!