Sunday, April 29, 2012

Cats Will Be Cats

   On the evening of the Friday the 27th, we had the National Weather Service issue a frost advisory for our area. They were predicting the morning low to be about 34, but said some pockets may experience temperatures as low as 25.  Time to cover the strawberry and the spring veggies boxes, we thought.  I also moved my large pots of cannas in the front yard to the front porch, close to the house where it will be much warmer to protect them.

   On the morning of the 28th, I checked the cannas first, and saw they were unaffected.  There was no frost on the ground, so it was a false alarm for our area.  I went to the backyard to remove the tarp from the two SFG boxes.  Much to my disappointment, I found that our cats (I don't know... maybe only one of them did it...) had squeezed themselves under the tarp and trampled all over my spring veggies box! I saw Mesclun seedlings dug out of the soil, radishes with torn leaves, onion seedlings mashed into the soil, etc. all with deep indented paw marks all over the box... T_T  I'll have to look into building (More building!) some protection for the boxes.

   I was a little sour after finding out they had messed with my vegetable garden, and even after tidying up and rescuing as much as I could of the damaged seedlings, I couldn't bring myself to take a picture ... or write up an entry for that matter. XD  I just watered them in really well and put more sticks into the soil for the time being.


   Here's the look at the spring veggies box on Day 21.    Every square has something green in it.  So far, the only failed germination was one of the soy beans.  I have seen this before.  Some seeds just rot right in the soil.  Everything else is going well, despite the damage from the kitties. ^^;


   These two adjacent squares are planted with peas "Alaska".  They started out looking about the same size as the Asian snap peas variety planted in the next 2 squares, but now they are noticeably taller at about 3 inches.  They are starting to grow the tendrils.

   Today, I also cleaned our small garden pond.  I didn't do this last spring and I didn't do it last fall, so it was time that I got my hands dirty and gave it a thorough cleaning it deserved.  I scooped out the dead and decaying leaves and the accumulated mat of roots from the waterlilies that have been in there.  The water was dark purplish brown (Ewww...) and smelled the all-too-familiar sewer smell, thanks to all that anaerobic decomposition taking place in there.  I discarded the debris and the dark water into the various parts of the garden.  A big portion went to the rose bed for extra nutrition.  Some also went to the raspberry patch, which is continuing to show fresh growth, and even some white flowers.   I'm hoping that the water parameters will be acceptable within a few days for me to add some feeder goldfish (mainly for mosquito control).

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