Mulch and the garden path

On Thursday, our next door neighbor had contractors in to remove two very tall pine trees that grew very close to her house. She's been planning to do this for a few years. In fact, we thought she had changed her mind because nothing happened after she told us about it. I think her contractor flaked out on her and because she lives in Paris, making alternate arrangements can be difficult.

 The pile of mulch in front of the garden shed.

Earlier this week, a landscaper came through the hamlet leaving his business cards to drum up business. Our neighbor was here, spending a week or so of vacation. She obviously hired him and he and his crew spent Thursday morning taking down the trees. Part of the process is the mulching of the smaller branches and foliage. The contractor rang our bell late in the morning and asked if we wanted some free mulch. I agreed and got a load of about two cubic meters dumped inside our back gate. It's really more than we can use, so a lot of it will be composted.

The contractor's card says that he does gravel allées (paths), so while he was here I asked if he'd give me an estimate for renovating our garden path and he agreed. We've been talking about getting the gravel path redone for a few years now. It's uneven, the gravel is too big and too sparse, and the path is regularly invaded by weeds. The contractor said he could remove the big gravel, level the pathway, put down a base layer for stabilization, add a weed barrier and then a layer of fine gravel that will be much more pleasant to walk on. I'm looking forward to his estimate.

 

Summer flowers

Even though it's been very, very dry this summer, the wildflowers are putting on a good show. These, I think, are knapweed flowers. They look like little pineapples with purple feathered hats. I also see a lot of wild carrot (Queen Anne's lace) and wild chicory in the fields around the vineyard parcels.

There aren't as many flowers as last year in this patch, but they're still pretty.

It's getting to be time to cut the "grass" again. But first I will have to pick up the hundreds of apples that have fallen from our two trees. This year has produced one of the biggest apple crops I've seen in years (at least in our yard). It will be a big job.

Summer sunrise

As we head into mid-summer, the grapes are beginning to ripen. The weather is, well, the weather. We're having chilly, fall-like mornings followed by very warm afternoons. In fact, we're right now heading into another mini heat wave that will make getting to sleep difficult. So much for chilly mornings (although we all know they'll be back soon enough). We had a nice rain shower on Monday morning, but it was nowhere near enough to put a dent in the dry, almost drought, conditions that we've had this summer.

The vineyard at sunrise last week.

About half of our tomato crop is suffering from blossom-end rot. I read that it occurs often when wet springs are followed by dry summers, causing a calcium imbalance in the tomato plant. It's discouraging, to say the least. It may be what caused some of the pumpkins to rot, too. I also read that certain tomato varieties can be more susceptible to the condition, and I've noticed that with the cornabel and cœur de bœuf tomatoes, and one or two other varieties that had the same problem last year and years prior. It's time to totally renew my seed stock and to avoid those varieties.

Tasha Tuesday

There's something in the vines! Maybe a deer! Maybe a rabbit! Probably just a bird. Tasha is ever vigilant.

Tasha hears something rustling among the vines.

Speaking of birds, Bert brought home a rather big chick yesterday afternoon. It looked like a little penguin. He didn't eat it (he usually doesn't eat birds), and I tossed the lifeless body out into the woods. This morning I heard a duck quacking out by the pond just beyond our back gate. There is often a pair of colverts (mallards) out there. I put two and two together and looked on the internet. Sure enough, that bird of Bert's was a mallard duckling. Their principal predators are foxes, martins, and otters. We have foxes and martins all around us. And cats. Since mallards typically lay eight to twelve eggs, I'm hopeful that there will be some surviving ducklings.

It's a jungle out there.

What a loverly bunch

The grapes are slowly starting to mature. I've seen some color out there, although there is none in this photo yet. Harvest is still at least a month away, probably more. I have heard some talk on the news about other regions facing early harvests because of the warm and dry weather. We'll see.

Immature grapes on the vine.

Meanwhile, I was automatically switched over to the new blogger interface this morning. When I tried it several weeks ago, I couldn't size my photos the way I wanted and my "reading list" wouldn't work. So I kept using the old version. I tried sizing today's photo in the new version this morning, and I can't figure out how to do it. So I switched back to the "legacy" version for the time being.

UPDATE: Ken figured out my problem, so now I'm back on the new blogger. Change is our friend.

Pumpkin progress [2]

As promised, here's a peek at the muscade pumpkins in the garden. They're still green, but when mature they should turn a tan color similar to a butternut squash. Some of them will likely be two-toned. I've grown them before, so I know that's likely.

Two muscade pumpkins growing under the vine leaves. There are at least five of them out there.

Today should be much cooler than it has been the past few days. August vacationers have arrived in our region and we're seeing several unfamiliar faces walking through our neighborhood. Someone down in the valley to our north shot off a bunch of fireworks around one this morning, and their thumping music can still be heard now (06h00). With our fan going, we can't hear the music in the bedroom, thankfully. And an RV spent the night out in the vineyard. Nothing annoying about that, but I'm not sure it's legal. It's private land, after all.

Pumpkin progress

There are two surviving rouge vif d'Etampes pumpkins in the garden. The others just rotted away. I'm not sure why, maybe the heat. But these two look healthy, so far. If I'm lucky, they'll both make it to harvest by which time they'll go from orange to bright red. I'll keep you posted.

Two good sized and healthy looking pumpkins.

The muscade pumpkins are faring better. There are about five large ones on the vine. I'll post a photo of those tomorrow.

We made it through our mini heat wave. It's supposed to get hot again today, but less. And we didn't get as high as was predicted yesterday, topping out somewhere in the low to mid thirties. Still, getting to sleep was not easy. This morning's cool air feels very nice.