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Year-End Wrap With hopes for a productive fall garden, and the rodents moving into their dens for the winter, I planted tomatoes and my usual selection of lettuce. But the gardening woes continued ̶ I had my first lettuce crop failure in more years than I care to remember. Once the seedlings were transplanted into the plastic six packs they stopped growing with many of the plants dying. I seemed to have trouble with some of the purchased potting soils. Consistency lacked and I never knew what I'd find when I opened a bag. One bag was large wood chips that were more useful as mulch or an additive to the compost bin.
Another problem
I had was with javelina. I've always had a herd or two stop by the
garden as they move through the neighborhood. But this year they seemed to have moved in and
stayed fairly close to my yard. They stopped by nightly, devoured plants,
broke pots and caused unwanted havoc. I can't count the number of times I
rushed outside to toss rocks and make noise to try and scare them off. They
even climbed the stairs to the back porch and ate the foliage hanging over
the large pots. On several days I found them resting under a mesquite tree
waiting for evening so they could start their stroll through the
neighborhood in search of food.
I managed to do quite a bit of landscaping nearly completing my north side garden and managed a healthy start on the back yard that was totally dug up in the spring when a leaching field had to be replaced. Before the digging started I had to remove a large mesquite, tangerine tree and quite a few native plants. I'll plant more native vegetation in the spring, 2007. I've also noticed the birds have spread mistletoe into the mesquite trees and some of it is started to get more than a toe hold. I try to keep an eye out and remove the parasite as soon as I see it. Seems I failed miserably at spotting the stuff and it has infected some fairly large branches that I'm not willing to remove. On top of that, I haven't been as diligent with the garden photography used on this website and don't have photos of some of the things I'd like to post. I've decided either I'm moving a bit slower or the world spins a whole lot faster than it did when I was younger. Seems I don't accomplish quite as much in a day as I once did.
It's not all gloom and doom and there are a few new stories in the works, and some ideas scribbled on paper, that I would liked to have had published in 2006. There's always tomorrow and certainly next year, which isn't too far away. With winter just around the corner less time is needed to prune, water, and watch for insects so maybe I will spend a bit more time taking pictures or sitting in front of the computer writing a story or two. Certainly there will be something new on The Tucson Gardener website by the time March, 2007 rolls around. (2006) |
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