Damn Birds!

Strawberries
Originally uploaded by Lorika13.

Well, the berries are finally ripening and I am so happy about that, but - now the birds that I have so graciously fed with store bought seed since the cold sting of winter - are nibbling on my berries!

They even foiled my "deterrent" - old small black plant containers placed over the almost ripe berries to keep them from the robin's keen eye while they ripen one more day. I guess the robins are smarter than I thought - or maybe it is the grackles.(I know I caught one robin in the act the other day.) All of the berries I put containers over were nibbled!

In any case, someone it taking one bite out of a berry and then leaving them to bite the one next to it. Just one bite?! Why not eat the whole berry? Really, I thought humans were the only wasteful species - I guess not.

I guess I'll need to take more drastic measures, like not filling the bird feeder anymore you greedy little bastards! Grrrrr!

Seriously though, I love birds and animals in general, and I hate to come in conflict with them, but as I garden more and more I learn that there is no way to avoid it. They may be just trying to eat - but so are we. I will never resort to poisoning or intentionally hurting animals that are eating my garden, but I do need to do something though.

Anyone have any tips for keeping the vermin out of the berries?

Our sick food system

The recent salmonella tomato scare has shocked some people, but I'm not at all surprised. It used to be mostly beef that got recalled - remember those days? When at least if you chose to be a vegetarian you felt safe. But now it's in the veggies too. What gives?

I think it's the whole damn system. The same day that the tomato recall was in the paper, I also saw a
story about a bunch of people who had to be evacuated from their homes because of toxins in the air from a nearby dairy farm - a HUGE dairy farm.

And bingo - that's your problem right there. Huge. Most farms these days are no longer the family farm that my grandparents ran. They are huge, greedy and corporate. They pollute like crazy, sap the land of all nutrients and don't give a crap for their neighbors. Hmmm, sounds a lot like a corporation doesn't it?

I'm not sure exactly how the salmonella got into those tomatoes or the ones in 2006 for that matter, (or the e-coli into the spinach etc.) but I can tell you why it got in there - our food system is sick. It is bloated, it is full of chemicals and has nothing to do with what is healthy for people or good for the Earth. It is all about one thing and one thing only now, and that is money.

The food industry says - How can we squeeze more and more out of the same tired dirt? How can we cut corners on cost of production? How can we force farmers to buy our products? How can we sue farmers if they don't? How can we market more and more non-food crap to the money dispensers we like to call "consumers"? How can we avoid any and all responsibility for our mistakes? How can we cover them up?

Now, I know that there is an organic food movement and a local food movement happening, and that is great. But, is it enough?  We need more people to wake up to the fact  that we can't rely on "the system" to protect us. We can't trust "the system" at all.

What do we need to do? We need to ask questions - lots of questions. And make demands. That is the way we can put pressure on the sick system to change and get better.
"What is in my food?" that's a good place to start. What poisons are you putting in the water? Why is it ok for a "farm" to get cited repeatedly, people have to be evacuated out of their homes and the "farm" keeps operating? Why do my tomatoes get shipped in from China when they can be grown next door?  What are you the regulators doing about all these problems?

We must do all these things and more. We must not say  what's in that? -wait, I don't want to know - ever again. And, for goodness sake, for all our sakes - grow your own damn food. And seriously - do it organically!

***End of rant***
Thank you.

Hurry up and grow little 'maters!

They're taking all the tomatoes away from us!

Well, not all and frankly only the worst ones - I'd hardly call those anemic restaurant things tomatoes anyway.

Here's a link to the current story.

Here's a link to a 2006 run of the same thing.

Think now is the time to grow your own - I think so!

Lorika in the Star Tribune!

Hurray! I'm in the Home and Garden section of the Star Tribune today!

The article is on the rise of vegetable gardening in the city.

Check it out!
Homegrown heats up

Calling all volunteers!

Volunteer lettuce
Originally uploaded by Lorika13.

This here is some lovely volunteer lettuce. I think volunteer lettuce is the prettiest don't you?

It's pretty dang easy to get volunteer lettuce and eat some of your own homegrown salads before anyone else. All you gotta do is let at least one variety go to seed. You can even still harvest some of the leaves, probably as much as you would get if you chopped off the whole head. Once the little fluffy dandy-lion like seeds have formed, you just either let them go on their own in the wind wherever they may land (your lawn or cracks in the patio) or you can pluck them out yourself, and scatter them in the fall where you'd like them to grow in the spring.

A true lazy gardeners delight!

What have you been able to get to "volunteer"?

*pictured is Red Oakleaf and perhaps a variety of butter lettuce from a variety pack I planted last year.

Praying Mantis Egg Case

Praying Mantis Egg Case
Originally uploaded by Lorika13.

This is a Praying Mantis egg case - I believe it's the Chinese Mantis, we'll see when they hatch.

I have been wanting to pick one of these up for a couple years now, Mantids are the most voracious of all garden predators. They eat nearly every bug they can catch, which does include butterflies too, I'm afraid. Hopefully though. they'll mostly keep their bellies full of grasshoppers, aphids and other garden nasties.

Chuck and I are keeping an eye on the jars we have the egg cases in, so hopefully we'll get some good shots of the emergence, and possibly even video.

Tomato seedling update

Oops!
Originally uploaded by Lorika13.

Oops! Looks like the seedlings are getting a bit too tall for their britches. Time to adjust the light - and re-pot to prepare to go out in to the big wild world.

It always seems like the seedlings start growing really fast just when I get extra busy and have no time to re-pot, or even pay that much attention to them. Anyone else out there have this problem?

Well, at least they are going out soon and will not need daily attention and coddling anymore. Shhh - don't tell them that!