Garden Chores: Deadheading
Now that the first flush of spring blooms are fading it’s time to start deadheading. I don’t deadhead everything in the garden, some things I let go to seed for the birds. There are a few plants that I deadhead to prolong blooming or because their spent blossoms are distracting in the garden. Peonies are one of those things that need deadheaded, their spent blossoms leave a mess in the garden. When you cut back the spent blossoms they look like nice tidy shrubs. One exception to this is my single peony that puts off lovely seed pods that look like tiny jester’s caps.
I like to deadhead plants like salvia, lilies and catmint because they’ll produce another flush of blooms. I wait until most of the blooms are gone and then cut or snap off individual flowers off for certain plants (salvia and day lilies) and for others you can simply shear the plant back by about one third (catmint and ‘stella de oro’ lilies).
Do you deadhead flowers in your garden? All of them or just specific ones?
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Picking Sour Cherries
Sour cherries are in season here in NE Ohio at the moment. My parents have a small cherry tree on their property that produces more than they need, so they let us pick. Mr Chiots picked about a gallon of cherries on Saturday when we were over for a visit.
My sister & brother-in-law are renting a small plot of land for their garden and it has a big sour and a big sweet cherry tree. We may pick some of those later this week if they don’t need them all.
I love sour cherries. They make delicious pies, cobblers and are fantastic with ham. I think my favorite way to enjoy them is in cherry almond scones. Looks like we’ll have a good amount of cherries tucked away in the freezer for delicious winter scones and cobblers.
Sweet or sour, what’s your favorite kind of cherry?
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Quote of the Day: L.M. Montgomery
I wonder what it would be like to live in a world
where it was always June.
-L.M. Montgomery
I love all the flowers that start showing up in June, hydrangeas being my favorites. In the next week, most of my hydrangeas will be in full bloom. I can hardly wait!
What do you love about June?
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Learning to Love the Simple Life
The older I get the more I enjoy the simple things in life. Sometimes they’re are a little more work but usually more rewarding. I really love kneading bread by hand, hanging the laundry outside, and sweeping the floor with a broom. I love the quiet time I have during these activities, no loud vacuum cleaner, mixer or dryer; just the swoosh of the broom, the quiet sound of dough, or the breeze rustling the leaves.
It seems like we’ve gotten caught up in having appliances that do chores for us, to save us time and make our lives easier. Then we have to work long hours to buy those appliances and to pay the electric bills to run them. Not to mention, we have to put up with the noise they create in our lives. Doing chores the old-fashioned way helps me slow down and appreciate the little things that might go unnoticed. My chores go from drudgery to relaxing by simply taking a little extra time to do them the simple way. Of course I don’t always do things by hand, but I try to when I can. I sweep every other week instead of vacuuming, I hand make bread most of the time and I line dry the laundry if it’s sunny and warm. Not to mention, I enjoy the lower electric bill and the longer lifespan of my appliances.
Are there any chores you like to do without the help of appliances?
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Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball of Fur
Yesterday morning Mr Chiots and I went kitten hunting in our garage. We wanted to figure out how many we were dealing with and to make sure we had anything off the ground they might get caught up in or injured on. We made up a box as a house for them, although we’re thinking it needs to be smaller and more nest like, so another will be made this week. We managed to catch 4 kittens, 2 gray ones and 2 blackish ones. They’re skittish around people since they’re feral. Two of them were a little calmer, so I held them for a few minutes. We’ll be trying to socialize them with people as often as we can.
The mom is coming around as well. I’ve been trying to stick around when I feed her and she’s now letting me pet her a bit. Yesterday she even rubbed on my legs once. This means she’s feeling much more comfortable around us and hopefully she’ll teach her kittens that we’re OK. This should make her much easier to catch her when it’s time to take her in for spaying.
I called the vet yesterday and they recommended not bringing in mom until the kittens are weaned, which we think will be in 2-3 weeks. We’re guessing the kittens are 5-6 weeks old because of their size and they still have their baby blue eyes (which usually change around 7 wks). By then the kittens will be ready for their first round of shots as well. I’ll talk to the vet since some offices will spay/neuter at 8 weeks and others wait until 4-6 months.
For a while we’re going to have a few more furry friends at Chiot’s Run and we’ll be doing our part by spaying & neutering all of these cats and hopefully finding good homes for a few of them. If these cats hadn’t moves into our garage they would continue to breed at an alarming rate. A female cat can have up to 3 litters of kittens each year giving birth to 2-9 kittens each time. Any female kittens can start having litters as early as 6 months. You can imagine that it doesn’t take long for things to get out of hand. Please take this as a reminder to spay and neuter your pet.
Have you ever had to spay/neuter a stray animal?
