Wild Violet's Garden Blog

Today I picked the first raspberries!  Not enough for jam yet, but enough for a treat: I also invested $8.99 in a 50' soaker hose from Menards yesterday to water the huge raspberry row.  We haven't had measureable rain for a couple of weeks and I realized I better get watering if I want any berries this year.  I ran the soaker for 45 minutes this morning and will probably do that every other day or so during bearing season.  Beats wasting a day running out there every 30 min (and that's when I remember) to move a regular hose down the row.  By the way, I have no idea what variety these are.  They came with the house when I moved here. Peanut likes to pick raspberries too.  Holy man, look at that tongue. Yum!

Birds As I sat here typing my last blog, I glanced out the window and saw a goldfinch and bluebird sitting not three feet from each other on the power line, and a cardinal in the birdbath.  Quite a colorful afternoon.  Alas, I'm not skilled enough to get photos of the birdies yet, although I've begun saving my pennies for a fancy new camera, and potentially some kind of fancy zoom lens so that I can do better in the future.  Camera recommendations welcome. Bears Old Man Neighbor was firing guns at 6:45 yesterday morning, EEK!  He told me over the fence later in the day that he was scaring a bear out of his backyard.  Which yard happens to be right next to my backyard.  Which means if I hadn't still been in my comfy bed peacefully snoozing away my last few minutes before the Girl wakes up around 7:00, I possibly could have seen the bear next to my backyard and equally possibly could have pooped myself.  He claims it is a 400 pound boar and that if it keeps coming back th

Or rather, the rose was blooming.  I've been meaning to write this blog for a week or two and this particular rose show has basically come and gone already so I'm behind the times.  My Grandpa K was quite a gardener.  He had a large veggie and flower garden bordering the whole east side of his yard, surrounded by a tiny electric fence to keep rabbits (and possibly overly-curious grandkids?) out.  He also had quite a lot of fruit trees, and walnut trees, and a real root cellar in the basement where they stored dug potatoes and all of Grandma's canned stuff, and chickens for fresh eggs, and lots of other way cool stuff that made a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's place one of a kind.  When he died in 1999, my Mom and I stopped by his house and took cuttings of one of his rose bushes to remember him and that special place by.  The roses are now flourishing both at my place and at Mom and Dad's in northern WI Zone 3.  Grandpa's rose Color fading...  An