Damn robins

DH put our fake owl up on a stake a foot away from the cherry tree. Then I wrapped a bird-proofing net around the tree. They still ate all but three of the cherries. I can't find any strawberries either. I fear that they fell victim to tiny bunnies. Now I've got to find some way to keep ants off my raspberries. I'm trying to stay organic, but I'll still probably have way more berries than I can pick or store.

The okra I was going to plant all shriveled up except for one plant, which is not long for this world. The okra planter has been taken over by two miniature pumpkins (DH bought them), two of the Blondkopfchen cherry tomatoes, four sickly cauliflowers that came free with our new chipper/shredder, and a purple bell pepper that Mom got for my birthday. I also nuked the maple saplings and other weeds in the western section of our rocky little "back yard" and put seven more cherry tomatoes there.

The maple trees and undergrowth were getting out of hand so I got a Patriot brand electric chipper/shredder. I've spent the last week clearing things and grinding them up. It works great. I had to leave one pile of branches out in the yard because some stupid baby sparrow fell out of its nest and took up residence in the branches.

Return to life

It's June and things are blooming all over Wisconsin again. We have more wild raspberries than ever, but the "tame" raspberries were attacked over the winter by bunnies. The little bastards also killed an apple tree and chewed the bark off of other trees. I thought the blackberry was dead too, but later some sickly leaves turned up.

Our young apple trees are covered with fruit, one to the point that it is in danger of breaking. I removed 100 tiny apples and it still leaning way over. I'm going to try to stake it, but it's very tall and thin so I may eventually have to cut the top off.

I transplanted the blueberry to the south of the house because it was turning yellow from the shade. I bought it a friend, but soon learned that you don't put plants right in front of the dryer vent. It seems completely dead, but I'm going to wait before I toss it to see if any of it survived.

We got four (five, actually) pink German tomato plants to put in the tomato planter. The little yellow cherry tomatoes last year were just too much to deal with. But now I've discovered that the cherry tomatoes reseeded. There are several clumps of tiny plants, maybe 60 or more in all. I've got to dig all the little brats out of there
and relocate them.

The tomato box also has lamb's quarters. I'd read about that and hoped that I could find some growing in my yard, and they finally showed up this year. Yes indeed, they do like disturbed soil. I'm letting them stay there for the time being. I've tried some in omelets and they taste great.

Another big reseeder was my peppermint patch in front of the house. I just ripped out about a gallon of babies and there are still plenty to go around. I have the plants I took out boiling on the stove right now.