Art Design 4 Garden

Weve been waiting to see our first ruby-throated hummingbird of the season. They start appearing in our area between late March and early April; this map from Hilton Ponds site shows average times of first sightings here in the Eastern U.S. The first male scouts were reported almost a month ago, and my feeders have been up since then.

So, I was delighted to see a hummingbird visiting Carolina jessamine flowers outside my study window yesterday afternoon.

He didnt stay long at them, visiting just a couple; we have coral honeysuckle and red buckeyes currently in flower that are a lot more to their taste, and later I saw him visiting the large coral honeysuckle near the kitchen door. We saw him again this morning and afternoon, visiting flowers and snapping up insects in the red oak.

No sign of any visiting the feeders yet, but Ive got three ready and waiting.

Im hoping one of our males might return to our garden, to stay and set up his territory. There definitely was a family here last year. We have seemingly great habitat for hummingbirds; lots of hummingbird nectar flowers throughout the season, native trees full of small insects to glean, and plenty of cover for nesting.

I was flipping through a magazine and read about a recipe for new potatoes cooked on the grill. It looked really good so I thought I am going to investigate weather I have any potatoes under the massive potato plants. I crouched down and started digging with my hands, low and behold I found some. I then fired up the new grill and proceed to the kitchen to get these puppies going.

The recipe was for Parmesan New Potatoes and called for tin foil, olive oil, seasoning, new potatoes and parmesan cheese. I started by making a tin foil pouch, then add a few table spoons of olive oil and proceed with the new potatoes, halved/quartered if needed. Once this is done season with what ever you prefer and place them on the grill with an opening left in the foil pouch for the stem to escape. When you have about 10 minutes of grilling time left added the parm to the potatoes leaving just enough time for the cheese to melt and just start to get a little brown and crusty. They tasted great, are easy to make and defiantly worth sneaking a few potatoes from the garden.

Asides from harvesting the first few potatoes, I have also been busy with fall crops. I have started broccoli transplants for the third time, I really dont want to get into it but lets just say it was a combination of mother nature and my laziness. This time they are growing to grow and I have also mail ordered row cover to keep the cabbage butterflies off them once they are in the ground. I also direct seeded turnips yesterday and sprayed the cabbage butterfly larvae that are on my brussel sprouts. Arent bugs fun?

I have also been out with the camera again so here are a few more shots I have taken:

The hot peppers are just starting to pop up tonight. It seems all the seeds sprout at night, has anyone else experienced this?

These Big Chilli II peppers took 6 days to germinate. They are an Anaheim chili that grows to 10in long & 2.5in wide so they should live up to their name. They are destine for salsa, green chili sauce, red chili sauce and homemade chili powder. They better do well as their faith is already sealed! Im still waiting on my other chili seed in the mail.......