On the Road

On the road - The garden has been planted, the sprinkler system is ready to go - if it ever stops raining, and the housesitter has arrived. W'ere headed out to the wilds of the northwest, trusty Airstream in tow.  We'll be away from phones and internet connections for much of our travels, so while my postings may intermitent and unpredictable, watch for a new element to my daily cooking - Road Food.  I'll be testing the limits of my meal planning and cooking skills in an effort to prepare healthy, delicious food on three burners and a grill.  We'll be away from grocers, so we'll also be relying on food that travels well.  Fortunately, we do have the luxury of a small gas or electric refrigerator.

I'll try to keep you posted along the way.  The beginning of a great adventure.

Zinnias -  What would we do without them?  I like a flower that is not demanding, but puts on a big colorful show.  I'm always looking for low upkeep in the flower garden.  I've found that I'm a very  enthusiastic gardener in the spring, but lose interest quickly as soon as the weather gets hot.  Some deadheading and a little weeding are about all I'm willing to do after mid-July.

I got a good start on my zinnias this year, made some pretty cute little newspaper pots and planted my seeds indoors in late April.  Zinnias are not known as being easy to transplant, they prefer to be seeded directly in the ground after the soil has warmed up.  I've not had much luck seeding them in my beds because of the snails.  The tiny zinnias haven't a chance.   So this year I'm trying the newspaper pots, thinking that they can be transplanted pot and all with little disturbance to the plants.

I found several varieties of zinnia that I wanted to try and ended up with 4 trays of plants.  I started them indoors, then moved them to our little greenhouse/cold frame.  They have done quite well despite the cool wet weather.  For the past couple of weeks I've been working on moving them to my flower beds in between rain storms.  One morning last week I discovered that my zinnias had been raided. It seems that one marauding snail finally slimed his way into a tray of tender baby zinnias. He, or she, had quite a feast. You can be sure that I put a stop to that - and expedited my transplanting efforts.  I now have zinnia plants marching around my yard in three separate gardens.  They seem to have survived the transplant and our latest deluge.  I have surrounded them with slug bait and judging from the number of snail carcuses I'm collecting, it seems to be working. I'm looking forward to a yard filled with lovely big showy zinnias.Keep your fingers crossed.

One thing I know for sure is that teeny tiny baby slugs are much harder to pick up than snails. Our lettuce patch is full of them and, boy are they hungry.  I've been picking lettuce every evening and becoming more and more frustrated at the damage being done to our beautiful lettuce leaves.  I really don't like sharing my dinner.

Our typical garden predator is the common snail, annoying, but fairly easy to deal with if you can catch them in the act. Easy to pick up and dispose of. We had very cold weather here for a couple of weeks in December, which seems to have significantly reduced the number of snails on the prowl.  One would think that was good news.  I was actually pretty excited about it.  Still, our lettuce is being reduced to lace.  Tonight I discovered that our garden is being attacked by a host of baby slugs, who unlike snails, are not so easy to pick up.  These guys range anywhere from 1/8th of an inch to about 1 1/2 inches long; they are sticky and slimy and don't give up their hold on the lettuce leaf with grace. I attacked them with a pair of tweezers and a container of salt water.  It takes a stiff upper lip to do this kind of work, but I prefer my lettuce unslimed and unblemished.

The garden is now all planted.  We were so hopeful for good weather after our beautiful early start, but, no, this is Oregon indeed. Don't be fooled by a little sunshine.  Luckily, vegetables are hearty little things.  Most are doing well, or at least holding on in anticipation of coming warmth.  Some things are even thriving in the cool moist (understatement) weather - the spinach, lettuce, beets, carrots, peas and potatoes seem very happy.  The tomatoes are even looking pretty good, at least they haven't rotted in the ground yet, but I'm sure they'll benefit from some warm weather.  Hmmm, maybe tomorrow. . . . . .