MarthaJeanne's Garden 2024

I really ought to go out and pretend to do some garden work, just for the sake of moving a bit.

The olive tree has shed many of its leaves.

Well, that wasn't a lot of excercise.

The olive leaves do not rake well.

I refilled the bird feeders, although unless the weather plays crazy, they didn't need it.

I picked Vogerlsalat to add to potato salad for tonight's supper. It is not in great condition after being buried by heavy wet snow twice but it's green. I also harvested a few beets. Actually their greens look fairly good. I'll use them tonight, as well. The beets are in the oven, to be pickled later.

The beets took forever to cook, so they are only pickling now. I guess they are for tomorrow.

I'll cook the greens in orange juice as our second side salad for tonight.

>3 MarthaJeanne: I never thought of cooking beet greens in anything but water. Intriguing. I think I usually fry/saute them like chard.

>4 MrsLee: Yes, very like chard, but without the fleshy stems. (Beets, chard, sugar beets are all the same species.) I would just saute them and add some vinegar, but I have both navel oranges and blood oranges that will go off in a day or two, So the orange juice, maybe only half a blood orange, replaces the vinegar.It serves the same purpose, but keeps the flavour a bit more different from the pickled beets.

I'll be able to harvest chard again next week. It did not like the snow either, but is beginning to perk up again. Both the Vogerlsalat and the chard usually weather snow well, but this was wicked stuff. Rain turned into snow, and then the slush froze hard. And no sooner had it all melted away, than it did it again.

>5 MarthaJeanne: That sounds lovely (the orange juice with greens, not the yucky rain/snow), I will have to try it.

After the weather report, I went out in the dark and the drizzle at 6°C to fill up the bird feeders. Tomorrow it's supposed to get cold and start snowing. Tonight wasn't fun, but then it would be even less fun.

The problem is always that the job really needs three hands. One to hold the bucket of balls, one to hold the feeder open, and the third (Where did my third hand get to?) to put the balls in. At night, with a light to carry, I really needed yet another hand. Oh, well, the job got done. The birds a
ways take more from the feeders when there is snow cover, so I didn't want to go into snow with the feeders low.

Tomorrow I'll just have to replace ice with warm water in the bird bath.

This guy is too scared to use the feeders the other birds like, so he often ends up in the pepper tree by the terrace. But he flies away if he sees us moving in the house. Today he didn't see Jerry as soon as usual.

BTW, We did not participate in the winter bird count this year, but the results are out. The most common birds in Vienna this winter are

Blue tit
House sparrow
Field sparrow

I think that could have been predicted. Note: We don't get the house sparrows. This is field sparrow territory.

>8 MarthaJeanne: ❤️

It really is trying to pretend it's spring. When I went out for herbs earlier the tent had heated up to 20°. I left it open, and it's down to 12° I'll close it again soon.

Crocus are blossoming, daffodils almost. Parts of the forsythia are in blossom. I think the whole thing needs a major pruning effort.

The bushes are singing most of the time. Good thing they are in blossom since the warm temps have woken up the bees. It's fun seeing how many different sizes there are around - most of what we get are not standard honey bees, but there are all sorts of wild bees here, this close to the National Park

Jerry says the bee bushes are viburnum.

We attacked the forsythia bush. Took out the biggest trunks down as low as possible. The others down to eye height. It will be really worth putting the bio bin out tomorrow, with bits left for next time. And the trunks we'll take to the recycling ourselves. My sloe tree is in lovely full bloom. It probably ought to het some pruning as well.

Not really my garden, but we had Bärlauch at the restaurant tonight. Mine was a risotto with Zander (white fish). Jerry had a sauce over salmon. I need to check under the apple tree to see if ours is harvestable yet.

I decided to make a strudel for supper. We have the good ham I like. I knew we had some fresh mixed veggies from the store. Jerry reminded me that there was a leek that needed to be used, and a portion of those veggies, cooked, left over from last night. I decided to add some Bärlauch while I have it, and then wanted to try to harvest some spinach. To be honest, there isn't much there, and what there is is overwhelmed by weeds. I removed some of the weeds, found some spinach. Jerry was trying to be helpful (I think). "Those tall things look like carrot plants." So I pulled the carrots. Some even looked useable. I asked him to check the sorrel. "There are some broad leaved things growing that are being eaten." Mixed in with grass and dandelions, but yes, quite harvestable. I ended up with a small basket of greens and carrots, and a much larger one of weeds. Sigh. Jerry emptied that for me.

I boiled the carrots with a couple of potatoes. I pureed the carrots, added in a left over spoonful of mascarpone and then the potatoes. Salt Szechuan pepper, yum, this is good. I sauted the sliced leeks in butter and olive oil, added wine, and when they seemed mostly done, added in the roughly chopped greens and the leftovers. Also good.

Come almost dinner time, I can turn on the oven, get the puff pastry out, add a layer of ham, and the two fillings. Roll it up, and after a short time in the oven, we can eat. By then my back might have forgotten that it didn't like bending over the beds to weed them. Sorry, a lot more of that coming, I'm afraid.

Please note that I'm neutral, one filling green, the other orange.

>15 MarthaJeanne: Now that is working for your supper!

>16 MarthaJeanne: LOL

I should try to fill another basket with weeds tomorrow. Maybe if I start early they won't take over so soon.

More weeding this morning. Guess I'd better plan on doing more any day it's possible.

>19 MarthaJeanne: Tis the season! I am trying to fill one 2 gallon bucket a day with weeds. I don't always make it, but clearing out the worst ones is satisfying. Goose weed, prickly clover, wild carrots and the grass that makes fox tails are my priority. Otherwise my cat's fur gets full of stickers through the summer.

No cat. And if the various cats that come through eyeing the birds on the feeders get stiff in their fur, Good!

But the weeds still need to be dealt with.

Worked a bit under the apple tree. There are a lot of things trying to grow up to be bushes. Also the ivy is trying to grow out into the lawn. Nice green stuff on the ground where grass won't grow anyway is one thing. Out where we are pretending to have grass is quite another. Actually, the lawn is very pretty right now with all the primroses and little daisies, and an occasional splash of purple.

We probably had a light frost yesterday. Neighbouring magnolias were not really happy. Last night went down to -2, and they have gone brown. Our trees aren't out yet, and the various flowers seem fine.

I was going to weed every day - if possible. Well, it hasn't been possible. Tuesday evening I suddenly felt somebody twisting a dagger in my right eye. Bu Wednesday my throat was also very unhappy and most things I thought of eating, my stomach vetoed. Luckily I had some eye ointment which has helped a lot. Sage tea has also been a comfort, and in another day or two, I should be fine. Jerry has gotten quite good at aiming the ointment.

Anyway, I did weeding today, and we admired the tulip that has opened up, and a pair of narcissi with frilly pink centres. Why do I have yellow and pink flowers where I planted purple bulbs last fall?

Today's weeds went well because we had a real soaking rain yesterday. It started drizzling while I was weeding, just after Jerry left for a walk. It was light enough to ignore. Which he did, going on his long route. Until he had reached the far point. I was safely inside, but he had the long walk back, and was wet through, except for his feet and head. The rain slowed down somewhat after a show of thunder and lightning, but continued for a few hours.

Anyway, today the soil was perfect for weeding. Not too wet, but moist way down. Even the nasty five-leaved weeds often let me pull up long tap roots.

While we were eating lunch a while back there was a crash and show of black wings against the terrace door. I saw it fly into the olive tree, where it sat to recover. Jerry looked and says it was a woodpecker. Considering that at least some of them fly off the feeders if they see is in here, it seems strange that one would try to fly in with both of us around. They seem to be less afraid of me. I walk around filling more balls into the feeders. He stands there aiming a big contraption at them. I guess it makes a difference.

He has decided to trust the spotty sun and is off on a different walk. With a jacket today.

I really did not feel like weeding today, so I took two baskets and cleared the fence plant holders. Dump the plant and its earth into one basket, and the plastic pot into the other. In the end I sorted the pots into three neat stacks. The basket of dead plants was quite full, so it counts. There is a chilly breeze out there today. I'll let the birds eat their feeders down a bit.

We went to the garden centre. I bought lots of small flowers for the fence. Also lettuce starts. And a big yellow thing called Cytisus "Madere". I can't find anything about it online, but it's pretty and smells nice. The plastic plant stick says it can take down to -5 so I'm inclined to leave it out on the terrace unless we get warning to expect a heavy frost.

I also bought some chard seed. They didn't have the white I like, but I got a new variety called Charlie. I also got a box of coconut 'pots', so we'll see how it does. Normally my chard winters over, but not this year. This Charlie is supposed to get to harvestable size quickly. But can it survive slugs?

Yellow plant cannot stay on the terrace in this weather. The wind blows it over.

>28 MarthaJeanne: That reminds me. I have to tuck away my sunflower seedlings, we are expecting more wind and rain here.

I would love to see a photo of your fence when you get it planted and blooming. Sounds like a lovely idea.

>28 MarthaJeanne: Oh, the photo wasn't showing until I hit "post."

That is what we call Scotch Broom. It is considered an invasive species here. There is s hillside it has taken over that is beautiful when it blooms. I planted one in my yard and it is hardy, but it sometimes dies back then comes up somewhere else. You might want it for a container plant unless you have a lot of room.

>30 MrsLee: It's just cloth plant pockets. I rotate plants in as I buy them Today I bought almost enough for the driveway side, but the garden side is still empty. I buy plants in small pots with (usually) a maximum price of 3€. Ut's a bit of a hassle watering them often enough, but I love walking past them.

I'll go take a picture now.

I'll take the wires down next week. They are white Christmas lights that make the driveway easier to use in the winter. They burn from 16:00- 22:00 during winter time. It's already getting dark much later, and from Sunday we have summer time.

>32 MarthaJeanne: Very pretty! A nice way to welcome spring.

It's raining. Hopefully this means the end of the weird Sahara dust weather we've been having. The sun has not been able to get through the dusty skies for a few days now. It's been dark. We've also been having gusty winds. Nor at all nice.

It reaned most of the nght. The sky is so much better, and the air much nicer to breathe.

"It washed that sand right out of my air." (Jerry thinks I've got the words wrong.)

My chard has started coming up. Tiny green leaves on red stems. There are finally more purple flowers where I expected them.

The Bärlauch is now in full blossom, so the season is over. I did harvest a few leaves to throw into tonight's supper.



We have a squash and Italian sausage the need to be used. I looked for a pasta recipe online, and the first two were very similar, but one added spinach, the other sage. I have both in the garden, so I plan to use both, also the Bärlauch and some sorrel. It is so nice to be cooking fron the garden again.

I cut back the brush that hid the area I call my spring garden. Just a tiny area under the bushes where I had the earliest flowers, but this year we couldn't see in, and besides, the later flowers came so early that we weren't desperate for them. So, it's a bit late to clear it out, but maybe next year will be more to see. Jerry had to come extract me from there. Standing up from the ground is never easy, and between bushes even harder.

Iris is blossoming by the gate.

The birds are quite hungry.

Mt lettuce is big enough to allow picking a few leaves. Good. The Vogerlsalat has blossomed, and joined today's basket of weeds.

There is something in my garden. I heard it and saw where it went. I'm guessing that it is probably a lizard. Good. I didn't see any last year, but we have had them back there.

I have put our a plant saucer full of water. The non-agresive earth wasps are around to, and other buggy types, so they may also appreciate the water.

I found a dead mouse in a trap in the shed. Disposed of mouse, reset trap. My good will to other species has limits. One thing I like about these traps is that you can carry the trap to the garbage, open it, release the dead mouse, and reset it without touching the critter. Obviously, I still wash my hands well afterwards, but I don't actually handle the dead mouse. Note: This is not just being squeamish. According to the excellent Covid book I read recently, some mice in Austria carry viruses that humans can catch.

Von Viren, Fledermäusen und Menschen I think only available in German.

I was just out looking for stones to put in the bird bath and the lizard pool for bees and bugs. Not easy. I did find one for each, and cut back brush a bit. I could put the real bird bath out, I suppose. Then the lizard pool would have two, as the sides of the real bird bath are OK for insects. However, it is supposed to get colder again tomorrow, and I don't want to risk a frost.

It is amazing how quickly woody stuff grows up in any corner that you leave to itself for a while. I was looking behind the peach tree, and had to cur the brush back to look for stones. I did find another of my garden baskets back there, so that was useful.

>40 MarthaJeanne: Here in the western United States, and especially the southwest, mice carry the Hantavirus. Not nice. Of course also rabies if infected. They are the cutest of critters, but not a good match for human dwellings unless domesticated and in a cage. This is why I don't discourage the feral cats here too much. They look well fed and I can only hope they are well fed on mice and not birds. Probably both though.

>42 MrsLee: Probably birds. Since I have only ever seem signs of mice in the shed where the cats can't get, I would rather not have the cats. Besides, most of the ones here are well-fed because they are owned.

That's not quite true. One December a mouse got into the house, under the dish cabinet. That took us a few hours to take care of. Pretty sure it wasn't longer, but we had left the terrace door open while trying to winter proof the garden at the beginning of a cold snap, and I quire understand the attraction. The door can'rNo! The shed I would prefer to have mouse free if I can do it easily, but I'm only going to make a certain amount of effort. The house does not need mice.

We were back at the garden centre yesterday, with good results. TLots of nice flowers including Dianthus. I also picked up a 12 pack of cylindrical beets. Of course that was nearly 2 dozen plantind them.

I have now filled the driveway side of the fence, and the top row on our side. Two of the plants from last time were really cute tiny daffadills. I have replanted them into the tiny spring garden, tearing up more woody stuff and ivy in the process. No idea if they will take, but its worth a try.

Up through Monday noon it was summery. Then a cold front came though with rain (good!) and thunder and a drop of 15-20° C. It rained most of yesterday, and still off and on today. The rest of the month is expected to stay below normal temps, but probably no frost.

Next week Wednesday the place where we buy our tomato plants opens up for the season. I want to go then, even if it may be very busy. Last year we waited too long.

I think I want to buy several thyme plants to try to discourage the slugs. The garden centre did not have marigolds yet, but even though Jerry loves them it's hardly worth even trying, because the slugs just gobble them up. (One website even recommended them as a slug deterrent! Ha! Won't bother with the rest of their advice.

We had our 'interview' this morning to see if Austria will let us stay another five years. Sit around until called. Hand in papers, sit around until called. Then they took our fingerprints, told us to pay the fee soon, and come back in a few weeks for the new cards. A lot of worry and stress for no big hassle.

I celebrated by buying 8 thyme plants for the tomato bed. It's supposed to deter the slugs. Anyway, I planted the four 'ball' plants at the corners. On the front short side are two lemon thyme, and on the back side are two silver thyme. I will plant three or four on each of the long sides when I find other varieties. They certainly are aromatic. I like the smell. Let's hope the slugs don't.

>45 MarthaJeanne: Congratulations!

Some of the Alliums are in full bloom with attendant bees.

I planted half a dozen of the allium bulbs last year. I like them but they don’t last as long as I thought in the season. I had to move them in April for the excavation and glad to see them come back.

We went to Seewinkel today. The weather was beautiful, and I wanted to buy my yearly supply of tomato plants. I knew there would be lots of people about, but the weather would have been a shame to waste, so off we went.

I ended up with 17 plants at our first stop. 10 tomatoes, which is too many, the others chilis and eggplants.

Then we drove around birding. Nor really a lot of birds, but at least there is water in the Lacken again. We came up with a total of at least 9 species between the two of us, if you count crows and the turkey that wandered past while I was waiting in the car while Jerry waited in line and paid for my plants.

Another good reason to go to the area is Antonio's restaurant where we enjoyed mediterranean seafood and baklava. I managed to get most of mine down, which was a lot for me lately.

Then we stopped at a fruit and vegetable stand we like. We bought several things, including three herb plants, and potatoes along with other stuff. They have a lot of 'other stuff'.

All in all a good trip, and it is so nice to see water there again.

I have planted the 4 eggplants in the far container. From the far end, these are:
Lao white (golf ball size)
Jewel Ivory
Nocera Gia Io
Kashmiri Brinjal (Yellow)

The list is not very helpful in determining what I got.

I added compost, fertilizer tablets and lots of water. I hadn't really gotten to that container much, and they are rather sheltered from most of our rain.

My white clematis has reached the top of its support, and is in full bloom. Wish the dark red was also doing as well. A ways over, the pink is also blooming.

I harvested some rhubarb and made a crumble.

I also dealt with the pot of parsley, peeling off 16 individual plants. They are still too close, but I can thin as the season progresses. They are next to the lettuce.

The neighbour took the rest of the parsley.

I have now planted out the chillies. This is the third container from the bacj.

Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Frying 1
Pimento Largo de Reus 0 Big red fruits.
Boldog 2, also for making powdered paprika.

The first one we had decided on, and then realized there were no plants left. We were trying to decide what to do when a worker showed up and set a whole tray in place. They are supposed to be good grilled.

You probably noticed that we are wimps, and chose mild ones.

>53 MarthaJeanne: There is no need to kill those cells, eh?

I set the chocolate Mint earlier todoy. Now I will start on the larger tomato plants. I already put two trowels full of compost at each spot, and I will add two fertilizer tablets to each as I plant them.

Sweet Aperitif is a red cocktail tomato, so it goes back left.

Berkeley Tie Dye Heart is a dark red oxheart with green-brown stripes. It goes back right. OK. I admit, I liked the name.

Well that's the two largest plants. Maybe do the same tomorrow.

Jerry cut the grass, so the plants I have planted have also been mulched.

I had the mints in buried pot like things to contain them. This has mostly worked, but they seem to have used up the soil (after about 15 years). I examined 5, all of them had low soil levels. Three showed no sign of surviving mints. The other two did have mints still a bit alive, so I weeded, and filled them up with soil from one of my raised beds, adding a bit of compost, and a lot of water. I hope that will help. Two of the others I dug most of the soil out, and refilled as above with the chocolate mint and pineapple mint I bought in Illmitz. So now I have a space for another mint if I see something interesting.

The white clematis is glorious. It was time to get in close and see what had happened to the dark red one. Good! It's still alive, and I see a flower. Of course, one short stem isn't much. As I tried to sort things out I cut back the goji bush. Wait a minute, some of these branches aren't goji! They are clematis growing in the wrong direction. So pull them over to the support. Not as tall as the white one, but still, about half way up. Even several blossoms about to open up! Of course, there was plenty of goji to cut back, and lots of very healthy weeds. Discouraging as I've done this bed a few times already this year. But I kept finding more of the red clematis and showing it where it belongs. Satisfying.

I was busy with other things yesterday, (Library, laundry, cake, dinner...) so I didn't plant any tomatoes. They are getting noticeably bigger. Today the biggest were:
green zebra cherry. That went in next to the other cherry.
Black plum. I gave that the front centre.
It would be useful to know what else I have, to be able to plan where each goes.

While I was doing this, Jerry got the hose out. Now I can water all the raised beds and containers without dragging watering cans. I haven't yet. I used a watering can while planting, but I will in a bit.

Black Zebra
Amana orange - very big
Steinblume - Russian salad
Gelbe banane -bush, very early
Frau Ernestine
Ananas noir - big, fleischig, striped

So the lineup will be:

Sweet Apertif - Ananas Noir - Tie Dye

Green Zebra ch - ---------- - Amana orange

Black Zebra - Black Plum - Frau E

That leaves Steinblume and Gelbe banana. I could put gelbe banana in the middle without a cage, or in a large pot on the terrace. Steinblume can have a cage in the next raised bed.

Only problem is, now that I have looked through the list for descriptions, I see that they have both Rome Paste and Ivory Egg this year. Drat! Even if we go back (a real possibility) and there are still plants of those, where do I put them? I really so love biting into an Ivory Egg fresh off the vine.

The yellow zucchini plant is probably big enough to withstand slug attack, so I'll plant it out.

OK, It's planted. Everything watered. I went to give the clematis a good helping of compost. Would you believe the goji already had branches where I had cleared weeds and clematis? So I cut back a lot more.

I discovered yesterday that I almost missed the plant sale at Schönbrunn.So we went there this morning. You know how it goes, a dozen geraniums to start off, then a wide variety of things to plant with them. Not as much choice as I'm used to, but we got a lot. Enough ro have to plant.

When we got home I started to plant up containers and various pots. I got enough planted that I could take my green plant tray when we headed out to Ochsenherz for vegetable plants. They apparently had a busy weekend, as several things are missing until they get more potted. I still want the lemon cukes and prefer buying zucchini from them. However, the toga eggplants were on my list, and I got them. Also another variety of thyme (German winter rhyme) to help protect the tomatoes. a lemon savoury, some fancy Salvias, nasturtiums, malabar spinach, and "Trommelstock" (Craspedia Globosa Billy Button). It sounds like a fun plant.

I'm not very fond of winter savoury, and the lemon is a variation on that, but the summer savoury (which I do like) is a hard to find annual, so I thought I would try this.

Got most of this haul planted before the rain started. Even gave everything a good watering. That doesn't matter as several things need watering even if it rains, and I will admit to not being good at giving large areas enough water.

What I have not done today is plant more tomatoes. Oh, well, tomorrow is another day.

Shopping this morning resulted in a hanging basket full of lovely red and white flowers. But nothing more to plant.

It's raining at 15°. Too cold to do any planting, anyway.

The sun has come out, and it at least feels warmer, but it is still very wet out there.

The Ananas noir is in position, and I gave the Gelbe Banana the far cage in the next bed. I also set a few other plants that I have homes for. I have no idea what to do with the three nasties. There are also still geraniums.

The citrus that makes mini oranges has finished blossoming, and now the bitter orange has started. I would rather like to get a proper lemon. I have a Meyer lemon, but the fruit is so boring. Not worth bothering with at all.

I need to start dragging the bigger pots out of the greenhouse, so we can take it down. The saucer for the big lavender has lost a wheel. It's there, so hopefully I can get it back on all its wheels.

The hanging basket is Mandevilla. Since my star jasmine is dead, I may hang it on the rose trellis and let the vines grow up that.

I took down the dead star jasmine. I've known all along that if I wanted to leave it out in the winter it ought to be dug into the earth, and not left in its pot.

In the process I found more green on it than I expected, so I watered the pot and am leaving it to see what happens. If the short stems start to sprout, I will dig it in in June. It is probably overdue to be repotted anyway, which would have been impossible while it was attached to the rose arch.

I sent bags of lettuce and spinach to church with Jerry.

Got the big lavender out. Luckily the wheel went right back into the saucer. I gave it lots of compost, fertilizer and water.

Planted out Black Zebra and Steinblume. One of the other two is still tiny.

I planted the last two tomatoes out, although Amanda IMHO is not anywhere near big enough. I also planted 8 'Charlie' chard starts. In a container for the beginning anyway. We'll see. Still haven't seen any white chard, even as seed. There are still two geraniums waiting for me to find them a home, and also two leaf interest plants.

BTW, Little birds, be on the lookout! There are cuckoos calling for the past few days.

Jerry is right. The iris currently blossoming by the hedge are shoulder high.



and very, very pretty.

I've pulled the mini-orange out, then pruned it where it was getting too beg. Fertilizer, enough compost to fill the pot, and lots of water. I'll check in an hour or so to see if it wants more. I tend to give the citrus plenty of rain water when they need it, and when I have it, then let them go for quite a while before repeating the process. This was increased by not wanting to water before moving the plants. They are heavy enough with the soil as dry as I think they can stand. Apparently citrus likes its roots drying out between heavy showers. It has just finished blossoming.

>66 MarthaJeanne: Wow!

We cleaned out the shed. Actually, Jerry did most of it. My efforts of the morning left my back unhappy. Among other things, we found two traps with dead mice in them. Probably both dragged the trap into a back corner before they were finished off. They had made a nest in the chaise-lounge cover. No great loss, and also made a mess of a discarded sheet I had been using to cover my weaving. Loom wasn't out there over the winter, so again, no real loss. The neighbour is away this week, so if our bin fills up, we'll use his.

We are also discarding our old folding chairs. 30, maybe 40 years old if not more, still work fine although the colour is very faded. But we haven't used them in so long that we are tired of giving them room.

Now we can take down the tent, well not right now. The thunder keeps getting louder, and it helps if my body is prepared to cooperate. We do need a day or two of reliable dry weather to dry out the base. I should also take the electrics apart first, and get the rest of the small plants out. But once it is down we have a good place to put it.

We went back out to Ochsenherz today, and got the things they were short of last week. (>59 MarthaJeanne:) I also remembered to ask for clary sage. Great!

Then, as we were out in the right direction we also went to Adamah. We had skipped their big plant sale on the weekend (too many people), but they still had many plants including white chard!!! and beans. We also bought fruits and veggies and other groceries while we were at it, of course.

Today was miserable, sort of raining, cold, but the sun tried a bit towards evening, and the next few days are supposed to be sunny and warmer, so I can get my plants set out. With tomorrow's holiday, the neighbour should be here to take one of the lemon cukes off me hands. The saleswoman seemed very happy that we had come back.

We've taken the top off the tent and laid it out on the grass.

I've planted the clary sage and the beans. I bought four plants - two green and two yellow, so my plan was to find four tall poles and tie them together at the top. Well, we found two of the tall ones and two shorter ones, so they ate tied at the top of the shorter ones. I assume the top of this will be rather chaotic. Then I discovered that one of the pots had two plants in it. They just got planted as one, as that was the place I had for it.

Since then, Jerry and I have given my left garden shoe a new hole, so it won't keep trying to fall off. I guess my lemon cukes come next.

Aaaargh! We have had a slug attack on the two tomatoes and yellow zucchini in the second bed, which of course is the one I'm planting up. Slug pellets are a good option (the ones that count as organic) as we are supposed to have several day of dry weather. Not just in the bed, but also in the weedy area around it. The tomatoes are just stems. The zucch still has one big leaf. Why can't they just eat the weeds? But no, they have to climb up and eat my veggies.

I have planted the two new zucchss either side of it, Serafina is on the left and Strato d' Italia on the right.

The lemon cukes have a frame near there. Those are all fairly good sized plants, but I hesitate to set out the chard seedlings.

With atotal of three tomatoes hit by slugs, We went back to Burgenland. I was disappointed not to get Ivory Egg, but the did have one Roma paste left. That replaces the Steinblume. Instead of the Black Zebra, I now have a Green Zebra (Hawaiian strain). Fine. I think I prefer that. And the Gelbe Banana is replaced by itself. All in, slug pellets all over. And dryer weather predicted.

I also got basil and long sweet peppers.

All in the ground.I used up all the compost I had yesterday, so we need more. We also need more suet balls. The birds are very hungry right now. It sounds as though there are babies around.

Jerry saw a pair of goldfinches at the birdbath this morning. Certainly a colourful addition to our normal contingent.

The slugs do not seem to have attacked last night.

Everything looks healthy this morning. The spinach is determined to blossom soon, so I need to keep pickung, comcentrating on the high bits. The birds with babies should be flying around the spinach. Lots of insects there, although mostly tiny ones. There is apparently something fascinating in my left ear.

Jerry took spinach and lettuce off to church.

I planted the white chard out, as that bed has been left in peace for a few nights. Whoops! Not right up against the zucchini. The plants look good and are growing strongly.

One white poppy is out.

I could/should have put 20 suet balls out this morning, but we are having supply problems. So they only got 10. We've ordered 300, that could come the end of this week. I hope so, as 10 a day seems very skimpy, and even that will run out soon.

The mistplatz did not have compost yesterday. Of course. Demand is high in May, and I think the City of Vienna gardeners take a large amount this time of year. I was fairly stingy with what I had from last fall, but I have now run out. And I wasn't stingy when I put the citrus out. Their pots got filled up.

I'm baking bread today, so I decided to take a small amount of the dough and turn it into thyme crackers. I took one sprig from each of the 10 plants (4 varieties) around the tomato bed. A bit of extra oil and salt, and then enough flour to roll it out very thin. Since the bread has a good portion of sprouted spelt, I expect the crackers to be very good. I could have let them rise a bit (the dough has both sourdough and yeast, but I didn't just stick them in the oven when it was hot.

Yes, I should have let them rise I think, and they could have used (at least) twice the thyme. Which doesn't mean they aren'y good, as is, just those changes would make them better.

One of my sons called me for mother's day. He could hear our birds, and when he put his phone on speaker, so could everyone else in the room.

BTW, the breads are good.

Great angles of view!

We think the suet balls may come today or tomorrow, That would be great - the birds greeted Jerry with great excitement when he first went out this morning. Nope! no breakfast from him.

But soon after I had distributed balls between the three feeders, they were all being used. Even the one in the pepper tree right at the terrace with the door open and us at the table talking! This was the little birds, and they were obviously complaining that it wasn't full. The tits and sparrows are happy to share with each other, but the larger birds get territorial.

There was a starling trying to get something from the ring in the apple tree. The woodpecker was on the feeder in the bush.

Anyway, it will give me great pleasure to fill the feeders really full again, but I want to avoid having days whenI have none to distribute.

We were at a garden centre that no longer carries the fertilizer tablets I liked.

However, they had bowls of dianthus with tiny flowers and strong clove scent.

ThenJerry saw large star jasmine plants, so we agreed to heave the old one, and plant this one in the ground.

None of the veggie plants appealed, but we bought two orange thyme plants, and two mints - Swiss, which is a peppermint, and , which you need to make Kärtner Kasnudeln, which I love, but have never made and probably never will, but, but...Problem. I had one space ready for a mint. I have three other spaces where mints belong, but they need diffing out and the soil replaced with a good helping of compost. I hope we can get some soon.

Those nudeln are like big torteloni, the dough is mostly potato, and the filling herbed fresh cheese. Served with lots of browned butter. Yum!

Very peculiar. When I didn't have many suet balls, the birds ate them up and made me feel guilty that I was starving them. Now I have plenty of balls, and they aren't eating them.

We went to a garden show today. I did not get the things I was particularly looking for, but we had fun. We talked to two companies about a replacement for the pavilion. Expensive. We bought a few pretty small flowers, a bunch of Allium bulbs, a metal basket to hold my tools, and at the end two large clumps of foxglove, one a medium purple, the other a very light peach. Everything is in the earth already. After fighting off the weeds again, where I wasn't complete enough last time. The basket works well. Easy to see where my stuff is, and the handle is strong enough to use to try to stand up afterwards.

There was a packet of sunflower seeds with the balls, but I haven't planted them yet, although I know where I want to put them.

In the process of clearing the space for the sunflowers, I seem to have disturbed an ants nest. That's life. I think I planted about half the package, which is probably too much.

I opened the next box and gave the seeds to the neighbour for her grandchildren. They are out here today, and planting sunflowers along the back fence has been added to the day's festivities.

We were out doing errands, so we drove by the Mistplatz (recycling centre), and Lo and Behold! They actually had a pile of compost! So we drove home, put the stack of containers and the spade into the car, and headed back. Theoretically there are shovels, but usually not very good ones. I think the one there today was better than usual, but there was only one. Anyway, we filled our containers, and I spread it on as many raised beds as I could, then we went back. Most of that got spread, too, before the rain started. I've kept some back for things like clearing out the mint containers and planting the new star jasmine. Theoretically we could go back tomorrow, but I am OK with what I have for now, and demand is high in May. I wouldn't want to be greedy. Besides, today it was dry and easy to dig. By now there will be a layer of wet, heavy mud on the whole pile.

It seems to have stopped so I need to harvest some spinach for supper. Probably the last time. It is very eager to flower.

We've done a bunch or research into replacing the pavilion we took the cloth roof of last fall. The high tech solution is a totally new construction with flaps that open or close - and costs over €4000. Which we might be able to get in August, and really ought to have at least foundations for the four corners. Or we could get the guy who makes covers for boats to make us a new cover. No idea what he would charge, but we might get it in June. Saves throwing away the perfectly good frame.

So this morning we went to the local farmer's coop store, and bought a tarp and a role of wash line cord. Total less than €30. We're not working on it now in the rain, and the result won't be elegant, but I will have shade within the week, and the other choices are still available if we decide that's what we want.

The store has changed a lot since I was last there, including adding a new supermarket section. There were plenty of staff to answer questions. The store was busy on Saturday noon, but not frenetic as our usual store tends to be if we hit the busy times. We only needed a few food items, which we were able to find fairly quickly.

And, I had wanted the AustroSaat seed tapes of three colour carrots, that the garden centre no longer carries (Don't carry the seeds I used to buy there, don't carry the fertilizer tablets I used to buy there. So why should I drive the extra distance. Just for the plants I might see and decide to buy that are worth a lot more than the items I was looking for? Probably not.)

Anyway I bought two packages of the seed tape, and 5/6 of it is in the ground. Nice bare space I had just weeded and added compost to. I planted both tapes of the Nantes (standard orange) and the purple, but only one of the yellows. I might still plant that once I've finished taking out the spinach. But Jerry is firmly of the opinion that carrots should be orange. I like the purple ones. Yellow ones are fine chopped up in a stew or soup, but not exciting. (Soup vegetable packages here always include orange and yellow carrots as well as a few other roots and leek.) The rain has conveniently started up again, after stopping long enough for my planting. Nice.

I decidedto get into the area by the rain water container. What a mess! The rosebush itself is dead, but the roots still try to send up sticks.

The other tall stems seem to be the marshmallowI planted there a few years ago. Oh, good! The leaves are soft and velvety, and after my reading, I might try adding them to my tea now and again. I'm looking forward to the flowers soon.

Other than that there was a ground level tangle of weeds that seemed to include a lot of strawberry plants.The thing is, some previous person added strawberry plants to the yard. The ones with tiny very flavourful berries. BUT! I am allergic to them, and even when I tell Jerry they are ripe, he can't be bothered picking them, so the slugs get them. So as far as I am concerned they are weeds, and the sort that spreads.

Once I had cleared that away, the front mint container was visible. I added lots of compost and planted the Kärtner mint I bought a while back. So that is done. I also threw a big lot of compost on the marshmallow, and gave both a good watering.

Now I still need to plant the new star jasmine. And finish tying down the tarp on the pavilion. Progress on that front: I sent Jerry out for a better wire cutter.

We went to Marchegg this noon. Jerry wanted to try to get pictures of baby storks. I wanted to get more tools from the guy who sells high quality British tools at various fairs. I bought metal gardening basket from him at Eckartsau, and wanted a second one. The scoop I was using for compost and such has disappeared, and it was in bad shape anyway. We arranged a time, and he unpacked hus van enough to get me what I wanted. The compost scoopis a bit smaller than my old one was, but he said he had used his for some serious digging.

It was high time to get the star jasmine in the ground. In fact I haven't been watering it enough, so I first stuck it the water bucket for a while. For digging the hole I had my spade, at least for the part not under the rose arch, I had my very skinny trowel, and the new scoop. Well, it took all three. I keep forgetting how heavy the soil is where I haven't been adding compost and such. Most of the actual digging was with the spade or the trowel, but getting the soil out of the hole I used the scoop.Once I had the hole as big as it was going to get, I added a bed of compost, added the wet plant, and filled with a mixture of compost and soil, and then watered it in. I ended up with a fair amount of clay soil to discard in the bushes. Anyway, it feels virtuous to finally have that in the ground.