Eh, it's just some cosmetic damage

I am quite impressed with the size of all the plants this year. I'm not attributing this to a magical green thumb, but rather the combination of a mild winter and sunny skies much earlier than anticipated.  It's amazing to see the daisies I started in the tub last year, they are nearly as tall as me.  Same way with the catnip I started last year.  Best of all, the hollyhocks I started mid summer are covered in buds and two of the nine are taller than me.  I have a couple of mini ones, I hit them with the mower a few times this year (oops) but they've recovered nicely and at a foot tall have many buds!  The down side of this is the rust.  Yes, dreaded rust, just like on your precious 87 Toyota.  I can save you a trip to Wikipedia:

Puccinia malvacearum, also known as hollyhock rust, is a species within the Puccinia genus known for attacking members of the Malvaceae family. An autoecious pathogen, it can complete its life cycle using a single host. 
Yuck.  The short end of it is rust is a nasty fungus that attacks only hollyhocks & their BFFs.  They get these gross little spots that aren't bad on the tops (see below) but do look pretty funky on the bottom.  Basically it will munch up the whole damn leaf and it's a dried up skeleton.  Kiss your big leaves goodbye.

Exhibit A, some rusty ass leaves.

I've already attempted to control the problem by cutting off the foliage & treating with fungicide.  Recent rains have not helped my problem and the rust continues to spread.  It's not jut the leaves, either.  I see spots on the stalk & I've even seen a few contaminated buds.  Depending on the location of the different hollyhocks some have it much worse than others.  As I said I've tried containing it and it's just not working well for me.  I don't want to cut them down.  They are very tall and are covered in buds, and I just wanted to see a flower damnit.  Two days ago I saw the first bits of color poking out, and this morning two (same plant) had bloomed.  There are also three more buds ready to burst and I say flower away!  I do have two plants sort of marked for execution as they aren't much more than leaves poking out of the ground, but any of them with buds can hang out - let's see what happens.  I'll look past your leprosy, little hollyhock!

It's so beautious!

Huzzah!

Happy Memorial Day!
Thanks to all the fine service men & women who have given their all, we all appreciate it so very much.

P.S.  Say hello to the unofficial start of summer!

Forrest is getting ready for swimsuit season

Roxxy says LET'S GO!

Cars at Carlisle

April for anyone living in Carlisle since the mid-70s means one thing: CAR SHOW SEASON.  Great if you like cars, not so great if you like going to the grocery store without people waving you in to their yard to park.  Perhaps I should just write "RESIDENT" across my windshield to prevent this from happening in the future.  Our home is situatted in a rather unfortunate spot come car show season - between the fairgrounds (where the car show is held) & the turnpike interchange.  Hooray, I can't get out of my driveway!  At any rate sometimes all the extra hooplah is worth it because you see really awesome vehicles out & about.  This weekend's show: Import & Kit Nationals, which brings some interesting things to town such as the SWEET CRUISER I saw on Saturday...

Eeeek, a VW dune buggy!

Oooooh, aaaaaah

P.S.  This sucker is SUPER ULTRA MEGA sparkly

If you enjoy vintage cars (or maybe you want to blow in to town just to disobey traffic), visit CarsatCarlisle.com for more information, see below for this year's schedule.

Ford Nationals — Jun 1-3, 2012
GM Nationals — Jun 22-24, 2012
Chrysler Nationals — Jul 6-8, 2012
Bike Fest — Jul 20-22, 2012
Truck Nationals — Aug 3-5, 2012
Corvettes at Carlisle — Aug 24-26, 2012
Fall Carlisle — Oct 3-7, 2012

Spring Carlisle — Apr 24-28, 2013

Berries of razz

One of this year's new additions to the landscape is the raspberry patch.  I love raspberries, and the Burpee site had some great deals (5 plants for $20 - yes, please!) so I figured I'd give it a whirl.  I found the plans for the patch in a fantastic book called The Backyard Homestead and Shawn did a wonderful job recreating it in our backyard.  I chose a red, ever-bearing variety by the name of "Caroline" and paired it with a yellow variety by the name of "Anne" - both are disease resistant.  When I opened the package they were not very exciting, literally sticks with bunches of roots.  We planted these on April 1 & I'm please to report that every single cane has new growth!  The yellow, or Anne if you prefer, seem to have taken off much faster than their red counterparts.  I'm not certain why that is, I'm just glad that all 10 raspberries are on the way to providing mounds of fresh berries.

The little cups are keeping the wildlife from gnawing everything to stubs.

Dear Moms of the world,

Thanks for putting up with all the shit us kids put you through - you're the best! 
P.S.  Can I borrow $20.00?

Gardening 101

Way back in February I planted this year's garden.  Inside of course, as February in PA is not exactly the best time to start horticultural endeavors outdoors.  I had leafed through the Burpee catalog numerous times through the winter and had found my DREAM indoor seed starting shelf (multi-levels, adjustable lights) for the low low price of $275.  Ouch.  Shawn took a look at what I was after and decided he could construct something much less expensive and voila!  After a trip to Lowe's I am now the proud owner of this contraption:

Plastic shelving + lights + small chains & hooks  =
SUPERB seedling factory

This cost less than $100 vs. nearly $300 - I'll take this one any day.  It has been working excellent, I was able to keep the lights super low when the seeds were sprouting and raised them as the plants got larger.  Two months into my indoor garden and we've got nice plants that are ready to start the outdoor lifestyle.

Luffa, strawberries, & columbine

Peppers!  The four in the center are actually pepperonici grown from seeds I saved from last year's crop.

Even more peppers also some eggplants and cucumbers.