Artichoke Lover’s 2021 Garden.

[heirloomgal]

Nice photos @Artichoke Lover. If that last photo is a blackberry, what a wonderful harvest you'll get, the plants look loaded. I just dug mine up this year and gave it to a family member, it just didn't produce enough and in time to warrant all the 'octopus shaped space' it took up. It was nice to get the few berries that I did though.

Photo #3 from top, I jumped out of my socks when I got to that one. What is going on in there, did it eat some unborn baby chicks?

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Nice photos @Artichoke Lover. If that last photo is a blackberry, what a wonderful harvest you'll get, the plants look loaded. I just dug mine up this year and gave it to a family member, it just didn't produce enough and in time to warrant all the 'octopus shaped space' it took up. It was nice to get the few berries that I did though.

Photo #3 from top, I jumped out of my socks when I got to that one. What is going on in there, did it eat some unborn baby chicks?

Yep! It’s a blackberry bush. It’s almost 8 years old and this is the first year it’s produced well at all.

Luckily the snake just stole my breakfast lol. I can’t seem to convince any of my hens to sit. I’m very grateful the snake didn’t go after the chicks. It scared me good when I looked in there though! It was pretty tame though I probably could have picked it up with my bare hands but I used our homemade snake grabber instead lol.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

It’s been invasion of the snakes around here. We’ve lived on this property for almost 8 years and before this spring we had seen maybe 5 or 6 max even clearing brush on the river bank. Just in the past 5-6 weeks we’ve seen no less than 7. Four 5ft+ rat snakes, a small king snake and today there was 2 copperheads or banded water snakes in the river. We were kayaking and two people in our group almost stepped on one underwater in the river and about a 1/4 mile up river I dropped my paddle and when I went back to look for it I stumbled on another on the bank. It wasn’t scared of me and that was enough to sign its death sentence. It was actually slowly making its way closer which is bizarre and frankly terrifying. Especially considering it was only about 5 feet away

 

[Artichoke Lover]

The last of the winter squash has been planted. I’ve gotten a lot of weeding done and I still have far more to do. The peas have been coming in pretty well and I got a single new potato from a plant I accidentally took out with the hoe. The deer keep eating the kidney beans and I seem to incapable of remembering to put up a scarecrow. I’m afraid I’ll have to replant if I don’t remember soon. Some of the early planted beans have starting blooming though. I am almost done planting in the flower beds I just have some zinnias left to transplant. I planted the luffa along the fence yesterday. I ended up working in the moonlight but it’s finally done. I pulled the garlic Monday and got a pretty good harvest considering I only planted one head of grocery store garlic I got 7 heads of garlic from it. And the Mulberries are finally ripe on my grandparents property so I’ll probably go pick some more of those next week.

The last photo here is of a patch of cahaba lilies we found. They are endangered so I thrilled to find some in our branch of the river as there are so few patches left and know one knew we had any here.

 

[heirloomgal]

It’s been invasion of the snakes around here. We’ve lived on this property for almost 8 years and before this spring we had seen maybe 5 or 6 max even clearing brush on the river bank. Just in the past 5-6 weeks we’ve seen no less than 7. Four 5ft+ rat snakes, a small king snake and today there was 2 copperheads or banded water snakes in the river. We were kayaking and two people in our group almost stepped on one underwater in the river and about a 1/4 mile up river I dropped my paddle and when I went back to look for it I stumbled on another on the bank. It wasn’t scared of me and that was enough to sign its death sentence. It was actually slowly making its way closer which is bizarre and frankly terrifying. Especially considering it was only about 5 feet away

Wow, @Artichoke Lover that is wild. I'm not sure about about the snakes that can inhabit water in your neck of the woods, but here water snakes (which thankfully aren't poisonous) are very, very brave. On several occasions they've swam right up to my kids at the beach to check them out, or even once in a waterfall swim hole. Some naturalist told me that snakes which find food in water are quite bold as far as snakes go, and will often approach and investigate people in water. The splashing and moving through water is what draws them as it could be a struggling fish or animal. That 's why your swimming snakes are a bit extra to me, because they may want to actually investigate you and at the same time, are venomous...
I'm curious though, since you were kayaking, was he dispatched with a kayak paddle?

 

[Zeedman]

The last photo here is of a patch of cahaba lilies we found. They are endangered so I thrilled to find some in our branch of the river as there are so few patches left and know one knew we had any here.

That is probably why they are still there.

I'm not surprised to hear your story about the cottonmouth; they are more likely to be aggressive than copperheads. In the 70's, I spent a summer in Tennessee for some Navy training. There was a creek close by, and a lot of cottonmouth snakes lived in the marsh. We were warned that cottonmouths are ornery, and sometimes will hold their ground rather than run away.

DW & I saw a couple garter snakes in the yard yesterday, the first we've seen this year. Our neighbor saw a couple too. It's actually reassuring to see that there is still a population in this suburban area.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Wow, @Artichoke Lover that is wild. I'm not sure about about the snakes that can inhabit water in your neck of the woods, but here water snakes (which thankfully aren't poisonous) are very, very brave. On several occasions they've swam right up to my kids at the beach to check them out, or even once in a waterfall swim hole. Some naturalist told me that snakes which find food in water are quite bold as far as snakes go, and will often approach and investigate people in water. The splashing and moving through water is what draws them as it could be a struggling fish or animal. That 's why your swimming snakes are a bit extra to me, because they may want to actually investigate you and at the same time, are venomous...
I'm curious though, since you were kayaking, was he dispatched with a kayak paddle?

Nope was still looking it. Kayak paddles are bad weapons anyway they are lightweight, blunt, and flexible. I finally managed to get the attention of someone else to come dispose of it for me since of course this was the only time I didn’t have some kind of weapon on me. We do always make sure someone in a group has a weapons for this reason though.

That is probably why they are still there.

I'm not surprised to hear your story about the cottonmouth; they are more likely to be aggressive than copperheads. In the 70's, I spent a summer in Tennessee for some Navy training. There was a creek close by, and a lot of cottonmouth snakes lived in the marsh. We were warned that cottonmouths are ornery, and sometimes will hold their ground rather than run away.

DW & I saw a couple garter snakes in the yard yesterday, the first we've seen this year. Our neighbor saw a couple too. It's actually reassuring to see that there is still a population in this suburban area.

It was actually a banded watersnake or copperhead which are normally pretty skittish that’s why it shocked me so much.

 

[Ridgerunner]

today there was 2 copperheads or banded water snakes in the river.

I'd be surprised to find a copperhead in the river. Where I see them is usually in dry brush or grass. A copperhead can sometimes stand its ground. Most bites come from people stepping on them or playing with them, often with alcohol involved. But as well camouflaged as they are stepping on them is pretty easy.

I looked up a photo of the banded water snake. Their heads are kind of flattened instead of pencil shaped which would make it harder to tell if it is a venomous or non-venomous snake. I don't like to kill a snake but if it is a danger I err on the side of safety.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I'd be surprised to find a copperhead in the river. Where I see them is usually in dry brush or grass. A copperhead can sometimes stand its ground. Most bites come from people stepping on them or playing with them, often with alcohol involved. But as well camouflaged as they are stepping on them is pretty easy.

I looked up a photo of the banded water snake. Their heads are kind of flattened instead of pencil shaped which would make it harder to tell if it is a venomous or non-venomous snake. I don't like to kill a snake but if it is a danger I err on the side of safety.

We’ve found a copper head on the river bank before and so have some neighbors. They seem to like the sandy scrub areas on the bank. And they swim quite well.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

It’s been almost 3 weeks since I updated but there hasn’t been much going on. A drought stunted the garden and then the past week or so has been near nonstop rain which is great but I couldn’t do the weeding I needed to. Tomorrow will be my first real harvest from the big garden so I’ll try to take care of that and some weeding. I’ll update then.