Gettin' Ready!

July is an exciting month for Central Florida gardeners. The spring garden has burned out, though with the shade in my backyard, I still have tomatoes on the vine and I'm still picking a fresh strawberry or two.

In August, I can put out new seedlings of squash, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. I can plant beans and I think I'm going to give corn another go. The last attempt was dismal! And to be ready for fall transplanting, I get to start my seeds this month! I am experimenting some with rooting cuttings from existing tomatoes. I mean, why pay for them when I can get them free? Broccoli starts a little later as do most greens. The grafting I tried on the citrus tree didn't take...I'll try again in the spring.

My worms enjoy the summer bounty of watermelon and cantaloupe rinds. I tried potato skins but discovered that fly larvae liked those. They have since become a gourmet meal for my hens. They do love maggots! LOL

The completed rabbit hutch has only one occupant at the time. "Bucky" is a young male I bought from a bunny breeder friend of mine. I bought a young female at the same time but she just didn't settle and died just a few days after I brought her home. I felt very sad that she died but truth be told, I didn't have a good feeling about her from the get go. I must learn to listen to that kind of guidance and stop second guessing my Higher Power. I dressed the bunny out for the practice though we did not eat the meat because we didn't know what caused her death. I hated to see her suffer and did all I knew to do to make her comfortable. The breeder guarantees her stock and we should be getting a couple females soon. We'll try breeding baby bunnies in the fall as rabbits don't do well in the heat.

Side story....when my kids were younger we went up to see the in-laws who happened to have rabbits. In my arrogance I just knew I could pick out two female rabbits that we could keep as pets. They were quite pretty and they stayed together in the large cage we built for them behind the shed. One day, one of the bunnies was pulling out what seemed to be all her hair! I called a friend and she told me to expect baby bunnies within the day!!!!! Obviously, I hadn't picked 2 females!!! And, as the children were not inclined to eat their pets, we got out of the bunny business.

I'm having the breeder sex my purchases this time!