Weekend of "To-Do"

After stalking the weather forecast I have made a "Honey Do List" and I am the honey that needs to do. The city yard waste is finally picking up for the first time since November and they don't come again until the middle of May so all of the limbs that fell and all the bushes that didn't survive the ridiculous amount of snow this winter all need to go! After work tomorrow this is what needs to be done:
1) Stop at Home Depot for 2 more sets of lights
2) De-thatch the lawn front and back
3) Spread corn gluten front and back
4) Clean and till the garden
5) Cut back old perennial growth
6) Chop down broken bush and tree limbs
7) Clean up under bird feeders
8) Clean bird houses
9) Clear out flower beds and raspberry patch
10) Fertilize asparagus bed

Then after all that is done I can add to the list - cleaning off the back porch, emptying out the worm bin and adding a new layer, start the Brussels Sprouts and cabbage seeds, finally plant the peas, and the worst job of all - the Spring poop run around the yard! Oh how I wish dog waste could go in the compost bin. With three dogs (two of mine and one of my mom's) the poop gets a little crazy during the winter because neither of us wants to head out in thigh deep snow to pick it up. This makes for an awful Spring clean up!

After all is said and (hopefully) done a glass or several of wine will be well deserved!!!!

I have given up!

I had SOOOO many tomatoes just waiting to ripen, be picked and enjoyed and I have lost them all to those bloody squirrels. I hate them!!! I think I may have gotten 20 tomatoes in total all season and now I have nothing but two overgrown plants with yellowing bottom leaves and no more veggies. All that work and not all the reward I was anticipating. I need to come up with a better plan next year.
Some things that I learned this year
- watch the tomato plant and make sure the branches fall WITHIN the cage because if you wait too long then they just grow too big and fall to the ground.
- just let the zucchini grow, don't try to train it
- apply some sort of fungicide at the FIRST sign of moldy leaves. One of my poor zukes just got infested by me waiting too long
- oh and speaking of waiting too long - just pick the zucchini "one more day" will give it just that much more time to grow huge
- harvest, harvest, harvest that lettuce otherwise it just gets bitter
- daily "squirel patrol/deterrant" probably would have saved a good number of my tomatoes
- if only 1-2 peppers grow per plant (like mine did) plants LOTS of seedlings!

I have now given up the garden to the wild (meaning weeds and squirrels) because everything is pretty much done for me, except for the watermelons. Out of 6 plants I have two good sized and two maybes. All the other littles fell off. I am now focusing on Fall planting, planning and winter protection for everything. Labor Day weekend is coming and do I plan on doing some labor. I have to get everything tilled and composted before my plant shipment comes in.