Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

Don’t like Deer Anymore

Yesterday was a rotten day for deer encounters:  first, Tina hit a deer on her way to work, killed the deer, smashed the driver side headlight, hood and fender (luckily it happened close to home, the car still drives fine, so all she had to do was switch cars with Jeff).

 But even worse was when we discovered that some deer had eaten most of the leaves off one of the small cherry trees, and nibbled on the young stems of two pear trees.  Bought strong smelling soap, cut them in half and used old panty hose to hang one into each tree.

Found several intriguing recipes for home-made deer repellent for gardeners at a website called deer-departed  but hoping the soap will do the trick.



Cherry tree after deer damage!



The second cherry tree – with a bar of soap to fend off potential deer!

Japanese Dogwood?

We think this tree is a Japanese Dogwood – not 100% sure – but is is beautiful when it blooms.  Right now the air is heavy with the scents from honeysuckle and locust tree blossoms, and everything is so lush and green from all the rain we had.

Had a Break from the Rain and Planted Some More…

After spending Saturday in Pittsburgh for Tina’s parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary, we had just part of Sunday for planting more garden.  At least we managed to finally get all the tomato plants into the ground – the poor plants looked rather peaky from too much water and probably not enough soil and nutrients any more.  We’ll see if they make it – if not we’ll have to go an buy a flat or two of plants at the greenhouse.

Also planted two rows of green beans (Tema), half a row of sweet potato plants and half a row of baby lima beans.  Then we got another rain shower – have to wait for another day to get the squash and cucumbers into the ground… I really think this is the latest we ever got tomatoes and beans into the ground, ever.

Planting in the Drizzle

Took advantage of this evening’s drizzling rain (which was a heck of a lot better than the downpours we have been having), to at least plant the flat of green peppers we had started.  Got all those into one row, plus the couple of vegetable plants we had bought over the weekend.  Sammy hoed half of row of onions while Tina planted – then it started pouring again.  (Rain, rain, go away….)  But, all this rain does wonders for the flowers, poppies are blooming and irises are just about to pop open:

Seed Shopping

Went to the Newville Hardware Store and the Newville Produce Farm to get more seeds – hoping for the rain to stop so we can start planting more vegetables.

  • 1/2 lb of Henderson’s Bush Baby Lima Beans
  • 1 lb of Tema Green Beans (53 days) 
  • Eureka Pickling Cucumbers (57 days) 
  • Bush Pickle Cucumbers (45 days) 
  • Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans (always wanted to try those)
  • Garden Spineless Zucchini (50 days)
  • Kohlrabi seeds and plants
  • Rutabaga seeds
  • a few white cabbage plants
  • sweet potato vines
  • a few cauliflower plants
  • St. John’s Wort plant
  • Rosemary plant
  • half a flat of white impatients for the shady flower beds

Stopped by a yard sale on the way and bought 3 forsythia plants, several daisy plants and a few while irises.

Also spent Saturday evening “finding” the shady flower bed that edges the lawn area (where hopefully we’ll have a stone wall someday). Got this area ready for mulching as soon as the rain stops. With this soggy weather, gardening is limited to areas that can be reached from a grass surface – such as flower beds… can’t wait for the sun to start drying things up.

And finally planted the two Asian Pear trees which Jens had gotten Tina for Mother’s Day!