Garden 2014

With 80 degree weather today (unusual - though welcome) I think we have finally shaken off the long cold winter that hit us this year.  Yesterday I was able to open up the house and wash 24 windows, and the windows in 3 doors - plus clean all the curtains.  AMAZING what a difference that makes - the fresh air, the clear view... who would have thought that cleaning would be so theraputic!

Today found me cleaning out the garden beds.  I didn't make it all the way around - if you've paid any attention to the pictures of my gardens - you may have noticed that I nearly have more garden than lawn.  Lets just say that Munchkin and I filled SIX big paper leaf/lawn bags today -and that didn't count the two that got filled last weekend, or the big pile of sticks we put at the curb.  I got the leaves and debris raked out of the front and side beds - everything from the back of the house to the back fence still has to be done - but truly isn't as bad.  The front beds collect the maple leaves - the back beds not so much.  It is mostly trimming out the dead flower heads that I left in for the birds.

It was also a good time to do some trimming - as with no leaves on the small trees and shrubs I was able to see where the crossed branches were and cut away to open things up.  I even tackled the rosebush - though I did not escape unscathed.

Not too much is blooming - crocuses, flag iris, snowdrops (lots and lots and LOTS and LOTS of snowdrops), and one little tiny daffodil just getting ready to open (snow forecast for Tuesday, Mom - right as always!)  The hyacinths are ready to burst out, and I can see the beginnings of the rhurbarb, strawberries and hops, along with many many other sprouts and buds and signs of life again.  YAY!

I even got busy with some planting!  I didn't do anything outside - I need to do some tilling in my raised beds and my garden claw has disappeared - so hopefully when we return from some Easter travels I will be able to get a new one and get in some of those early spring "cold weather" crops.  In the meantime, I have some lettuce and basil already sprouted and moved up to the next sized container in my "greenhouse", and I put in some seeds today.

It was 'thyme."

 

Garden update

I haven't posted a whole lot about the garden - yet.

We did very well this year getting things started indoors - we've been harvesting windowsill lettuce since before Easter, and just took the "indoor greenhouse" down and packed it away.  The seedlings have all been planted - tomatillo, heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and soybeans all found their start in my dining room, and are now thriving outside.

Potatoes are sprouting, strawberries are berrying and I even have a small crop of blueberries on 1 of the 2 bushes we planted last year (the deer nipped the blossom tips off the other one).

Flowers are flowering...

Rubarb is ... well ...... HUGE!!!

It is looking to be a good year - so far.

 

Don't Let Them Scare You...

For years I have been intimidated by something in my back yard - our BIG black walnut tree.  I've dealt with it's juglone making my plants not grow, I've cleaned up the walnuts choking my mower and turning my ankles, and I have enjoyed it's shade.

But I have never quite gotten up the gumption to process those walnuts and actually eat them.

"It's tough work," they said.
"It's really dirty and will stain everything," they said.
"You will need to run over them with your car to get into them," they said.

("they" being friends, blogs, books, websites, etc...)

Well - last spring I made a promise to my nephew.  We were sitting under the tree in June and observing the squirrels and birds, and numerous nuts hanging from every branch.

"What do they taste like?" he asked me.
 Well, I, uh, I, uh.... "I don't know," I had to answer.

Me - the raspberry harvesting, potato growing, rhubarb raising, flower cultivating Aunt... I didn't know -and they were RIGHT THERE!!!

For 10 years -they have been RIGHT THERE!

So I promised him I would process some and bring them to his house for Thanskgiving.

So today, that is what I did.  I dove into the pile of nuts that the Munchkin has been picking up each weekend (he gets paid by the bucket -Friday we picked up 25.5 buckets... plus 23.5 in our neighbors yard...)

I didn't need the car - my hands worked just fine!
I didn't get all dirty - gloves took care of 90 % of it.
I DID get tired - but that was from sitting and leaning forward in a chair designed to be reclined in.

And now I have 5 gallons of nuts drying in my side yard - hopefully protected from the squirrels.  They will be moved to the basement later today - and hulled in a few weeks.

Will I do it again?  Depends on how they taste.  But now I know that it is not so scary!

 

Dirty Tales - how the garden grows

We had a bit of a strange growing season (not over yet... but soon).  It started early with an early thaw and spring, then we got bit by a hard frost around our normal time.  This nipped a lot of the fruit trees - though my berries seemed to fare OK as they had not blossomed yet.

We then had some chilly rainy weather - and so my garden went in LATER than usual.  Some bunny traffic got us off to a bumpy start, but we were going along well.

Then it got HOT.
And then it got DRY.

And then things settled out and the plants that survived all of that have been sharing their bounty.  Here's a little photo tour. Some things just were not being photogenic - like the rhubarb, chives, basil, roma tomatoes, gourds and poblano peppers... but they've all been growing very well.

Hops

"Baby 'Killer'" the rosebush

Sunflower planted by the birds - and consumed by the birds

Sunflower

Watermelon

Yummy tomatoes

The potato that hid during harvest - we got enough for one nice meal!

Broccoli

The arbor pathway into the side garden.

And I can't forget my 'best' crop of all - shown here on the 1st day of 2nd grade:

Dirty Tales from the Garden - the REALLY big growing things

As much as I work with the small plants and vegetables, and the occasional medium sized shrub, one cannot overlook the BIG growing things around our house - namely a whole host of black walnut trees, a maple, a catalpa, a blue spruce, and some neighborly maples and oaks on the street and property lines.   Unfortunately, our maple has been sickly for some time now, and it was finally time to take it down.

With about 12 hours notice, hubby and I dropped some fencing and cut down raspberry canes surrounding the tree... and lickety split we went from standing wood to firewood.

Before

Knotty old thing

Not too healthy

Burly skilled men at work

Going

Gone

Firewood

The stump, soon to be covered back over as the raspberries return.

It was a long overdue decision - as much as I hate cutting down trees - this one was too sickly to be safe anymore.  We have one more on the property that will probably come down in the spring - planning now what I can plant in their place (must get along with black walnuts).

It's Tomato Planting time again - GIVEAWAY

Remember my topsy turvy tyvek tomato bags??  Well - it was time to make some more...  and I got a bit carried away and made LOTS.

I will be planting a few (ok - more than a few) around here - but thought I would have a fun little giveaway.  I will give away at least three bags - one each to three lucky gardeners (may be more if I don't use all I have made)

To enter - answer the following question:
What is the most unusual thing growing in your garden (vegetable or otherwise) right now?

Please be sure to give me a way to contact you - "no reply" entries will be discarded.

Happy gardening!

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED*** Thanks for playing!

 

Dirty Tales 2012 - the season begins

It is a new gardening season - after a very strange winter.  On the first of March, I was outside in shorts and able to do a lot of cleanup work.  Then we had snow on the 30th.  Then shorts weather again - then a hard freeze.  Luckily it looks like nothing major got nipped -but I don't know what the raspberries may do.  They are my only fruiting plants to worry about.

This year's plans include some veggies, some new perennials, some moving plants around, and a LOT of mulch.  We took last year off and did not mulch, and lost a bit to the post-reroof cleanup, so I just placed an order for EIGHT yards!!!

I've also set to work on reducing the size of our yard  - by adding 3 more 4x4 raised beds and the path between and around them.  The space is currently tarped in an effort to kill off some of the grass and weeds beneath before we start digging.  I've also got some "hardscaping" in mind with a trellis fence project.  Our front porch is rotted out, so redecking that is also in the plans.

It's looking to be a busy time, but enjoyable!!

 

No Vampires

I had a few guesses on my Name That Vegetable post the other day - most of the scallion and leek variety - but no one had it right.

Perhaps this picture will help?

 

These are garlic scapes - the flower head of a garlic plant that pops up on the top of the plant and forms a cool curli-que in the late spring.  You cut them off so that the plant puts its energy into forming bigger heads of garlic, instead of this seed head, and they are great for cooking.  They have a milder garlic taste than the other end of the plant - and we have had them in stir frys in past years.


This year's recipe of note was Garlic Scape Pesto - totally awesome on pizza and pasta, and very freezable!

I planted A LOT of garlic - so we now have A LOT of pesto on the freezer!!!  Yum!

Dirty Tales - surviving the drought

So it has not rained much here of late.  I mowed on July 31st -the first time the lawn has NEEDED mowing since July 3rd - and even then it probably could have gone a bit longer.

(of course it rained yesterday - but that is just because we are having our roof replaced and Mother Nature had to weigh in on our carefully scheduled construction plans.)

Add to that being gone for 10 days in the middle of it - and you have the makings for a baked and crispy garden.

Not here, though.  Thanks to the efforts of my neighbor, and my handy dandy self watering planter buckets, things are humming along nicely.

Romas ready to harvest.

3 buckets of Romas and 2 of carrots - the carrots are surprisingly the 'thirsty plant' that I have to refill every night.

Monster pumpkin climbing up the deck.

Monster pumpkin sprawling over the yard.  (has not set fruit yet, though)

Planter boxes with garlic ready to harvest, happy rhubarb, a roving pumpkin, and beans, peppers, tomatoes and squash all growing nicely.  Some harvested already, some ripening on the vine, some stolen by Chucky, Lefty and Bambi.