November 8, 2013

The growing season is over for this year. We had frost in October.  We didn't get the flower gardens cleaned up like I hoped.  There is always next year!!  I am hoping my strength and energy are such that next year I can tackle it early, before the weeds get a good hold, and keep it up a little at a time.  If I do just 15 minutes a day five days a week, I can keep up. I just have to keep at it.
I bought some late pansies, but they didn't do much, I have them inside.  If I keep a little water in a jug in the basement next to my plants, they boys keep them watered.

Goals for next year:
Keep the flower gardens clean a little at a time.
Take down the fence and arch, and make that area into grass.
Finish the landscaping north of the shop and plant with pansies.
Kill the grass in the flagpole spot and start over.
Find a new place for the pink sprawling mini rose. (need help with this one)
Get rid of the mint.
Dig a trench to insert the long box of green annual viney stuff I like under the deck steps.
Clean the patio, and keep it clean.
Pour a teakettle of boiling water on weeds once a day.  (driveway, sidewalk, steps and patio)

September 24, 2013

Fall is here.  The garden is nearly done.  The yellow tomatoes are finally producing.  I made a second batch of tomato soup and got 24 pints. I made 2 quarts of tomato juice yesterday. I have some tomatoes in the freezer that I will make into juice also.  I have been putting tomatoes in the freezer to made the soup when I had time, and that worked really well.  

We picked the rest of the peppers, I've put most of them in the freezer to use in soup.

I tried a mixed pepper seed package and got purple peppers, this one is starting to ripen and is a pretty shade of dark red.  

We had a low of 49 degrees about a week ago.  We've had several days right around the equinox with cool, sprinkly weather.  Not rainy, since we haven't had much of that this year.

Our neighbor has just finished combining his corn, after which we had two days of high wind to make sure that shucks are cleaned out of that field and blown into our yard, patio and flower garden.  

This has been a pretty nice summer, without very many hot days.  The beginning of September we had several days nearing and over 100 degrees. 

We seem to have given up on the flower gardens.  I am hoping that I will have energy enough next year to start from the beginning of the season. 

August 26, 2013

The past couple of weeks, I've put up a few things.  This batch of bread and butter pickles, for one.

I've frozen 10 qts of beans.  We got 4 qts of our own grapes, and I made a batch of jelly and froze a pint of juice.  

I also made a batch of strawberry/raspberry jelly from last year's fruit from the freezer and bought peaches to make a batch of peach jam. The strazzberry is a hit.  1 cup raspberries and 5 cups strawberries.

I've been chopping what zucchini and summer squash I have to put in the freezer to put in soup.

Mom came this weekend with tomatoes from her garden and we made a huge batch of tomato soup, 23 1/2 pints. 

Today I've done 3 qts of beans for the freezer and have two 5 gallon buckets of huge cucumbers.  Do I give them to the chickens or make cinnamon pickles out of them?  

Stay tuned for further announcements.  

August 1, 2013

Sweet corn season is in full swing.  My folks came a week ago and helped freeze corn.  That time we had 11 dozen ears and froze 44 pints.  They went to a school reunion for the weekend and came back on Monday and we did 21 dozen ears that produced 77 pints.  My mom is a glutton for punishment.  It was a big day, but we will be glad to have the corn.  That is the most we've ever done at one time.   We usually plan to do smaller batches, but with the cool spring this year the first rows didn't sprout until the later ones did, so we had a bunch ready all at once.

Our yellow squash has died, but I am going to freeze zucchini.  I've discovered I like it in my soups.

July 25, 2013

We have been eating sweet corn for a couple of days.  It is very nice to find out that I can gnaw sweet corn off a cob, chew and swallow without having a coughing fit more than once.  My folks came today to help put up the first batch, which was a good thing, since yesterday I spent looking after my three grandsons, while my daughter had a class, and I was tired.  Jim picked, Mom and Jim shucked, silked and cut out bad spots, buggy spots, and worms. I boiled, Jim cut, Mom scraped cobs and bagged.  I cleaned up, served supper from the crockpot (into which I had with the meat, potatoes, onions and zucchini from the garden), our company cleaned up, and I collapsed.

11 dozen ears, 44 pints in the freezer.  A good day.

July 23, 2013

Yesterday, I canned two and a half quarts of beet pickles. Too bad I spilled boiling water on my foot.  I put ice cold rags on the burn, then triple antibiotic and it isn't hurting anymore.  It is doing really well.
We are eating our onions and potatoes now, and we ate our first sweet corn two days ago.  Tonight we had our first sauteed summer squash, but I let it get too brown while I was juggling the rest of supper.
I brought it five stalks of gladioli (that's correct for plurality I believe), put them in a vase that is rapidly becoming antique and they are beautiful.

July 4. 2013

We didn't plant a great variety or much of anything.  I picked the first spinach a week ago and chopped it into my soup.  This was my harvest today.  The peas and peppers went into stirfry, some of the pepper and the swiss chard went into soup.  The beets are for tomorrow.  The beets are past ready, and I need to plant more swiss chard and spinach, they are bolting, but I think I'll wait until it gets cooler.

Since today is Independence Day, Fireworks Day, Remember the Patriots Day, and Remember our Freedom Day, we are going to watch the country club fireworks from the deck tonight.  Probably under a blanket.  Not so much from the cold, but from bugs.  There aren't mosquitoes, it's been too dry, but the gnats are a pain.

Oops, I'm using onions, too, forgot them for the stirfry. 

July 2, 2013

We are slow gardeners this year.  We have picked a few peas, I made soup from the spinach, Jim is weeding, all a little bit at a time.  

We are making stabs at the flower garden, which is way out of control, and we found this little guy just hanging out while we worked.  An hour only gets us a square yard.

And to prove why this season is as slow as we are.  This is May 1st.

May 25, 2013

I worked in the big flower garden today.  I did about 3 sq. ft., and about died of exhaustion.  So, I went in and made dinner, and went out again, and did about as much again.  After eating a huge dinner, I didn't get so very tired the rest of the day.  

I also planted some blanket flowers in the lower terrace garden, snap dragons in the upper, and the deck planters.  

I also made this succulent garden in an old copper bottom pan.  

Pinky-red superbells, my favorite for the deck planters.

Blanket flower among the mint and hostas

I went out to look at the vegetable garden, the potatoes and corn are up.  Some spinach is up, I don't see any parsnips or swiss chard, and only one beet plant. The onions are doing well, too.

May 18, 2013

A new gardening season has begun, and as usual it is a unique one.  This year is more unique than usual as we had our last snow and freezing weather May 1st.  We got enough slushy snow to cover the garden and nearly cover the grass.  

So, planting has been late this year.  For that reason as well as the obvious one that I am not getting out to garden or help garden as I used to.  

We did plant a few things before the snow, April 27th, Mom and I planted pansies north of the shop, and potatoes, yukon gold and red.  Jim planted one row of sweet corn, spinach, peas, and swiss chard.  

A couple of weeks later I planted 12 beets seeds, and a couple days after that some parsnips.   I figure I can use all these veggies in soups, and it won't matter because I can't taste them anyway.  Jim has planted two rows of sweet corn every week following with the last four rows last week.

I bought him a large tomato plant for his birthday, April 17, but we didn't plant it until a week ago, when it was rather the worse for wear having been on a wind blown patio, carried in and out depending on the weather, and cared for by an indifferent waterer.  

He also planted four Rutgers tomato plants, and  5 mixed color sweet pepper plants. 

I bought some annuals that weekend in April, and put some of them in pots today, dark blue lobelia, snap dragons and white alyssum. I've been working on a mini garden, too, and it is pretty ugly right now, it's a work in progress.  I bought some new little plants, replanted some of the old, and tucked in some Irish moss today.  

I planted pinks by the flag pole, here's one. 

I also planted some old seed, columbine, Indian paintbrush, and mixed Alaskan wildflowers there, too.  I put moss rose in the bed by the sidewalk.  I did NOT look very closely at the main flower bed south of the house, it is covered with grass and weeds.  I hope to get it all gone over this summer, but I'm not supposed to be out in the sun, a big hat is hot and hard to keep on, and my energy is quickly depleted.  I forget that when I am going strong, but by nightfall, I am tired out.  

Irish moss, dark blue lobelia, and some sort of succulent that I bought just because it was cute.