Tuesday, November 24, 2015

November 24, 2015

We had a nice gentle all day rain November 17th, and it was followed by a little snow.  
We had an inch of very wet snow on the 11th so this year's growing season is officially over.
I still have some dead plants in the garden.  I never really know what to take out and what to leave. 



Thursday, September 24, 2015

The Glory is Gone

 Last year my mom gave me a couple of morning glory plants she started from seed and they grew, but not spectacularly, but I was still pleased to see one plant come up from seed this spring.  I've enjoyed watching it grow since it's just really outdone itself. 

August 15th 


The other side. 


In less than a month, this one plant has grown itself all over our railing and we were looking forward to see if the vines would reach around the corner.

September 9th

And strangely enough, like I took the photo of our flag with the petunias under it that sane day they were demolished that evening with hail,

so, it was with this plant.


Sunday, September 13, 2015

September 12, 2015

Sept. 9--Another batch of tomato soup, 16 1/2 pints.
Sept. 12--The last batch of tomato juice, 6 qts.
It's the last batch because Wednesday the 9th we watched in awe as we were pummeled with hail from marble sized to golf ball sized, which the average about 1" in diameter.




Monday, September 7, 2015

September 7, 2015

It's beginning to look a lot like fall out there, and the tomatoes are starting to ripen.
These cucumbers came from a friend. Our plants are all dead.

Last weeks totals:
August 29--5 quarts Caddie pickles
August 31--11 quarts Caddie pickles
                     3 quarts tomato juice.

Today--3 quarts tomato juice
             18 pints tomato soup
One of the jars of tomato soup broke in my steam canner.  I don't remember if that has even happened before and I've had this canner 26  years.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

The Horrible Weed


I was listening to Anne of Green Gables this afternoon while I was crocheting and I heard this from Chapter 9: 
"the only flowers there were myriads of delicate 'June bells,' those shyest and sweetest of woodland blooms."
So, I searched for 'June bells' to see what sort of flowers they may have been.
I don't know if these are the ones Lucy Maud Montgomery was talking about, but I was horrified to see that the first photos I found are of the plant we call 'that horrible weed.'
They are beautiful, tall plants with lavender bells. I was enchanted with them when I saw them at a friend's and asked for a root. That was one of the biggest gardening mistakes we've ever made. They bloom very nicely in their place for a few years and then they explode exponentially and you can't get rid of them.
Normal weed killers don't touch them.The best way to get rid of them is to dig over the bed and take out every piece of root.
One commenter on the website I found said much the same thing.
"Digging is effective if you can dig, but you must carefully sift out every cubic inch of dirt and get EVERY SINGLE ROOT THREAD. i dug out to about 12 inches and got every single turnip and root thread. No regrowth after 4 years."
The have beautiful names:
Creeping Bellflower, Rampion Bellflower, June Bells
Campanula rapunculoides

And beautiful flowers.  
Until you're trying to get rid of them.


We are spraying with glyphosate (round-up), but the little sprouts come laughing up out of the ground as soon as the first leaves die.  We are digging, but a few are sneaking their way up anyway.  Those tubers they are connected to just don't want to give up.

Here are some choice comments from others who have made the unfortunate choice to plant these in their yards.  

"In North America, this is an insidious weed, one whose true nature takes several years to reveal itself.  I would never plant this is any situation, nor would I give it to my worst enemy."

"I bought this plant at a nursery. It was pretty, but it is a monster in disguise."

"This pretty-yet-evil plant sat quietly in my zone 3 garden for about 5 years while secretly organizing an underground army which it released this spring." 

"This is a horrible plant. I have tried and tried to get rid of it.  Goutweed was easy in comparison.  Please do not plant it.  You will regret it."

"No knowledgeable gardener would ever intentionally grow this species, nor pass it along to anyone else."

More information:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/475/

Saturday, August 8, 2015

August 8, 2015


Corn season is here.  We don't need nearly as much as we used to, but another generation or two is coming up to appreciate home grown frozen corn.  
We do it in several sessions, several small batches and one big one.  This year Aaron our son-in-law is helping and a couple times everyone is here.
I'm not doing a very good job of keeping track of how much we are getting from our crop this year.  It is about the same as last year.  
We've probably done about 23 dozen so far.  
It was raining this day so the husking was done in the garage instead of on the deck or patio.


Our spaghetti squash vines have all died.  I have no idea if you can eat it while it is white, or after it turns yellow on dead vines.  We need to do more research.  
Our cucumbers are dying too.  I have one and a half cucumber plants as of today.  
The okra is slowly coming into it's own.  We have one zucchini plant left and the yellow squash is threatening to take over the garden.  We've never had it do so well.  It is usually dead by now.
I wonder if the bugs preferred the spaghetti squash.  








Monday, July 27, 2015

July, 27, 2015

It was hot again today.  It usually is in July in this part of the country.  I spent most of my day inside making pickles and relish with one voyage out in the heat to watch Zane learn soccer in the Park and Rec class.  Oh, I guess I did make another trip out to buy "ziploc" bags later in the day.

Accomplishments:
6 pints zucchini relish
6 1/2 quarts Caddie Pickles
Squash cooked and blended for soup base, 4 pint.s
14 pints of sweet corn
Messy kitchen cleaned up twice. 
Plus a bunch of other normal things that happen in a regular day.
The dining room floor is one thing that is waiting for tomorrow. It just has cracker crumbs all over it. 

Friday, July 24, 2015

July 24, 2015

Canning is keeping on.  I've made two more batches of relish with a total of 17 pints.  I've made 3 1/2 quarts of dills and 4 1/2 quarts of Caddie pickles.  Since my last post I made another batch of beet pickles ending up with the same amount.  I've been processing some of the summer squash into soup base for the freezer, putting some grated zucchini into the freezer and we are eating it every meal.  My beans are not setting on very quickly but I put a quart of them in the freezer and ate or gave away the rest.

The raccoons have gotten into our sweet corn, which we are also eating for every meal except breakfast.  Jim put up a three wire electric fence.

This is the dill we're using.  Think I've got a jar big enough?


with a yellow yardstick 

Friday, July 17, 2015

July 17, 2015

It has turned hot, very hot, and the fan motor on our air conditioner locked up two days ago and had to be replaced.  Luckily, the one cool day we had these last two weeks was that day and I was able to cool down the house with the whole house fan and open windows.  The next morning I cooled the house down using the same method and when the temps were the same inside as outside, I shut up the house and by mid-afternoon our a/c was back in business.  Yay!

Harvest is gearing up.  Our apple harvest is in, a little early since these fell off while Jim was pruning it.  They are not ripe and were nibbled on by little bugs called grandchildren.  
This is it folks, three unripe apples.  After last years beyond bumper crop, I'm rather thankful.


Our first onions must love us.


Our onions seem to be ready early. We're only getting a few peas.  The warmer weather is affecting them and we only got half a dozen seeds to sprout. 

First big squash picking.  We ate the first ones all up on the weekend. I made soup base out of what I didn't use for relish.

First beans.

5 pints relish.  

This was yesterday.  Today I made the rest of the beets into 6 quarts and 1 pints of pickles. 

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

July 7, 2015

 July 1

We have been waiting to see the effects of the Canada wildfires in our area.  This moon was rather pinky, but the photo doesn't show it. 
Yesterday, it was hazy all day, and those with good noses got a faint smell of smoke.  It wasn't surprising with the strong north wind we all day.  The week is supposed to be cooler, as well, in the 70s and low 80's instead of high 80s and 90s we've been having. 

I canned beets on the 4th.  We celebrated "make a loud noise with a bunch of kids" day, twice already.

Half my beet crop.

Washed and ready to boil.

All done.  I'm going to let the ones we left grow a little bigger so I can get a little more. 



Wednesday, June 24, 2015

June 24, 2015

I haven't been keeping up this spring.  It has been a chilly wet one, and planting has been late.
Our garden is all in, corn, tomatoes, peppers (started from seed), beans, peas, beets, onions, potatoes (reds and Yukon gold), okra, cucumbers, and zucchini, yellow, and butternut squashes.  
Everything is up and doing well. 
Since this blog is primarily about the outside of the house I've included some "outside the house" photos as well.

Sunset in April

A nice selection of blooming plants on May 24th.


I have wanted for years to go put flowers on Jim's folks graves for Memorial Day, but if with didn't already have plans, it was raining.  It was cloudy this year, but we didn't get rained on. 


I planted these in April.  Too bad I only remember where I planted one of them.  
I do a lot of that these days.

First garden harvest.  We had three batches about this size this year.  Finally!!, these plants have been there for 20 years.   

Mother's Day.  
Three kids, three gifts. 

We had a rather bold rabbit come up on the porch. When he wanted a nibble of our pepper plants, we shooed him off.  

Seeds from Lynette planted in May.  They aren't doing very well.  Only one batch is coming up.
They are in the top terrace garden. 

We planted these in a barrel.

June 

Jim's favorite 

Foggy Morning in June 

We allow visitors to our garden. 

Our first beets. 

I've been trying to put in at least 15 minutes a day weeding in our flower garden.  It's gotten out of control the last few years, and even though we cleaned it up for the graduation, some of that was a "cover-up".  This wet, cool spring cam my desire to get out for a long tme.




Blue Flax 

A lovely pre-made set is doing well, thanks to a friend who thought of me after my ear surgery. 


This is how the rest of our deck flowers are looking right now. 




And while this is not on the deck, it is a very impressive mushroom specimen.
The thing is over 8" across.
It's huge!!
There was one there last year.

What is also huge is this hollyhock.  
I've never had one grow this tall.