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 

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. 

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. 

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. 

April 16, 2015

A few weeks ago I bought two new succulents for my table top garden.  I took out one that was too tall and added the two in the front of this photo.

Jim tilled up the garden with our own tiller instead of renting one because we got a drizzle that softened the dirt up enough to work up really well.  That garden dirt is finally starting to look dark with the years of manure and grass clippings he's worked into it, instead of the yellow clay we had when we moved here.

He planted potatoes (our leftover red ones), and Yukon Gold ones from the store (the ones we saved got fed to the chickens by mistake.  We had such a good potato year last year, we ate our own potatoes until two weeks ago, albeit the last month the were shriveled and sprouty ones. I had to buy some this week. The onions kept well, too and I still have a few left.  Jim also planted peas and two packages of onions; one white, one yellow.  

We've had some cloudy and damp days.  We didn't get enough moisture to measure.  Today, after a day of drizzly, foggy weather we are getting a pour down.  Too bad our rain gauge is broken.

March 10, 2015

The outdoor season has started again at our house.  I vowed last year to start working outside as early in March as I could, when the weather is decent instead of waiting until the end and running into the wet chill of April when no one wants to work outside.  My goal is to work outside at least 15 minutes every decent day.  Yesterday was a beautiful 60ish day, and I didn't get out, but today we had 70 degrees and I started in getting rid of old foliage in one of the landscape areas by the shop.

I did start some pepper seeds but since I forgot all about them, they died.  I should try again.

October 16,2014

 Summer is over, all the produce is harvested, and the garden is mowed.  We had a little frost so that the garden stuff died but flowers by the house are still blooming.  We have more potatoes than we will ever use, about ten 5-gallon buckets worth.  We got about 12 butternut squash and two of those aren't ripe.  I wonder if they will.  That isn't nearly enough since I've discovered pumpkin bars and most of my family love them.  The tomatoes didn't do very well, but I have several gallons in the freezer, not nearly enough to drink juice all winter but enough for cooking.   The grapes came from a friend and I put them in the freezer to make juice and jam later.  We aren't ready to start thinking about next year's garden yet.

 Corn in the flower garden.

Yellow Summer Apples

Red Later Summer Apples,

 too bad we don't remember what they are..

Grapes