April 2, 2016

Spring is coming.  After a warmish February and early March, we've had some colder weather with clouds predominating. Today was showing a little green and Jim planted the first of our garden.  He used some sort of machine to tear up the ground earlier and used his new little two row planter to plant two rows of sweet corn several weeks ago.  It's been too cold for it to come up of course.
Jim has planted beets, peas, 2 rows of potatoes using last years yukon golds that have sprouted all over the place in spite of trying to prevent this by putting a couple of apples in their storage bag, and onions.  I planted pepper seeds in the house.  I've got them in three egg cartons and I hope they will grow.  I started earlier last year I think, but I just let the peppers hang on until they turn color so it won't matter if they are late.

Jim's been wanting one of these for years.  

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. 

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,

See here

so, it was with this plant.

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.

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.

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/

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.