June 9, 2014

It is a dark, damp day today, the third in a row.  We've had a little rain the last week and a half, with storms threatening and not forming--here.  Some places not far from us had severe damage with hail and strong winds.  We want the rain, but not the damage.

We've had a couple of nice little sprinkles, a couple hundredths each, a half-incher and a whopping good one of 2 1/2".  I am really enjoying the cooler weather.  Every thing is green, green, green, the tomato plants have not been wind whipped or hailed on.  Everything looks good, but it isn't growing very fast, not warm enough.  I guess you can't have it all.

As of now, all the sweet corn is planted, 10 rows in all.  We've done a row that is beans, beets, and okra. The cucumbers are in, about 8 hills, and looking good. About 5 hills of summer squash and a dozen tomatoes complete the garden with the earlier onions and potatoes planted.  We are trying to reduce our work load.

End of Season 2013

I found these photos on a post that was never published.  It was some of the last harvest we had, and it all went into the freezer to be made into the juice and jam and soup stock previously mentioned. 

May 25, 2014

Time to start up a new growing season. We've had a slow start this year for several reasons, one of them being cold weather.  We had snow April 14th as this photo of table and chairs shows.  With the high school graduation of our last child, the only gardening we did was cleaning up the flower garden that we didn't get finished last year.  We planted onions and potatoes in April.  We planted a package each of yellow and white onions, and about 5# each of Yukon gold and red potatoes.  

We haven't planted anything else for fear of frost. 

I did put some flowers in the deck boxes the week before graduation, and covered them a couple of nights that we saw 32 degrees before morning. 

The old pond hadn't been working for several years and essentially turned into a bog, with the reeds and cattails taking over.  The grass and dandelions were also moving in so we tore it out and put a pre-form pond in.  We will likely put filter and waterfall in later.  

Here are some pictures of the finished project, as finished before graduation.  The chips are hiding some weeds and grass and more planting will be done as time allows.  We are thinking of making big changes to some of the beds to allow for larger paths so the rider mower can be maneuvered through there. We like the idea of more grass and less weeding.  

These photos do not show a bunch of other landscaping places by the house and shop.

This beauty was a birthday present, and since most of my house plants die within months of being subjected to my neglect, it is permanently enshrined in a photo.

I went to a miniature garden/succulent garden class to get some ideas and plants to replace the one from last year, which died.  

We'll see.

Finishing up last years fruit I made a bunch of jam, peach with a little strawberry and plain\ strawberry.

The next day I took the frozen tomatoes and made juice, and the frozen grapes and made a batch of jam and some grape juice concentrate. 

And even though we don't plant our chickens, they do provide us home-grown eggs.

Six of our 11 hens.  

 We bought six new chicks, who are obviously shy.

Too bad one of them turned out to be a rooster.  

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.