July 25, 2014

Jim brought in another big haul last night and I've been spending most of the day getting it all put up.  We had a 5 gallon bucket of cukes (plus a little bucket more) from too big to finger sized, that I love to make dill pickles from.  I used the smallest for dills, 3 qts; next size for bread and butter's, 3 qts.; next size, chunked for Caddie Pickles, named for a friend of Aunt Inez', 3qts., and I started a batch of cinnamon pickles with the very biggiest ones.  I saved a dozen or more just for eating.  I also put up 4 qts. of beet pickles and had enough for lunch.  My kitchen isn't in nearly as big of a mess as it could be.  I tried to clean up a bit and rest after every batch.  I made lunch in the middle of all this pickling, too.  We had a "homegrown lunch".  We had egg salad with avocado served with tomato on a lettuce leaf, beets, zucchini patties, and cucumber salad. There were three of us.

I have a gallon of beans to snip that I would like to do yet tonight, but I am saving the rest of the squash for tomorrow.
I made 4 qts. of applesauce a couple days ago.  I was making applesauce the way I learned how from my mother.  Wash and quarter the apples taking out any bad spots, worm holes or bug bites, cook them and run them through a sieve.  I poured the sauce back in my dutch oven to sweeten it, when it hit me--I can't taste how sweet it is!!  I could tell the salt I put in made a difference in the tartness, and luckily Lynette was home so I could use her as my tester.
So, for future reference.  I had my dutch oven nearly full of apple sauce, and I put in five 1/4 cup scoops of sugar that were just a bit more than level and a teaspoon of salt.  I should measure more definitely, but sadly, so much depends on the kind of apples that are used.  Sigh.  I guess I will just have to make it when someone else is around to taste it for me.

Our garden is looking pretty good for this time of the year.  You will notice the weedlessness.  Of course, we never take pictures when the weeds are hiding the plants like they have for most of the years we've had a garden.

July 21, 2014

Our garden is beautiful this year.  Everything is green and full.  Jim has been able to keep the weeds under control.  We had rain and cooler weather at the right time in the spring, with no wild storms so nothing was broken.  The only mistake that was made was getting too much 2, 4-D on some of the corn and it isn't quite right.

We got our first beans today.  There are a couple of cups waiting to be eaten in the next couple of days.  I processed a 5-gallon bucket of squash into chunks for soup, slices for scramble, and grated for bread or fried zucchini patties.  I also made 3 qts. of dills today.  I'm going to put as much squash away as I can and the chickens will get what I can't use or give away.  It is so nice to see everything doing so well.  I haven't been able to get a decent crop of cukes for several years.

We've been eating onions right along also.

July 12, 2014

I wasn't going to put this picture on the blog.  I have lots of photos of the flower garden.  But it looked so nice ready for graduation.

We didn't plant much before the graduation except for these deck rail boxes.

Then it was time to get the garden planted. 

These roses are doing really well this year.  They are gorgeous in early June when they are growing and blooming like crazy. 

I planted spinach right outside the front door.  Our first harvest. 

I accidentally cut this clematis way down this spring.  I cut off some green stems, but that didn't seem to hinder it any.  There is more purple in the blossoms this year that usual.  I wonder why.

My lovely oldest daughter gave me these lilies, with the boy's hand-prints on the pot.  After they stopped blooming I planted them in the flower garden to enjoy them next year.

Our garden is beautiful this year. We've had little rains often, and all the damaging winds and hail that have pummeled surrounding areas have missed us.  We shorted the garden by about 40 feet so we have less area to plant, but also less area to weed, so Jim is doing a good job with it.

We are now eating summer squash and I expect we soon will be overrun.  We heard that planting radishes under the squash will keep the squash bugs away, but since we heard that just this week and planted the radishes accordingly, we haven't much hope that they will come up and do their job under the shade of the squash bushes.  

Cucumbers are thriving as well.  My first dill pickles that I have made with my very own hands in two years.

I have discovered that I like certain fruits on my cooked cereal in the morning.  They provide some interest since I can taste nothing sweet.  I've been buying strawberries whenever I can get them under $2 a pint and freezing them.  Blueberries and peaches are also going in the freezer when I can get them cheap-er. I've discovered that rhubarb sauce also works well on my cereal, but I have to depend on other people for that one since rhubarb with not grow on our property. 

I have tried and tried and tried again.  I think I am done trying. 

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)