The 1st Birthday Cake

I realized that I forgot to post a picture of Eli's first birthday cake that I did. I am very proud of it. It turned out great! He is really not "into" anything yet, so I thought a fallish theme seemed suitable. He had orange pancakes for breakfast, and orange frosting on his red velvet cake. Beautiful fall colors.

And here it is almost gone! The boy can put down the cake! He had a HUGE piece! He is the birthday boy you know!

A bucket full of hope

The next 3 nights are calling for thirties. If it were one night, I would cover the summer vegetables. But, three is too much. So, I picked it all! This bucket is about 1 1/2 ft wide and a bit more than 1 ft deep, almost full of tomatoes, bell peppers and hot peppers. I am hopeful that a good bit of this will turn. Only time will tell!

I also dug up one of the spicy globe basil plants to be planted indoors. We'll see how that goes. If I can't keep the bugs away, out it goes!

Harvest Monday Oct 25, 2010

I was so busy preparing for Eli's 1st birthday tomorrow that I almost forgot my harvest! Maybe I'll show off his harvest birthday cake I am making tomorrow!

The peppers are still coming in and the tomatoes have started to turn, some of them.

Thursday is suppose to be 35 over night so I haven't decided if I am going to try to cover everything or just pick it all! Oh and look at that 2" Habanero!

 Soon I will be digging up the Dahlia's to store for winter. Thought I would take a cutting too and see if I could get one or two going over winter. Ha! I'll need some good luck with that, cause I manage to let things die in the winter! I just don't pay as much attention to them! I have some basil cuttings as well. We'll see!

Click on over to Daphne's Dandelions and see what everyone else is STILL harvesting! 

This weeks harvest totals:

11 Habanero Peppers

10 Serrano peppers

2 green bells

1 orange bell

7 tomatoes

9Juliet tomatoes

1 carrot

1/2 pt beans, pulled the plants!

1 pea pod, pitiful!

Oh, and one cute little 1 yr old boy! Does he count for harvest monday? :)

Happy Harvesting!

Bye Bye Walnut and Maple tree...

The back yard smells like sawdust right now with 2 trees scattered throughout the yard. The Walnut tree was to the bottom right there. And the Maple was in the center of the back along the fence. The Walnut had been sick for the past couple of years and was just miserable looking, losing all of its leaves by mid August. Might as well of been dead. The Maple was severely damaged by all the wind and ice storms we had the past couple of years and was leaning toward the neighbors behind us.

 What a big mess to clean up! Good thing the chipper is coming through the neighborhood soon! They aren't going to like us!

The missing Walnut! It was to the right of these three trees.

 And this one really leaves a gaping hole! Hopefully the Maple to the left will fill itself in the next couple of years. These maples really didn't have enough room to grow anyways. There were 3 maples all planted right there together. Two would have been enough. There is one more behind the shed that is also in pretty bad shape and needs to be removed as well. It's too bad previous owners never really took care of these trees and thought about how and where they were planting them! I hate to remove a beautiful full grown tree!

So we have lots of work ahead of us the next couple of weeks before the chippers come. I have to admit though, regardless of whether the Walnut was sick or not, I am glad to be rid of it. I hated it! Now, I should get a bit more sun to my flower beds around the patio. That should be nice!

When we moved in this house 3+ years ago, there were 3 Maples, 1 Cedar, 1 Oak, 1 Walnut, 1 Apple and 1 Pear, and one unknown tree in the back yard. That is 9 trees! Now we are down to 5. In the front we had 3 Dogwoods, 2 Maples, a very large burning bush, 2 Alberta spruces, and a 25+ft Blue Spruce. That is 9 in the front. I guess that is a bit of overkill. Especially since most of them were planted practically on top of each other where they could not ever meet their potential! But now, in the front yard, the 2 Maples, 1 dogwood  and a Crepe Myrtle now remain! I LOVED the Spruce, but we lost it to one of the storms!

1 week later...

Most of the larger trees still need a lot of trimming and cleaning up. But, it's pricey and takes time! But, they still look better already with what we could do ourselves!

Fall Color in the Commonwealth of KY

Or should I say lack of color...

Last week I took one of my children for a walk at the Nature Preserve to look for some color! I thought it would be the perfect spot. But did you know that southern Indiana and a small part of KY is in the middle of a Level II drought? It obviously is affecting the fall colors this year. Some things have a bit of color, some have just plain lost their leaves and some are just covered in dead brown leaves.  But, there are some things that are showing a lot of color even if they are not as pretty as they might be during a year with normal rainfall. Last week the preserve was still quite green or dead.

 Sure would like him around my garden...where's that fishing net!

I took my daughter for a walk in the Preserve today, this is about all the color I could find. 

 But, here at my house...

  

I have a beautiful Maple showing its red color on one side of the drive, and a beautiful Maple showing its yellow colors on the other side, though a bit slower than the red one. It makes for a nice BIG pile of leaves for the kids to play in. This is Eli's first experience int he leaves!

This is the first year I have participated in Dave's  Fall Color Project, at The Home Garden. You can go there to view the fall colors from many other places and track the color movement south.

Harvest Monday Oct 18, 2010

Ahh, a little fall harvest... "Peanut buttercrunch" Lettuce, as my daughter calls it! Ha, we grow "Peanut Butternut" Squash too! And a few more nice tomatoes. There is no sign of a frost coming in the 7 day forecast, so that gives them more time! **Happy Face** There are a few peas in there too. Peas are not being very productive....blah! They did better in the spring. I haven't even collected enough for a baby food portion yet. Not that he would eat them...he has all the sudden got super picky! Stinker!

 Oh, and the Chard! These came off of a plant that is lucky to have survived all the animal damage. First it had a nibbler, then the critter digger! But, it looks well doesn't it? Despite it's obstacles! This looks to be about enough for a pizza! I think I see chard pizza in the future!

Well, it's small, but I am still harvesting and that feels good!

This weeks Harvest included 

4 Chard Leaves

13 Juliet Tomatoes

4 Tomatoes

10 Serrano Peppers

1 Habanero Pepper

5 Peas

1 pint Beans

Lettuce

1 bunch Cilantro

Spicy Bush Basil

See the link above for a complete harvest for the season.

Don't forget to visit Daphne's Dandelions to see what other gardeners are harvesting this fall!

I look forward to sharing a post about Fall Colors in the next day or two.

Harvest Monday Oct 11, 2010

I am happy to report that we have narrowly missed all the frost advisories in and around our area and our tomatoes are still going! I got 3 good ones this week and I am  hoping for more soon. It is suppose to be warm for at least the next week so we have a little more time. Yee Haa!

 I have also gotten several more beans and serrano peppers. The Serrano plant is still loaded, but some of them ripen up nice and smooth and some of them ripen up all wilty or dimply looking which makes me think there is a bug or something wrong with them, so I have been throwing those out. Ha, I got enough anyways! And in the top right corner there....yep, 3 peas. Blah! Come on peas!

 She just had to show off the garden loot....so she could get her grimy little fingers on them!  She first ate the carrot, as soon as I was done taking her picture, and then a few beans. Yes, raw beans! Cool huh! Love a kid who likes her garden loot!

This weeks harvest:

3 slicing tomatoes

2 qt beans

1 carrot

9 Serrano peppers

13 Juliet tomatoes

2 habanero peppers

3 peas

See my yearly totals posted at the link at the top! Maybe in the next week or 2 I will have some lettuce, peas or chard to add to the mix! So long as the unknown critter doesn't uproot them, they are doing well otherwise! Spinach is going kinda slow though.

Happy Harvesting and click on over to Daphne's Dandelions to see everyone else's garden loot!

Fall Planting and Dividing

I started a small new flower bed this fall. I wanted mums, but I didn't want to mess up the beds I already had planted, so we cleared a stretch along the walk to the front door. I also wanted to give them plenty of room to grow and round out!

This is before...

 Son helping Dh clear a spot.

 It has been so blasted dry here, the ground was hard as a rock. Dh even broke a metal sprinkler stake trying to get it in the ground. So, I filled the holes with water to let them soak over night. It took them several hours to empty! I don't think they were empty by the time we went to bed! For average drainage it should take a few  hours for a hole this size to drain in normal, non-drought conditions.

 Well, they were planted, the next day and are now in full bloom and look very nice. We still need to mulch them well and hope they can handle our winter. And I really hope to have a giant plant in the next year or so! I saw some really pretty ones today walking thru the hood! Practically a bush, and so lovely!

 Really looks fall like doesn't it!

 My son and I dug up the Spicy Oregano plant today to be divided. This was one huge plant. I planted two for myself and potted up 4 to give away! Three are already spoken for!

We took it out of this large spot in the 4X4 bed. It was only given one square on the edge, but it was creeping into the 3 around it. This was it's second year in this location and time to move out!

 Here is my dear son helping me make a spot for it! We put a small section in the hole and another small section in the large clay pot. If the one in the ground gets too out of hand, I will just keep it in the pot, or bury a pot in the ground.

I planted red carnations from seed this year, and didn't really expect to get any flowers this year, but I did get a few lovely surprises. I had them all in the bottle together, but my four year old decided to pull them apart! As if she needs to be playing "he loves me, he loves me not" already! Ha, no, just kidding! She just is mean to my flowers! I can't wait to see them next year!

Happy Fall Gardening!

Harvest Monday Oct 4, 2010

Fall is showing in the garden this week. We have had our first 60s since spring, brrrr, ha! With some lows in the low 50s. The beans are still producing a bit. Most everything has slowed quite significantly. I haven't brought in any of the tomatoes though. I don't like green tomatoes, so I am going to try to leave them as long as possible to see if I can get any ripe ones out of the bunch. There are so many nice size ones. This week I picked just two small slicers and several little juliets. 

The bell peppers are still going as well. I did pick several green ones though . My kids probably won't eat any of the green ones, but they will eat the orange ones! The sweeter they are, the better for them! There is also one more Jalapeño here, and one very lonesome Pea Pod! It was the only one ready. There are several pea plants out there, none are growing very high or vigorously. Maybe because of all the heat and drought we have had. I was hoping to have a better fall harvest than my 2 1/4 cups spring harvest! It isn't looking too promising! But the pepper harvest is colorful!

Well, we will see what the next week brings us. The first frost is getting closer and closer! We have had some lows around 50 and are suppose to get some upper 40's this week before it goes back up again for a bit. We will see how the tomatoes respond to it, but I am not pulling them till the first frost hits! 

Happy Harvesting and don't forget to visit Daphne's Dandelions for more featured Harvests!

ETA: I don't know if it is blogger messed up or my computer, but I cannot leave any comments on other blogs, so sorry gardening friends, your harvests are lovely!

Harvest Totals 2010

Variety	This Weeks Total	Season Total
Lemon Cucumber		23 ea(season total)
American Genuine Cucumber		11 ea (season total)
Oregano		7 baggie dried + 1 quart
Spicy Bush and Reg Basil		10 baggies dried +3qt
Sebring Zucchini		5 ea(season total)
8 Ball zucchini		17 ea(season total)
Black Beauty Zucchini		21 ea(season total)
Bush Beans	1 1/2qt	35 1/2 quarts
Lettuce (mixed pckg)		2-4 lbs
Bright Lights Chard		8 Bunches
Cabbage (mixed pckg)		4 ea(season total)
Evergreen Bunching Onion		90 (season total)
Yellow Onion		74 ea (total for season)
Broccoli		4 heads (season total)
Juliet Hybrid Grape Tomato	21	638 ea
Red Cherry Tomato		244ea(season total)
Total Tomatoes	2	170 ea
Watermelons		2 ea (season total)
Kaleidescope Pepper	6	10 ea
Orange Sun Bell Pepper	2	6 ea
Strawberries		2 ea
Cosmic Purple Carrot		4 ea (season total)
Sweet treat hybrid/Petite ‘n Sweet carrots		74 ea
Jalapeno Pepper	1	9 ea
Purple Beauty Bell Pepper		2 ea
Habanero Pepper	1	78 ea
Serrano Pepper	5	95
Lincoln and Alaskan Peas	1 pod	2 cups 1/4 cup 1pod
Ambrosia Melon		3
Harvest Princess Pumpkin		1
Small Sugar Pumpkin		6 ea (season total)
Cilantro		2 sprigs