Shawn Ann's Home and Garden

2011-11-14T09:54:00.001-05:00

I'll get in on today's Harvest Monday. I have been such a blog slacker lately! So busy, so tired! But I am still getting stuff out of the garden and plan for it to continue as long as possible!

This week, broccoli, raspberries (STILL), I picked a few parsnips from around the edge of the box, seems they don't like to be too close to the walls of the beds...we ate them anyways!

And, just a few Purple Magnolia snap peas, seeds shared by Mac! Thanks Mac! Daughter ate these right up, hope I get more before they are done for! I am going to try to put my pop up green house over them to try to keep them going as long as possible.

Thanks, to Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions for hosting Harvest Monday so we can show off our goodies!

Treasure Chest Birthday Cake

2011-10-30T19:10:00.000-04:00

Eli turned 2 this week. Can you believe it? The kids decided they wanted to be Jake and the Never land Pirates from Disney channel, Jake (Jacob), Izzy (Daisy), and Cubby (Eli).

So for the birthday cake I decided to build a treasure chest! This was an overwhelming task! I was worried all week but it turned out so awesome!

The top is made out of a rice crispy treat that I molded into shape and covered in chocolate. It took 3 batches! The bottom is chocolate cake and chocolate frosting! I used a 11"X15" cake pan and cut it in half and stacked it. The top is held on with 5 wooden dowels, 2 on the sides to look like the hinges, and three hidden inside the back of the cake.

Jake and the Never land Pirates Treasure Chest Cake

I piped on all the trim, I was going to use fruit leather but could not find any in yellow, but I think this turned out way better! I loaded it up with chocolate/gold coins, gold nugget chocolates, ring pops, candy necklaces, rock candy and anything else that looked like pirate loot! My MIL piped on the swords, I was not sure I could do that. And it was her idea to use a rice crispy treat for the lid!

It turned out great and was time consuming but no where near as hard as I thought it would be!

I think everyone really enjoyed it!

Preparing for frost 10/21

2011-10-21T19:41:00.000-04:00

Spent a good portion of the day picking all that I could before frost and pulling some tomato plants. It has taken a good portion of the day to clear two 8ft tomato beds and pick a bunch of odds and ends.

one last pile of beans will make a nice side one night this week. I thought they were done, they surprised me.

The raspberries are still going, there are several more blossoms out there. I don't know if they will make it past the frost though...

The one and only Dills Atlantic Giant, ha! It never did fully mature before the SVBs destroyed the vine. 2 more sugar pumpkins. That gives me 3 more to steam up and freeze! That is the last of them out of my garden for this year though.

Black Cherry tomatoes

small sweet peppers! Hopefully a good many will still turn! Otherwise, DH will be eating a lot of green peppers cause the kids don't like them green!

Matt's Wild Cherry. I still have not gotten all of these! I chopped off a huge portion of the plant and it is still 8 ft tall and the other "little" one, is not so little anymore!

Stole a shelf in the garage from DH. This is all the larger tomatoes. Those beds have been cleared.

Lots of work while still trying to get over being sick. Blech! Was tempting to just leave it all. But I got most of it.

Anyone plant parsnips over winter? My mom keeps telling me that that is how my gramma grew them in MI, over the winter. Thinking about trying it. I have a box of parsnips that will be picked soon that were planted in spring. But now that I got the tomato bed cleaned out, I thought about putting some in there. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Sweet Potato Disappointment

2011-10-18T11:55:00.000-04:00

Strep has been working it's way through our house the past couple weeks. Been too blah and too busy to get out to the garden much. But I got DH to help me dig up the sweet potatoes, which by how many vines and flowers we have had, I thought there would be plenty. My excitement was crushed when we only found 2 decent ones and only a few little ones. It was enough for one meal. Yes they were good, and my children gobbled them up, especially my son, he LOVES sweet potatoes. I think I will try planting them in one of my raised beds next year.

Also got the last two cucumbers, a very small cabbage, some broccoli sprouts, tomatoes, peppers and a few dry beans. I haven't even touched the cherry tomato plants in about 2 weeks. I think I am about to rip them all out. Frost is forecasted for one night this week, so it is probably a good time.

I do still have broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, parsnips, peas, chard, and a couple of other fall things going out there. And the garlic is in! Music garlic will be planted here soon too!

Harvest Monday 10/10/11

2011-10-10T11:22:00.002-04:00

It's Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions!

Harvest Monday Oct 3

2011-10-03T07:10:00.000-04:00

It's Harvest Monday, check out Daphne's Dandelions for some more great harvests.

This was my little watermelon from last week. It was little but it was good!

Been getting a decent amount of raspberries off of 3 plants, they will be winding down here pretty soon.

After not getting out to the garden this week, I had a bit of catching up to do. And I needed to get the basil cut since it is getting into the 30s here at night already! Saved another pumpkin from the borers. It is getting pretty orange though. Lots of little sweet peppers and lots of little tomatoes, I didn't even touch the big MWC though! That thing needs taming! :) A few beans dry and podded.

Harvest Monday 9/26

2011-09-26T09:12:00.001-04:00

It has been raining this week and cooling off a bit. I think the rain is helping the garden, but the cooler weather is slowing down the growth of the warmer weather veggies. It's good for the cool weather veggies though! The garden is definitely winding down and needs to be cleaned out some!
Click on over to Daphne's Dandelions to see what others are harvesting!

The FIRST cucumber for me this season! If I am lucky maybe I'll get one more! A little spinach, a few raspberries, a couple of broccoli side shoots. My daughter has been eating a bunch of spinach lately and wanted me to send some in her lunch bag for lunch. Can you guess what she did with it? SHE THREW IT AWAY! Grrrr ;)

These pumpkins needed saving from the SVBs that were in their stems eating their way toward the pumpkin! The stem on the short fat one was completely severed and the vine dead. I don't have a ton of hope that it will turn, but I will try anyway. I have a little more hope for the other one because it does have some bright orange on it! I HAVE had these particular pumpkins finish ripening inside before, so it gives me hope! Three more are turning orange out there, but the vines are pretty much dead. I have more hope for them. I also have the first of the Goldie Husk Cherries. They are sweet and sour!

I finally took a ladder out to get to the Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes! Uhg! I gave them away to my friend. Her girls love them and her tomatoes did not make it due to Deer problems and overcrowded plants. So I shared!

Another small watermelon back there. The first one tasted just fine. I wish I could grow something bigger than a baseball! I have probably 5 more out there about baseball size. This one is a tad bigger. My first Black Beauty Zucchini of the season! More spinach, and more dried Dragon Tongue Beans.

Harvest Monday Sept 19

2011-09-19T06:39:00.000-04:00

It is harvest Monday at Dapne's Dandelions. Join in the fun!

I have been dragging this week and have not gotten out to the garden too much. The kids have had strep and I have not felt much better. So, I only got a few things here and there. Whatever was necessary. I really need to get out there with a ladder and try to get to all the MWC's that I can't reach! They come in by the bowl full when I feel like picking and digging for them through the bush! They are just coming out my ears. I think I am going to have to freeze them.

Dragon Tongue beans on the right and Taylor Dwarf bush on the left

Used these onions for Turkey Porcupines in Sunday night's dinner. Chard, fresh tomatoes (not canned per recipe), green onions, garlic, dried basil and cilantro from the garden were all used in this meal.

The chard leaf in the back was just huge, I had to cut it. I added it in with some in the fridge and put it on pizza. I think the beans are coming near their end. They are looking pretty rough.

Tomatoes, beans, onion, pepper., and the raspberries are coming in about a handful every couple of days. They are yummy.

Turkey Porcupines w/ pasta and chard

2011-09-18T18:36:00.000-04:00

I started with a recipe such as this one, Turkey Porcupines. I used some fresh from the garden mashed tomatoes, fresh green onions, some dried cilantro and I added dried basil to the recipe as well. When it was all done I added some cooked noodles and and some chard from the garden until it wilted. My daughter first looked at it and said very passionately, "that looks disgusting!!" Well, of course, the good mother that I am, I made her eat it anyway! Ha! And she loved it and asked for more meatballs, and finished everything else too. The other two did a great job as well! Turned out to be a winner!

I'll do it myself!

2011-09-16T08:55:00.000-04:00

Have you seen the cost of some of those hair bands at places like Gymboree and even Kohls? They are so expensive! And my daughter has fallen in love with them after getting a couple at the Gymboree outlet! So, I started making some of my own. Why not save a little money.

Maybe I'll branch out a little and try doing some of the twisted ones too. But for these, I have been using a hoop for cross stitching and laying out the ribbons with a hairband under one ribbon and then sewing it on. Pretty easy! Those two little flowers were stickers in the scrapbook section that I pulled the sticker off of and sewed a rubber band too! She loves them! Problem is, I went crazy buying ribbon and now have a ton of it and probably did not save any money! ;) But hey, she'll be hooked up on some streamer hairbands! They might make some good gifts too!

2011-09-12T08:45:00.002-04:00

It has been raining a lot this week, so I did not get out to the garden too much. But I am happy for the rain. My garden has needed it.

The third zucchini was picked! Getting a few fall raspberries! My Celebrity Tomatoes have taken on and odd pear shape!

Picked the first cauliflower! Not sure about one, the top one looked like maybe it was going to bolt in the middle, but the outside did not look ready. Hmmm, maybe it is because this was a SPRING planted Cauliflower that finally produced something! The other one looked great.

The first and tiny watermelon. It has not grown in weeks if not longer, so I decided to just pick it. It was small but it did taste good. The kids ate it right up.

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions and check out the other harvests and post your own!

I am making this short and sweet this morning because I am taking my little boy to his first day of preschool!

Happy Harvesting!

Harvest Monday September 4

2011-09-05T07:34:00.000-04:00

Peppers are coming in about every day or two. Beans are coming in pretty good. I have frozen several bags. Cherry tomatoes are in abundance still. Large tomatoes are few and far between, maybe a few a week. And the Fall bearing raspberries are coming in a small handful at a time. There are only 2 plants out there that I can see and only one of them is getting red right now, surely the other one won't be far behind.

The last cantaloupe was picked, there were 3 total, but one rotted.

The first yellow zucchini of the season and another summer ball pumpkin, probably the last.

One cup of the pumpkin and one cup of the zucchini went into this pumpkin zucchini bread! Mmmm yum. Recipe found on All recipes, Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

More dried beans. The red pepper is actually a purple beauty bell. I let it go red because kids didn't like it purple!

Some of the popcorn has been shucked in that pie tin, a huge pile of cherry tomatoes, 2 more zucchini, more beans, more chard, more peppers! And another handful of raspberries. These 2 zucchini went into a recipe called Skillet Zucchini I found on Allrecipes as well. Super good recipe!

Hoping for some rain today and this week. It has been very dry. Maybe a good rain will pump my garden into high gear again! It sure needs it! Plus we have a cool front coming in this week. We have had 100's the past few days and my peas and brassicas are not liking it one bit! Hope we don't go strait from blasted hot summer to super cold winter. A nice fall would be pleasant!

Check out Daphne's Dandelions for some more fun harvesting!

A few end of August happenings

2011-08-31T09:01:00.000-04:00

The tomatoes are still producing, there are plenty of green ones out there that have plenty of time to ripen. I have lost probably 6 or more tomato plants so far, and probably about 6 healthy ones remain and a few not so healthy ones. The cherry tomatoes all seem to be doing just fine! They are coming out my ears. Can you see them?

My big green squash patch has turned brown and flat with a few vines still surviving around the outside edge of the patch, but covered in powdery mildew. Hope to keep them surviving long enough to turn the pumpkins orange! There are 5 sugar pumpkins and one Dill's Atlantic Giant. As for other winter squash, nothing. I got one Carnival squash and something happened because it was the worst chemically tasting thing I had EVER tasted! Strait to the garbage! Blech!

Do you see that? I am getting summer squash!!!!! YaY!!! There are 2 there almost ready! Pumpkin Zucchini bread is in the foreseeable future! Mmmmmm!

Aren't these pretty! Sweet Potato Flowers. Only 2 in the whole patch but they are pretty!

ooohh!

The Dills Atlantic Giant doing good! Trying to keep the squash bugs from eating it!

Do you know what this is? The squirrels went after these after the corn was demolished. Yep, all the sunflowers were beheaded! I was going to try to save seeds, but they got to them first! Ah, oh well. Not as disappointed about this as the corn!

Lettuce seeds. "Peanut" butter crunch. (my daughters name for it)


This is the largest of the sugar pumpkins. One of them is showing a hint of orange! Not too long!

The peas seem to be doing well.

They look healthy.

But, the beans I had planted disappeared! Not a sign of them insight. Too late to try again! Next year!

Those are just a few things happening around the garden this end of August! Still looking good. Just need to try to keep up with the watering better. It is super dry out there! I've slacked on that the past couple of weeks. Adjusting to a new schedule with the kids catching the bus, well, let's just say I am NOT a morning person!

Happy Gardening!

Harvest Monday 8/29-Don't steal my popcorn!

2011-08-29T08:26:00.002-04:00

I am getting way more MWC tomatoes than I can use! The bush is out of control. Time to start pawning them off on friends, neighbors and coworkers! ;)

Decided to make a pizza with mushrooms and chard on it. Yummy! It was good and it is nice when the kids ask for seconds! Also picked the Carnival squash. I had photographed this in an earlier post when it was all white thinking it was the white acorn, but it turned out it was the Carnival. There are no White acorns producing :( This is the only Carnival.


Do you see what I mean about the MWC's? My first Cantaloupe! Cherokee purples are starting to ripen again! I am getting enough beans to freeze a bag or two here and there! And there are plenty more out there ripening!

Hate to pick the first bell pepper and find this! There are three more of these though! Hopefully no holes. This pepper plant is not doing as well as last year! :( Isn't that a nice cantaloupe? My first decent sized one in 4 years! There are two more out there!

I came out this morning to find that the squirrels had found my popcorn. I found a few piles like this and all the ones along the fence gone! The popcorn was doing so well!

Sadly, this is all the squirrels left for me. But we will still enjoy it! It will finish drying in the garage. Some of it is dry and some is not quite there yet.

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions to see what others are harvesting this week all around the world!

Harvest Monday 8-22

2011-08-22T08:07:00.003-04:00

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions for some harvest fun!


I could always use a little more Time...uh, Thyme! ;) Rosemary sprigs, basil sprig, MWC tomatoes, Black Cherry Tomatoes, Royal Burgundy Beans, Dragon Tongue Beans (young), Yellow Wax, and Providor Bush Green Beans.

Cabernet Onions, MWC tomatoes, Royal Burgundy Beans, Yellow wax, and who knows which tomato this is...

More beans, a few more dried Taylor Dwarf Horticultural (AKA 'Cranberry'), more tomatoes, and two orange sweet peppers. One of them has sun scald because I removed a plant that was keeping it shaded! It happened fast! It was still eaten after I cut the spot off. The kids love these little sweet peppers!

Arkansas Traveler tomatoes, cherry, MWC, Black Cherry, and more beans. I'll be sending some of these purple beans to school with my girl for a snack! She could teach a few kids a thing or two about healthy eating! I'm proud of her!

My one and only tiny zucchini that I got after the SVBS completely severed the plant after eating their way through it! Good grief they are devastating this year along with the squash bugs. I have pulled so many plants without getting a thing out of them! I am gonna do a trap crop this year and burn those squash buggers! My daughter thought the zucchini was cute so she wanted it. I sauteed it up for her and my son and they gobbled it down. This is the 3rd sweet orange pepper with many more to come! I was slow getting them going this year.

Tomatoes, and beans. The next round of beans is starting to come in good. Hope they don't get destroyed by bean beetles like the first crop did. I didn't get nearly as many as I did last year out of the same amount of plants.

Surpirse!

2011-08-20T09:53:00.000-04:00

I tried planting Goldie Husk ground cherries. I did, really! And I was surprised the other day to find that it was not a dream!

Look! They are real! It is a small plant and there are very few, but it is there!

The lonely plant was found amongst the Nasturtium and beans in the Parsnip bed! I had no idea it was there! I have paid little attention to the parsnip bed because I know I will not be looking at them until after the first frost. I'm trying not to baby them! So I was very happy and surprised to see this growing in there! Even if it is small and bug eaten!

I was NOT happy to find this surprise ALL OVER one of my beautiful mums! Every branch is covered. I sprayed with Neem last night and will probably start spraying with a hard spray of water in a couple of days after the Neem has had it's chance to work. Buggers! They better not ruin my mums!

Red Sails Lettuce seedlings. Figure I better get a pic of them now before they get big enough for the bunnies to eat! They are along the borders of the front flower beds! I don't know what I was thinking!

The last chance summer squash and cucumbers planted away from the main garden are doing well for now! I have been keeping a close eye on them for borer eggs and squash bugs and cucumber beetles. Yesterday I got one teeny tiny little zucchini from the main garden, the plant was completely severed by the svb's eating through the main stem! These plants though appear to be getting ready to set some fruits! Come on cucumbers and squash! I can't go a whole season with none!

Planting the Fall Garden

2011-08-19T12:09:00.000-04:00

I have almost finished planting the fall garden. I might be a little late, but I think I will still get some things!

Peas and short season beans are planted here. This was one of the corn beds. I pulled the corn, dug, layered it with newspaper and added compost to the top. Ready for some seedlings to pop up!

Another corn bed that was surrounded with beans. Dug it up, amended and put in Broccoli

The other corn bed, dug up, amended and Cauliflower was planted.

I planted stuff all over the yard, wherever I could squeeze it in! Broccoli in the flower bed. I also planted spinach seeds in this bed.

I planted a bunch of lettuce randomly around the yard as well. I put some Red Sails along the borders of the front flower beds thinking it would look pretty. Then my husband reminded me of the bunny problem. He said I'll just be feeding the bunnies! Uhg! I think one already ate one of my broccoli seedlings.

I also had some empty squares in my beds that I planted some Pak Choi/Bak Choi in. So nice to get a fresh start in the garden. I just hope the bugs slow down soon! Think I'll make some more hot pepper spray. It seemed to help the beans!

I am getting some watermelons! I hope they all have time to mature cause there seems to be several setting that appear to have been pollinated! Woo hoo! I have never been successful with watermelons!

I also killed the one big carving pumpkin out there! The squash bugs were chewing the heck out of it and I tried to turn it a bit to look at it and it broke off. It must have been on it's way down hill anyway. It is however setting another. Since it isn't a pumpkin we will be eating, I think I may put some sevin on just the pumpkin itself (not the vine) just to keep the bugs from eating it! Don't know what else to do. Boogers!

Harvest Monday 8-15

2011-08-15T07:20:00.000-04:00

It's harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions! Go check out the harvests! There's always something there to tempt you!

The acorn squash in here is the one that had a little twin. The little twin died and there is only a spot left there on this one next to the stem where it was. Too bad, that would have looked cool. Also got the first yellow pepper, but it appears to have had a little BER. And my little helper tried to take a bite out of it in the garden, you can see the indentation of his mouth! His favorite color is yellow! Yellow pepper! Yum!

Carrots, tomatoes, beans and one lonely radish I gave away. Those green tomatoes were picked by my happy pickin little helper! In my frustration, he says, "I helpin, mommy!"

pile of chard and yes it is riddle with bug holes. Nobody will notice after it is washed and cooked down.

I have only found a couple of these thank goodness, but geesh, I cold really do without borers! They are bad enough in the squash!

Probably the last of the decent sweet corn this week. And, Wednesday was the twins first day of kindergarten, and my sweet dh sent ME flowers!

Slowly addling a few dragon tongue beans to the stash.

Emptied out one of the potato tubs. Not much in it. They didn't do well for me. It was a learning experience. Hopefully I will do better next year, that is the great thing about gardening!

Basil, tomatoes and beans.

Ity bity frogs, tree like plants, and seeds

2011-08-12T09:58:00.000-04:00

Out in the garden picking a few things this morning, I noticed a tiny frog here...

And here...

and here....

And here!

little ity bity frog hanging out in the raspberries (riddled with holes from the stinking Japanese Beetles!)

My little one got a kick out of this one. We picked him up and he wanted to hold it but then pulled his hand back and laughed.

I do wonder what these little ity bity frogs are doing for my garden. They are so small!

In the spring I had planted two Matt's Wild Cherry tomato plants here in the end of this bed. One got uprooted by a critter digging around in my beds, and at this point, I am glad because this plant here is crazy! And still growing!

I have started doing a bit of seed saving here and there. So far I have gotten some Black Cherry Tomato seeds, Coriander, and this is just a small bit of it. Providor Bush beans and Taylor Dwarf Horticultural, but I may just use those as dry beans because I still have plenty of seeds left.

Some other things I plan to save seeds for this year are, Cherokee Purple Tomato, Brandywine, Ruby Queen Corn, Sunflowers, the lettuce is just about ready, more beans, a variety of squashes and pumpkins, and we'll see what else! I try to learn how to save something new every year. Especially for stuff I really like! It is easier than I ever thought it was. What kind of seeds are you saving this year?

Hopeful Previews

2011-08-09T11:08:00.000-04:00

I say hopeful because the squash bugs, cucumber beetles, vine borers and other critters are in full force out there in the garden! I have even found borers in the corn...boo!

This plant has 3 summer ball pumpkins growing on it, but the vine appears to be just riddled with borer holes. I would destroy the plant if I tried to cut them all out. There is another plant barely hanging on too, with one pumpkin on it.

There are lots of these little Orange, Yellow and Red peppers waiting to turn colors. I got the first yellow one today.

I think I got my seeds mixed up, I thought this was suppose to be an Orange Sun Bell, but it appears to be Purple Beauty Bell. There are three decent peppers growing on there. I was not happy with this plant last year, we will see how they turn out this year. There are two other plants that are suppose to be Orange Sun Bells.

The bigger of TWO Dills Atlantic Giants for the kiddos! Hope they make it!

One of three melons out of a bunch of plants. Happy to see these but disappointed in the production! The watermelon do not seem to be doing great either. I have had 3 melons, and two got about baseball size or a little less and then shriveled up. But over the weekend we got rain and the vines have grown a bunch and more watermelons are setting!

White Acorn squash from seed saved from a store bought organic squash.

I believe this is suppose to be one of the Sugar Pumpkins, but all of the ones on this vine appear oblong...

instead of more circular like this one.

The only Butternut on a long vine. The first one did not get pollinated, I was out of town. I will be watching for this one to open up and pollinate that baby myself!

A cute little friend I found behind the butternut on some bean leaves. I don't know how helpful he is, he is about the same size as a squash bug! But hopefully he is eating some bean beetles that are destroying my bean leaves!

The parsnip bed is full and growing strong. Hope they turn out well, this is my first try at them!

Since I have not gotten any summer squash or cucumbers I planted some away from the garden up around my deck to try one more time! If these don't make it, I'll have none this year! And yes, the beetles and squash bugs have found them already!

The sweet potato vines are looking good and growing long amongst the pumpkins and squash, however there is a mole under all these plants and I hope it isn't bothering my sweet potatoes. Only time will tell! This is my first try at sweet potatoes too!

Harvest Monday 8/8

2011-08-08T08:45:00.000-04:00

It is harvest Monday at Daphnes Dandelions!

Carrots, acorn squash, and tomatoes.

Boxwood Basil

Critter damage! Grrr!

Had a couple of these, I thought it was some disease growth, but it appears to be a single kernel of corn. I had one of the Ruby Queen do this too.

Tomatoes, beans, basil.

Basil

Sugar Buns corn and Ruby Queen corn. This made for a delicious dinner that I took with me to my parents, they loved it! There are also my first 4 Dragon Tongue Beans in the bean pile.

Basket of tomatoes, some ripe some working on it.

Gave my mom some pepper seeds a couple of years ago, she planted it last summer in a pot in her back room and it overwintered in her back room, even had small peppers on it in the winter and then she planted it this spring and cut it back and it is a full healthy plant with lots of peppers.

Harvest Monday- August 1st

2011-08-01T08:07:00.000-04:00

Carrots, tomatoes, corn and a broccoli sprouts. Getting just enough broccoli sprouts for dh to have a little side of broccoli with his lunch. Some of these carrots reached the bottom of the box and took a turn.

These are Dwarf Taylor Bush beans, or horticultural beans. Many of them did not reach their full maturity before I pulled them. The beans were just looking miserable and I wanted to make space for others. They should still be alright I think. I didn't dry them, I just put them in the freezer to use soon. Maybe a spicy chicken chili or something.

Basil for Bruschetta I shared with you through pictures earlier in the week.

Tomatoes. A little basil drying in my makeshift tray behind it.


Kennebec potatoes and beans. Tried to find some more potatoes in the tubs to try to use for dinner. This was all I could find.

Tomatoes and broccoli sprouts. In the back and middle are Cherokee Purple. The med red ones on the right are Arkansas Traveler. On the left the med red ones are Stupice. Then I have Black Cherry, and unknown cherry and two small Matt's Wild Cherry. Daughter's favorite. And they aren't turning red fast enough for her. The plant is huge though and has plenty of green ones, so it is only a matter of time.

Went out to a dead Honey Bear Acorn squash plant. SVB's. Got one squash out of the plant. So far I am 2 squash for 2 plants. Squash is just not doing well in the garden this year. I have yet to have a summer squash out of 8 plants. There is another very large Brandywine. And one lonely little strawberry that my daughter ate. She get's em all!

Some small cabernet onions I found hiding among the Parsnips that I forgot about. They weren't growing because they were completely shaded out.

Picked the coriander and going to collect the seeds to be planted for Cilantro. Maybe see how they do over winter again!

Tomatoes, carrots and 3rd Acorn squash. So far that squash plant it still alive, but barely. The borers have been in it, though I may have killed some and the plant seems to still be living. We'll see if I get anything else out of it.

Basil

It's Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions. Click on over to see what everyone is harvesting. You will find new ideas for things to grow and salivate over everyone's produce!

Creating a little curb appeal

2011-07-31T20:38:00.000-04:00

We are working little by little to improve the landscaping of our yard front and back. Today, dh surprised me with some edging bricks for the front. It is only part of the project we want to accomplish but it is a start and already and improvement. These first three pictures are from fall last year.

My mums have grown a lot this year and they are going to be beautiful with their new edging. The hill runs down toward the house and the sidewalk and washes the dirt and mulch right out of this bed. So I thought maybe some nice edgers would help. We also hope to put in new pavers to replace the sidewalk that match the edgers.

It is a work in progress but it it looking better already! I think some of the edgers need some leveling, so we will have to work on that too. I can't wait for these Mums to bloom it is going to be so pretty!

Sweaty day in the garden...

2011-07-30T20:58:00.001-04:00

but it had to be done. It has been so hot and humid out there and no rain, nothing is getting done. Fair warning! This is a bug rant! First thing this morning I made up a home spray. Lots of habanero peppers, a little peppermint soap and a little oil. Hoping to deter some of the bugs from feeding on my plants! And smother a few too.

Did a lot of watering, planted some more seeds, pulled some dead stuff and gave the beans a haircut! I hope this helps them. They looked terrible. The bean beetles are terrible! Some days, between the bean beetles, squash bugs, SVB's and cucumber beetles I really feel like dousing my garden in Sevin. But, I battle on, chasing bugs around the garden, trying to hunt them down and kill them. Probably look like the neighborhood fool! BT and DE is about the most I have used in the past few years and it seems like the populations are out of control! But, I am persistent. Here is my bean bed with a haircut and new seeds planted. Notice the small watermelon hanging on the trellis on the left! The third! They sure are growing slow. Any tips?

Ahh, my 10 foot or more sunflowers! And they don't even face my own house! They are turned toward the neighbors. I can't even enjoy them. But they sure are tall and pretty towering above the corn.

And, well my counter was full of tomatoes so I went ahead and peeled some of them after soaking them in boiling water for a minute and then put them in the freezer for later when it is time to do some canning. I got one full gallon bag stuffed! And there is still a full basket on the counter.

Oh and the weeds are out of control around the yard. Especially in the flower beds! I had some that were practically knee high and thick! I have so much weeding to catch up on, but it is just so hot! Fifteen minutes and your dripping! I could use a good thick layer of mulch, maybe on top of a layer of newspaper or cardboard!

Seeds planted the past few days: carrots, beans, pak choi (maybe a bit early on that one, but, ah, I'll try it anyway!)

New Toy

2011-07-28T09:30:00.000-04:00

After I picked all those pumpkins from the garden I cooked em up and froze them in 1 cup portions so that I could vacuum them up in some FoodSaver bags. Well, my old FoodSaver was about 9 years old and began giving me trouble. I was only able to get a couple of bags sealed and it would stop functioning properly! So, I decided to get a new one! Yippee!

I got one with a bag holder and a cutter and some other functions that my old one did not have. Way cool!

I was able to FoodSaver about 10 bags of pumpkin! I am well on my way to filling up that freezer with some summer produce!

A Kid Friendly Garden Fresh Meal!

2011-07-26T10:01:00.001-04:00

Roasted Carrots, corn, and the bruschetta for mommy! And of course a kid favorite, hot dogs! The kids love corn, and this is the first meal I have made with my corn from the garden. It was small, but it was tasty!

For the carrots, I layed them all out on a baking sheet, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and baked them on 375 for 25 minutes, turn and bake another 25 minutes. I don't normally like cooked carrots, but they are super sweet and yummy like this. I may try them in the grill sometime too!

These kids just don't know what they are missing with the bruschetta! They don't like all the herbs and seasonings! Mmmmm! I used my tomatoes, red onion, garlic, and basil from the garden and a little salt and pepper! My favorite!

This boy loves his corn, he ate two!

Today, I was very excited to pick a 1.5 pound Brandywine from the garden! These are some big tomatoes, I have never grown this variety and I will definitely again. Maybe another color too! This one may get used on some tacos for dinner tonight!

Hope you are having some good garden meals this week!

Harvest Monday 7/25-Winter Squash, tomatoes and more!

2011-07-25T08:09:00.000-04:00

Beans are coming in every time I go to the garden in small amounts, but I am getting plenty to have a meal now and then and freeze some. Couple of broccoli shoots this week too.

Picked several of the Cabernet onions and the only 2 Spanish Gold I could find. The Cabernet are definitely doing better.

Plenty of carrots, that need to be frozen or eaten! And my first Black Krim in the back there. And YES, my little HELPER helped me pick a great big green Cherokee purple! He was VERY proud! I on the other hand had a different reaction, even though it was cute! It is now in the window hoping to turn red!

Then I went and knocked my own green Cherokee Purple off while running more twine thru the bed!


Tomatoes are starting to come in! I have two 1 pound each Brandywine (thanks to EG)! I went ahead and pulled them because they were hanging in the dirt and they were too heavy to try to support up, and they are turning! Also have the first Matt's Wild Cherry tomato on the left. DD loved it! A stupice in the middle, a malformed Cherokee Purple (that is his good side!), and an Arkansas Traveler. Also picked some Summer Ball Bush Pumpkins, the SVBS got the plants! Grrrr! I still have 1 summer ball pumpkin plant out there that I am watching closely! Also one of the Honey Bear Acorn Squash plants were also gotten. I got 1 squash out of it. There are also two cherry tomatoes in there that are suppose to be 'Texas Black' but not really sure. They don't look black and I can't find any online info on 'Texas Black'. They were given to my friend. They are doing well, just not sure they were labeled correctly by giver.

Some views of the garden this week!

Another view of the garden for July. Like our makeshift tomato supports? ;)

Cantaloupe and squash/pumpkin patch. I swear that Dills Giant is growing more than a foot a day!

I am impatiently awaiting these little babies to get growing! There are a couple bigger than this one, but not by much.

Caught this bugger right in the act of laying its Squash bug eggs! Took a picture then squished 'em all! Along with a few friends! I'm trying to keep up with thse boogers but it is hard! Especially in the squash and pumpkin patch! I planted way too close and a lot of them!

Don't forget to check out Daphne's Dandelions for some more great harvests!
Happy Harvesting!

July Garden Tour and Cabbage Soup (pic heavy)

2011-07-20T10:42:00.002-04:00

Herb pot, Basil, Thyme, and Rosemary. Oregano is planted out by the fence and is not looking so well in it's new spot this year. It will have to be moved.

This Acorn Squash is on one stem and connected. It is kinda cool looking and looks different than any of the other Acorn squash so far in it's coloring.

Summer Ball Pumpkin. There are currently 3 plants in the garden with a total of 4-5 pumpkins growing on them.

Brandywine tomatoes are of good size. These were a trade with EG! Thanks! Can't wait for a ripe one!

Cherokee Purple cluster. I have a few clusters of these with about 8-9 in each and they are good size as well! Mmmmm can't wait!

The long view of my garden down the fence line. Those are my pitiful potato tubs right in the front. They don't looks so hot, but I did get two potatoes out of it, so maybe there are more in there!

a few of the corn up close.

I have a few of these scattered around the garden, most not as big as this one. They may need to be pulled soon. All their stems have been pushed over by other plants and I do not know if they will continue to grow without tall healthy shoots.

In the pop up! Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and squash that is small and hiding in here. One cabbage has been cut off out of here and a few small broccoli heads and shoots. The cauli is huge but no sign of a head yet. I'm letting them keep going as long as they are healthy. Maybe something will show up when it cools off around here. I do have a shade cover on the pop up but it may need more!

1st watermelon.

2nd watermelon! More are welcome...

grocery store peppers! My kids loved those little red, yellow, and orange sweet peppers so we saved the seeds and grew some. They seem to be doing nicely.

My poor cucumbers! Looks like there might be only one left here out of 5!Grrrrrr! Guess the cucumber beetles have done their number. I started some more by the patio. Don't know if I will ever get any this year! These are the White Wonder.

These are the American Genuine, and they are just as bad. 1 or 2 plants left out of 5 and the cumbers are stunted!

Stunted cucumber #2.

Ruby Queen corn is the first bed along fence, then Sugar Buns, then Robust Popcorn which seems to be the tallest and the healthiest! Then even taller behind it is the sunflowers which will soon be opening!

Mystery peppers? Found it growing in the ditch and moved it. Already has little peppers on it if this is a pepper plant. I thought I would let it go and see what it does!

New coneflowers next to the white crape myrtle. They are lovely!

My garden helper showing off the tomatoes he can't keep his hands off of. Hope he doesn't pick and green ones! Those are our makeshift supports that we had to come up with since we didn't get supports up quick enough. There is twine all wrapped thru them.

Bean bed. Watermelons are on the left side going up the trellis.

Raspberry bed with 1 Matt's wild cherry tomato plant on this end with a few carrots scattered under it.

Parsnip bed.

Canteloupe bed


Pumpkin and squash bed with sweet potatoes on the right and a few beans scattered in there. The giant leaves coming toward you is a Dill's atlantic Giant and I HOPE to get at least one out of it this year! HOPE HOPE HOPE! Darn SVB's stay away! There is also sugar pumkins, white acorn and carnival squash in there.


Cabbage Soup: I heated some oil and sauteed up some garlic and cut up bacon then added the cabbage, and some basil and oregano, salt and pepper, and cooked until wilted. Then I added chicken broth and noodles, usually I use shell but this time I used rotini.

The kids said this was the best cabbage soup ever, even though I made them eat the cabbage! Ha ha! And cabbage soup is always better the next day! Mmmmm. I also top it with a little Parmesan!

Harvest Monday 7-18

2011-07-18T08:37:00.000-04:00

Still waiting for the garden to kick into high gear! I have yet to have any zucchini or cucumbers! My cucumbers all seem to be dying. The cucumber beetles didn't seem too bad, but I guess bad enough to kill my cukes!

Decided to check in the potato tubs this week and see if there was anything in there. These were all I could reach. So, at least there is something growing in there.

Kennebec Potatoes and basil

Arkansas Traveler tomatoes, they don't seem much bigger than a cherry tomato so far. And some beans and raspberries.

Chard, basil, beans.

Decided to check the corn since the silks were browning, I don't think these were ready. They are definitely small, which from what I am reading could be a nutrient deficiency. They have had PLENTY of water, so I know that is not the problem! There is another Arkansas Traveler too.

Not a huge harvest this week, but still good. Click on over to Daphne's Dandelions to see what else is being harvested this week!

My Garden Helper this Morning

2011-07-15T10:33:00.002-04:00

He is turning into quite the little garden helper this year. He followed me all around the garden with his basket.

But, half the raspberries and some of the purple beans did not even make it into the house! ;)

And there was a bite out of one of the tomatoes too!

Dinner Tonight

2011-07-12T18:07:00.001-04:00

Salmon with roasted carrots, broccoli, and beans. All from the garden.

It has been in the upper 90's the past few days with the heat index in the 107-118 range. I pulled out of the garage today and all my windows fogged up and would NOT clear up. It has been a yucky couple of days and I have not been able to get in the garden much. I did pick some beans tonight and used them with some other stuff I have harvested the past few days. I had to leave my daughter's beans uncooked, because she likes them PURPLE! Fine with me if she eats raw veggies, all the better! Hers disappeared before anyone's.

Harvest Monday 7-11

2011-07-11T07:00:00.006-04:00

The best variety so far this season! We will be eating good this week! Roasted carrots, steamed green beans, maybe some cabbage soup!

Steamed this up for dinner with our guests that we had for the holiday weekend.

Used the chard and tomato for our 4th of July dinner on some burgers!

Also for the burgers. Mmmm they were good burgers!

An herb day, Thyme on the right and 3 different kinds of basil on the left.

These plus the previous ones made up our first serving of fresh green beans for the season, and they were soooo good!

It's Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions, click on over and check out the harvests.

Companion Planting

2011-06-28T14:18:00.000-04:00

This year I have worked very hard to put certain plants together to try to repel some of those evil plant killing bugs.I have to admit, there is not a total reduction but a significant one so far. It is still early though. Those buggers can multiply quickly! If you companion plant, what do you pair together and how is it going for you?

corn planted with squash and beans ( you can barely see the beans over to the top left.)

Borage with the tomatoes. The verdict is still out on this one. I found a worm on the tomatoes right behind the borage! And I see signs of others that I cannot find.

Cucumbers planted with flowering radishes.

Squash planted with Nasturtium and Marigold.

And lets not forget my friendly bug eater...Hello Mr. Toad.

I also have onions planted all over the garden! Except in the bean bed. And carrots with the tomatoes. The cilantro is in full flower! I guess we will have to see how the season goes to see if it worth so much extra planning and planting things I don't really care for, like radishes. But they flower so it doesn't matter. How is your companion planting going?

Harvest Monday 6/27

2011-06-27T08:08:00.000-04:00

It's Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions!

My first Celebrity tomato. Third tomato of the season. Might be a while for the next though.

Made a dinner for my friend who just had a baby. Used some onions, garlic and cilantro from my garden. And some hot peppers from last season's garden to make some salsa and enchiladas.

needed another onion for her meal...

basil and raspberries

Chard. Starting to get a bit of the Rainbow Chard out of the garden now. It is growing slower and smaller than the white variety.

Picked all the garlic, as you can see all the stems were yellowing. It is all drying. The first carrots of the season! The kids and I each had one for lunch and they were yummy! And of course, my daughter gets ALL the raspberries!


First broccoli! Hoping there will still be time to get more before it gets too hot. The brassica bed is still full and healthy looking in the pop up with the shade cloth, even with the dry 90's we have had. This one was tasty. Only enough though for each member of our family of five to get a couple of little pieces!

Happy Harvesting!

Am I the only one...

2011-06-26T21:25:00.000-04:00

who likes to stare out my window at the garden in eager anticipation as if my garden is going to magically produce a great harvest right before my eyes?

View from the window

Let's take a look at a few things in the June garden.

The corn bed that suffered the most from critters, cutworms, birds, maybe both. Compare to the bed planted a few days later below.

The corn is growing much taller here. This is the bed directly behind the playset. There are squash and beans planted among all the beds of corn. There are 4 small beds.

A view from behind the playset. The popup hides a lot.

In March, my kids and I went tadpole hunting in the nature preserve and brought home a bucket full of them. We fed them cooked lettuce a couple of times, and kept them in clean pond or rain water and they all disappeared over time! They either all jumped out or they ate each other! Ha!

Yep, here is one hiding next to my squash! Eat those squash bugs little toad! He really isn't so little. He is quite a large bugger! Bigger than my fist I think. I am very happy to see him hanging around. I hope I don't scare him too much.

There were a couple of others but I kept scaring them to the point that I no longer saw them hanging around. Maybe they just found a good hiding space!

Harvest Monday 6-20

2011-06-20T08:40:00.000-04:00

Nothing as big as last week. But I had some firsts this week.

The first Thyme and garlic scapes from my garden. I used them in my Chicken Pot Pie along with half of my peas. The other half went to the new freezer! It was a yummy pot pie. Delicious flavor. I had never had garlic scapes before and it was very good in my pot pie.

The very first raspberries! 1 1/2 actually! The birds got half of one. Then my daughter got them, of course! There will be a few more soon enough. Hope I get to taste some of them! There is a nice pile of chard and one tiny, tiny, smaller than the raspberries, strawberry! She ate that too.

Picked my first Big Boy yesterday morning, although, he wasn't very big. But he was good on a BLT!

My first little garlic. Another first ever for my garden! I needed some for a meal and didn't have any in the fridge so I decided to go ahead and pull one.

It had 9 little cloves and it was cute worked great in my cabbages soup! I am really happy to see that it is doing so well!

We had a pretty windy rain storm on Sunday. Some things in the garden had to be straitened back up and tied up. Most of the corn held up though. Some of the tomatoes got pretty laid out. But most held up pretty well, amazingly. And the garden could use the rain we have been getting the past few days. Hopefully the plants will have a nice growth spurt from the rain water. Stuff grows so much better from rain water than the hose!

I have also been doing some more seed planting of beans and squash and a few transplants. I have definitely put every inch of space to use in the garden, and have taken over some other parts of the yard! If we are lucky we will have produce growing out our ears! I plan on putting that freezer to use!

Happy Harvesting and don't forget to visit Daphne's Dandelions, there is such a nice variety of harvests to be seen!

Harvest Monday-Tables of lettuce

2011-06-13T08:28:00.000-04:00

My first tomato if it really counts...it fell off of a transplant I bought! It was green and I put it in the window sill to ripen up!

I had my table filled with lettuce 3 times this week, over 6 lbs. In the front there is some chard, cilantro, the last of the peas, and a few strawberries!

My kids wheel barrel full of Red Russian Kale below. More than 4 lbs! A little chard sitting on top too! And a bucket full of lettuce that also filled up my table! I need a salad spinner! A big one! I blanched some of the kale, and the rest I am going to try making my first kale chips! I might save a little for some sandwiches or something.

We don't normally have salads for every meal, or even often for that matter. So my kids asked me this week if we were going to be having salads every day! Yep, for a little bit! Until it is all gone! I did share some of my lettuce with a friend. 3 gallon sized bags full!

Finally, I was very excited this week to get a freezer! I have added my first garden produce to it! This ought to come in very handy! It isn't a very big one, but it'll be fine for us! Until my boys are teenagers and I can't keep enough food in the house!

Happy Harvesting and don't forget to visit Daphne's to check out some more garden produce!

Lilies, little helpers, and blooms.

2011-06-09T21:57:00.000-04:00

My little helper can't even wait to get dressed in the morning before he is out to help me in the garden! He LOVES his Monkey jammies and helping mommy water! He is 19 mo's old now. He does a good job doesn't he?

The lilies have been in full bloom lately and they are beautiful. They don't last long enough in my opinion! The Achillea looks very nice among the lilies.

Lilies, dianthus, and moonbeam coreopsis. There are a couple of out of place orange lilies in there that might find a new bed for next year! I love a sea of red!

With all the pretty colors around my deck, and my deck in the process of being redone, the kids and I are enjoying the back patio so much! It's a great place to just hang out and stick your feet in the kiddie pool!

Lilies, hostas, and salvia.

Pumpkin Ball Squash

Clematis. Think I could use some more of this along the fence, it looks very nice and is easy to care for.

Bed number 8, Tomatoes, Lettuce, onions, carrots, it is getting full rather fast! The tomato plants look healthy and are blooming and in need of more support!

I hope everyone is enjoying some blooms somewhere in their garden!

Harvest Monday 6/6

2011-06-06T10:39:00.000-04:00

This week, peas, strawberries, chard, lettuce, kale and PIZZA!

These WERE some yummy strawberries. They of course did not last long, as it usually goes with strawberries!

The first Chard, "peanut" buttercrunch lettuce, and Red Russian Kale were picked of the season. There is still plenty more in the garden. We will be having a lot of salads soon! And I plan to try making kale chips!

DD enjoying her "peanut" buttercrunch lettuce. She does like her raw greens!


DS and I made a wonderful pizza with the chard as well as some baby portabello mushrooms and fresh mozzarella! It was good enough for them to want seconds and even thirds. Wish the pic turned out better for ya!

Other news in the garden, I have quite a bit of corn growing despite whatever is attacking. I still am not entirely sure if is cutworms or maybe birds, even though I have not seen any birds over there. So, I covered it with bird net. Figure it couldn't hurt and I will need the net for the raspberries soon enough! I have planted the beans and winter squash among the corn and along the fence and it will soon begin to fill in with the corn! I also put cucumbers in between each corn bed along the fence! I may have to go over to the neighbors yard to collect! And just when I have my garden planted, they once again have a new puppy! Thankfully, this one so far likes to stay close to their patio and is much smaller so maybe it won't tear up anything it can get to through my fence! (lost quite a few pumpkin vines to the puppy they had last year! And the one and only carving pumpkin I had, he thought was a ball and ripped it right off the vine!)

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions to check out some more harvests!

Happy Harvesting!

Harvest Monday 5/30

2011-05-30T14:05:00.000-04:00

Peas, Pak Choi, Strawberries and Spinach.

This is the last of the spinach, and bush beans were planted in their spaces!


The last of the Pak Choi, a few strawberries, and lots of peas! I have enough for a meal now! I'm thinking homemade Chicken Pot Pie! I planted zucchini in place of the Pak Choi. The peas are still going until these 90's kill em!

In the Garden, the corn was planted last week and this week, the cut worms are destroying them! I have been putting plastic cups and yogurt cups over them as they are used to try to save them. I got a bunch covered but several are not yet! So, my kids will be eating lots of yogurt the next few days! Ha ha! ;) I first tried Diatamaceous Earth but it didn't seem to work. I went out to find another row of corn completely severed at the base! Grrr!

Click on over to Daphne's Dandelions to see more garden harvests of the season!

Raccoon Tracks

2011-05-28T20:43:00.001-04:00

After tilling a new section to plant all my corn seeds, the next morning I noticed these lovely tracks in the new bed. Pretty sure they are raccoon tracks and now I have a new pest to obsess about how to get rid of!

The neighbors had asked if I had had any problems with raccoons the past couple of years. But I had not. They did though. The little bugger came in through their doggy door in the middle of the night, and as she wandered to the kitchen in the middle of the night was met with a nasty visitor! I’m not sure which is worse, the bat in our bathroom vent, or a raccoon in the kitchen!

The new corn! Very excited that it did not drown or get washed away! This is my first time planting corn! And, from what I hear, if you plant it they will come…raccoons that is! Soon I will be planting the beans and squash amongst the corn, following the “Three Sisters” method.

Out of my impatience, I went in search of tomato plants that were much further along than mine are. A couple of years ago, I read about a greenhouse not too far from here that was suppose to be very worth the visit. Starview Greenhouse. I noticed last year that they had very large tomato plants with tomatoes already growing in the spring. So I thought I would head up there this weekend and see if they had some again. They had been pretty picked over, nothing as large as what I noticed last year, but there were several varieties of good size with tomatoes. I picked out two smaller ones, Arkansas Traveler, and Black Krim.

And I picked out two larger ones. Celebrity and Big Boy. The Celebrity is the larger of the two pictured in the center of the bed, Celebrity on the right and Big Boy on the left. One of the tomatoes fell off, and is now sitting in my window sill.

I now have for tomatoes, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Black Cherry, Black, Black Krim, Stupice, Big Boy, Better Boy, Arkansas Traveler, Celebrity, Matt’s Wild Cherry, and possibly a Goldie Cherry Husk if it grows, I’ve had a hard time getting it to germinate.

Red Russian Kale. I am thinking it looks like it may be ready to pick, but since this is my first time growing it, I wonder if anyone else has any opinions. I think it is looking beautiful! The lettuce there is looking closer too!

The lilies are beginning to bloom! One of my favorites in my garden. I just wish they bloomed longer!

Harvest Monday 5/23

2011-05-23T13:24:00.000-04:00

Pak Choi, ugly Strawberries, and peas.

My first attempt at pak choi wasn't super successful, but these were good, though not very big. They were getting ready to bolt. There are still a couple in the garden, but with this heat I don't expect them to stay out too long!

Peas and snap peas and a single strawberry. I have my strawberries in on of those topsy turvey things, and they don't seem to be doing any better than in a giant pot.

Some are super ugly, some are eaten by birds, going to cover them with some net. But the plants don't even look to healthy. Maybe they are waterlogged from all the rain.

I got a bunch of corn planted on Saturday, and still have some seed, even though I ran out of garden space so I think I am going to till another section today to finish the planting. I would just store them, but I already soaked them. Almost everything is planted. I still have beans and squash to plant amongst the corn when it gets going a bit. Also cucumbers. I hope to be done with it all by the end of the week, but it is suppose to rain all week AGAIN. Doesn't make it too easy to get the garden chores done!

Don't forget to visit Daphne's Dandelions to check out what others are harvesting this week!

Happy Harvesting!

Harvest Monday and May garden updates

2011-05-16T11:05:00.001-04:00

This week I have Peas and Spinach! Don't forget to visit Daphne's Dandelions for more gardener's harvests!

These snap peas never even made it into the fridge. The kids saw them and wanted one, and one turned into all! It's a wonderful thing! I often have friends and even strangers ask me how I get my kids to eat veggies so well, and I always say that growing a garden is the BEST thing, other than just putting things in front of them over and over again! I actually have gotten a couple of friends interested enough to start their own gardens and it is so fun!

These were harvested on Saturday. 1 1/8 oz.

3 3/8 oz of spinach, 3/4 of an oz of peas (some may be on the small side), and 3 3/8 oz of super sugar snap peas.

Bed 1, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, pak choi, kale and a bolting cilantro (I cut off the rest for use!), and lettuce. I put the pop up green house with a shade cloth over this bed to keep the cabbage moth out and the shade cloth to try to keep it cooler since they are a bit behind! But I'm still gonna try!

Bed 3. My peas, spinach, chard, onions and garlic. I picked most of the spinach out today. I didn't have as much as I had hoped for. Plant more in the fall! Peas are doing well though. There are a bunch on there filling out!

Bed 2. Carrots, kale, lettuce, pak choi, chard, onions.

Bed 5. Lots a radishes that probably need to be thinned so they don't crowd out my parsnips!

Potato tub. I have 2 of these to try out! This is my first time growing potatoes so I hope this goes well! They look great so far!

We tilled the section along the fence where I am going to crowd in some corn, beans and squash (three sisters!) It has been raining though and I haven't been able to get it planted yet! I also hope it does not get washed away because this is an area that can pool if it rains too hard. Maybe I'll dig a trench!

Bed 7 and 8, the new beds. I tried to cover as many tomatoes as I could with some milk jugs. It has been a very cool couple of days, and I just got them planted. Bed 8 is also filled with onions and lettuce, and a few carrots. Bed 7 has onions, carrots, and tomatoes.

My husband is thinking I am getting in way over my head with the garden! Only time will tell! But I am excited about all the new things in this season's garden!

Happy Harvesting!

First Small Harvest of Season

2011-05-09T16:35:00.000-04:00

My small but first harvest of the season! I returned from vacation to find my cilantro almost ready to bolt. This was only one plant, the one that made it through the winter. Now I need to find something to do with it! Maybe a little in some guacamole or something, but that's a lot for just that! I am just happy to get in on the harvest!

Today, I have been out in the garden transplanting many of my seedlings, peppers and tomatoes mostly. This week I hope to get a strip of ground tilled next to my beds to plant corn, beans, and squash! Let the gardening season kick into high gear!

Last week we celebrated my twins 5th birthday at Disney! Here's a family shot, minus the baby, he stayed with friends!

Happy Gardening!

And don't forget to stop by Daphne's Dandelions to see what others are harvesting!

Can Anyone Build Me a Boat?

2011-04-27T15:07:00.000-04:00

I would post some pictures about the chores I have been doing in the garden, but it has been raining here, hard, for what seems like an eternity! I think they are saying it is over a foot of rain we have had. There are some amazing sites along the Ohio River and even some of the boat channels.

Our back yard, a nice river along side our burn pile!

Our river running into the neighbors yard and beyond...

The water coming from our other neighbor's yards!

Maybe soon I can get some more garden stuff done. For now, I am waiting for a little sunshine to dry up all that mud!

Hardy Cilantro and Feeling Behind

2011-04-21T14:42:00.001-04:00

I had a terrible time with Cilantro last year. I kept planting seeds all spring, summer and fall. I got this little tiny one by the end of the season but it was so pitiful I just left it there, and the thing kept going through winter! And here it is today. Probably one of the fullest cilantro plants I have ever grown!

Almost all the beds have something planted in them so far, but much of it is too small to photograph. This one is going pretty good with peas, garlic, spinach, and chard. Doesn't seem like I am going to get much for peas once again. I just can't seem to get my timing right on it.

I am feeling pretty much behind on everything. Things either just don't seem to be germinating, or I am getting them started too late or both! Tomatoes and peppers are one of them. The tomatoes took a while to germinate and are quite tiny and the peppers don't seem to be germinating at all! Hmmm. I began putting a bunch of the seeds in wet paper towels and in a baggy to get them germinated, and those seem to be doing better, but behind! It's always something to work around every year isn't it? I am sure I will get stuff out of them, just later than I had hoped. So far, the items growing the best are the onions and the garlic.

It's a Rainy Day...

2011-04-11T15:18:00.001-04:00

So I have my seeds out, my graph paper out, books, etc and I am making layouts and gluing carrot seeds to napkins (as suggested by Annie's Granny). This did not work out well for me last time, but I am going to give it a shot again and hope it works. I think it was just too hot and dry last time.

Over the weekend DH filled my 2 new boxes and I began transplanting and moving things around. He topped everything off with a little bit of Zoo Poop! Composted of course! We'll see how the zoo poop works for us. Every year in the spring the Louisville Zoo has it's "Zoo Poopy Doo" event to sell compost and mulch as part of a celebration for the Earth. This year is April 2, 9, and 16 if you want to get in on it.

It's all wet and muddy out in the garden right now though. I drew up the layout and where I am planning to plant everything that can be found under Garden Layout and Plans <--here or above. It won't be long and it will be all filled in! Hooray for spring! Even rainy days...

Kentucky Gardening Resources

2011-04-08T19:44:00.001-04:00

As I am preparing for the new gardening season, making charts, planting seeds, and more, I have been putting some of my favorite resources to work. One of my favorites is the Kentucky Gardener magazine, I love the "how to's" and the reminders of what do and when for specific plants. I often stock up on ones the library throws out after it gets a new supply in! Gardening tips are rarely outdated! And, I just got a subscription as a gift, and I couldn't be more excited! Especially since you can only check out the previous month's edition at the library, it doesn't help too much now when you are reading Marches edition in April! Still, I am glad my library carries it, or I would not have known what a wonderful resource it is.

Another invaluable resource to me has been the UK Cooperative Extension Service and the publication that they put out, "Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky."(Louisville) It has everything from how to start your beds to dates and charts to insects and diseases that often do their damage in Kentucky! I have the book folded open to the seed starting charts at this time! I have noticed them offered all kinds of places, including the Y. There is also another publication that is put out around Lexington, "Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky."(Lexington)

And of course the University of Kentucky Insect Files has helped in identifying the good, the bad, and the ugly of our area.

My friend has also let me know about a group called 15Thousand Farmers, I have checked out their website and signed up, but have yet to visit one of their meetings. But it looks like a great program that gets lots of local businesses involved and offering discounts on gardening supplies! I don't know about you but I could always use a discount. They also have workshops, seed trading and all kinds of help and information for growing your own food.

I could list several more invaluable resources that I like to use, but this is all about Kentucky! If you know of good Kentucky resources, I'd love you to share.

Raspberries, Blueberries, and Cranberries!

2011-03-23T14:40:00.003-04:00

It has been a while since I have posted. But this weekend I received my plants and was eager to get them in the ground!

This is a picture of how the area in front of my deck looked last year in June.

Over the weekend dh replaced the lattice around the deck. Much better! Can't wait to get new boards on the top! Soon! After he did that, I dug out about 6 inches along the front and added compost and peat moss with some soil acidifier to prepare the area for planting my Blueberries, cranberry and replant my azaleas, or as my son kept calling them, "cazaleas"!

The arrow on the right points to the tiny little cranberry bush, also pictured below. The other three arrows point to the blueberry bushes. Atlantic, Ivanhoe, and Herbert.

North American Cranberry

I may have planted everything a little too close, we'll see. If so, I guess I will have to do some rearranging again. But I thought that the azaleas would look pretty blooming below the blueberry bushes once they got taller. And yes, my "Cazaleas" look pitiful, I hope my soil amendments will improve them, but they are still alive!

Here is the raspberry bed. I may need to do some adjusting to make this work. Put up some supports. In the bed I have 3 Latham Red, 3 Heritage Red, and 3 Fall Red. I was hoping to get enough variety to get berries for a longer period of time. There are also some carrots seedling sprouting toward the bottom of the picture.

After digging up the area in front of the deck I had a LOT of lily bulbs to find places for. I probably planted more than 30 in various places around the yard and still had a bunch left. Some I gave away to a friend.

A bunch of little ones left here, and a few I hacked. I think I will pot some up and take them to my moms next week. I wish I could plant them all, they are so pretty, but there just isn't room!

Inside the pop up green house all is looking well. In the bed there is garlic, spinach, peas, and chard. In the open tray is onions, and over the weekend, I added the tray with the cover and plant warming pad with tomatoes and peppers.

I am just trying this out, so I hope it works. I may have to bring them in some over the next week though cause it is suppose to get cold overnight for a bit. But I hope this works out better. I seem to run out of room awfully fast with all those tomatoes and peppers in my indoor greenhouse, and not enough light for them all.

The inside greenhouse is doing well also, the basil is hanging on from last year, and there is some thyme and rosemary coming along. More will be planted soon. I need to get more organized with my seed starting!

Well, I hope not to slack too much on my blogging this summer, but you know, with the third little one running around, I am doing good just to be getting my garden started. It was easier last year when the boy didn't move around! Now I actually have to chase him!

Oh The Madness!

2011-02-22T13:49:00.000-05:00

Last week, I mistakenly bought more cabbage seeds when I really needed more Cauliflower seeds. And for some reason I had already gotten a bunch wet. So, I put them on a wet paper towel on a plate and stuck it in a baggy to let them germinate. This is what is left after I put 18 in cell packs seen below! I hate hate hate to waste perfectly good seedlings! I think there will be lots of cabbages planted sporadically all through out my yard this year! Ha ha! And, I have offered some to a friend who will hopefully use some! Let's just say, I still have more outside in containers that I had already planted before I made this oops! Good thing I can freeze cabbage! Plus, I probably shouldn't worry about it too much, cause who knows how many will actually make it!

Adding on to the Garden

2011-02-21T10:19:00.001-05:00

Yesterday my dh and my little garden helper got to work on two new beds to add to the garden. I'm hopeful to get them all filled up soon. They seem so much bigger and I can't wait to fill them up!

Seed Planting updates

2011-02-13T19:31:00.000-05:00

So today was in the lower 60's and a great day to get outside to do a few things. I was excited to get to put some use to my new gardening shoes I got for Christmas! Ladybugs.

DH not only wrote me a beautiful poem for Valentines Day but got me a pop up greenhouse as well!

I tucked some of my seedlings in there, 3 packs of peas, and a pack of spinach. Hope they do alright out there. I didn't harden them. Eh, they are better direct planted anyways, so if they don't make it, I was going to direct seed anyways. But I wanted to make some room in my indoor greenhouse for some more warm weather seedlings and some of the peas were getting too tall for my shelves and lights. I'll plant them in here in a few days when it gets warmer in there, because it is suppose to be a very nice week! 50s and 60s, yippee!

I also decided to follow some fellow bloggers in winter sowing, even though there hopefully is not much winter left! Hope, hope, hope...

I have broccoli, cabbage, Cauliflower, Kale, Chard and Pak Choi in these.

And warning to my fellow gardeners who are as "smart" as I am. I was using a razor blade on these and got distracted and slipped and sliced a thumb. Yep, 7 stitches. So be careful! Needless to say, I used scissors and a drill to finish them up!

Happy Seeding!

Seedlings and more seeds

2011-02-09T19:13:00.000-05:00

I think I am going to run out of room. I have bought more seeds, and I still hope to find a few more. I am going to do some rearranging this year to make room. There might be vegetable plants in the middle of my flower beds as well. My first big rearrangement will be the flower bed in front of my deck.

I plan to take out all the lilies and move them and dig out several inches of soil to amend and plant blueberry bushes there with the azaleas. They should be happy together. I may also put a cranberry bush on the right corner. I definitely do not want to get rid of the beautiful lilies though. I love them! They are so bright and red! I haven't decided where I am going to put them though.

My seedling seem to be doing well. The peas are getting big enough to go out, but it has been pretty cold here lately and I don't think they can handle it. But a warm up is coming so I might get them out soon and use a little cover to protect them as needed.

Some of the peas are nice an tall, so I don't know if it is legginess or not, because another batch is really short and stocky, hidden behind the leggy basil that has had a serious lack of light most the winter. But I do have another light in here now, and hope it helps. Hey, at least they are still alive!

I bought some more seeds here recently. I got some yellow onions and planted them right away. They are just starting to pop out.

Some others that are added to the list of newbies:

Dragon Tongue Bean

Taylor's Dwarf Horticultural bush dry bean

white wonder cucumber

Ruby Queen Sweet corn

Spanish gold onion

borage

Cherokee purple tomato

icicle radish

Where to plant, where to plant... Been working on some garden plans, but it is really hard to get a good idea how everything will go without getting out there. And it has been so darn cold and snowy lately! But hey, at least there is a little spring in my indoor greenhouse!

DDC Wks 8 and 9

2011-02-07T20:38:00.001-05:00

Getting a bit behind in blogging lately with unexpected travel, the winter dragging on and on and on....So, this week I have to catch up on my 2 DDC posts. Last weeks was a tough one. There really isn't much to do with cube steak and having as a local meal made it even harder. We fried it up and had it with green beans. Yep, I am running out of green beans. I have 2 bags left in the freezer! As for cube steak, local or not, it is definitely not something I really enjoy. But dh did a great job frying it up in some local flour. Pretty simple.

This weekend we hit the farmer's market and noticed some baggies of dried beans, so I thought pork and beans! Dh bought some pork loins and a package of bacon to go with our dried beans. I started all of it on low in the crock pot this morning, beans on the bottom, then the pork loin topped with a few strips of bacon all covered in water. I added some garlic, salt and Bourbon Barrel Pepper about an hour before it was ready. It was done just in time for dinner and the baby boy and I loved it! So, we packaged some up and took some warm over to DH at work for his dinner! Thought it would be better than a can of soup! It does look like mush, but it sure was delicious! Tender and juicy and full of flavor!

DDC Wk 7

2011-01-24T11:27:00.000-05:00

Ky Bison "Ugly" Sirloin, Butternut squash, and roasted potatoes.

We now know why they are called "ugly" and cheap. They had a lot of grizzle. Not just fatty, but grizzly. While the Ky Bison is very good, we won't buy the "ugly" again. That is what we get for trying to be cheap! Ha! The squash was super yummy. I again drizzled it with KY Sorghum, and also some local honey, salt, pepper and some red pepper flaks. Could have used more pepper flakes, didn't really taste 'em. I topped the steak again with my Capriole Goat Cheese/butter/garlic/dried tomatoes mixture and it was, again, good! It is pretty snowy here for KY so they aren't getting too many vegetables out at the farm. Potatoes and squash were my only choices. I was kind of hoping for some parsnips. Maybe next week.

Seeds have been started and we are hoping to get more growing soon to add some variety to our local winter meals. Around here we should definitely be getting something growing before the end of our challenge in April! I guess it all depends on how long winter wants to hang on, and it isn't looking too good the way this winter has been going! Maybe since it started so early it will leave early! I can hope...

Seed Starting January 21, 2011

2011-01-21T12:59:00.001-05:00

Today the kids and I started seeds. Alaskan, Lincoln, and Super Sugar Snap peas. Thyme, Rosemary, Cabernet Onions and bunching onions, and spinach.

The basil is still going as well, though not too strong. I did however get a HO light that is in there but still needs a bulb, which I plan to do in the next couple of days. I hope this will help us get through the next few seed starting months. Please, please, please! I hope it works out! I don't want all my seedlings to die out this year like they did last year!

Although I do have so much planned I hope I am going to have enough room. I am thinking about taking the cooler weather stuff out to the garage with the 4ft shop light to make more room.

Here are some of the new comers I can't wait to get started!

-Goldie Husk Cherry

-Matt’s Wild Cherry Tomato

-Sugar Buns Corn

-Robust Popcorn (popcorn)

-Red Russian Kale

-Cabernet Red onion

-Javelin Parsnips

-Lipstick Pepper

-Da Cheong Chae Pak Choi

-Summer Ball Pumpkin

-Thyme

-Rosemary

-Black Cherry Tomato (thanks EG)

-Brandywine Tomato (thanks EG)

I still plan to get blueberry, cranberry and raspberry bushes.

I was very blessed this Christmas with some great gardening gifts, including seeds, garden shoes, a digital scale, plant label markers and more! They will get lots of use this season!

DDC Wk 6

2011-01-20T10:36:00.000-05:00

DH made week 6's challenge. He made it before we had to leave on a last minute trip to Colorado. So, I am getting it up kind of late!

This was roasted potatoes, eggs with goat cheese, spinach, and dried tomatoes. And he tried to make sweet potato hash browns but they turned out like mashed sweet potatoes. They were still good. Maybe there is a trick to it! It was all very yummy! We are very happy that the farmers market and the farm are open again!

And, over the Christmas break, Foxhollow Farm gutted their store and remodeled the inside and it is so nice! Very cozy. A nice place for sitting. A counter top where they cook up a few samplings, a place to socialize and have coffee, all while picking up your local foods! It really is beautiful and maybe I'll get a picture for next time!

DDC Wk 5-Ribeye and Green Beans w/ Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Butter

2011-01-07T20:50:00.000-05:00

Yes, green beans are getting a bit old. The farmer's market and the farm are still closed, until tomorrow. This week I was lucky enough to get some meat from a friend who has her own farm. They had a cow butchered recently and she knew of the challenge I was doing and offered a couple of cuts to me!

Since I was not able to get any other vegetables it was frozen green beans from our garden again with our steak and I really needed to think up something good to do with our meal. Looked online for some ideas and came up with my little butter and goat cheese concoction.

I had these dried Juliet tomatoes just looking for a use! So, I put some butter(margarine) and goat cheese in the food processor with some garlic. Put some oil on the tomatoes and popped in the microwave for 30 seconds, then added it to the food processor. It turned out super yummy! I loved it! I think dh thought I put too much garlic in it, but seriously, can you ever have too much garlic? Ahh, maybe. I put it on some plastic wrap and rolled it up and put it in the fridge to solidify. Then put a slice on the ribeye and a slice on the beans. Wonder what else I can do with it?

I got the goat cheese a few weeks ago at the farmers market from Capriole Farm. I did not make my own butter...though that is something I would be interested in learning to do at least once! It wasn't real butter anyways, just a vegetable oil spread.

I am finding myself dreaming of spring and all the new seeds I will be starting. I can hardly wait to get them started. The seed catalogs have been out, I got a gift certificate for Johnny's and I have already used it and I am impatiently awaiting the package in the mail! So much new stuff this year! Been working on plans for the garden as well. Trying to use my "Carrots Love Tomatoes" book to plan my companion plantings in hopes of reducing the pests this year! We'll see how it goes.

The farmer's market and the farm open up again tomorrow! I will be glad to have something other than green beans to show you!

DDC Week 4-Chicken and green beans

2010-12-30T10:46:00.000-05:00

Between Christmas and being sick this week, we really had a throw together whatever we could find meal. I had gotten a whole Chicken at the Bardstown Road Farmers Market from Schacht farm the last time I was there. I had planned to go to the farm nearby to get some spinach and something else to have a spinach and goat cheese stuffed chicken, but, seems all farms and farmers markets are closed until January. So, I threw the chicken in the crockpot and added some frozen green beans from my garden and that was dinner! Simple and not really enough! Ahh, better plan better next time!

The chicken was very tender and the whole thing fell apart at the touch of a utensil. But, it was a bit dry. Not the best of my dark days meals. Looks good though, doesn't it? Well, I have many more chances to come up with something great! I'll just keep trying!

DDC Week 3-Bison Burger

2010-12-20T09:35:00.001-05:00

This is where our dinner came from this week! Kentucky Bison Co. The farm is right down the road from us. We don't usually get to see the bison out, they are often over the hill or somewhere unseen. But as we were driving home from church yesterday, they were out in the field closest to the road and I got a few good pictures! They are pretty neat to show the kids too.

Here are my ingredients for dinner. Lettuce and canned tomatoes, and dried ground hot peppers from my garden, fresh tomato from Conrad Hambley farms, Garlic from Field Day family farm, Honey and potatoes from Byrnside Orchard. Cheese from Cloverdale Creamery at Stone Cross Farm. And the Bison, from Kentucky Bison Co.

I used my canned tomatoes to make some ketchup. I added the honey, apple cider vinegar, some of my dried ground pepper and the garlic, pureed and simmered it. Turned out good, but not really like ketchup. Dh said it tasted more like a bbq sauce. Ahh, worth a try. It tasted good on the burger.

I also made the rolls and buns. I can get local flour but by the time I thought about it, I did not have time. They turned out good. I roasted the potatoes in the oven with olive oil, salt and Bourbon Smoked Pepper. And we grilled the burgers on the charcoal grill seasoned with the Bourbon Smoked Pepper as well.

This meal was great as well. This was the first time I have tried the KY Bison. Dh gets it at the 'local' restaurant down the road when we eat there, and I knew he liked it. Turns out I did too. I was afraid it was going to have kind of a wild flavor, but it didn't. It tasted slightly different than beef and is said to have much less fat than beef. This meal was a thumbs up for me! It wasn't as successful for the kids this week though! They find the pepper a bit spicy. They did eat most of it though, even though not too willingly! But hey, their 4, we can't expect anything less!

If you want to see the recap for of my meals and other folks in my group (3) who have taken up the challenge visit (not so) Urban Hennery

Dark Days Challenge Week 2

2010-12-08T20:30:00.004-05:00

This weeks meal was absolutely delicious! I thought I had all the raw ingredients here in my picture before I began, but I forgot to put the apples and cheese in!

This weeks challenge took me to the Bardstown Road Farmers market. Bardstown Rd in Louisville is known for it's many local businesses and it isn't surprising that this is where the only market is that is open all year long! Eli and I braved our first snow of the season and ventured out on the roads with all those crazy drivers to get to the farmers market! This is dedication I tell you! ;)

Surprisingly enough, even in the snow, there were plenty of vendors, though I don't think there were as many as intended to be there. I went to the farmers market's website and signed up for their newsletter and every week they send me a list of vendors that intend to be there and what they will be offering! How convenient is that?!

Well onto the food! I took $20 bucks to the farmers market intending to only spend that much! I bought some apples, broccoli and butternut squash from Conrad Hambley Farm of Corydon, IN. Their apples came from Huber farm though, which is out that same direction. I got some garlic from Field Day Family Farm of Louisville, and I had $7 left. So, I went up to Dream Catcher Farm and asked what I could get for $7 and he gave me a deal on some pork chops!

I also stopped at the fruit market and picked up some 'Cowbells in Clover' Cheese (raw) from Cloverdale Creamery of Taylorsville, KY. And some Sweet Kentucky Sorghum from Bourbon Barrel foods. I pan fried the Pork Chops using the Bourbon Smoked pepper I picked up last week. I baked the squash and apples after letting them sit in the Sweet Kentucky Sorghum for a bit. I steamed up the Broccoli and shredded the cheese on top. This meal was sooooo yummy! I was very pleased with everything we tried and how we prepared it, even though I had fully intended to grill much of it! And the best part...the kids loved it! They ate in record time, the whole meal! The boy was a little more difficult than the girl, but overall, they did great! First meal in a while that I didn't have to keep dragging them back to the table telling them to eat their food or else! Ha ha!

Dark Days Challenge Week 1

2010-12-05T18:59:00.002-05:00

Bourbon Smoked Pepper Roast

This weeks Dark Days Challenge took me to Foxhollow Farm where I picked out the easiest thing. Beef Roast, carrots and potatoes! While I was browsing I noticed a Bourbon Smoked Pepper and thought it might make a good seasoning for my roast. Who doesn't think of bourbon when they think of Kentucky, right? It smells so yummy, like beef jerky! Bet it would be good on some smoked jerky too!

I also used up the rest of my tomatoes that turned on the window sill.

These are the goods from the farm. I discovered Foxhollow is very close and I have passed by it several times never knowing it was there! They had quite a few local items including meat and produce from their own farm and other local farm items such as eggs, flour, seasonings, fish, cheese and milk. It will be a great resource through out this challenge since they stay open all winter!

I put the potatoes, tomatoes, roast and some garlic (I found at the Bardstown Road Farmers Market from Field Day Family Farm) all in the crock pot to simmer all day! Doesn't it look yummy!

Then I roasted the carrots in the oven with a little oil for about 20 minutes each side. Yummy, they were the best part of the meal. So sweet and tender! We made a nice candle lit dinner out of it! Then the kids ruined it because they wouldn't eat any of it, well, dd ate a few carrots!

I have to admit, I felt like a lost child when I walked into the Farm store. They had a decent amount of stuff to choose from, but trying to figure out an entire meal knowing it had to be entirely from scratch to meet the challenge was a bit intimidating. You really have to know your recipes to know what you can do with what they have. It will get easier I'm sure, as I get to know the store and what they have and whatever else I can find locally.

For next weeks meal, which will only be in a few days, I visited the farmers market for the first time. I will be doing something with pork chops, squash, broccoli and apples! Come back and see what I come up with!

Last Harvest Monday 2010

2010-11-29T09:13:00.001-05:00

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We spent our Thanksgiving at home, just us. It was nice and a bit relaxing. I still made the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, including Pumpkin Pie. I used the last of my pumpkin from the garden for these two pies, and they didn't last 2 days! Out of the five of us, only the girl does not like pumpkin pie! Crazy! Even the baby LOVED it! I let him have some for breakfast! Ha!

Well, this is the last Harvest picture of 2010! A good freeze and snow was predicted for Thanksgiving night, which was funny cause we had the windows open all day on Thanksgiving. But, I picked everything I could when we had a break in the rain. The chard has been used already!

Last of the lettuce, Chard, baby spinach a pea and a couple cilantro sprigs.

The spinach never did get very big, but surely still edible.

Spinach and cilantro

Day after Thanksgiving.

girl in the snow as it is melting.

Well, it has been a great Harvest year! I'm excited for the next. As for this year though, the garden has ended just in time for my new challenge. The Dark Days Challenge. Hope you will continue to check back and see how I am doing with that.

This weeks harvest:

1 gallon bag lettuce

1 small bunch chard

3 sprigs cilantro

1 pea

1 small bunch spinach

My season may be done, but others are still going strong! Check them out at Daphne's Dandelions!

Happy Harvesting

Eat Local?

2010-11-27T20:52:00.000-05:00

Even if you knew me personally, you probably still would not know that I did not grow up a city girl. But city girl I have become. I have to admit, I did not know the meaning of "locavore" and had to look it up.(Someone who is passionate about eating local!) I am more of one that loves to see all the different things in the grocery stores from every place and country you can think of. I was spoiled in Houston, TX. I could practically find anything I wanted! The diversity of people and their food is huge there. That is why this 4th Annual Dark Days challenge really will be quite the challenge for us! The challenge is to eat one meal a week during the dark days of winter completely local! And it starts this coming week.

You would think this would not be so hard for me, coming from a family that is almost completely self sufficient. My grandparents, who live in northern Michigan part of the year, and south Florida the other part, almost entirely eat only what they raise, kill, catch or grow. I often think about this and admire it, especially that they still do it in their 80's. I think some of it is out of necessity but much of it is out of their own joy of doing it themselves. My grandmother grows a garden, cans her vegetables, raises chickens for meat and eggs. My grandfather hunts and fishes and helps my gramma with the heavy labor. Yes, it is old fashioned. But it works for them. It is quite different than the way most of us live. They plan to have their freezers full before the end of summer to get them through winter. They depend on the fish they catch and the deer they kill.

And, believe it or not, when I was young, I did much of those things, including raise chickens, ducks and a few other animals here and there. We had a pig we raised solely for the meat we would put in our freezer. My dad still raises cows for their beef. And we occasionally had a garden as well.

When I learned about this challenge, the end of the growing season was already here. I was able to can or freeze a few things, but definitely not enough to get us through this challenge. So I will definitely be doing a little leg work and research to find what I need to make a meal once a week that is Sustainable, Organic, Local, and Ethical. Those are the guidelines.

I have never been passionate about eating local. I don't buy organic, it's too expensive. But I do have a garden that I try to grow completely organic, and hope that it continues to grow in variety each year in order to provide for our family good, local, organic food! I do feel better giving them food that I know is completely chemical free!

So, let the challenge begin. This week, I will be checking out a local farm to see what they have to offer and if it is enough to make an entire meal! Check back soon to see what I come up with! It ought to be interesting. Once a week from December 1st, 2010 to April 15th, 2011!

Progression of my Vegetable Garden

2010-11-23T18:58:00.000-05:00

We moved into our house in May 2007. I knew the first thing I wanted to do was have a garden. Even though it was crazy busy with 1 yr old twins moving into our first home I still planted tomatoes. I bought a couple and I planted a few seeds straight out of a tomato I liked! I had 5 good tomato plants that year. I planted them right where the previous owners had laid a makeshift brick basketball court! I pulled out just a few bricks and planted the seeds or plants right in their spaces!

That fall, one of Dh's coworkers came to take all the grape vines and blackberry bushes that took up this entire garden area seen below! While it would be nice to have grapes, I am not a fan of blackberries and I really wanted a nice big vegetable garden with a nice assortment! We did have a HUGE blackberry harvest that year in 2007 though. I spent hours picking them.

This was my first real garden in 2008! I had tons of tomatoes, lots of cabbage, lots of cantaloupe and I HAD PUMPKINS! I also had some peppers, broccoli, cilantro and a few other things. Cucumbers did NOT take off that year. Not one! They really do grow much better on a trellis in my short experience!

2008 Garden

That winter I went to the library and checked out every garden book and Kentucky Gardener magazine I could find! I didn't have internet that year. I really wanted to go bigger, better, and a bit easier! And I wanted to learn everything I could about gardening, bugs, companion plants and organic gardening!

The next year, 2009, we started our square foot gardens. We had them all set up, just like I had read. We even got a great deal on some mulch and got it all laid out nicely. It looked SO NICE! I was so proud.

Summer 2009

Then, 2 weeks later, this happened! My garden area gets water running thru it in 2 different directions, from the neighbors and from our front yard, right down the center of the garden! Washed all of our hard work away! It still did well though, I had tons of tomatoes, cucumbers, some serranos, 1 small sugar pumpkin. It may not have looked as nice, but it sure was producing.

Summer 2009, 2 weeks Later

Every year the garden grows! 2010, we built a 6th raised bed! In total we have 96 sq ft of raised beds on less than 1/3 of and acre in a subdivision!

The garden did really well this year, except for cucumbers and pumpkins, I started seedlings in March and the garden is still going in Mid November! My garden is ADDICTIVE! Once you start, it only grows! The addiction and the plants! I think about my garden all year around! This is my 4th child! Not just the vegetable garden though. I LOVE flowers too! I strive to make the perfect landscape and it is a lot of trial and error.

Mid Summer 2010

Fall 2010

Fall 2010 after the cleanup

I've learned a lot over the past 3 years. Much of it due to my fellow Garden Blogger Friends! Thanks for all you share on your blogs! And I love to share my garden with you! I don't know what I would do without an outlet such as this to share my excitement. I think I would drive my non gardening friends nuts!

Happy Gardening!

Harvest Monday-Coming down to the End

2010-11-22T11:13:00.001-05:00

It is coming close to the end of our 2010 garden. I'll probably be picking the rest of the lettuce here soon, and the Chard is about done. I'm still hoping for more peas and some sugar snap peas, and some spinach but they are coming along slowly and there really isn't much. The garden looks bare.

Yesterday, I picked a bit of lettuce and a bit of chard and a few peas. That's it for this week!

Last week I canned up those last tomatoes and what wouldn't fit in the jars I made some soup for DH. First time I ever made tomato soup, but he said he liked it. I steamed up some carrots, added some basil and garlic and chicken broth and put it all in the Magic Bullet! Nice and smooth and creamy.

This weeks Harvest:

1 small bunch lettuce

1 small bunch chard

4 pea pods.

Check out Daphne's Dandelions to see what other gardeners are harvesting this week!

Happy Harvesting!

ETA:

I did have a few more tomatoes ripening up.

Harvest Monday - Same old, Same old!

2010-11-15T11:20:00.000-05:00

It's Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions. These are whats left of the tomatoes. Those green ones in the basket probably are not going to ripen, but that is all that is left of the big pile on my counter and window sill! I will probably get the red ones canned up today if my children allow me to!

Today, I have Chard and Lettuce out of the garden. I have 3, maybe 4 kinds of lettuce here. I know one of them is "peanut" Buttercrunch. I am guessing the wider one. The other wide one is more crinkly, so I don't know if it is also a Buttercrunch or something else. If anyone knows the other ones on the right, please help me ID them.

I made a nice salad with the last bunch, with walnuts and dried cranberries. This one I put a cranberry walnut dressing on, but I didn't like it as much as I like Raspberry vinaigrette on this salad. I also enjoy it with sliced almonds or pecans! Yum!

The garlic is growing! There are about 10 total! 4 here.

We decided to start our own leaf compost bin! It still needs some sides...It should be pretty full once we get the back yard cleaned up! My only worry is this area back around the shed is just full of ants. Freaky full! I hope that it heats up enough and that turning it often will keep them out! And it is kind of shady back their, it is under a maple, so I hope that doesn't become a problem.

Spinach is starting to grow a bit. It is all bunched up together. I did try to plant it spaced out, but it just all washed up together I guess.

I have 2 Cilantro still going. Guess he does like colder weather! I grew it in the summer before. Must have been an odd summer.

So, I have a new use for my chard which we love...smoothies! Ha! One of our other favorites is on Pizza! One night I steamed it on top of some steamed strawberries and pears that I was making for baby. He loved it and I thought it was pretty good too! Gave it a nice sweet and fruity flavor! His was pureed of course. I froze some up and he eats a a couple of thawed cubes ever couple of days!

This weeks Harvest:

1 Bunch Chard

1 Bunch Lettuce

29 Tomatoes ripened on the sill!

25 Juliet tomatoes ripened on the sill!

Don't forget to check out the other harvests at Daphne's!

November Garden and Smoothies!

2010-11-13T13:20:00.000-05:00

The November garden sure is small! But there are still things coming out of it occasionally!

Lettuce is still going. I am lucky to have any at all. This is the bed the critter likes best, and the one in the corner there. I have found animal waste in the beds a couple of times. Cat? Possum? who knows! I never catch it! I am too busy sleeping!

Sugar snap peas almost to the top of the trellis, but no peas yet! The peas on the other trellis have given me a few. I planted a lot of Lincoln and Alaska peas, but not many took and the ones that did aren't this high. Guess they did not like our warm fall! There is some chard down there too!

Sugar Snap Pea flower!

I do have a little spinach growing too. But it is growing super slow and I don't know if I will get any before it gets too cold for it.

My kids love yogurt and berry smoothies, and after reading about Green Smoothies on Our Happy Acres, it gave me the idea to add some green to our smoothies! I have some Chard to find some uses for, so why not! Ya, their not green like Villager's! They might have turned their nose up at that! But these were good, and any extra green is good if you ask me! My kids are pretty good about eating their veggies anyway!

Eli's was made with Coconut Milk Yogurt, blueberries and greens due to his intolerance of dairy! He loved it and was mad when it was gone!

So, thanks for the idea Villager!

Harvest Monday November 8, 2010

2010-11-08T09:10:00.000-05:00

Finished picking the peppers last week before we got 20's over night. Seems like it went strait from warm to cold!

A pile of Chard and about a gallon size bag stuffed full of lettuce!

The tomatoes that have ripened so far. There are about 30 left on the window sill. I canned these the other day with what I had in the freezer waiting to be canned.

Today I am working on bringing my indoor greenhouse out by a window. It just didn't do well in the laundry room last year. I think it needs all the extra light it can get! I will be putting my basil plants in there and maybe some other cuttings. And of course seedlings will be started in the spring in there!

Don't forget to check out Daphne's Dandelions for more on what is being harvested this time of the year!

This weeks Harvest:

16 Tomatoes

30 + Juliets, it's really hard to count when my dear daughter keeps eating them right out of the basket as they ripen!

1 Gallon size bag of Lettuce

1 bunch Chard.

Garden Clean Up and Canning

2010-11-07T17:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I took all the tomatoes out of the freezer that I had been saving all summer, and a good portion of my tomatoes that are ripening on the window and counter and started canning. Not a huge turn out for this summer. Seven pints. I might still get 1 or 2 more from the 30 tomatoes I have left ripening.

Today, I cleaned out the garden bed. All that is left is peas, lettuce, chard and spinach. I picked a lot of the lettuce the other night before a night in the 20's. The rest of it appears to be ok for now.

All cleaned up. The tomatoes are pulled. The only box with a grid on it has some garlic shooting up! Yay!

I pulled all the frost killed plants, mostly Impatiens, and dug up the Dahlia's. I rinsed them off good, dried them in the sun and put them in paper bags with sawdust from all of our recent tree trimming!

It was a hard days work while hubby was dragging tree limbs to the front for the chipper! I pulled plants, removed the lattice from the patio...it was in pretty rough shape. Turned all the soil in the beds, raked up around the beds and moved some bricks and rocks. Then finished off by trimming the front bushes! Whew! All this while little Eli watched! He was not too happy by the time we came in.

Harvest Monday Nov 1, 2010!

2010-11-01T10:05:00.002-04:00

By October 16th last year the garden was completely cleared out and done for the season and I was getting ready to have my little baby boy. But this year, it is November 1st and I still have a pretty full garden!

The other day, I had picked this whole bucket of green tomatoes and peppers before frost, and a couple of pea pods. I got it all cleaned up and laying about hoping for it to ripen!

After a few days, a lot of the hot peppers had changed colors to orange or red. Very pretty aren't they? I also had several Juliet grape tomatoes and a few slicing tomatoes and potted up my spicy globe basil in a beautiful pot that I received flowers in for mothers day!

I won't even show you a picture of the destroyed hot peppers we TRIED to smoke! They were burnt to a crisp! We'll try again!

The beds out there have a decent amount of Chard and lettuce!

My daughter eating chard like a sucker! She ate 2, crazy girl!

And the birthday boy(Tuesday), how he loves his squash! ;)

No, these are not our own home grown pumpkins, sadly! And, it is really only one. There are a couple more uncarved ones on the porch.

It isn't even from the farm we like to go to. We got rained out for Eli's birthday and ended up buying pumpkins at the big box garden store. booo!

This week from the garden:

22 bell peppers

5 Jalapeños (that we burnt to a crisp!)

23 Habanero peppers

41 serrano peppers

3 pea pods

5 ripened tomatoes so far

36 ripened Juliet grape tomatoes so far

Lettuce 1 bunch

Chard (6 stems)

I should also mention that I planted garlic this week for the first time. I hope it goes well!

Don't forget to check out Daphne's Dandelions for more fall harvests!

The 1st Birthday Cake

2010-10-29T12:57:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-28T16:10:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-25T14:16:00.000-04:00

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...

2010-10-21T11:54:00.002-04:00

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

2010-10-20T21:28:00.001-04:00

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

2010-10-18T11:41:00.001-04:00

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

2010-10-11T09:19:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-05T10:37:00.000-04:00

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!