Wednesday, October 21, 2009

All set for a long winters nap


Well, this is it for this season me, Tam and the kids cleaned up the rest of the garden last week. We got it all tilled up, or I should say that Teejay got it all tilled up and ready to go for next year. He did an awesome job except for that one time he chased Tam with the tiller by mistake. Larissa cut everything up small to go into the compost and saved all the seeds coming off the spent flowers. Only thing in the garden now is the brussel sprouts and they are looking mighty good. I have taken all the herbs and broke them down into smaller plants and brought them inside. We will see how they do. So far they look ok except for the basil looks a little wimpy.
The spring bulbs have been planted and this year everything is marked so no surprises next year, Maybe! All that is left to do is feed the birds and turn the compost. speaking of which, I so need to get a composter. Right now I have two bins made from wooden pallets and it works great but with the garden I generate a lot of compost and I can't get it to compost fast enough. I'm looking to get one of those tumbler ones maybe. If anyone has a thought on this let me know.
One good thing we can use the porch now. We have actually put two camp chairs and a small table out there to sit at on nice days. We had lunch out there today. I need to stop using this porch as a work porch and use it to enjoy the yard from. Next Year!!!!!!!
So it is good bye for now and see you in January, no planting but a lot of thinking going on at that time, probably will start the seedlings the end of Feb to mid March. Thanks to everyone who has read the blog and has left comments it was fun keeping track of the garden this way. Have a Happy Holidays and a safe and warm winter.



Monday, September 7, 2009

ALL COMES TO A FULL CIRCLE


Well things are starting to wind down now. The pumpkins & squash are ready to harvest and be put to bed for the season. The beans & tomatoes are still producing but are starting to slow also. We just pulled up the last of our carrots. It's sad but also gives promise to the new season coming and using the lessons we learned from this season.
My niece has been helping me in the garden for the past few weeks. We are learning together and hopefully she will help me plan next years garden and be more active in it. I have really enjoyed seeing her work in the garden.
Here you can see my niece Larissa harvesting some green beans. These beans are actually growing out of the back of the compost. We never planted these beans. There is a weird shaped tomato plant growing out of the side of the other bin. As I was saying she is learning to garden and last week I was showing her how to deadhead some flowers and what it means to do that and that the flowers will actually grow back better. So, I gave her a pair of clippers and set her to work on some mums that are in the front window boxes. I was working around the corner. I could hear her clipping away and then she said to me "boy aunt Shari there were a lot of dead flowers on these". As I rounded the corner and looked to see what was going on I had to laugh because all that was left of the mums in the window boxes was green stems and some buds. They have been completely DEADHEADED AL RIGHT!!!!!!!
So I'll end this blog for now. I'll add some pictures on the end but please take a look at the slide show it is a log in it self on how the summer went this year.

Monday, August 17, 2009

The beautiful bounty and hot, hot weather

It is August and everything is fruiting. I can't keep up with the harvest. It is a lot of fun watching everything grow. We have been trying to either freeze, dry or can the extras so we can have our home grown veggies during the winter. Here are some pictures of the bountiful harvest.



The new hot, humid weather has been a god sent but also a menace causing some issues with powdery mildew. Giving the squash a good trimming (leaves with the mildew) to help with air circulation and a mixture of milk and water sprayed on the rest should help clear things up in a jiffy. Things look a little raggedy during the hot day but they get a little more perky with the coolness of the evening. I did lose one tomatoe to late blight but I'm keeping a close eye on the rest and so far so good. The mystery plant growing in the carrots we figured out to be a very large spagetti squash. It is pictured above the big white sqaush. It suddenly started to grow out of the row of carrots. Must have been a seed in the compost.
The herbs are taking off now. I have been drying most in them but have thrown some of it in the freezer. The dehydrator helps a lot to get alot of the herbs dried at once. I have found that it is best to dry only one type at a time though. It smells so good in the house when we are drying them.

The flowers are loving this hot, humid weather. Some of the sunflowers are taking off. I will leave off her with a few more pictures of the garden. Please check the slide presentation for 2009 garden and see all the various pictures of the garden. It is a lot of hard work but done with love.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Fruits of our labor



As you can see above the fruiting has started. We are already harvesting Zukes and summer squash. The pumpkins and spaghetti squash are doing well also. The cukes not so much, I'm still not sure if they are going to produce. The Roma are a little smaller than I thought but it has been an off season.


The Flowers are loving this weather, they are just going crazy. All in all the yard is looking pretty good considering the interesting summer weather.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Our very wet & neglected garden

As we all know it has been freakishly wet this summer. Things are a little slow to grow but they are getting there. As you can see some of the squash, cherry & roma tomatoes are fruiting.



We do have an abundance of lettuce and blueberries. We had to drape the blueberries with some garden cloth because a flock of Bluejays showed up and was eating all the blueberries. THE REBELS


All the veggies are starting to take off. The beans are growing tall, the squash are learning to climb the trellis and the radish are on the second seeding. The beets & carrots are not quite ready but they are working on it. The herbs have already had a clipping but are giving out more and more each day


The flowers have gone a little wild but that is ok they are still very pretty.



Sunday, July 5, 2009

Rain, Rain, what to do with the Rain


Well as everyone knows it has been raining just about every day since the beginning of June. The garden is a little water logged. I haven't lost anything yet but things aren't growing as fast or as well as they usually do. I expect that once the sun makes an appearance things will start to pick up. We have been able to harvest some radishes, tons of lettuce and some of the herbs but my Early Girl tomatoes have yet to produce anything. They are flowering but no toms yet. So far this is how things look. I also updated the slides on the side.