Apples Apples Everywhere!

Fall is nearly upon us, and at our house, that means one thing - the apples are falling off the tree! We have a decent size tree with the weirdest apples I have ever encountered.  First, they are normally HUGE, but this year's are about half the usual size.  Here are a couple next to a pint-size Mason jar for comparison.  

Second, they are the mushiest apples I have ever encountered.  They have a strangely astringent flavor, and (in my opinion) are terrible to eat raw, though my daughter claims to love them (though she won't eat more than a few bites at a time).   If you try to put them in a pie, they basically dissolve.  I can fill an 8x8 pan to make a crisp, and by the time it's done cooking it's totally flat (though delicious once cooked!). 

We're actually going to cut this tree down after the season, because we're going to plant several different varieties of dwarf fruit trees that will be easier to prune and give us more fruit varieties than just the one apple tree.  So this year, we're going all out on the apple usage and preservation.

So far, I've made about nine quarts of applesauce, with about six and a half currently in the freezer, and another pot is on the stove as I write this.

I bought some Clear Jel to make apple pie filling.  Yes, the apples will cook down to mush, but this is my husband's favorite waffle topping, and I haven't made it since I found out you're not supposed to can with cornstarch (yes, I canned with cornstarch, and no, we didn't die, but no, I'm not going to do it anymore now that I know it's not safe).  This will probably happen next weekend.

I'm trying my hand at apple cider vinegar from scratch.  I took some of the apple cores and peelings and will follow these instructions.

Cores and peels, just waiting for the water.

I'll cook some of the applesauce down to make apple butter.  I love it on toast in the winter time - so warm and cozy!

We also love apples in baked oatmeal (this is a great recipe), and these apple walnut butterhorns (minus the walnuts, as I'm not a fan). 

And, of course, we eat lots of apple crisp.  It's one of my husband's favorite desserts - with or without ice cream! 

Are you a fan of apple season?  What's your favorite recipe?

In the Garden

I harvested the first of the radishes last week.  They were delicious - very mild.  This year I planted two kinds - French Breakfast and Amythest, because they tend to be less spicy than some other varieties.  I don't mind the spice, but the rest of my family prefers them on the mild side.  With these, I sauteed the greens in olive oil with spinach and garlic, and served the radishes on a veggie plate.  When I have a bigger harvest, I'll roast them - I love roasted radishes!

It's been too wet and I've been too busy to do much in the garden the last couple of weeks.  Everything we've planted is coming up nicely.  The lettuce is taking its own sweet time, though - I think I may have to come up with something to cloche them.  I have two beds completely planted and I'm saving the third for the things that will be planted after the soil warms up a bit more.

The herbs are going strong - this weekend we harvested some rosemary and chives to sprinkle on goat cheese sandwiches, and I put some rosemary and parsley in a pot of vegetable soup.

This coming weekend I'll need to put a layer of dirt over the potatoes.  They're growing like wildfire!

Last week I was reading an article about intensively planting fruit trees.  It said you can plant dwarf varieties as close as 24 inches apart and the competition will keep them small and more manageable.  I'd love to get some peach and pear trees in my yard, so I just might try that!  I want to put in a grape vine or two, also. We're talking about adding a slightly raised bed to the front yard so I may wait for that and put a couple out there with a decorative trellis. 

What's growing in your garden?

In the Garden

I am LOVING our raised beds.  Seriously.  We've taken all the backbreaking work out of the vegetable garden. 

Spring has unquestionably arrived here in Zone 8, and I spent most of the weekend in the garden.  The seeds I planted a few weeks ago are all up and doing great. 

This weekend, in the front yard I:

 - cleaned out the dead canes from the raspberries.  I've never done that before (this is year three for raspberries) and they look so much better!
 - ripped out the Spanish lavender (we killed it - I don't know if it was because we pruned it back too far or if it froze, or maybe both) and planted mint and chamomile.  These are in half barrels on the strip between the sidewalk and the street.  Someone remind me not to let the mint go to seed, please!
 - added parsley, blue hyssop, thyme, dock, and sage to the herb beds.
 - added 10 more strawberry plants to our strawberry beds.
 - my five year old, who doesn't follow my "edibles only" philosophy, added a nasturtium and a pansy to one of her flower barrels and planted entire seed packets of cosmos and purple coneflowers to another barrel.  This could be interesting...

In the backyard vegetable garden I:
 - harvested the rest of the green onions I planted in the fall (there were a TON). 
 - planted tomatoes, tomatillos, kohlrabi, turnips, radishes, peas, celery (we've never grown celery before), shallots, and pac choi. 

Two vegetable garden beds and all of the backyard half barrels are now full.  I have one more bed left to plant (except for the garlic already occupying one corner) and we will build two more beds this spring.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how we do this year!

What's growing at your house?

In the Garden

Here we are, almost to the end of March, and I'm finally getting around to starting my garden.  Only a month later than usual!  Once the cold snap was over we had nothing but rainy weekends for a while so I didn't get out there.  But it appears that spring has sprung, and we're ready to get started.

Last weekend I did some cleanup.  I'm pretty sure the olive tree and my bay plant didn't survive the 17 degree lows we had in January (that's really low for this area).  But I'm going to let them go for now and see what happens.  My Spanish lavender was taking over the sidewalk (we have four planted in half barrels and they were about five feet wide), so we cut them all the way back last summer.  ALL the way back.  I was assured by more than one person that this could be done, they've done it before, and everything turned out just fine.  Well there's no sign of growth on any of them so I think we may have overdone it.  But I'll leave them be for a couple of months and see what happens.

Once again, I didn't get the raspberries cut back (I really need to figure out when that's supposed to happen), but they've come back in full force in spite of my neglect. Really, I just need to plant things that thrive on neglect.  Neglecting plants is what I do best.  I'll try to get into the raspberries to cut back the dead canes at some point, but if I don't I'm not too worried about it.

Yesterday we pruned the apple tree, and not a moment too soon.  It was already leafing out.  Seems like no matter when we do it it's always just in the nick of time.

Last weekend I also checked out the raised beds.  The garlic is coming along beautifully, and somehow some carrots and green onions survived the winter.  The carrots are tiny but if I remember correctly, they're supposed to be.  My daughter and I planted lettuce, kohlrabi, beets, carrots, and radishes last weekend.

Today, the sun is shining and it's another glorious day, and I'm going back outside.  Yesterday I picked up some seed potatoes, so I'm going to start them in a couple of half barrels.  I also put in some Walla Walla onion sets yesterday.   Today I'm going to put in peas.  I'll wait another week or two before I plant another round of the veggies I planted last week - if I space them out I should have a steady stream through the spring and summer.

In a couple of weeks my new fig tree should arrive.  My parents got me one for my birthday - it's a dwarf so I can plant it in a half barrel.  If you haven't noticed, I'm a HUGE fan of half barrels.  We have very heavy clay soil and I hate digging big holes, so if I can plant it above ground, all the better.  Of course, that seems to have backfired with the freeze we had this year...

What are your garden plans for this year?  Have you started growing yet?

The New Garden

I've been a vegetable gardener for years.  The last few, however, my ambition has left me and I haven't given the garden the attention it deserves.  So this year, we decided to go 100% raised beds.  My amazing hubby has built three beds so far - we'll have five eventually but the tomatoes were actually doing well, so I insisted we leave them for the season.

Our beds are made out of cinderblocks, lined with black plastic (we're hoping that will prevent them from drying out too quickly), and topped with pavers the same length and width as the cinderblocks.  Each bed is three blocks high, and holds about three yards of soil.  The planting area is 101 inches x 39 inches.  We filled them completely with new soil, but about 12 inches down we put down a layer of landscape fabric, so if there are any stray weeds determined enough to make it up that far, they'll run into resistance and hopefully not make it to the surface.

We've decided to try intensive planting, using the Square Foot Gardening method.   Today I was very excited to get the first two beds planted with my first ever fall garden!  More details about that in a coming post...

Garden Update

Better late than never, I suppose...I finally got back into the garden this weekend!

I planted:

• lemon verbena
• stevia
• strawberries (we have two small strawberry beds, but last year we didn't get a whole lot so I supplemented them with six new plants)
• onion starts (the ones I started didn't do much (old seeds) so I bought some starts at a local nursery)
• leek starts (mine)
• kohlrabi
• more lettuce
• more chard
• more radishes
• carrots
• endive
• beets

Tonight, in the house, I'll start from seed:

• tomatoes
• ground cherries
• parsley (though it appears I have 50,000 self-starting parsley plants out in the garlic patch, so this might not be necessary)
• basil
• Thai basil

Love gardening season!

Late March Garden To-Do List

It's been a couple of weeks since I last thought about the garden.  This morning I had a few extra minutes, so I flipped through my current favorite gardening book to see what should be happening at the moment.  I made myself a little to-do list, so I could check things off as I go along.

Start seeds inside:
 - parsley
 - kohlrabi

I may also start a couple of other herbs to have a small indoor herb garden, but my house isn't conducive at all to house plants so I'm not sure I'll actually do that.

Plant outside:
 - carrots
 - onions
 - spinach (now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I have any spinach seeds.  I'll have to check on that).

Prune raspberries

Clean out the dead plants from the strawberry beds, and supplement with new ones.

Call my local nursery to see if they're going to have bay laurel plants this year (I really, really want one of these!!!).

My gardening goal for this year is to pay attention and stay on top of things.  This past week I had the pleasure of taking raspberry puree from last summer out of the freezer to make real raspberry Italian sodas.  It's little things like that that remind me that all the hard work is definitely worth it.

Garden 2012

This is the time of year when I am at my most eager (and most obsessive) about the garden.  For some reason, I get the biggest thrill out of getting those first seeds in the ground.  If only it would last...it's typically all downhill from here, and by mid-July I'm just tired of it. 

This year, I'm counting on my garden more than ever, since my hubby only has two months of work left and we're not sure what will be next for him.  This means I have to be more attentive to it than ever, and focus on finding new and creative ways to use our bounty. 

Today, we got our garden started for the year. Well, technically I started last weekend, because that was when I started the lettuce, onion, and leek seeds on the window sill, but today we got out in the dirt.  We pulled the last of the kale, cleared out the weeds (every year I tell myself I'm going to plant a cover crop!), tilled up the dirt, and planted peas, lettuce, chard, and radishes.  Mission accomplished, garden started.

I realize it's supposed to snow on Tuesday, so I'm not sure how much will grow, but I've had luck with all of them in the snow in the past, so hopefully we'll be good to go. 

Happy gardening!

Garden Planning

My first garden catalog appeared in the mail this week.  I was a bit surprised I hadn't gotten any sooner, but this is the only one that matters to me - Territorial Seed. It's the only company I order seeds from (though I do usually end up picking up a packet or two of something at the grocery store or Home Depot every season).  I don't order their plants, though I am considering buying an olive tree this year, just because I have three empty half-barrels in my yard and I think it would be fun to play around with curing my own olives.

This is the time of year when I start feeling completely ambitious about the garden - you know, when it's pouring down rain for days on end and I don't actually have to go outside and do any of the work!  So here I sit, poring over the catalog, thinking about how much food we'll be able to harvest, how this will be the year I finally get into year-round gardening, and all that.  Usually, by July, all those plans have crumbled to dust, but that doesn't stop me from dreaming anew the following winter.

The other day, a link on Pinterest led me to these plans for building your own cold frame from a sheet of plywood, some plexiglass, and some hardware.  I'm seriously considering it this year.  We love salad and I think it would help get us a lot closer to growing our own lettuce year-round.  Of course, what I'd *really* like is a greenhouse, but since I can't get my hubby to lower his expectations on that little purchase, and I don't have $2,500 laying around, I'll improvise. I haven't used a power tool in a long time, but I did take shop class once upon a time.  I can always ask hubby if I need help with something, too.

So here I sit, dreaming.  In a couple of weeks, it'll be time to start the onions and leeks.  I have a perfect sunny window with a wide windowsill for this - the only plant-friendly space in my house.  Is it strange that I have no houseplants except for during seed-starting season???  Everything dies in here.  Even the cacti.  Maybe I'll start a little herb garden in that window this spring.  My daughter would love it.  Of course, she'd probably eat everything I plant, but really, that's ok.

Harvest Update

I've been trying to be diligent about weighing nearly everything that we've harvested from our yard this year.  I'm curious to know just how productive our efforts are.  I haven't weighed the herbs and a couple of times I've skipped the mesclun, but for the most part, I've gotten it all (except, of course, for the occasional nibble that didn't make it back to the house!).  At first I was weighing an entire day's picking together, but now I'm separating it out by item.

Here's what we've gotten so far since we started picking back in April.  All produce is cleaned before weighing. 

Radish and lettuce thinnings (combined weight) - 3.625 ounces
Radishes - 1.8 pounds
Lettuce - 1.64 pounds
Strawberries - 10.25 pounds
Spinach - 1.25 pounds
Green onions - 1.13 ounces
Peas - 1.7 pounds
Potatoes - 3 pounds

Total harvest to date:  20.3 pounds.

I also harvested some baby fennel but I totally forgot to weigh it.  It wasn't more than half a pound, I'm sure. 

I am absolutely thrilled with the amount of food we're getting this year.  I've just about stopped buying vegetables at the store, though I have been picking up some things at the farmer's market that we don't grow.  Since my daughter wants to be outside all.the.time, I'm spending a lot more time weeding and tending to things, so it's not getting overgrown and out of control like it has in past years.  I'm also putting more of an effort into figuring out ways to creatively use what we have, too.  It's been fun and I'm looking forward to seeing how we land at the end of the season!

Garden update

For weeks I've been meaning to post a list of everything I've planted in the garden this year. So far, I'm really happy with the specific selections I've made, so I want to remember for next year!

I buy the majority of my seeds from Territorial Seed. Their shipping is outrageous (this year I ordered with my sister-in-law so we could split the cost), but their seeds are magnificent.

This year, I've planted

From Territorial:

Beans: Jade and Soleil (don't know how these will do, but they sprouted just fine)
Carrots: Napa (I plant these every year - LOVE THEM!!!), and Meridia. Meridia is an overwintering carrot that you plant in the fall and harvest in the spring. Can't wait to try them out and see how they do!
Cucumber: Rocky
Lettuce: Summertime (planted this last year, too - hubby only wants to eat head lettuce and this is really good!)
Fennel: Perfection (never grown fennel before. Never eaten it before. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but it's growing really well!)
Onions: Candy and Tropeana Lunga
Parsley: Italian
Peas: Super Sugar Snap
Pumpkins: Small sugar (I planted these last year, too, and they are REALLY good in muffins!)
Radishes: French Breakfast (not sure I'll get these again - they're a little too mild for my taste)
Swiss Chard: Golden
Zucchini: Black Beauty
Basil: Aroma 1 (not doing well at all, but I think this is more due to all the rain we've been having than the seeds themselves)
Tomatoes: San Marzano Gigante (can't wait to see how big these will get!)

From other seed brands:

Dill
Cilantro


From plants purchased at nurseries:

Blueberries: Sunshine Blue
Raspberries: Fall Gold (and I had an Autumn Bliss but it died so I need to take it back and get another)
Rhubarb
Artichoke
Mesclun salad mix
A whole host of herbs - tarragon, oregano, sage, thyme, savory (what the heck am I going to do with savory?), chamomile, curry plant (what the heck am I going to do with that, too???), rosemary, etc., etc., etc. I love my herb garden.


I also started potatoes from some organic French potatoes that I bought at the grocery store. So far they're going great guns and I'm looking forward to harvesting them!

I still need to pick up some pepper plants, hopefully this weekend. I usually grow jalapenos and a couple of sweet peppers. The garden's getting pretty full, though, so we'll see what we end up with!

Garden 2010

I'm very excited about my garden this year. Actually, I'm very excited about my garden every spring, and then somewhere around July I lose steam and things fall apart. I'm going to do my darndest to not let that happen this year.

We have some new hardware additions this year that I'm especially excited about. Hubby got tired of me whining about having to drag the hose across the yard, and of having to put the hose away every time the mowed the lawn (because I hate dragging the hose across the yard so I never bothered to put it away), so he put an underground water line out to a spigot next to the garden gate. Voila - garden water!

One day I read an article somewhere about the convenience of having a sink in your garden, so that you can just wash the vegetables right there and not have to bring all the dirt and crud into your house. I thought that was a brilliant idea, so he built me one of those, too. He really went the extra mile, though, because he made sure it had a counter top, so I can trim everything up on the spot and toss the trimmings right into the compost pile! It turned out spectacularly, as you can see...


The bucket, which has since been replaced by a watering can, catches the water so we can put it right back into use on the garden and nothing is wasted. We went with a regular garden sprayer instead of a faucet. Now I just need to head to Goodwill and get a colander and cutting board to live on the shelf!

We're planting a bit differently this year. Since the tomatoes take over every year (literally - last year we had a 5-foot square hedge in the middle of the garden!), we're putting them in half-barrels this year. I also bought two potted blueberries that will be going into half barrels, just as soon as we get some soil to fill them. I've been wanting blueberries for a long, long time, but, outside of the garden itself, we have the worst soil in the universe, so this seemed like the best option.

I'm planting potatoes for the first time in about 10 years. Last time, I got a grand total of three potatoes. I hope it goes better this time! I bought a couple of planting bags for them - they're pretty cool, with side flaps that you can use to access the potatoes, allowing them to keep growing even as you harvest them.

Moving the tomatoes out frees up more space for other vegetables in the garden proper. So far, I have planted peas, onions, carrots, fennel, Swiss chard, lettuce, radishes, and spinach. Things are growing nicely so far. Still to come - beans (two kinds - yellow and green), zucchini, cucumbers (also two kinds, if last year's seeds are still viable), and pumpkins.

I also need to update my herb beds this year. Last year, we pulled out a couple of mistakes that were taking over everything - namely lemon balm and peppermint. They're still trying to take over everything, so I need to get some new things planted to help keep them back. I have basil and flat-leaf parsley started on a windowsill, and next month I'll head to the garden center and pick up a few more things. My rosemary is all but dead, so that needs to be replaced as well.

Lastly, I have a 5x3 trough of decent soil in the front yard that I need to fill with something. We pulled the roses out of it last year. I may let it lie this year and put raspberries on a trellis, or something like that, in it next year. That's originally where the blueberries were going to go but we decided it wasn't big enough to satisfy them. Decisions, decisions...

The Garden is Ready!

WOO HOO!!!!! I am SO excited. We went and got a load (3 cubic yards) of compost today. Filled four half barrels, filled the garden bed (and I mean FILLED - we are now officially raised bed, because the soil is to the top edge of the cinderblocks). We didn't even till because it ended up being so much soil.

I planted the peas and beets in the garden itself, and I planted a lettuce mix and some assorted salad greens in two of the half barrels. We'll get strawberries for the other two half barrels.

I've decided to try something different this year. Instead of planting in rows, I'm going to plant in chunks. We're going to get some more cinder blocks to make a sort of path down the middle of the garden (one cinder block wide).

While we were shoveling dirt out of the trailer, we had a long conversation about year-round gardening and how we could get by with buying as little produce as possible. I think we're going to give it a shot. In the fall we're going to expand the garden (we were going to do it this spring but it's been too rainy and the one weekend we actually could have done it, we were both sick). That will help a lot.

The one type of vegetable we haven't had success with is the brassica family (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, stuff like that). They grow fabulously well, but they end up COVERED in aphids and we can't get them off. We've killed the grass around the garden this year, so hubby thinks if we stay on top of keeping that dead (and maybe I'll get get some organic aphid spray) we'll be ok. So I'll just buy a single broccoli plant this year and see how that does. Broccoli is hubby's favorite vegetable, and it would be wonderful if we could grow it ourselves.

In the meantime, the seeds I started inside are doing fabulously. The tomato plants are HUGE (for those of you who live near me and have a garden, I'll have some tomato plants to give away this year), and the celery root is actually starting to look like a celery plant. Soon I'll move the tomatoes to a different container and start some leeks. I need to give the onions a hair cut - they're getting awfully leggy.

I am so excited about gardening season this year! Now, I just need to maintain that excitement, through all the weeding, and watering, and harvesting, and prepping before eating...

Let's get gardening!

The days are getting longer, the air is getting warmer, the seeds have arrived and I have the gardening itch! I started seeds last weekend, and last Saturday I even had a little time to clean out the herb beds.

I have big plans for the garden this year. We're going to widen it by another couple of feet, and we'll either make it about four feet longer, or I'll convince hubby to build me a cold frame at one end. The talks continue in that regard, LOL! Things are growing UP this year, too. I ordered a six-foot-tall bean tower from gardener's supply, which I'm actually going to use for peas (shh, don't tell!), and we're going to build a trellis to hold the cucumber, vining tomatoes, and squash.

The herb beds will continue to expand - most of what I planted last year is still around, with the exception of a few annuals (I try not to buy those, but how can you say no to your husband when he looks at you with those big puppy dog eyes and says "PLEASE, can we buy this sweet sweet plant?" So the stevia came home with us. As well as a few others - marjoram, pineapple sage, and cilantro. Those will likely be replaced, and I'll get more. One of the beds will turn into a salsa garden - I'll grow my peppers and some garlic out there, too.

I'll also be adding a potted lettuce garden as part of our new front yard landscaping (Ringo the greens loving dog will eat anything I plant in the back yard). We're going to get a few half barrels and I'll be planting several varieties of leafy greens.

Here's what my first order from Territorial (my favorite seed company) looked like:

- yellow beans
- purple beans
- beets (cool ones, with red and white rings!)
- carrots
- celeriac (aka celery root)
- leeks (which, by the way, are an all-season crop around here - the ones I planted last year are still going strong!)
- lemon cucumber
- lettuce (a blend specifically for growing in pots)
- vit (salad green, aka corn salad)
- watercress
- purslane (yep, it's a weed. Also a salad green!)
- walla walla onions
- red onions (thin your onions by using the shoots when you need green onions)
- peas
- turnips (oh, yeah, I forgot to order those!)
- spinach (somehow forgot to order that too!)
- pattypan squash (that was fun to grow last year)
- currant tomatoes (little itty bitty things that grow on a vine)
- sauce tomatoes (for cooking - like Romas)

and one herb so far - borage. I plan to put that in the new side bed when we do our landscaping, but I may grow some in a pot for now - it's taller than I want to put in my front beds.

Now - let's get gardening!

Saving Seeds

Today was another garden harvest day. I'm a little disappointed that things are going so slowly this year, but I suppose our weird, unsummer-like weather has something to do with that. That, and the giant artichoke sucking the life out of the soil. I mean, our jalapeno plant, which we normally get 20+ jalapenos from by the end of August, is just now starting to flower!

I let some of our yellow beans go too long before harvest, so I was inspired to try saving seeds. I picked the soft bendy ones, shucked them, and the seeds are now out on a tray in the garage to dry. I've never done this before, so we'll see how it goes. I also picked a bunch of the dried pea pods and saved those. I know you can't save hybrid seeds. Luckily neither of these are. I'm also going to try saving some tomato seeds. Two summers ago I planted some heirloom tomatoes that have been coming back on their own ever since. I'm going to try saving some of those seeds so I can actually plant them where I want them next summer!

Anybody else save seeds?

Today's harvest

Spent a little time in my garden today. Harvested yellow beans, green beans, pattypan squash, and tomatoes.

As you can see, our tomatoes have a little blossom end rot problem - I need to look into that. I did end up tying them up (some of the branches were down to the ground), but I'm pretty sure it's caused by something else, as the ones that ripened with the problem were up on the tomato cages.

I am amazed by our beans this year. Last week, I harvested nearly seven pounds off of both rows (we have a row of yellow and a row of green, and our rows are about five feet long). I'd say today I have about two more pounds in the bowl. The first harvest is in the freezer - these we'll be eating this week. There are plenty more still growing on the plants, too! I had to tie the plants up, though, as they were completely blocking the onions and the leeks.

The carrots are huge - I need to pull them up, too, and plant another row. I was hoping to finish the five-pound bag in the produce bin first, but since those are pretty much frozen (everything freezes in our produce bin!), I think I'm going to peel, slice and freeze those and use the ones out of the garden as fresh. That way I can get another round of seeds going for fall.

We ended up pulling out the monster artichoke plant (the artichokes were terribly disappointing), so I have one whole end free to do something with. I may plant some fall plants, we'll see.

Oh, and today I picked some herbs (pineapple sage, lemon balm, and oregano) out of the front beds and made a marinade with olive oil, white wine vinegar, and garlic. I'm going to grill it for dinner - we'll see how it tastes!

Landscaping Update

Well, it's been a little while since we've been able to work on it, but the herb garden is finally in! Yay! Here's a picture:



It's not full of plants yet, but here's what I have so far (clockwise, from the front):

Bed 1: Parsley, stevia, bay laurel, lavendar, and chives (this is one of my "miscellaneous" beds).

Bed 2: Lemon balm and lemon thyme (this is the "lemon" bed - I want some lemon verbena and then I have to see what else I can come up with that will fit).

Bed 3: Apple mint and peppermint (this is the mint bed - there are a couple of others I want to get).

Bed 4: Marjoram, cilantro, and pineapple sage (another "miscellaneous" bed).

Bed 5: Basil, oregano, rosemary, sage (this is the "Italian" bed).

I'm still collecting plants, and I'll probably fill in with some annual flowers because I know eventually the herbs will fill the beds, but it'll take a year or two.


Also, we put the capstones on the wall, and we started ripping out the sod. It's a giant pain in the patootie, though, so we're going to rent a sod cutter to finish it.




That's about it for now. We're plugging along, slowly but surely. Some of the neighbors stopped by while we were working to tell us how nice a job we're doing and how it's going to look great when we're done. I'm glad they understand that we're working on it, because it looks pretty darn bad!!!

Yard and Garden Update

Things are moving right along in the garden!

Yesterday I picked all the peas that were ready in the garden. I shelled them, blanched them, and put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer, so they wouldn't freeze in a giant clump. Today I put them in a ziploc and weighed them. Two pounds of peas! Woo hoo! We're at the point now where we'll need to pick them every few days so we don't lose any. Fortunately they'll keep in the fridge for a few days so I don't have to repeat this process so often!

My spinach is trying to go to seed and ready to be cut down, with a new row planted. I'm going to chop, steam, and freeze the leaves that aren't too thick and leathery. I use a whole lot of frozen chopped spinach in my spinach dip throughout the year. This will keep me from having to buy it. The thick leathery ones I'm going to blanch, dehydrate, and crush into powder. This can be put into soups, casseroles, spaghetti sauce, etc. for an extra burst of nutrition.

The radishes have been flowering. They're pretty, and I don't really like the radishes (too hot), so I'm leaving them. Next year I'll get good old grocery store variety red globes.

The artichokes are just about ready to go. 26 at last count. On one bush. Wow. We lost a couple to the aphids, but we've been spraying them down with organic aphid spray (which is basically dish soap, I think) and they've been staying away. We'll just have to wash them carefully before we eat them!

Peppers are flowering, tomatoes are flowering, beans are getting ready to flower. The onions are just about ready to start thinning (to use as green onions). The leeks are slow growers, to be sure, but it looks like they'll be ready right about the time we run out of onions. The squash and cucumber are coming right along. No flowers yet but they were the last thing to be planted. We got some nifty new tomato cages and we'll be training the squash and cucumber up that. Makes for a much neater garden!

In the front yard, we laid out the stones for the planter beds today. We still have a lot of work ahead of us with this project, but it'll be nice to get that piece done. I still have time to get some herbs in this summer and I'm looking forward to it! Right now I'm thinking I'll have the following themes in the beds - Italian (things like oregano, rosemary, thyme, parsley), Mexican (cilantro, garlic, and I don't know what else at the moment), lemon (verbena, thyme, balm), mint (because it will take over wherever I put it so I might as well give it a space of its own), and miscellaneous (whatever else I find that looks good!).

How are your gardens growing?

Oh how my garden grows...

Thought it was time for a garden update. Things are coming along beautifully! I'm about to pick some radishes (I was waiting for them to turn red, till I remembered I didn't buy red ones this year, LOL!). We've already harvested lettuce, spinach, and a few pea pods for a salad. Here are some pictures!

The peas are "pea-ing" (ar, ar, ar):



We have multiple kinds of lettuce, and the biggest spinach leaf I've ever seen (it's at least nine inches long!):





Two kinds of beans have come up (yellow and green):



And the leeks are popping - can you see them?



The tomatoes and peppers are all going strong (and the basil is popping between the tomatoes):



And the strawberries are too stubborn to die...



And this? This is the artichoke that ate Washington County. Play nice, artichoke!



How are your gardens doing?

Another cool garden link

Ever since I started reading the forums over at Mrs. Survival, I've been pointed to the COOLEST gardening links.

Today's feature? Origami seed starting boxes