Beets!

I picked the rest of the beets on Saturday...I'll probably have enough for a couple of pints of pickled beets.

I ate a green bean from the planting in August. There are lots of blooms so I could have some beans if it stays warm enough. 10 day forecast is pretty warm, but there is lots of rain possible.

Used tomatoes in chickpea cauliflower curry yesterday. Have some more yellow ones that we can pick if we want to eat some.

Didn't have too many tomatoes to put up that were not given to us, but had enough to definitely eat and use for every day cooking where I would have used a can of them.

Still picking brocolli and tomatoes

This morning I picked some broccoli and three red tomatoes. Still to harvest - Brussels Sprouts and tomatillos.

The green beans that were planted in August are flowering nicely. I'm sure that the water earlier in the week and the rain today will help a lot.

The beets really need to be picked.

I harvested the black beans and after shelling them have about a cup of them.

I bought two containers of flowers from Lowe's for .25 each and they seem to be surviving.

Mums are blooming.

picked a bunch of broccoli

Saturday I picked a bunch of broccoli...it filled up a colander. I need to get the black beans picked.

Some critter ate the chickpeas that I hadn't harvested.

Brussels Sprouts need some attention as they are being eaten by something though most of the sprouts look good.

I'm hoping that we have some sunshine this week to ripen some tomatoes.

Slowing harvesting tomatoes

So not much produce from my garden is being preserved, but we are eating some broccoli and eating tomatoes.

I will freeze some more tomatoes today before they go bad and hopefully with some rain and cooler temps, the new  beans will give us some green beans to eat. I need to plant the beets again. They didn't come up - probably because I did not water them!

Pumpkins aren't doing much unfortunately. I don't know which varieties ended up coming up, but they aren't growing very long tendrils. The one in the front bed under the boy's window has some type of fungus/mold so I don't know if it will do anything at all :(

Fall Garden

At the beginning of August we did plant some more green beans, sugar snap peas, onion sets and some beets, a few black beans too.

The beets do not seem to have made it though the others are coming up now.

So far I've canned one pint of pickled beets (we have 2+ in the frig) and 9 pints of whole(ish) tomatoes. Those tomatoes came from the neighbors. We've had enough tomatoes that we have eaten quite a few. My mom sent a bunch home with us and I made roasted tomato pasta with those.

I do have a large quart bag in the freezer and then part of another quart bag.

What's Blooming 16-June

Annuals are blooming - petunias, gerbera daisies, impatients

Tiger Lillies are starting to come out. There is quite a stand of them as the backstop for baseball.
Hydrangea are getting ready to bloom! I'm excited that the one that we moved is going to bloom first!

Sugar Snap peas are blooming and making a few peas. The regular green peas are getting close to the end.  Green Beans are blooming too. Tomatoes are blooming.

I've planted about 10 hills of pumpkins around the yard so we'll see how those work out. I picked up a few more annuals the other day at K-Mart because they had sent me a $5 off of live plant purchase. The petunias were only a few inches tall, but I can't really complain to get three containers of six plants and only pay $1.

I finally got some more bell pepper plants in the ground too.

yummy peas

Today I ate four pods of peas!

There are tons of pods on, they just need to fill out!

What's blooming in my yard on the 18th of May?

Lots of iris are blooming. They only bloom for such a short amount of time. Quite a few on the back fence bloomed so I am happy about that. I brought in some deep purple ones from the south side of the house.

The peony is just starting to bloom!

Creeping phlox is just about done.

Dianthus is blooming in a few different places.

The peas are all blooming too! At least the sweet grean peas, not the sugarsnap yet.

The annuals are blooming too. The petunia that I bought at Aldi is finally starting to bloom. The Gerbera that are planted in the big pots by the front porch look amazing. The same blooms have been there for weeks! I guess they are happy with the cooler weather. The fuchsia looks very nice still too.

Some fertilizing for the annuals is in order this week to keep them looking great!

Green, Black and Garbonzo

Saturday planting:
Green beans - seeds saved from last year. (hoping that these come up)
Black beans - seeds saved from last year.
Garbanzo beans - seeds saved from last year  - in box garden closest to driveway among the peas.

Planted four tomato plants yesterday.
1. By mailbox - yellow
2. Near zucchini plant where pine bush used to be.
3. Near other pine bush
4. In a row in the garden of the peas

Still need to get two plants for Helen. Decided to wait a little to plant more peppers. They don't grow too much right now so I can get them 1/2 price later.

Waiting to see if any tomatillos come up. There may be a few near the back of the house where they were last year coming up.

I think I have some cosmos coming up in different places.

Picked one iris today. Brought in a small lilac branch.

Picked a handful of spinach leaves. Would like to plant some more radish maybe.

Posted on Deals with Friends that I had Black Eyed Susans to give away. Two unknown to me people came by on Sunday and took plants from the garden area. Meg came by and dug up some from the front and out of the Phlox.

I pulled up a bunch from the garden where I planted beans and then thought that maybe someone would want some.

There are a dozen iris buds on the back iris bed. Lots of buds on the south side of the house.  A few in the wall garden.

Still haven't planted the glads yet... need to get that done.

Planted some impatients in front of the house. Used soil that I took out of old hanging baskets. Used that soil too around some of the tomato plants that I planted in poorer soil.
Planted another annual in sun in a few places as well. Small blue flower.

Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts

Yesterday I ran by MFA to see what they had for plants. I was happy to see the lady who worked at Sands there to know that she has a job.

I picked up a six pack of broccoli (Pacman) and a six pack of Brussels Sprouts. I didn't necessarily want 6 of each, but that was the size that they had!

I got them in the ground today while it was sprinkling. One in the raised box garden, a few in the wall by the driveway and then the rest in the garden area.

We have so many rocks! Being at my mom's and pulling out a few rocks...I find that many rocks in a square foot!

There are some radishes that could be picked! Peas are growing well but no blooms yet.
The sugar snap peas are coming up nicely.

I think some of the pea plants in the garden have been a little big of a snack!

Started planting annuals

I am thinking that it is going to be above freezing for the season now!

Today I walked the wagon to Suncliff and spent over $40!
I splurged on a fuchsia. The lady there told me I should bring it in when it gets really hot and humid and then bring it back out in the fall.

JL planted in the square garden that is not elevated. He planted two cucumbers, a jalapeño and some marigolds.

I planted a sweet 100 tomato in the front new bed. A bunch of annual flowers in that bed too though I don't remember what they were. I also planted zinnias in hanging and non-hanging pots for the porch. I planted a gerbera daisy in both of the front big pots. I planted a zucchini where the garbanzo were last year and then a celebrity tomato in the garden. I planted three marigolds in the garden too.

I pulled out the dead rosemary and that made me sad. I planted a red pepper plant there. I have a feeling that rosemary may not be a companion to peppers, but we will see. I'm thinking that I'm not going to get another rosemary this year. I'll wait a year since I didn't end up using too much of it.

Some of my sugar snap peas are poking through the ground on the north side of the garden! Two of the first planting by the compost are coming up. I hope that the bunnies stay away.

I have some iris buds on the plants on the south side of the house. One of John Hall's iris is blooming, but his always bloom way earlier than mine. Not much for buds along the fence. Too many weeds and not enough sunshine I think.

I planted some grass seed in the front and where the forsythia was in the backyard.

I want to map out more of the garden to know what I want to buy. I would like to plant:
- more tomatoes
- more pepper plants
- Brussels sprouts
- green beans
- black beans
- garbanzo beans
- pumpkins
- basil (use the plant that I have? That wintered over)
- dill (have seeds)
- tomatillos (Louise thinks that I will have lots of them come up in the yard anyway so I'll hold of buying them maybe. I didn't see any at Suncliff) I used to get Brussels sprouts at Sands. I will need to look for some elsewhere in town now.

I'm not sure if I really have room for all of that. I will plant more vegetables in the front bed. I will need to get some more soil if I want to plant on the west side of the yard. I need to look where Todd cut out the branch from the maple tree, I may have less shade in an area than I thought that I did.

I have tons of tiger lilies coming up. The bush with the big flowers that I am drawing a blank on the name... where we moved it to on the other side of the rain barrel is coming out. Hydrangea! I'm happy that it survived it's move. Nothing else under the boys window has seemed to survive.

So far this year, I have bought two hanging plants. I went around and collected all of the empty hanging pots that I had. I had way too many. I dumped all of the excess soil in a bucket and mixed it up and planted some of the annuals in those. I still have one or two that I may try and hang in the back porch but I need hangers.

Everything that I bought this morning is planted! Now more planning before I go and buy more. I am thinking that I can wait until Suncliff vegetables go on sale maybe, but really it doesn't make that much difference in price between .69 and .50 or 35. Planning is actually more important in what I'm buying.

Yesterday I planted 5 hills (maybe 6) of potatoes. These were sprouted potatoes that mom had when we were there Easter.

I planted the half dozen sweet onion sets that mom had given me at Easter too. I put those in the back box garden between two rows of green onions.

Before Easter, I planted more sugar snap peas. I planted on the north and east side of the garden and around the fenced box garden. I had soaked way more seeds than I needed so I put a bunch on the south side of the garden. Don't know if any will grow there or not.

I am wondering if my peas don't do so well because of the garlic chives? I'm working at getting rid of them all around the garden.

Peas are up 4 inches or so.
I find it funny that I carefully planted the peas that has sprouted from soaking. Then there were like 20 left in the bin and I had kind of run out places that I had planned to plant. I put all of the peas in a small row because I didn't necessarily expect them to grow. A bunch of them sprouted and they are taller than the ones that are individually planted!

6-May-14
Potatoes are not up yet. Though in another part of the garden, there were some growing. I was pulling out black eyed Susan and realized that there were potatoes!

Daffodils are still blooming

I was really hoping that my daffodils were still going to look nice when we got home and they are beautiful! Thank you God for allowing me to see them. The hyacinth smell amazing. The pink daffodils are not up yet. It's supposed to freeze tonight and be cold for a few days so we will enjoy those later!

The Grape hyacinth look great under the oak tree and the phlox is starting to bloom too.

We mowed some and I cut grass around the garden, but haven't worked in the garden. There are peas and beets up where we planted them. I want to plant some potatoes soon.

Oh, and I saw some tiny tiny little asparagus spears!

The sugar snap peas did not come up. The seeds were in the garage all winter so I didn't know if that made a difference where the other pea seeds were in the frig.

The area where the pine tree used to be and where I had chickpeas last year received a deluge while we were gone. I need to pick rocks out of there again before I attempt to plan anything. I hope that all of the good stuff that I put there didn't just wash away.

no peas up

no peas are up yet...
daffodils are just starting to show buds...so sad that we are going to miss them!

More digging and planting

All eight bags of stuff are mixed in the ground! I'm proud of myself for not letting it sit around forever.

On the south side of the house, the two bins of compost from the compost site were dumped. One by the water faucet and the other by the rain barrel near the screened in porch.
I used the pitchfork and turned the soil over in those areas. By the rain barrel there were lilies coming up!

By the faucet, I planted yellow onion sets. I can't remember if I planted them deep or not. The packaging said to plant three inches deep for green onions and not very deep for bigger onions.

In the fenced in box garden, I added the bin full of leaves and other stuff that I had taken from the compost pile.

I planted four rows of beets. The two rows closest to the house were the early variety. The other two rows were the other variety.

I planted some onions in there too.

The back box garden got two bags of stuff - compost and peat hummus in half of it. I planted two rows of onions - one deep and close together. The other more shallow and farther apart.
(The other half has radish and spinach growing.)

I planted sugar snap peas to the west of the compost bin. These seeds were in the garage all winter. I soaked them since Friday in water. The seeds had plumped up but they were not sprouting quite yet. I don't know if they will come up or not.

I watered with a hose from the rain barrel the peas on the garden. I didn't completely soak them because it will freeze tonight and I didn't know if that would hurt them. I carried buckets of water to other places that I have planted because it's not rained for a week.

Not sure what other spring garden I will do. I have some onion sets left. Have lots of beet seeds.

more planting

Last night I bought four bags of composted cow manure and four bags of peat hummus and one big bag of peat moss.

I added one bag of each and some peat moss to the box garden closest to the driveway and mixed it all in.

The peas that didn't get planted on Saturday were mostly sprouted in the container in the garage so I planted four rows of seeds that had little roots coming out of them. Most were less than 1cm.

I dumped the 20 or so that weren't sprouted in one of the rows. Don't know if they will do anything.

Put one bag of each where the pine tree died and tried chickpeas last year. Did a lot of digging and pull out a gallon of rocks!

Planted some carrots and spinach there.

Where I threw some radish seeds down on the frozen ground on 15th of Feb, there are sprouts.

Tried to get to the bottom of the compost pile today. Not much composted. Still a big layer of grass that didn't do anything. Rebuilt it and tried to break up the layer. Added a few gallons of water and used the pitch fork to drill in lots of holes.

Need to put some dirt on the top I think to get something going from the top. More water tomorrow too.

Radishes

Radishes are coming up from the planting the week of Valentine's Day. It was getting dark, but I knew that there were radishes, I'm not sure about anything else.

I hope to get some beets out this week. According to the plant with the moon it's time to plant things that grow under the ground now. I got m peas out on the last day it was good to plan them!

Saturday March 15

My family cleaned the leaves off the fenced in garden during the week.
One rosemary plant did not survive.
I had forgotten to tell them about the thyme and then I smelled it. It looks great!
In the original garden I used the pitch fork and turned up about 6 inches of dirt and broke up the clots.
Lots of great earth worms.
I planted four rows of Alaskan peas. I started soaking them on Friday morning. The seeds have been in my frig since last year. I hope that they come up.

On the south side of the house a few daffodils were starting to have blossoms. Sunday morning in the sleet I picked 5 of them and brought them into the house. One was starting open and another one was beyond a simple bud.

Today (Monday) three of them are open and the other two are opening. I hope the other daffodils around the house decide to hurry up or slow down so I get to see their blooms.

peek of a daffodil

I'm worn out, but as it was 13 this morning, I did motivate myself for a walk.

At the end of the walk I thought that the ground may actually be thawed to plant some seeds.

I was able to hoe the ground well and sprinkled some seeds next to the rosemary plant in the back plant box - black seeded simpson lettuce, radish and spinach. I even put a few spinach leaves at the very front of the new garden closest to the mailbox.

Then walking back, I saw the very top of a daffodil! I did look for crocus and didn't see any growing. The grape Hyacinth are starting to green up!

Maybe tomorrow I'll see if I can put my shower door on one of my box gardens.

To do:
Amend soil behind the house where the pine tree was.
Amend the soil at the north of the new bed (where I planted the spinach)
What to do with all of the leaves in the garden?

15 Feb Scattered some seeds

I didn't make it on Valentine's Day to plant some seeds.

Saturday evening I remembered that I hadn't planted anything yet. So about 5pm I ran outside. I had intended to plant seeds in the back raised garden. I couldn't even get the hoe to scrape anything in that bed.

I ended up scattering some radish, black Simpson lettuce and spinach seeds next to the compost bin and putting some leaves over them.

Today (the 19th), I should try again since we had a very nice thaw yesterday.

Galdiolas - finally dug on January 4th

Finally dug up the Gladiola bulbs on the 4th in the almost dark before the artic temps arrived. I actually haven't felt the bulbs yet because I was wearing gloves.

I know that we didn't get them all, but my husband was trying to help and it was getting chilly!

We did find some daffodil bulbs that had already started to sprout a couple of inches. I don't know if they will have gotten buried deep enough or not. They have 10 inches of snow on them now!