Feels like summer

Crazy warmth huh? We are enjoying it but wondering what it means for the coming gardening season. Is it going to continue to be a warm year or will it end up like last year where we had a cold and wet summer. (Hope not!)

Today I harvested over-wintered collard greens. Just enough to have a few mouths full of them sautéd with garlic. Yum.

Feels like summer

2010 garden seeds

My 2010 seeds have started to arrive. So far I've gotten my J.L. Hudson, Seedsman and Bakercreek Heirloom seeds and I'm waiting for my Fedco order. I didn't order too many because I still have a lot from last year that I never even got in the ground. I'll start doing some old seed germination tests next month to see what I can still use from last year.

I've decided this year I am going to grow more cucurbits, less nightshades, and lots of poppies.

2010 garden seeds

Ichigo update & harvest

I haven't written about Ichigo in a while. She's doing well but in the last few weeks she has realized that she can make short mad dashes and try to give me the slip while we are outside. She can only really run for short 5 to 6 ft increments so it's still hard to lose her but one day a few weeks ago I lost track of her and she ended up in the brush and I only found her because she makes noise when she walks, stomping around on twigs and leaves and things. I feel pretty guilty that we didn't have the time or money this year to figure out her outdoor summer enclosure..... Anyway I have been keeping a closer eye on her when we are outside and giving her extra time to walk around in the "turtle room". It's been interesting though getting to know reptile intelligence. I wouldn't have thought that turtles could try to deceive but I'm quite sure that is exactly what she is doing when she tries to run away. She acts normal until she thinks I'm not looking and then rushes into some tall grass to try to lose me. She will also walk back to me in the "turtle room" if I pick up her turtle pellet bag even though I only ever feed her in her tank. She obviously knows what the bag looks like or sounds like.


Our summer harvest is coming to a close. Today I picked collards, kale, peppers, cabbage, lots of basil, some tomatoes, and a few beets. The celeriac looks like it's almost done and I should have waaaay too many very shortly. I'm not going to bother doing a fall planting except for some garlic because the garden is just so darn weedy, it's going to be a chore just to try to clear it up and put the garden to rest before it gets too cold. We didn't do a very good job of keeping the weeds at bay this year. Next year next year........

Ichigo update & harvest

Onion harvest

Well, we had a crappy tomato harvest but the onions were easy and a no-brainer. Look at all the onions! I probably should have pulled them late last week but hopefully they will dry alright. There are two varieties in these flats, Alisa Craig and Yellow of Parma. They are from seeds started in February!

Onion harvest

Beans

Arent't the Jacob's Cattle Beans pretty?

Beans

Porch Crew & Harvest

Henry no longer lurks under the porch all day. He now hangs out in the sun with the other cats and also follows me around when the dogs aren't with me. The coolest part is that he lets me pet him now. I never thought that would happen. He purrs and nuzzles my hand and will let me pet him once or twice on the head. No full body massages yet but maybe one day.
The weather is now hot and dry which is great but a little too late to save my poor tomatoes. I did get enough to can some sauce and eat some sliced up in sandwiches.


This morning I tried to harvest some things and got a crookneck squash, some overgrown turnips, hot and sweet peppers, and some Jacob's Cattle beans that I'll break open later. I think I probably only got a handful but they're pretty and fun. I also got a nice big cabbage but I already used that to make some dumplings. It's pretty easy to make. Just cabbage, tvp, ginger, garlic, and scallions all mixed up inside some pre-made wrappers.

Porch Crew & Harvest

More friends & sad tomatoes

Princess is here so now we have three dogs. It took the last few days to get into a good routine with everyone but I think I figured out how to make everything go smoothly now. They are getting along very well with supervision.

I spent part of the day yesterday trying to finish pulling out my blighted tomato plants but I still have a ways to go. I have been putting fruit that is ripe and not diseased and green unblemished tomatoes in trays on the porch hoping that some of them will ripen and be okay but every day I have been checking on them and throwing any away that start showing blight. Look at all my trays!! And there is still more to go.

More friends & sad tomatoes

Tomato season bummer

What could have been!!! If only we hadn't had so much freakin' rain. I am looking at a raised garden that is sitting in two inches of water. It's horrible. Most of the tomatoes have or will get blossom end rot or the plant will end up with blight or some other fungal infection if it hasn't already. The plants are FILLED with green toms and I cannot look forward to them all getting ripe and juicy. So sad....so sad.
Above is a picture of one miracle Nyagous tomato that ripened this past weekend. The only heirloom that I planted that looks like I might get a handful of ripe fruit. The other two that are still doing their best to survive are the Sungold and Baby Beefsteak.

Next year I'll plant my toms in containers so I can move them to higher ground if need be.........

Tomato season bummer

Flowers

My grandfather really loved flowers. I remember he had orchids inside the house and lots of flowering plants on the patio. Once when I was about 5 years old we went for a walk and we picked different colored morning glories along the way and he showed me how to make watercolor paint with the petals. He was also very good at painting. We have some dark colored morning glories at our house that are blooming now. They are kind of a weed in how prolific they are but I can't pull them all out because of the memories of my grandfather.

The bees are going nutz over the opium poppies. They buzz like crazy when they are on them. The poppies are also so pretty and unbothered by bad bugs; I will make sure to plant more next year.

Flowers

SUN

No more rain please. This weekend was so nice and mild and sunny. Could we please have some more of that?

We were invited to a 4th of July party at the home of Jane Berkey, who owns the shelter I volunteer at. I had never been up the hill far enough to see the other areas where she keeps her horses and the back of her house. It is so gorgeous! My favorite part of her house was her pool surrounded by huge white Hydrangeas and flowing ferns. Jane had hidden ping pong balls all around her back yard and pool area and if you found any, you got a prize. Prizes ranged from $1 to $100! I got one of the bigger prizes which was a funny dog saying t-shirt and a $25 gift certificate. We had lots of food, played croquet, and hung out with smoe nice folks and some cutie dogs that were busy socializing. (a few of the shelter dogs)

Today we cleared out the peas to make room to plant something else and harvested some broccoli, small onions, purple kohlrabi, and of course a HUGE haul of snap peas which I froze in ten ziplock bags. The rain made the tomatoes a little fungus-y so we cut away the infected areas and I am hoping they will make it. NO MORE RAIN PLEASE.

SUN

Stolen fruit

Ack! I had one lousy strawberry ripening and it was stolen! It was ready this morning and I waited till this afternoon to pick it and by then it was gone. What a bummer.

Stolen fruit

Harvested in the garden

Recent harvests -
Garlic Scapes
Lettuce - Cos Romaine & Red Salad Bowl(LOVE the red salad bowl! so pretty)
Scallions
Tom Thumb Snap Peas
Georgia Southern Collards
Beets - Chioggia

Almost ready - Vienna Kohlrabi & Sugar Snap Peas & Lacinto Kale

Done and gone - radish & spinach - not sure if I will grow them again....
Still kickin'- Mache
Not ready - two kinds of broccoli, twelve kinds of tomatoes, about ten kinds of peppers (sweet & hot), two kinds of summer squash, cucumbers, eggplant, celeriac, cabbage (if the slugs don't destroy them), yellow beets, turnips, onions, garlic, beans.....

Sugar snap pea flowers


Self sown volunteer Red Russian Kale with Dwarf French marigolds in the back

Harvested in the garden

Back home

So happy to be home. The air smells so sweet here and the garden is bursting at the seams. I have so much work to do in there. It hasn't seen me in ten days.....
Above is our third outdoor cat. (They keep coming!) I originally named him Tinkerbell thinking he was a she but now we just call him Tink. He is Macy's son and has extra toes just like her.


The pansies waited for me and haven't wilted yet. Next year I have to start them in late January or something so I can enjoy them longer.
I'll try to post some pictures of the shows we installed in Japan next.

Back home

Things learned in the garden so far....

1) I thought I liked radishes, I think they are pretty for sure, but I don't like them enough to grow them myself.
2) I thought I liked spinach, but not enough to grow it myself.
3) Do not use coconut coir by itself as seedling growing medium. I already knew this but someone at the fancy gardening store swore you could do it - she is wrong.
4) I like growing lettuce and I eat enough of it to keep growing. Good to have for the turtles.
5) I love growing tomatoes.
6) Do not try to grow anything after a cover crop of winter rye for at least 2 months.
7) Start pansy seeds even earlier than the packet says to.
8) Garlic grows well here...(so far)
9) Snakes love to hang out under the black plastic mulch.
10) Winter sow as many varieties as possible instead of under lights.

Things learned in the garden so far....

First non-turtle post

Hey! So our first non-turtle post. Ichi will make guest appearances but since she is all better now, and I was trying to think of a new blog name for a regular ole' blog, I just decided to change the nature of this one. Anyway, so if you haven't already heard, I am head over heels about growing things, even more so than when I only had a small shady community garden plot in the city. I over did it with my seed starting earlier this year and ended up with way too may to plants. I've given away some to friends and also exchanged them for things. Above are about twenty tomato, eggplant, and pepper plants I traded someone for some eggs from her chickens. I don't eat eggs but I figured my dog likes them and that is what she had extra of so it was a good trade. Here is Muncho checking them out. He thinks he wants them till they are in his bowl , then he doesn't want them anymore so he won't get any.

We also traded tomato plants with our friend Colleen and we got candied popcorn and no-knead bread. They were both so delicious that we didn't get a chance to photograph them before we devoured them. She seriously needs to go commercial with her baked goods.....

First non-turtle post