| Playing In the Sonshine |
Garden 2009 Snapshots Looking tired in the fall. Little did I know the first hard frost was looming in our doorway! Time to clean up my beds! In the mean time, check out some of the fun photos of our plants!        Hope you are enjoying your day!10:18 - Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentTomatoes Our tomato harvest this year was adequate, but I was hopeful for much more to can. I had envisioned rows of gleaming jars all bright red.  But, alas, the cool weather for most of the summer and the hasty cold blowing in the fall put an end to my dreams of bushels and bushels of tomatoes!  But as you can see, my harvest was plentiful enough to get 10 pint jars of puree and plenty of fresh tomatoes for salads, burgers and other yummy snacks!  The things I have been learning this year about my tomatoes:
 Have a great day!!! 10:03 - Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentGarden Update! Cherry Tomato looking gorgeous! I am praying for the rest of my tomatoes to not be the victims of end rot because of the crazy rainstorms we had back to back! The heat this week should help!!! Bell Pepper almost ready! Cabbage looking beautiful! My largest zucchini this summer! Unfortunately a week after this photo we had a whole bunch of rain and cloudy days. My Zucchini plant succumbed to the beginning of fungal infestation. I had to yank them to save the neighboring plants.   Mayflower pole beans are doing great! Bush beans growing strong! Looks like supper! Yum!!! Yummy dinner!!!  Oh green beans how we love you! Must plant much more next year! An aerial view of the garden! The watermelon on my trellis! Wait till you see how it's growing in my next post!  My two big whoppers! We grilled one of them for supper.  Made two loaves of yummy zucchini bread with some small ones. The other one is waiting to be made into some more bread! Yummy! I don't know if The Garden Club over at petersonclan is posted yet, but you can click on over there and check out what they're up to!  11:10 - Friday, August 14, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentStrawberry Balsamic Jam One of my goals this year was to learn how to can things. I wanted to get some experience under my belt before the major canning extravaganza of tomatoes hits. So I decided to gather strawberries from our local farmers market, costco and a roadside stand in Wisconsin. It was such a wonderful experience and I used a fantastic recipe out of Cuisine At Home! I love that magazine! Loads of pictures and detailed instructions! Here is my experience! I started with a lot of yummy strawberries! I think taking the tops off was the most time consuming thing! I read a lot out of different books before I forged ahead. I read through Country Living Encyclopedia, Cuisine at Home summer issue, Ball Blue Book of Canning and this book:  Loads of information! I settled on using the recipe from Cuisine at Home. Super yummy! Getting my jars all nice and toasty! Making the balsamic reduction. Yummy berries almost ready for sugar and balsamic reduction. Jars all finished from their boiling water bath. They are squeaky clean...hee hee! My jars all lined up and ready to cool down!Loved hearing the pinging sounds as they were sealing! So cool! I had some jam left over that wasn't enough to can, so I decided to make a layered Almond White Cake with the jam inbetween the layers. Oh dear...was it good!  The family declared it state fair worthy! Ahhh...isn't that sweet? They crack me up! I just couldn't get enough of this goodness with some vanilla ice cream. No frosting needed!I made a total of 3 batches of jam this month already and even though the 2nd batch was not perfect because I was distracted, it was an incredibly successful first experience! I am loving this new skill! 05:51 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentJuly Garden 2009July 14th, 2009 My patio tomato plants and one of our local exotic birds. First Zucchini ready to harvest! Beautiful Zucchini flower! Cucumber doing it's amazing twirling hold...I can't get over how cool that is! Cute little bell peppers started! Monster Broccoli leaves with the tiny head forming! My giant beet! Yummy lettuce waiting to be eaten! Carrot thinnings and our first green beans of the season.We do have tomatoes on the vine just starting out. Probably won't see any red for a few weeks yet. Sunflowers are growing taller and the pumpkin plants are starting to take off too. We just need some moisture and some good sunshine! 05:42 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - comments {1} - post commentBuilding A TrellisAgain I was inspired by the Garden Girl Patti Moreno to build trellises for my climbing plants and things that need support! The way we did it isn't exactly the way she did it, but so far it's working. We have had to add a zip tie to a couple of places where the staples pulled away. We may be doing that more as the season progresses. Patti used screws and a metal washer to secure them. We may end up redoing it for next year if this year's a bust. 6 foot tree stakes $2.50 a piece Roll of galvanized fencing around $24.00 Metal staple gun $6.50 Staples $1.75My hubby helped me get them all done and screwed into the sides of my raised beds. I must add that it's working really well so far!  This is my watermelon starting to climb it! I also made tee-pee trellises for my cucumbers to climb over this year. I am using the cheap metal tomato cages I bought last year for the 2 squash plants, 2 of the cucumber plants and a couple of smaller tomato plants. They just fell over last year when I used them for my big tomato plants! I think the trellises will work a lot better this year! Time will tell! 05:26 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentFirst Summer Harvest!Harvesting Peas and SpinachJune 23rd, 2009  My sweet baby girl helping me in the garden. She loves picking the peas and spinach! Yummy spinach coming my way! Shelling sweet peas! I am convinced we need to do more of these next year! I didn't plant anywhere close to enough for our family! 05:21 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentJune Garden 2009June 17th  June 23  Amazing what can happen in 6 days! Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce Broccoli Zucchini Amish Paste Tomatoes Beets05:10 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentBaking with Organic FlourI had been reading on several sites how great it was to use organic flour for baking bread. They kept suggesting King Arthur flour. I hadn't ever seen this "amazing" flour or heard of it. But apparently I've been living under a rock as it has been around for 200 years or something. So I looked at my local grocery store, but apparently King Arthur isn't sold at the place I frequent. They didn't carry organic flour, but had a natural flour that would have to do. One day I did see some King Arthur flour at a different store, but it was like a 1 pound bag for some ridiculous price...no way was I going to pay that price for so little flour!My husband and I were in a different part of the metro and we went into one of the local coops we hadn't been in before. We were like 2 kids in a candy store. There were all these things we had been looking for, but couldn't find and there they were staring us in the face! Yippee! We were giddy with excitement and our kids looked at us like we were crazy! Seriously, we probably looked crazy getting excited over bags of organic flour, organic bulk popcorn, hulled barley and natural Thai peanut sauce!  I did find King Arthur Organic flour, but then I saw something I hadn't seen before. It was 5 lb. bags of Bob's Red Mill Organic Unbleached White Flour on sale! Well, I decided I must try it out! So we brought it home and I was inspired to make my ever so dangerous pot pie! Okay, so the recipe comes out of a Betty Crocker Cookbook, but I made it with my own two hands! Not only was it my best pie crust experience, but it was also the best tasting crust I had ever made! It was flaky and yummy and WOW! I am a believer in Organic flour! I had some leftover dough, so I had to make a little dessert too with some frozen berries.  It was incredibly tasty! I did later on use some King Arthur flour when I went to Kansas to visit my parents and it did great too! If you haven't tried out organic flour, I challenge you to try some! Happy Baking! 03:23 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentGarden Shoes About 10 years ago I was watching a Martha Stewart show and she was talking about her garden shoes. She had these green plastic looking clog things that she said was the best thing for the garden. I saw them and thought...how ugly! Why on earth would you want to wear those? She continued expounding upon how great they were for the garden and that you could just hose them off. I didn't really understand at the time because I wasn't a gardener yet. Now that I am a gardener, I totally understand why they are a "Good Thing." I love my bright orange crocs in the garden! They always make me smile, they are comfy and they can be hosed off! I love it! So the moral of the story is, if Martha seems a little cooky to you about something you know nothing about, you might want to take a step back and evaluate further! "Orange crocs, it's a good thing!" 02:57 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - comments {1} - post commentGrandma's GardenI went to visit my parents and my Grandma down in Kansas in May. While I was there, I wanted to help my 92 year old Grandma with her flower beds and her new raised bed my Dad built for her birthday. She had seen mine and her sister-in-laws and decided that she would like one too! I'm glad Dad built it for her! Grandma's cute raised bed! My Mom helping me hoe all the weeds out! More weeding! The front bed all planted! I made sure everything was a perennial so she would have stuff coming up each year. Although I just found out that Foxglove is a biennial...which is an every-other year treat! I can't wait to visit next spring to see everything flowering and bigger! Isn't Foxglove pretty!? I loved it so much I had to plant some in my yard! This was the next area on the side of the house that needed attention. I planted 3 Patriot Hostas and then a whole bunch of annuals...I believe they are Impatients!She had one more bed that had pretty much gone to grass, but my Dad hauled in some fresh dirt and we planted Zinnias I believe. My mind is a little foggy on that one. We got done with that real late in the evening, so my photo is dark.  You can see my dad's shoes, the yellow hose we were soaking them with and an existing plant along with all our little annuals! So cute! My Grandma was so thrilled with all the flowers and kept saying how I was spoiling her. I just kept telling her that I wanted to spoil her and she would smile. Isn't she cute?My Dad wanted some tomato plants too, so we got some for his patch he had started last year and was all ready with straw on it.  He put a pepper plant right in the middle. I wonder how his plants are now?Well, hope you enjoyed my adventure in bringing some beauty to some tired flower beds! I can't wait to bring more next year! It was a lot of fun! 01:04 - Thursday, July 16, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentGarden MarkersThis year I wanted to have a fun and colorful garden full of veggies and cute signs. So I asked my kids to help in the project and we had success! Cute, colorful and loads of fun!   DD10 painting the newspaper after she was done with her cute signs! Signs in action hot-glued with popsicle sticks...which by the way don't last...I should have used wood glue, but I was too lazy..or impatient to wait. There's always next year!12:52 - Thursday, July 16, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentCompost BinI have been wanting to compost our leaves and food waste for a few years now. Every time I mentioned it, I would get this strange look from my husband. This year however, he helped me in a huge way and made a wonderful and inexpensive compost bin (inspired by the Garden Girl). I think my zealous garden behavior and focused pursuits toward the construction of this mystical compost bin encouraged his help, but I'll let you decide. Read on dear readers! We hadn't saved any of our leaves from the fall and left the rest to decay under all our snow. When I saw our neighbor kid bagging leaves, I sent my son (who he's friends with) over and asked if we could have all their leaves when he was finished. My son also offered to help in this fun and next thing you knew, my doorbell was ringing and he asked where I wanted those leaves! Sweet! A great start to my compost! Which by the way hadn't taken shape yet and there wasn't even a definitive start date. I just seized the moment. It was like I was in a store shopping and I saw a bargain that was amazing and I knew I wanted to buy that item, but hadn't because it wasn't the right time or price and my heart starts pounding and I know this is a great opportunity and I'll kick myself if I don't jump on it...It was kinda like that, only with nasty wet and decaying leaves that had sat underneath crazy amounts of snow all winter...waiting for me to..."Save them and turn them into Gold!!!!" Okay, really good dirt! When I told my husband what I had done, he was like, "You did what? You asked them for their leaves?! What?! We don't need other peoples leaves! Where are you going to put them?" "In a compost bin that I want to build." I calmly stated, with a suppressed giddiness. "How much room is this going to take? I don't want our yard to be weird!" "I found a great plan that is really small and doable!" I said. "We'll see." He shook his head and was dumbfounded for a while. He was a good sport though and started putting kitchen scraps in a bucket on our countertop. He would periodically ask me how big this thing was going to be in our yard and where exactly I wanted to put it. We would talk about it and keep filling the bucket of scraps on the kitchen counter. Being that this was my baby, I had the honors of putting all those scraps in the now steaming bags of leaves. It wasn't very pleasant. He kept telling me that if I wanted to do this, I would have to empty that bucket everyday so he doesn't smell it first thing in the morning! Oops! Point taken! I then said, "Well we could have a vermiculture here in our kitchen." "A what?" he said. "A vermiculture, you know, where worms live and eat all our scraps and turn it into amazing compost!" "No way! We are not having worms living in our kitchen." I shrugged and knew not to push my luck. "Okay, I think outside will be fine. I'll try and do better about emptying the bucket out." The day finally arrived for our gardening adventure (see previous posts) and my wonderful hubby not only built me this fantastic compost bin, but he also bagged the rest of the leaves in our yard and dumped them in too! You may think that I conned him into this, but I must confess that I had been reading a lot about all this and sharing pieces of information with him so that he knew what composting was all about. I just hadn't expounded about the possibility of having worms hanging out with us in the winter months in our kitchen! To be honest, I don't think we're ready for that anyway! So for now, I get to toss apple cores off my porch into my compost bin and walk the "pig slop" out to the bin for our daily composting efforts. I feel like kitchen scraps are now money in the bank! I get giddy with excitement when I am chopping veggies and putting the discardables, not down my garbage disposal or trash can, but in the compost bucket. Score! Money reinvested into our crops for next year! I'm excited to be a composting suburbanite! Who knew we could have so much fun in the suburbs! Happy composting! 10:44 - Friday, June 12, 2009 - comments {1} - post commentSeedling Disaster...?Well my friends, I am sad to report that my first attempt to grow seedlings inside flopped. I think it was the depth of dirt that was the issue and the moisture saturation or lack of. There were days when they just didn't seem to be very moist even with my best efforts. They did pop up and sprout, but just didn't get much further. (sigh) However, there is no failure here...only experience gained and as my daughter's spelling book says at the bottom of every other page, "Mistakes are opportunities to learn." I am indeed learning! So back to the drawing board for next years seed starting. Believe me, there will be much research and more questions asked this go around!
10:33 - Friday, June 12, 2009 - comments {1} - post commentFree Garden PlannerHi Gardeners! Just wanted to let you know about a wonderful free Garden Planner resource for you over at Homestead Harvest. Just click on this link and scroll down to where it says GREAT GARDEN GIFTS in blue. Right underneath that is the link to download the Original Homestead Harvest Garden Journal. I think you'll love it! Pretty nifty!Go over to the Petersonclan to get more garden ideas! 08:31 - Saturday, May 2, 2009 - comments {2} - post commentSeedlingsThis is my first year of growing seedlings indoors. My awesome husband hooked up a light for me in our laundry room! I was so excited!!! I have to tell you I've been a nervous wreck.... "What if it doesn't work?"
"What if I just wasted all my heirloom seeds and then what?" Well, I'm proud to report that we have germination and cute little plants waving their little flags saying, "We're here! We're working!!! Don't give up on us!"  Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage Amish Paste Heirloom TomatoesI think the biggest lesson has been about faith. The Lord has these wonderful things going on in our lives. He plants a seed, he waters it, he keeps it warm, he shines light on it, he breathes on it and we wait and wait and then when we least expect it, there is action and we can hardly believe it! God is so cool! 09:07 - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentGarden PlanningI have been obsessing over my garden all winter long and now that it is spring, I am still obsessing about it! I am even dreaming about it! I finally got most of my garden planned out, now that I know I have 4 beautiful beds to plant in! It's going to be quite the summer for produce! We have loads of room to grow things this year! I used graph paper and planned out each bed. I also wrote down the days that I get to plant each thing. I still can't plant anything (except peas) yet, but the day will come when my boxes of dirt will be transformed into beautiful squares of green loveliness! It is so worth the time and effort to have everything organized! 11:09 - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - comments {0} - post comment4 Beds Ready!Well, I finished making the grids for my 4 beds and then I planted my first things...PEAS! I am trying Laxton's Progress #9 this year. I am very excited to shell peas with the kids on our porch. I remember doing it with my grandma when I was little. Can't wait!
11:06 - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - comments {0} - post commentGarden FairyThe Lord has blessed my life in so many ways this past week. There was a week straight of beautiful warm weather, Easter Sunday, accomplishing things I didn't think possible, getting 3 more garden beds for my garden and spending the day with my family, including my brother, sister-in-law and my cute niece.When they came over to help with the Garden, they dressed her in a gardening themed outfit and I promptly dubbed her my Garden Fairy. I think you'll agree, she is the cutest fairy around!  My garden is blessed by God for sure! 11:03 - Monday, April 20, 2009 - comments {2} - post commentNew Raised Garden BedsI had been wanting to add some more garden beds around the yard so that I could plant more veggies! My husband wasn't so keen on the idea of garden beds scattered throughout our yard, so I was happy to accept the prospect of one more bed to add to our 4x8 bed DH made last year.
 Box from last year.While I was busy digging and shoveling and spending way too much time with the rocks in my backyard this past week (see previous post), I had an epiphany! (Largely due in part, to having watched several episodes of The Garden Girl TV in the mornings before I dug my rocks. I'm now a raving fan!) "If I move my current bed the other direction,
I could fit not just one more box in this space, but 3 more boxes in this space and it'll be neat and tidy!" So I brought up the idea with my husband and I held my breath. He paused and said, "That could work. But how are you going to move the bed already filled with dirt? Isn't it all compacted down and hard to move now?"
I joyfully told him, "Because we are using the perfect soil (Mel's Mix, from Square Foot Gardening method), it's not compacted and hard to move at all!" He stuck his shovel in the dirt and started moving it around to test it. He asked if I had already tilled it to get it this way and I said, "I literally moved my garden rake across the bed a couple of times and the dirt was all nice and neat. It stayed nice and loose!" So to my surprise, he not only got the lumber to build me one more box on Saturday, but enough for 3 more boxes! Hallelujah! I was so excited!!!! My dream was coming true! Saturday afternoon, after my brother and I had finished with the never-ending project of moving rocks, we started the project of moving the current garden bed as my hubby was finishing up making the new ones.  My superman husband assembling my new beds! We filled the new garden bed with the soil from the old one and then laid out the rest of the boxes. Look at that dark colored good earth there!  My second superhero of the day, my brother, leveling off the spot for box number 4! Leveling off the new dirt.I lost count how many bags of dirt we hauled in, but it was a lot! My van looked like a low rider! (see the 4th photo above)  Me, with my new garden beds! Yippeeeee! What a great day! Tired, exhausted, sore muscles, hungry, famished, yet smiling and giddy! Great feeling! Oh, did I mention it was our 11th Anniversary!? What a great gift my hubby gave me! I am the luckiest girl alive!10:32 - Monday, April 20, 2009 - comments {2} - post comment
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