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Thursday, July 31, 2014

Damn beetles

Look at what those awful Japanese beetles are doing to my beans:

Jacob's cattle
Green pole
Scarlet runner
For several days, I could see 10-15 beetles on the plants, but when I went out last night, I could only find three. Those three got a bath in soapy water. :) I'm hoping the others have had their fill and moved on or been eaten by some of my bird friends.

The beans seem to be flowering and growing okay, and there are plenty of untouched leaves at this point. I'm going to be out of town next week, so I hope the damn beetles don't come back and destroy the beans while I'm gone.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Zinnias

One thing I sure can grow are zinnias. I know, pretty much anyone can grow zinnias, but it still makes me proud to see the plants I started from seed looking like this now:


Unfortunately, as you can see, the zinnias are crowding other things, as zinnias seem prone to doing. I couldn't get to the kale or my Amish paste tomatoes because the zinnias were in the way.


The good thing about zinnias is that when you cut them down, you get a bouquet, so I now have a little bit of a garden path


and a vase full of pink zinnias in my office. I forgot to take a picture of the vase, of course, so you'll just have to believe me.

Monday, July 28, 2014

A learning experience

I tried to learn something new this past weekend. After three years, I finally attempted to can something in my pressure cooker. The main reason I have it is for beans, and I have enough this year to give it a shot. I thought I was being smart, though, and decided my first attempt should be with something I wouldn't mind screwing up.


The first time I picked beets, I left quite a few in the ground because they were so small. By now they'd gotten big enough and been in the ground long enough, that they needed to come out.

Cooked and chopped
I certainly know why people used to build canning kitchens. I had four pots of water on my stove, and it was over 90 degrees outside.


Though the cooker came with three different recipe and instruction booklets, not one of them was very detailed about what was supposed to happen or how I would know if I was doing it correctly.

Pressure's on
I watched this thing for many tense minutes, during which I smelled the distinct odor of cooking beets. When the time was finally up and the pressure gone, I took out four jars of still boiling beets. The jars all popped on the way to the table, but they had clearly lost a fair amount of liquid in the canner.


So I had four jars of canned beets with not enough liquid in them, and over a pound of green beans in the refrigerator. I looked over the instruction booklets one more time and learned that I probably had the heat too high during processing. Armed with that knowledge, I tried my hand at the beans the next day. This time I paid very close attention to the steam and the burner and tried to keep the heat a little lower. When it was time to take the jars out, I was so excited. They looked great. They hadn't lost any liquid. About an hour later, it dawned on me that none of them was sealed. I gave the jars about 12 hours and then put them in the fridge. I'm sure that I erred on the side of not hot enough with the beans.

Even though neither attempt was truly successful, I have taken the first steps in tackling something that I'd previously been afraid to do. My canner is so small it can only hold four jars, which means I will never ruin too much of anything and I can keep practicing until I get it right. I just hope my pole beans come on strong, because the bush beans are about done, and I don't have any canned beans.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Visitors

This is why I get so bitter when the squirrels chew off the sunflowers.

Mr.
Mrs.
This lovely pair stopped by for a snack the other evening.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Today


The last of the broccoli. This grew on side shoots after I cut off the main head.


It's tomato and bean time. The Jade II bush beans are probably close to done, but the tomatoes are just getting started.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Tomato update

I certainly don't have the tomato jungle that I had last year. The tomato I rescued is looking better, but it hasn't grown much.


It's not even as tall as the basil next to it. This plant is an Early Girl, which I've been planting for several years. The other Early Girl I planted actually looks worse.


For awhile, it had a lot of brown leaves, but it is mostly green now. The two Arkansas Travelers both have tomatoes, but one plant is noticeably smaller than the other.

Left and middle are Arkansas Travelers
Since the tomatoes I planted aren't doing great, I'm not discouraging the volunteers that have sprung up.

In the bean forest
In the rosemary container
With my luck, however, they'll probably all be cherry tomato plants. I always have more cherry tomatoes than I need or can give away.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Beans

It's that time of the summer when I can go into the garden and pick something every day.

Today's harvest
All of those beans are from my Jade II bush beans. Not all of them grew, but the ones that did are covered with beans. They have to compete for space with the Jacob's cattle beans in the part of the garden that is quickly becoming the "bean forest".


The Jacob's cattle are also loaded with beans.


They are a dried bean, however, so it'll be awhile before I pick them. I saw these two nasty little guys on them this morning.


They're pretty, but clearly not good for the beans, so they were unceremoniously evicted.

In other garden news, the strawberries have filled their bed


and are trying to get out.


There was an almost perfect strawberry on one of the plants the other day, but when I went back to pick it, it was gone. I'd like to blame the squirrels, but I think it was probably a bird. The robins spend a lot of time in the strawberry bed.

Between the potting soil bag method and all of the rain we're getting, my wheelbarrow has never looked prettier.



Monday, July 14, 2014

Stepping stones and a whole new outlook

I finished my most recent project the other day. Now I have a garden path from my patio to my shed.

Finished path
D and I found an awesome place to buy rocks a couple weeks ago. On the first trip we bought just enough to get started. I laid them on the fourth of July.

Before
After - July 5th
The next day, I went back to the rock store and got enough to finish the job. I finally laid them on Saturday. It was a hot, sticky, dirty job, but I'm so happy with the end result.

After - July 12th
In addition to creating a path, I somewhat unwittingly engineered a new outlook. With the path in place, I now look at the whole backyard as my garden. I used to consider only this area the garden:


Now I feel like the whole area behind my house is K's Garden. It probably isn't just the path. I've been looking at the yard this year and dreaming up new ideas, but the path really convinced me I can and should do the things I'm dreaming of. I've got some big plans for my garden.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Carrots

I finally remembered to pull up my carrots the other night. Some of them were rotting, which isn't surprising given the amount of rain we've had and the fact that I was probably a little late. Even so, I got close to three pounds of carrots.


As you can see, some of them were pretty big, and not quite as gnarly as last year, although I did have a few weird ones. I planted two varieties, but I can't find my notes to tell me which row had which ones. Also, as I was pulling, I wasn't keeping them separate, so I really have no idea if all the pretty carrots are one variety or not. Oh well, I'll be eating carrot pie this week, and that makes me happy.

Obviously, I picked some more beets, too. When I made pickled beets, I didn't pick them all because some were really small. Now I have these and I'm not sure what to do with them. I throw one in a smoothie every once in awhile, but I think I need to try cooking them and eating them plain.

I've picked several cherry tomatoes and got my first full size tomato the other day. The plants are really starting to fill up with green tomatoes.

Arkansas Traveler
Sweet Baby Girl

Amish Paste
I can't wait for tomato pie with homemade pesto....


Thursday, July 10, 2014

Onions

I pulled my onions on the fourth of July. That's earlier than I have in the past, but they'd been lying down for awhile. My first step in curing them is to let them lay in the sun for a couple days.

July 4th - dry

After pulling them, I spread them out on the patio table. Friday night, it poured. I woke up at 2:30 am Saturday, heard the rain and said a little prayer for my onions. Saturday morning, they were laying in a puddle on the table. It was still sprinkling, so I hung them up to dry out of the rain.

July 5th - very wet
It cleared off on Saturday, and they eventually dried off. By Sunday, I was able to put them to bed (I lay them on the concrete covered in a sheet to cure).

July 6th - dry

I know I shouldn't complain about rain, but I wish it hadn't come again Monday night and soaked my onions.

July 8th - wet again
At this point, I don't know if they're going to make it. I've used a couple and thrown one away because it was rotting. We've got a chance of rain again in the forecast, so I moved them closer to the house to try to keep them as dry as possible. At this rate, I'll be lucky to have any storage onions this year.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Forgetful

The garden July 4th
I did garden things over the long holiday weekend, and I even took some pictures, but I keep forgetting to post.

I picked the first carrots.


So far they aren't as wonky as last year's carrots. I can't remember which kind I planted where, however, so I don't know what kind these are.

The squash is blooming like crazy.


I don't see any baby squashes yet, and it dawned on me this morning that even with all of the flowers, I could end up with nothing if they don't get fertilized. I don't think I'm going to take matters into my own hands. We'll see how things play out.

I didn't plant any sunflowers this year, but the birds did.


And, of course, the squirrels are chewing on them.

Furry bastards
I started a new garden project over the weekend, but it's not finished yet. When it is, I'll post pictures.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Speaking of rabbits



This guy has some nerve.


At least he's on the right side of the garden fence.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Rabbits?

My cinder block garden when I planted it:


The white marigolds were so pretty.


This is what they look like now:


All of them.


The other flowers look fine.


And the white marigolds that were planted inside the big garden look amazing.

Ignore the weeds
I'm assuming this is the work of rabbits because I have noticed all of the flower heads lying on the ground, and I'm also seeing it happen to the orange marigolds in my perennial bed. I didn't think rabbits were supposed to like marigolds, but they sure do around here. Bastards.