July 17th Carrots and Beets

They are out, washed, and sitting in the sink. Now I have to decide what to do with them. Do I turn them into baby food? Maybe pickle the beets? Stew the carrots? Hmmm... This is the bad part of the garden. Deciding which is going to be the best way to enjoy the bounty. Fresh carrots are a completely different animal from those at the store. Beets I like, but in small amounts, and no one else in the family likes them. I put them in the garden because they are easy to grow.

The peas are getting past their prime. That is an easy decision. Shell them and put 'em in the freezer. That is if I can get them past a little boy. For as much as he doesn't like the carrots or beets he LOVES peas from the garden. In the pod or out, but generally not cooked. Come to think of it though I haven't tried cooking the ones from the garden. They never made it that far.

I've pulled most of my lettuce and did pull all the spinach. So my first bed is almost done. A few carrots left along with the peas and green onions. Once the peas and bachelor buttons are done that bed is going to get cleaned up and I'm thinking I'll mulch over it with my compost pile. This bed has a lot of clay to it. Originally I was thinking of planting something else, but I just don't think it is going to happen this year. I'm not all that ambitous.

Besides, I'm going to soon have onions, beans, tomatoes, and corn to deal with. I'm not sure what is going on with my red potatoes. I think some sort of bug has gotten to them. They never flowered and they are yellowing and wilting. Either that or a disease.

My main bug of blame this year (and last) has been slugs! I have a veritable slug farm. Anyone need slugs? Maybe someone wants to rent a garden area to feed their ducks or chickens? I could keep some birds pretty darn happy for quite some time.

Well, I think I'm off to try to put some dinner together and make a decision about my beets and carrots. Maybe.

July 10th beginning to harvest

Peas, and beets. I just got done freezing a batch of peas. I have one jar of pickled beets in the fridge (they haven't been processed), and I've got some strawberries and currants in the freezer as well. I want to do jams etc with the strawberries and currants, but haven't gotten enough at one time. So I'm freezing them and then I'll go back and make jams, jellies, syrups etc later. Maybe even this winter.

I have some rogue pumpkins growing and I have an insane number of slugs. I need a duck or something to get rid of them. The slugs that is. At least I'm getting a harvest. It won't be long and I'll need to do some major garden clean up. Spinach and lettuce are pretty well done. The beets should be coming out soon too. Even the carrots are right there on the cusp of ready.

I need to figure out some baby food recipes using these things. Then they will be put to good use.

June 26th Photos Finally

Peas

Tomatoes

Petunias

Whole veggie garden...Almost 2 months since the last of it got put in.

June 19th

A little over a month since I got everything in. At this point we can't keep up with the lettuce or spinach. The peas are blooming, the potatoes will bloom any minute, the carrots are getting big as are the beets, the corn and beans are up, and the cucumbers and zuchini are doing battle with the slugs. (The cucumber is fairing worse than the zuchini but still making it). My tomatoes are getting short and stout. They don't seem to be doing much growing up. That and (I haven't done my research yet) they seem to have something going on with the leaves. Maybe a disease with all the moisture we've had? I've never had to deal with that as I've always had disease resistant hybrids and this year I'm doing heirlooms. I guess there is something to be said for the hybrids. I just hope everyone performs well this year.

We've gotten one strawberry so far. More will follow soon if we get some sunshine. The currant bush is loaded this year and it looks like the apples and italian prunes are too. I know I'm missing some here. Cabbage and brussels sprouts are up and doing well. They were an experiment. Started by direct seeding them even though everything talks about starting with transplants started much earlier inside. I have lots of random lettuce in places. Along with some random bachelor button flowers and what I assume is either a cabbage or brussels sprout since it is around where I had those last year. Again I have some random squash too. Maybe pumpkin? I composted the Halloween pumpkins last fall and the seeds didn't get broken down over the winter. Maybe we'll get a pumpkin or two this year?

As far as herbs go... I bought some local dill last year for something and ended up drying it. This spring I just shook the seeds out in a couple of places before composting the rest of the plant. They seem to have taken off just fine. The seeds I planted out of a packet last year didn't do anything. I have lemon balm coming up voluntarily. I put out cilantro and parsley plants. I planted lots of other seeds in a new raised bed but they sure are slow to come up and I didn't keep track of what went in. Besides, Bear and dogs haven't helped any. They like to tromp through the raised beds. Oh well, we'll see.

A bit more...The garlic and onions are doing well. The spearmint is up along the north foundation. Tom's flower bed is sprouting pretty well, and this year's lavender seems to like the new location. Maybe I can get it to winter over. Oh, I found comfrey in the yard too.

Well, I hear Bear starting to wiggle. I'll try to get a current picture of the garden on here sometime this weekend as well. It is supposed to be sunny enough to try it.

May 28th

Rain, rain, rain... It has been raining all week and looks to rain all next week too. This has its benefits as I haven't had to water my garden for about a week and a half. The drawback is that everything is soggy and it isn't much fun to play outside in all the wet. My clay soil really doesn't help draining the water away. Ahh well.

We did get some more plants today. Mostly flowers. We are trying to perk up the side of the house toward the road. People drive past it all the time and it has been very dull. Speaking of that side of the house... The currant bush I put in last year is going great guns this year. I'm going to have a small bumper crop of currants. My raspberries on the other side of the house are doing well too. The blueberries, not so much. I'm not sure what the problem there is. Maybe they don't like the drainage or something. Who knows?

Oh, we whacked our rose bush this year. It won't be pretty this year at all, but will hopefully come back nice and strong next year.

Off to hang out with my husband for the evening...

May 15th

And we are officially all planted. We have been working like crazy on the garden and yard. There is a new flower bed on the south side of the house, I have a couple of new bushes in, and the veggie garden is complete. Now if I can just keep the weeds down.

I guess the veggies aren't quite complete. I still need to finish caging tomatoes and trellising cucumbers. Otherwise they are done though. We have added some raised beds that a friend gave me a kit for. Now I have pretty flowers along my fence and we are adding a seating area to the back yard. I do need to get going on the front yard. I've kinda neglected it. At least the lilacs are up there and are about to bloom. I love spring!

May 2nd

Rain... We've had a lot of rain here lately. In fact the new rain barrel I got last week is about half full and I don't even have gutters to pipe the water into it.

Peas, lettuce, and beets are up. I'm hoping to see the potatoes, cabbage, and brussels sprouts soon. The daffodils are pretty much done and the tulips aren't far behind them. Lilacs are about half leafed out and the blossoms are starting to form. The lawn needs mowed again. 2nd or 3rd time already.