Back in the Garden. Again.

70 this morning, partly cloudy and breezy. Humid but not as bad as yesterday. 88 as I write this.

I spent this morning in tbe garden again, this time pulling up the remaining beets and our second crop of onions, as well as some bolted lettuce and cabbage "stumps".  Then it was tiller time.

I tilled as much as I could still get the tiller in to, then hoed and hand-pulled weeds. They come up easily in this good garden soil, the result of years of mulch. I replanted where there was room with green beans, lettuce, and sunflowers. The beets will go to a neighbor or if she can't get them, then I will pickle them. The onions will go the woodshed to dry with the others before hanging up in the workroom to store for later. I also pulled some dill and will dry the leaves and store them away for winter. Yesterday I cut oregano and it is almost dry--the pilot light on my old Tappan range is perfect for drying herbs.

Here is the celery, all wrapped up to blanch for a couple weeks. And the new-tilled ground, where the beets were.

Those are my late cabbages to the left. I am trying hard to protect them from bugs, but it's not easy. The cabbage moths have resisted all my efforts so far, and the poor Brussel sprouts leaves are just riddled with holes.

The zucchini and yellow squash plants are monstrous!

This the cucumber vines, growing over the arch. I should be making pickles next week if everything continues to go well with them.

Part of the upper garden, which doesn't usually show in my photos. In here is peppers, green beans, lettuce, radishes, carrots, butternut squash, a few potatoes, and a volunteer pumpkin vine. The new asparagus bed is here too, but not seen in thr photo. I will have to get a picture of those pretty new plants soon. In front left you can see the onions, just before I pulled them. There are 3 kinds, white, red, and yellow. Right close beside them are lima beans that I planted about a month ago, which I hope will now spread out to take the onions' space. I weeded and hoes this area, and planted sunflowers here after the photo. I planted a little lettuce in the top right corner.  I am not sure how well it will do in July heat, but I had the seeds, so thought I'd give it a try. It stays shady up there until about noon.

Just look at the size of those zucchini leaves! They are absolutely huge. The plant itself is about 4 feet tall.

The kale leaves have gotten so big that they are breaking off the trunk of the plant. Larry feeds these big guys to the rabbits.

Volunteer dill is scattered all through the garden.

These are my leeks. They are doing much better than last year. I got one side weeded, need to do the other. To their right are the green beans, which we are picking from now. 

Red bergamot enjoying the morning sun. I am having a little deer trouble in this flower bed. They have eaten the flowers off the coneflower and several other plants. But fortunately our deer don't like bergamot. I acted dome Russian sage yesterday and I hope that will deter them from foraging around in there for other goodies. Larry also laid chicken wire on the ground in the corner where the deer seem to enter.  They won't walk on that so maybe they will be discouraged from eating the flowers.

These two worked hard, watching me stringtrimming around the yard! 

When the trimming was done, I was drenched in sweat and plastered with grass clippings. I stripped outside--nice that our place is that private!--and jumped in the shower. My reward for 3 hours of work: spice cake and iced tea, a good book and my rocker on the porch!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Gardens

53 this morning, wet after a thinderstorm at 5am, then clearing and windy. This evening another very brief shower. I'll take it though, as it looks like another dry week ahead.

Let's go back out to the gardens! The rain has done wonders for them, little as we got. I am not complaining, though. Some places got none.

This is "my" garden. I do most of the work in this one, although Larry does help when I need him.

Same garden, the bean patch with limas and snap beans.

Same garden again, with the row closest being late cabbage, then broccoli and Brussel sprouts,  then early cabbage, the row that was lettuce and chard and now has squash and peppers as well as a random tomato that came up, then beets and at the far end celery. 

Same garden, upper end which was planted later. Here are cucumbers on the arch on the right over the strawberry tubs.  There are squash in there somewhere too. A row of onions, with some limas that haven't come up planted close up to them so they will take the space when we pull the onions. Then 2 rows of peppers of various kinds, a row of snap beans,  then lettuce and radishes, and carrots closest to the road. On the far left are potatoes, with our new asparagus bed in front of them.

This is one of Larry's gardens, with the early corn, potatoes,  peas, and onions.

Here you can see the pease and onions. This evening, after the photo, he laid over the onion tops to let the bulbs develop and the necks dry.

Looking into my herb garden. I took these this morning, so thislittle garden was hoed out later, as was most of my big garden. 

The gate into the herb garden, which opens under the grape arbor.

Also in this rock-walled garden is our raspberry patch , rhubarb  and asparagus.  There is room for something else, but I haven't decided what yet.

And one of the flowerbeds, which used to have a red glass globe on that stand. Chalk that up to Buddy the dog.

I still need photos of Larry's other garden, the one with the tomatoes and later corn. Maybe next time.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

What a Week

57 this morning, clear and nice, but humid now as rain is moving our way. It is very welcome as we are still behind in rainfall this month.

It has been a garden and food week here, it seems. Already we are harvesting: snow peas and chard are in the freezer, with regular peas to pick soon, and plenty of kale too. 

You have to laugh about the yields from greens. 4 bags, from a bushel of chard! But with the beet greens and kale, we will have a good supply in tbe end.

There are a few cabbages ready, and broccoli is heading up. The squash are ready to start blooming, as are the cucumbers, and the onions need to be pushed over to dry in tbe next few days. Tbe third planting of lettuce is ready now, and so are a few radishes. Today I side-dressed many of the plants in my garden with rabbit manure, and Larry used manure tea in tbe tomatoes. We are also picking raspberries, not a lot but what a sweet treat.

In tbe kitchen I have had a cooking week. With our granddaughter visiting and our son coming over often to help her on her cabin site, there have been some hungry people here. Here is what Tuesdays cooking looked like:

I wanted to make a kale soup, and found this recipe by the NY Times for Kale Sausage And Potato Soup. It was absolutely delicious. My son said, before tasting it, that there was no good way to use kale, but he changed his mind! I made a pan of cornbread to go with the soup.

I had bought the ingredients for a pineapple upside down cake back in May, planning to make it for Larry's birthday. That didn't happen, so on this rainy Tuesday I got it made.

While making the soup, I also made a huge kettle od spaghetti sauce to can. We were given several large bags of frozen hamburger and 4 one-gallon tins of tomato sauce. I needed the freezer space the meat was taking up so I added celery, onions, and spices to the meat and sauce, and ended up with about 11 quarts of pasta sauce, canned in the pressure canner.

I had a container full of raspberries that I thought to make into jam, but decided instead to flash freeze them to use in cereal, salads, etc.

And since we had a loaf of French bread that was getting stale, I tried making herbed croutons for the first time. So simple to make,, I can't think why I haven't done it before.

Wednesday we had the leftover soup for lunch, then for dinner I put together a salad bar, with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, pickled beets, pickled jalapeños, carrots, radishes, green onions, croutons, turkey, and a few other things I can't recall. It was fun and so easy. No photos of that, unfortunately.  I just didn't think to take them.

Breakfast yesterday was chopped apples, black walnuts and vanilla yogurt mixed into my usual pancake mix, with cherry pit syrup from last year. I still need to make this year's syrup but have tbe seeds in the freezer for when I get time.

Today's breakfast was tomatoes on toast, because our son brought us a nice bag of tomatoes from his friend's greenhouse. Lunch was corn chowder or white bean and ham soups from the cellar,  with the rest of the pineapple upside-down cake for dessert.  Tonight? Actually we are still full from lunch!

Well, I didn't just cook all week. I spent the weekend with the pressure washer. Hours and hours, but the deck, patio, and sidewalks look much better. And we had some wonderful firepit evenings and porch conversations. Such good times.

Now our granddaughter has gone home, and it is quiet and kind of boring around here. It is always such a pleasure when she comes and we look forward to her next trip. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Rain

54, rain showers and breezy. A beautiful morning.

Happy gardens, happy and relieved gardener!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Veggie Garden Update

60 this morning, bright and clear. We got very little of the promised rain this weekend, so watering has begun in earnest. It is supposed to warm to 90 by the end of the week. Ugh.

Here are a few pictures from my vegetable garden. I still need to get photos of Larry's early garden, and of the tomato garden, just planted this weekend with help from granddaughter Haley and her friend Desiree. 

Celery in front, then beets, then Swiss chard.

Cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts here.

The beets again, with Lutz in front and Detroit dark red on the other end of the row.

A longer view. On the far end are carrots--atill tiny--green beans just coming up, a row of peppers planted last week, a row of onions, and potatoes at the far end.

Strawberries in the tubs, with cucumbers and squashes on the ends. Oh, and a row of zinnias in there too, just coming up.

My annual sacrifice to the garden gods! Spinach never ever does well for me, but I try every year. There has to be a secret; do you know it?

The wee little herb garden is beginning to grab hold.

And aong view of the garden, after watering this morning.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Flower Gardens Walkabout

55, brisk and cool this morning. The weather has been gorgeous all week, so we have been in the gardens every day. Still so much more to do!

Here's a quick look at what's happened  this week in the flower gardens. 

One if my favorite roses is this one that my mother called a Tudor rose because of the colors. I planted this three or four years ago but the deer ate it back so often that it seldom bloomed. So I moved it to the new rose garden, close to the house.

A new rose last year. This is a tea rose. It's pretty pale pink color doesn't show well in my photo.

A tiny red miniature rose, which is surprisingly hardy here. It is at least 3 years old.

A new phlox I planted two weeks ago. I love phlox but have only had luck with the old-fashioned variety.  Fingers crossed in this one.

This is the corner I revamped last year, pulling out huge overgrown evergreens. My goal for this corner is color that I can see from the porch.

Part of the same garden, where the annual pink primroses(?) have made themselves very much at home.

 

This was an expanded garden last year, and

still a work in progress.

The drift roses are coming into their glory now. I need more of them! Well, maybe not need, but sure would like.

As you can see the primrose are happy here too. And that make me happy too.

A hodgepodge of chives in bloom, tiny parsley that you probably cannot see, lettuce, and the new rhubarb plants.  

Yet another rode, this one a gift from a sweet friend several years ago. 

And a late blooming peony. I have added several peonies in the past year, only one of which bloomed this year. This one is 5 years old and doesn't bloom well because it is in a too shady location.

This is my favorite rose, new this year. The color is stunning, a variegated pink-orange-yellow mix. Has the sweetest fragrance too. It is a climber, so I had a bit of a think as to where to put it.

And my oldest rose, at least 40 years old. It blooms sparingly, but smells wonderful.

Works in progress: pulling weeds, cutting spent iris stems, pulling up daffodil leaves, etc, etc.

And a flowerbed revamp. I will dig out the iris in July or August as this location is too shady. I moved some hostas from the bed I abandoned this year due to the lily of the valley and weedy vines taking it over. I think the hostas will be happy here. I will move the peony later in the year too. Live and learn! At the top right you can see a shaggy climbing rose. It was once a tea rose but was killed back to its roots and this monster emerged. It has no blooms on it yet this year. It will be coming out of there, either this summer or next spring.

There is always something else to be done. Bushes need pruned, weeding, deadheading, on and on. And that doesn't even include the vegetable gardens. I will get photos of them tomorrow, I hope.