Thursday, November 26, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Low Hanging
One of the amazing things about gardening on the Lake Michigan shoreline is that we have a little micro-climate that supports growth long after things have frozen just a few miles west of us. Our everbearing raspberries are still bearing up a lot of fruit--about 2 full cups on Saturday, and we only have about a dozen plants. They are situated between our house and the fence of the house next door, a distance of about 6 feet. So not only has it only frozen twice this fall, they get heat radiated off the house to keep them growing.
Likewise, the arugula is still doing well. The sawhorses are covered by our white cold frame fabric when necessary (which has only been two nights so far). We hope to have it well into December, for a crisp green salad when our bodies need it most.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Bountiful Pantry
The top shelf has dried cherry tomatoes in the white bin (a bumper crop!) and salsa to the right; just below that is dilly beans and pickles.
Here're all the canned stewed tomatoes. Not sure how we will manage to use all of these, since we also have a few gallons of pasta sauce in the freezer. And the vegetable delivery continues, bi-weekly, until Thanksgiving. Plus two cabbages and lots of arugula still out in the garden, and about 15 winter squash in the attic. We'll have plenty this winter!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Colorful Dinner
Sunday, October 11, 2009
First Frost!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Growth and Decay
Hard to believe this is just 5 weeks ago. The garden is a mess now. The tomatoes have something that is making all the leaves turn brown and limp. It looks like they were hit with frost, but it hasn't been at all cold. I need to keep up better. But it was a lovely summer, cool and green, little rain in July, but plenty after that. Too cool for tomatoes. Not many this year, even though we planted a lot.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Tomatoes on the driveway
Full garden views
Kid's eye view
Lovely Lilies
So many blossoms
Up close and pink
Friday, July 10, 2009
Lazy gardener
The garden is doing pretty well. The tomato plants are huge and starting to flower. We have harvested some small carrots, beets and some bad turnips. I guess planting the turnips and hoping they'll grow isn't going to work. Perhaps I'll read about it before fall planting.
The peas are growing extremely well. Too well, as we are also getting about 2 lbs per week from our CSA.
So we seem to be retaining our title of Tomato Pros. And that is saying something, so I shouldn't complain. Or work too hard on the rest of it.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Growing and Warmth
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Tomato plant count
Australian Oxheart (3)
Black Cherry (3)
Black Krim (3)
Brandywine Yellow (5)
Cherokee Chocolate (4)
Green Zebra (3)
Kellogg's Breakfast tomato (4)
Principe Borghese (4)
Yellow pear (5)
The only new one is the Black Krim. They all have different uses, which I will chronicle as we harvest them.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
A Day of Mothering--plants.
- Leeks
- Summer squash
- Cucumbers
- popcorn
- sunflowers
- other flowers and herbs
- two avocado pits in pots (since we had guacamole for dinner)
transplanting:
- Fennel
- peppers
- herbs
- tomatoes (34 plants in the ground and in pots)
Also discovered the joy of stewed rhubarb this weekend. SO GOOD.
In comparing notes with other midwesterners, we are lucky to be close to the lake, and west of it. It has a moderating effect on the weather--it is supposed to get to 38 degrees tonight, but it is freezing elesewhere. We've been harvesting kale for two weeks. The Rhubarb is hearty and producing well. The tomatoes we transplanted earlier this week are thriving. Will be interesting to see what this does over the years, if it changes, etc.
At any rate, a good day of gardening.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Turnip sprouts!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Our seedling set-up
Monday, March 9, 2009
Kitty Assistant
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Starting
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/
Here's our seed collection. These are from Victory Seed Company (all heirlooms):
These we bought at the local Stein's Garden Center.
There's a seed starting calculator somewhere on the site http://www.yougrowgirl.com/ but I can't locate it just now. It told us to plant this weekend, so we did.
Then I went to the farmer's market on Saturday and was told it was way too early to be planting seedlings by a very experienced gardener. Sigh. I'm sure it will be fine, and seed pots are enjoying their time in the laundry room on top of the warm, sunny and vibrating dryer (spouse/botanist says that the jiggling strengthens the growing plants. We'll see).Sunday, February 15, 2009
Best Gift Ever
This gift is from our local used book store so I'm not sure it can be purchased anymore (too lazy to do a search on it). This year for Christmas, my husband, son, and I decided to buy each other a book from this store. So we each bought two and each received two. It was a major success and we were all very happy with the choices. I think we'll make it a tradition. It was fun and has the whole buy locally/recycle advantage as well.