While it’s still too early and muddy to do much out in the garden just yet, I did spend yesterday down at the new community garden plot with Virginia. Continue reading
Category: garden
Awakenings.
This is what our yard looked like a week ago:
Under the dogwood
On the front proch
Find the garden ghome!
About that cabinet.
This blog post is dedicated to Abigail, who suggested it.
In my small kitchen with limited storage, where every single item save my cherry pitter have multiple uses, I have an entire half cabinet devoted to Koozie storage. Yes, Koozies, those wonderful little insulators that keep your canned or bottled beverage cold. I did not set out nor intend to have so much of my precious kitchen space devoted to these items, but like other things in life, sometimes that’s just how it goes. Continue reading
Adventures in Preserves and Pizza.
I recently cracked open a jar of that pickled eggplant. As part of the ongoing series of canning classes I’ve been teaching, I’d been asked if I could please lead another pickling class because ‘pickling is fun’. Indeed it is. I knew I could still get eggplant, so I figured I should actually sample the pickles before making them again. Served on some nice baguette with feta cheese and a drizzle of olive oil, pickled eggplant is a lovely antipasti. Continue reading
Scenes from a weekend.
Side view
Selfie girls
Great pumpkin selfie
Two girls and a 501 pound pumpkin
Melons on the porch
Garden haul
Happy Lucky Combo
Chicken dancing
Chicken dancing
Dancing lederhosen
Roasting peppers
Sunday morning brunch
Late afternoon fall light
Checking the new lights for the man cave
Autumn yard
Part of a day’s work: jar of candied cintron melon, fermenting peppers and a peach pie
Sentimental Gardening
My cousin Henry, like myself, was a bit of a sentimental gardener. I remember sitting on his back porch one day, noticing a pot of variegated sedum. When I questioned him about it, he said it came from our Granny’s yard, did I want some? I think I left it behind that visit, but I finally did grab it on a later one. When I couldn’t get the sedum to take in my yard, I grabbed another specimen. That one didn’t make it either. When he moved into the house with Julie, I once again asked about the sedum. He pointed to a pot in a corner of the yard, telling me he hadn’t put it in the dirt yet, but I could have some and could I please make an effort to not kill it this time?
Yeah, that one didn’t make it either. Continue reading
What to do with tomatoes.
I have two gardens this year, the usual one in the yard as well as an ‘off-site’ one in the community gardens. Both have tanked this year. Squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs and deer have feasted mightily. The deer took out both the taller netting we put up to stop them as well as kicking down the wooden fence on one side of the community garden. It’s become a free range buffet to those beasts. The on site garden hasn’t fared much better. Two gardens and all I have to show for it is a bowl full of cherry tomatoes and a handful of peppers. Even basil, supposedly so easy to grow anyone can do it, has been devastated by bugs. The Malabar Spinach I planted has failed to take off because it hasn’t been hot enough. (It did not get out of the 80’s once here the entire month of August.) Major garden fail on every level. I’m considering not having a garden next year, because the amount of work, not to mention money I’ve dumped into harvesting practically nothing is beyond frustrating. Continue reading
In the gardens.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a garden post. I’ve mentioned I’ve expanded to a second vegetable patch off site – in the nearby community gardens located behind the English Inn – but I haven’t shared anything from that site with you all yet, have I? Well, let’s fix that. Continue reading
Strawberry Rhubarb “Pie”
As the banner strawberry season continued, I started looking for ways in which we had not yet eaten our bounty. Edie suggested strawberry rhubarb pie. I still had a tub of the creamy frozen delight that was otherwise known as strawberry ice cream fail that would pair wonderfully with a pie. However, as I found myself in the kitchen the other afternoon, I realized I just wasn’t in the mood to make a pie crust. I know I claim they are easy peasy, but I had spent the better part of the last two days working in both gardens, finally getting them both in for the summer growing season, I had picked up the house and had a batch of bread rising. Pie just seemed to be slightly overly ambitious for one afternoon. Continue reading
Homegrown, in jars.
It was hard to capture exactly how loaded our cherry tree was this spring with cherries. Last year, being the first year we harvested any fruit from that tree – a banner two pounds! – I was hoping to get as lucky, if not luckier this year. Continue reading
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 