Storing up For the Winter

All summer our gardens are usually bursting with more produce than we can keep up with.  It is easy to imagine being wrapped in a warm celestial embrace in the bright summer sunshine.   I can almost hear whispered voices blowing through the pine trees surrounding my house when the breeze is blowing.  Abundant flowers, fruits and vegetables adorn the plants in my yard providing all of the senses with more stimulation than my favorite scented lotions and candles.  All summer long it is easy to feel loved and appreciated in my imagination because I am surrounded by so many wonderful things.

Rather than letting that overflowing of God's blessings spoil, we can, dehydrate, and freeze the excess in our household.  I know that some of these things may sound scary to the inexperienced readers, especially the canning, but it really isn't as scary as it may seem if you follow all of the instructions and precautions I promise!  When we still have more left we give them to friends and neighbors because that is one great way to show His love for us in how He takes care of us.

Canning and preserving His goodness from the summer helps to remind me of His love daily while the winds are angrily howling and the cold biting winds bite you to the core.  It makes me feel so not alone.  It has helped me to climb from the depression I had sunk into when the times got tough.  I got a sense of empowerment because I was more in control of our expenses, the only thing that limited me was my creativity.

This summer was not as kind as past seasons have been so we were forced to buy more produce than usual which ends up being more expensive.  It's not the end of the world of course, you can still live frugally if you have to buy the items you can stock up when the items are on sale.  Not everyone has the time or ability to garden anyway, God gifted each of us with different talents.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy

Starting your Own Seeds

It is amazing how many people there are out there that think starting your own seeds at home is hard or takes a lot of time.  It does require a small time commitment every day as well as the time to fill seed starting trays with growing medium, but it frees you from so many concerns!  (And don't forget about all of the money you will save!)

What are the benefits?  You pick the kind of seeds you grow so you won't have to worry about the nursery running out of the ones you want,  since you choose your own soil, fertilizer, and water source you don't need to worry about what has been added to your plants (especially if you'll be eating them), you will know when they were planted (IF you remembered to keep track...), you will know what was planted since you picked your own seeds,  not to mention the cost and...  I could go on and on of course, but that was not the intent of this post.


Let's get started!  You will need some basic equipment to start out with.  Containers, soil, seeds, water, a source of light, and heat are all that you will need for a successful operation.

Seed tray prior to sprouting

Any clean container will do.  I used the trays you can buy at the store for maximum usage of my little table top green house.  I have seen others use egg cartons, old cool whip containers, etc as well.  The containers need drainage though, if they get waterlogged you will get mold growth as well as other problems.  It is also a good idea to have your container in something else to catch the water that drains out of your container if you over-water to cut down on the mess creation factor.  To reduce the risk of fungi and bacteria being present on your containers and in your soil you may wish to sanitize them.  Soil can be sanitized by baking it in the oven.

Spouted cucumber seeds

Once you have your container ready, it is time to put some growing medium into it.  I have heard of people using plain sand, perilite, sphagnum peat moss, regular soil, or any combination of these things.  The important thing to remember is that it should be able to retain moisture.  If a seed isn't kept moist, it's not going to sprout!  Pack the soil into the container thoroughly, if you don't the soil will settle and there won't be enough room for the roots to grow.

Next, plant the seeds.  Read the directions on your seed packet to know when to plant your seeds, how close to plant them together, etc.  Some seeds need to be started indoors in order to give you the longest growing season possible while others can be planted outside prior to the last frost or after the last frost.   If you don't want to forget which seeds are planted where you may also want to consider marking them, especially if you aren't good at identifying young seedlings. Generally seeds are covered with about as much soil as they are big.  Covering them with the recommended amount of soil can mean a difference between a successful sprout or a failure.  Too little soil will allow the seedling to dry out and it will also be visible to seed eating birds if you are outside, too much soil may cause your seedling to run out of stored energy before it hits the daylight.  Once you get the hang of growing your own seedlings you can also collect and store your own seeds for an even bigger cost savings, but that's a post for another time.  You don't need to plant every seed in the packet either, save some for next year or the year after that....  The date on the package indicates when the best germination period will be for them, they don't automatically go sterile after that date.

Reaching for daylight

Make sure to keep the soil evenly moist, but if there is standing water in the water catching tray, dump it out. Standing water invites mold.  I should know, I had some starting to grow.  In the past, that has killed my seedlings so I stood watch.  If you do get mold it can be defeated if you catch it early enough.  I simply mixed a tiny bit of hydrogen peroxide into my spray bottle that I mist the soil with.  It kills the mold, but won't harm the plant.  I also dried out the seedlings with some air circulation from a fan, either of those on it's own *should* work by itself, but I wasn't taking any chances.

I had to put my containers into a protective greenhouse to keep the cats away from the tender sprouts, but you can keep them in any sunny location to give them the light they need.  If you don't have a sunny location many people also use grow lights with the full UV spectrum in them.  Technically they don't need light until you see the green leaves though.  See how the seedlings grow toward the light?  You may want to rotate your trays if you're using the sun for your light source.

Provide some heat.  Seedlings need different amounts of heat for different types for optimal growth but not providing optimal temps will just slow down the germination and growth of the plant, it won't stop it.  There are optional heating mats that people have used to warm their soil faster, but they aren't necessary.

Now, we wait for the seedlings to grow their true leaves and grow bigger and stronger.  At this point if your seedlings are growing outside you need to beware of cut worms that will cut the seedlings off at soil level.  Cut up pieces of toilet paper holders have worked for me in the past.

Keep watering and watch them grow!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy

Miracle Gro Potting Mix vs. Shulz Moisture Plus Potting Mix- Update

I have anxiously been waiting this summer to reach the conclusion of my experiment. So far the results have been fairly good with loads of green tomatoes developing on my plants, but I have ran into a few difficulties that have made me consider calling an end to the experiment.

First of all, if you recall my previous post you will notice that the topsy turvys were filled to the top with soil (see the picture of the super fantastic tomato). I have had some major settling issues which is what I am going to blame for my other problems. Would it be fair to continue the experiment when not all of the soil is what I started out trying to test?

This summer has been averaging hotter than normal temperatures so there have been days I have looked out the window and have noticed that the leaves are beginning to look droopy and wilted. With the lesser amount of soil to hold the water the plants have needed on those hot days, has that affected the quality of my tomatoes?

The soil settlement also made me wonder if there are sufficient nutrients in the soil for the tomato plants as well. Many of my early formed tomatoes have ended up with blossom end rot. Is this because of lack of moisture, lack of nutrients, or inability to absorb the calcium they needed from the soil? To attempt to remedy this problem I have been adding a teaspoon of epsom salts to my gallon watering can and I've watered each of the tomato plants with 1/3 of this solution. I haven't noticed any new tomatoes developing this problem, but only time will tell if it has actually worked.

I do not like to have to water the tomatoes so often either, so I have been considering filling up the tops of the planters with a mixture of other soils that I have on hand for another project. I could buy more bags of the expensive stuff, but since I have this on hand it seems to be a much more economical choice. Since each container seems to have settled about the same amount, would it be fair to add this to each planter and continue the experiment?

So, my questions above need to be answered by others who are unbiased. Do you think it is fair if I continue on with the experiment with the ideas listed above? If not, do you have other suggestions to offer me?

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy

Summer Update

Wow, this summer has been flying by entirely too fast. I just thought I'd share a couple of updates with you all.

There seemed to be quite a bit of interest in my Ubiogrow vs Miracle grow experiment that I started this spring/early summer. I had to end that experiment rather quickly, the plants were not doing well because the strawberry bags they were planted in dried out entirely too fast. It was a very wet and rather hot summer. The plants were salvaged and planted in areas of my garden that had already been harvested. It took quite some time for the plants to recover, but they are flowering beautifully now. I hope to get at least a little bit of produce from them before the weather gets too cold.

I have been a canning and freezing fool this summer. My cupboards are fairly bursting with freshly canned produce and, though son left the freezer wide open when a friend stayed over, we managed to fill the freezer too. I am very thankful that God has been providing so plentifully for us and I hope that he continues with his generosity.

We have salsa, cucumber relish, dill pickles, tomato sauce, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, carrots, apple sauce, many kinds of beans, and a variety of jams and jellies. Tomorrow I plan on canning corn, cream corn, corn soup, and corn relish. I sure hope the kids will like the new recipes, I have sampled them and find them to be quite delightful. I am trying to make a wide variety of foods so the family won't get bored eating the same things all the time and my hubby likes to have ready to use canned goods for us to make quick meals with.

We have also been working on training our new dog that we rescued from the shelter in May. Buddie has kept us extremely busy.

The children have helped us pick choke cherries, black berries, and apples so far this summer too. The birds ate all of the blue berries, strawberries, raspberries, and cherries that we planted recently, but I'm hoping to get a harvest from them next year. Our asparagus and rhubarb will also hopefully be ready for us to harvest from next year.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy

Inexpensive Greenhouse Lighting

As I was surfing the internet the other day, I got a great idea from one of my blog roll buddies. I don't seem to get much of a chance to read blogs much anymore, somehow I always seem to be busier than ever even though most of our major household projects are getting wrapped up. I read Cheap Vegetable Gardener's Blog and he had this great idea for using LED lights for starting plants in grow boxes. Since we were just in the process of putting away our Christmas decorations, I thought now would be a perfect time to start that project. I decided that would be a wonderful idea for how to solve my issues I had last year with my table top green house.

If you recall, I attempted to start my own seeds last year for my brand new raised lasagna style square foot veggie garden. I had attempted to use my table top greenhouse once before when we lived in MN to start my own flowers, but I had little success. Last year I used a reflective light, heat mats, a timer to turn the light off and on (I tend to be a bit forgetful sometimes), and domes to help the seedlings keep in the moisture better. Apparently they were a little too toasty in there since all of the seedlings shriveled almost as soon as I used my new setup. I think the bulb I have can be used as an incubator bulb, so I'll keep it just in case Cheesehead ever changes his mind and lets me get those chickens I'd like to raise.

I needed a new, inexpensive way to light my small table top sized greenhouse. It isn't long enough to fit those nice conventional sized grow lights in, so I had to be creative. These LED lights I got on clearance at Menards a few years ago seemed like a good solution. I still have 3 boxes I had never even opened. They had only been $3 per box, so I guess I went a little bit crazy. They are much cheaper to use than conventional lighting too, which is a big bonus when you are looking for ways to save money. I think I would have bought some now if I didn't already have some as most stores are clearing out the leftover Christmas stuff this time of year.

To attach the lights to the frame, I used some of the smaller sized zip ties I had sitting out in the garage. I simply wrapped the ties around the wire racks twice, once on either side of the bulb to direct the light in the proper direction. Twine would have worked too I'm sure but I like the sturdiness of the plastic ties as well as the ease of securing them tightly to just about anything.

I am planning on lining the top of the greenhouse with cardboard backed aluminum foil to add extra brightness for my plants as well as prevent the remote possibility of melting the flimsy plastic exterior cover with the low powered bulbs. I also think I should have some protection between my grow trays and the electrical wiring, so I will line the middle shelf with towels on top of the cardboard backed aluminum foil sheets to absorb any possible spills.

The seed starting will actually have to wait quite a while though since winter has just begun here. I'll have two additional veggie beds to fill with seedlings this spring too, for a total of three raised beds. I am also trying to do everything with home made organic products and ideas to save even more money as well as freeing us from the use of potentially harmful chemicals. I'm sure hoping this scheme of mine works out!

What are some of your winter projects you are working on?

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Tomato Trouble! Calling All Tomato Growers!

I don't remember if I told you or not, but I ran an experiment on two of my tomato plants this year. I planted two of them in two different coconut lined baskets. Many people were at Cheesehead's work were skeptical about my efforts and thought they would dry out too fast. They're gardening experts and really seem to know what they're talking about most of the time but I wondered why I wouldn't be able to grow them in there if I kept them watered enough.

Being determined to do my own thing, I simply lined my large coconut lined baskets with cardboard before I filled it with my wonderful dirt recipe that I came up with last year. Containers tend to dry out rather fast, so I have religiously been watering them every day so I could prove it wasn't a crazy idea after all. I mean, if they can grow in a bag, they should certainly be able to grow in a basket, right???

Things progressed beautifully and one of the two plants put out so many flowers I didn't know what I was going to do with all of the tomatoes. Remember I planted a total of 16 plants this year?

Imagine my displeasure when I went about checking my plants on my daily rounds and saw that some of the leaves were wilting!

Upon closer inspection I saw all kinds of crazy bumps on the stem of the plant. I was sure it had become infected with some horrid pests and started to panic. I checked my other plants too, but none of the rest seemed to be affected yet.

What in the world would affect one plant and not the others? Was this just the first of the great tomato blight of 2009? Should I pull the plant out and dispose of it in hopes that the other plants would thrive despite the pest infection?

Thoughts like these swirled through my head as I attempted to scrape these "eggs" off the lower stem of my plant with my thumbnail. They weren't coming off too well and I didn't want to severely damage this plant if there was anything I could do to save my experiment so I can complete it. All I could think of was running inside to ask my tomato growing buddies what was wrong with them. This is my first attempt at growing tomatoes after all. What did I do but headed for my favorite resource, the internet!

I managed to google bumps on tomato stems and all that came up was things about humidity and over watering that causes the stem to think it needs to grow more roots. Their bumps were tan though and mine are all green or white so I'm still a bit unsure. Is that all that is wrong with my plants? Did I just catch the bumps at an earlier stage causing them to be a different color than what others have observed? Can I really over water something in a coconut lined basket? If so, I'll be completely relieved. If it's something else that I need to worry about, could you please let me know?

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Planning Our Deck Garden

If you know me at all you'd have to know that Cheesehead's building of a deck is inspiring me to plan yet another garden. When I told him of my plans I got the typical eye roll. It will be a while before my plans come to fruition since the deck is still not finished, but I'm having fun making plans. Let me know what you think!

Our deck is rather oddly shaped. It was originally going to be 12x20 and all materials were purchased for it. Since Cheesehead mentioned a change in plans to a smaller 12x10 size, I grabbed two of his 12 foot boards for my veggie garden. He took my two extra 8 foot boards and made an 8x10 extension "for the grill". Yeah....

I have decided to surround the deck with curved lines with wood mulched beds. (Hopefully I'll be able to make some free mulch out of all of the dead brush I've accumulated.)

I think it would be wonderful to be able to sit at my table and smell the wonderful fragrances of my plants. I have already added 3 fruit trees (apple, peach, and pear). I would also like to add peonies (which I will divide from existing plantings after they've bloomed), roses (I bought last year and they died so I will put the replacements here), and maybe a compact lilac bush as well as some soon to be divided creeping phlox. Herbs are also on my list, but I have yet to plan the exact areas and layout. This is assuming I can get some of those darned seeds I bought to grow of course....

Since money is extremely limited (what else is new?) I am thinking of migrating my woodland garden plants to this garden area. I think I'd be able to keep a better eye on them if they're closer to the house anyway. The deer really did a number on the hostas Lisa sent me last summer. When I went to check on them earlier this spring there were no dead leaves to show me where the plants had once been. (Luckily they all seem to be coming back now.) I also have lily of the valley, astilbe, periwinkle, traditional bleeding heart, and lavendar in there. I may be missing something.... Right behind the house has an area that always shaded too, perfect for some of those shade plants.

Cheesehead also wants me to move my arbor garden with the three clematis I brought from Big Lake up near the house into this garden area. I'm not sure if it would be sunny enough there though. How much sun do you think they'll need? It would be a shame if I killed them after they've been through so much!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Veggie Garden Report

I'm not quite sure what in the world I am doing wrong, but my early seedlings haven't begun to sprout yet. It's been two weeks since I planted them. They should be up by now. The ones I started in the basement had all begun to sprout in just a few days. I wish I hadn't fried them with that silly light. I thought they needed a little light, apparently the one I owned was too strong though....

So, here I am trying to start them outside. I suppose it takes longer when there are no heat mats to aid with the germination process though. (I had got a wonderful deal on two starter sets hubby's store was selling earlier this spring.) I sure hope they sprout soon or they'll be struggling to grow when it gets too hot for them.

I knew I couldn't do my own peppers or tomatoes since my seedlings all got fried to a crisp, so I bought a few 6 packs from hubby's store when they were on sale. They're nestled into the garden too, though I've been told I should have waited to put them into the ground. I've been adding milk jugs as they become available since they like it a bit warmer than we have it just yet. It's an easy project. Cheesehead was happy that most of our recyclables were used for it too, double bonus.

I didn't take any pictures, but it's pretty simple to do. Just cut the bottom off of a gallon milk container and throw the lid away to allow air circulation for the plants. If you're careful to cut the jugs off above the curved part you'll be able to shove them into the soil a bit too. This keeps them from blowing away AND helps keep some nasty bugs away from them. The ones inside their own personal greenhouses seem to be a bit happier than the ones out in the elements. I guess I'll need to drink some more milk.

So far, so good! I just hope the peas, beans, carrots, lettuce, spinach, and arugula start to sprout soon. Maybe they need some milk jugs too.

The potatoes are beginning to form a few leaves too though many have yet to break the soil's surface.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Getting My Hands Dirty

Looking at all of the snow still out in my yard is making me miserable. There was some bare ground showing through just a couple of weeks ago, but a cold snap and a fresh snowfall took care of that. Nothing but snow and ice outside as far as the eye can see.



I looked outside wistfully dreaming of the blueberry patch that I long to plant up here in the wooded area near the road. The snow is just as deep in that spot today as it was on the day I took the picture. I need a gardening fix that looking at the snow just won't give me.

Attempting to console myself, I went to the yet to be finished craft/garden area to place soil in the pots I bought a few years ago. I know it will be a while before I should start seeds inside if I know what's good for me, but I need to feel and smell some nice fresh dirt. Just scooping a little dirt won't hurt anybody, will it?

This little tray reminded my of the fiasco that occured a few years ago. I amused myself with remembering the last time I tried to start plants as I scooped the soil into each little cell.

I was a fairly young mom with a toddler that was barely 2 who had an older brother that was 5. I don't know what I was thinking trying to start seeds for the first time with two children who were so young. I suppose it was the mom in me who wanted her children to grow up with the joy of eating fresh vegetables right out of the garden. We didn't have the money to buy many 6 packs of seedlings from the nursery, but I just KNEW I could raise my own seedings just as well as anyone else. I was determined to save loads of money and get some seedlings out of the deal too.

We had this great raised bed in the back yard that was in full sun. It was the perfect spot for my soon to be vegetable garden. I just HAD to get going so I'd have lots of plants to put in my garden. It had been pretty weedy the summer before, but I was going to make it my pet project this year. (You'll have to take my word for it since I can't access my older pictures right now. It was BAD!!!! I don't know what in the world I was thinking.)

I'm sure that may have worked out okay if I hadn't been suffering from depression and the stress of just leaving a job that I enjoyed, but I guess I wasn't really thinking very clearly.

I had this wonderful table top greenhouse that Cheesehead bought me, some top soil, and some seed starting cells and I was ready to plant. I'm sure I set it up WAY too early and did NO research at all before plunging head first into my seed starting adventure. I just got busy. In retrospect I suppose I just didn't feel like I had the time to be reading when I should just get out there and start doing. Little kids don't like to listen to educational books about how to start seeds. All I had time to read was books written for kids to kids at that period in my life. I stressed about everything and had to have my children in my sight at all times too. I probably dove the poor things absolutely crazy with my constant hovering and worrying about them.



I even got a great grow light to go inside of my tiny little green house. Apparently I wasn't thinking clearly as it hung so low inside the greenhouse that It was actually touching the plattic tray. That's how the poor tray got deformed, the light actually melted it. Ooops!

Since I was so inexperienced I also over watered the poor seedlings to death. I wanted it to be nice and moist in the green house. It didn't occur to me that I didn't need to water the flats every day since all of my outdoor hanging baskets needed water every day. I went on watering and waiting for my seeds to sprout.

I didn't think to check the soil or anything either prior to watering. Life was too busy to check for little details like if they NEEDED to be watered or not, I was worried that son might do something to Peanut while I wasn't looking. The poor things were so wet that once I noticed how wet it was inside, the towel under the greenhouse was soaked with water and there was a layer of white mold on every soil surface in the green house. There went that experiment.

That will not happen to me again. This time I am reading every book on vegetable gardening that the library has to offer as well as doing some internet research. Okay, so maybe it's overkill but my vegetable garden WILL succeed! I will be observant and do things right this time. I think I will have to measure my green house and see if I can fit some low profile flourescent lights inside to give my plants the light they need until it's time for them to be put outside.

After the trays were all filled with their lovely dirt and the air packed out of them, I headed upstairs to see if I could find the seeds I had bought when they were on sale at Menards. I can't plant them yet up here, but I'll have everything ready when the time comes.



Guess who I found sunning herself on the kitchen table. Speedy! Here I had told you that Sweetie was the naughty one. She's also sunning herself, but in an appropriate location. Silly cat, get off the table.

I think I'll paint some popsicle sticks for plant labeling this weekend with Peanut. More on that "crazy" project in another post. (Another lesson learned from the last experiment.)

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Shh! It's A Surprise for Cheesehead

I told you all that we were working on a landscaping project yesterday. I thought I'd share what we did together and what I will surprise him with. This was once the area where the poor deer eaten arborvitae used to live. I'll do a before and after post when I can find the before pictures. I guess I should have done a better job of managing my pictures....

Cheeshead trimmed back all of the tall weeds with the weed trimmer, I pulled them out by hand for placement in the compost pile. If there were some weed roots I couldn't get out, I hoed the ground until I could get the roots as well as the plant. It took a lot of time, but the results will be well worth the effort.

To frame out the shape of our garden, we laid a hose out in the shape we wanted it in. It took a few tries to find one that we liked, but we finally found a shape that we both liked.



Once we did that, we just had to dig the trenches and install the edging. We dug our trenches almost as deep as the edging is tall. We left a coupe of inches clearance between the edging and the dirt so we would have room for mulch. Edging is much easier to work with when you flatten the curves out prior to your project. I laid it out flat and weighed it down with rocks. We only got the edging in and then it started to rain. Grr. At least we got it all installed before the rain started.



We had to call it quits for the day since after it rained the ground was wet and we didn't want to play in the mud.

We weren't going to plant any extra plants in the garden this year since we have no money to buy more, but Cheesehead mentioned that he didn't care for the rock garden in the back yard. The rock garden was really overgrown, there were so many weeds in there you could hardly tell the plants from the weeds. I guess weed control got pushed down the priority list this summer. OOPS!

Happily that gave us a some plants to move to the new garden areas, so it wasn't a complete loss. I placed the three big peonies, lavendar, sage, hygrangea, yarrow, and creeping phlox by the shed. The day lilies, starfighter lily, 2 small peonies, and sedum were placed up front. There was still more room after those plants were transplanted, I divided the ones that I knew wouldn't suffer from the divisions and spread them all out. With no money in my landscaping budget I decided to get a bit creative.



The containers are looking a bit leggy and Cheesehead was ready to get rid of all of them yesterday. Luckily it rained so he had to wait to throw them in the compost pile. I took all of our containers that weren't doing very well and carefully dug the root balls out of them and placed them into holes I dug in the ground. There, the garden is full. I'll have to replace the annuals in the spring but I hope to have a bit of money by then.

Cheesehead wanted to use our landscaping fabric, but I hate that stuff. He tried to insist that we should use it to prevent too many weeds from growing even though I told him the reasons we should skip using it. Gee, too bad he wasn't here to do the work today. I hope he isn't too annoyed that I skipped the fabric and just went straight for the mulch. Hey, at least it's work that he didn't have to do!



Apparently the mouse that had made it's home in the grill cover this spring has migrated to the pile of extra mulch we've got sitting outside. I found it today when I took 5 bags of mulch to cover the newly planted and edged area by the driveway. Who knew such a small creature could startle a person quite so much?



To finish off along the driveway I recycled some of the rocks from the back garden to help keep the mulch in place. What do you think?

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

The Lonely Blackberry Harvest

The kids are safely sent off to school. Both of them got rides from us this morning. Son's school is right on the way to Cheesehead's work and I drove Peanut in. We decided to drive them since we still haven't heard from the bus company about pickup times. I'm guessing that the times must be the same as last year or they would have bothered to tell us it was different. Now, if I could just remember what those times were, I'd be all set.



I was reminded of the time Peanut's bus comes by when Peanut and I brought out the garbage can and recycling to the end of the driveway. We saw her bus stop at the end of the road and pause to make sure we weren't making a mad dash for the bus like we did so often her first year of going to school. Peanut felt a bit insecure about finding her classroom today anyway, so I brought her in to town. She knew right where her classroom is and remembered who her teacher was. We found her locker, set her stuff inside it and headed out to the playground. She was the second person out there. Apparently none of the other kids who had headed out there earlier wanted to be the first kid on the playground or something. I hung around out there with them until aa adult came out oversee the playground. Once her friend who is in her class for a third year in a row showed up she was practically shoving me off the playground ready to start a new school year.



When I got home from the trip into town, I decided to go out early today to get the berry picking done before it gets too hot and humid. You see, it's going to be 85 degrees later so I wanted to do it when it's nicer and cooler. That means I needed to do the harvest today all by myself, especially with football to run off to tonight an hour after my son gets off the school bus. I'll have to have dinner ready at about 4:30 tonight. I hope that Cheesehead is able to get off at 4 like he's supposed to so we can eat together.



So out to harvest I went all by my lonesome. It was so quiet outside when I harvested the berries this morning. The only chattering going on was the squirrels. I'm so used to listening to Peanut chatter on and on it was strange to be able to hear nature for a change.

I also had to hold both the rake I use to move the branches and the harvesting bowl. I'm not used to that either, son likes to hold the bowl. If he's not "helping", Peanut usually holds the bowl. Son's idea of helping is holding the bowl and eating 1/2 of the berries that Peanut and I pick. Rarely does he even lift a finger to pick them off the bush though.

I walk past the best producing part of our berry bushes. I can see dozens of ripe juicy berries taunting me through the leaves. Nah,nah, nah, nah, nah!

I can't go in there, I don't dare. I have picked berries from this spot twice, you see it's hidden from view a bit so it's easily missed. Twice I have been stung by bees in that very spot. I don't want to inflict any more pain on myself, I am allergic to bees. I still have to figure out what I did to attract the bees' rage. I didn't see the bees til they landed on me. It seemed that they just suddenly decided to sting me. I was wearing only deoderant as far as smells so and my clothes were not bright so I don't believe I looked like a flower. Haltingly I wander by those luscious looking berries in seach of more berries in less dangerous realms.

We still have many berries yet to ripen too. There are quite a few green and red berries on the bushes yet. That's pretty rare for this time of year. Aren't berries usually just about done growing by now? Not that I mind of course as I am still trying to save up enough berries to make some blackberry jam, but it's weird.



Some of the berries are drying right on the bush, it's been awfully dry this summer. When Peanut sees these spots she runs off to get either to hose or a watering can. I can faintly hear the echoes of her sandals scurrying down the gravel topped driveway as I look at this sad fella. I don't know that it really ever made the berries plump back up or anything, but she likes to water plants.



That cute little squirrel was chattering my ears off. I know most people don't like red squirrles much because they're so mischevious but I sure think they're adorable. I watched this little guy quite a long time as I went around picking berries off the bushes strewn about our yard. He seemed nice and content looking right at me precariously perched on a thin branch. I could have swore that branch he was sitting on would snap off the tree any minute. He just sat up there contentedly chattering away at me. I was amused by him, lost in thought about how he was trying to chatter at me like Peanut does. He must have seen us out there every day picking those berries and knew how she liked to chatter.

The berry bushes grab at my hair and my clothes. It grabs me from all directions. I didn't even think how hard it might be to hold the branches back AND pick the berries at the same time. I feel like a wild animal caught in a trap clawing desperatley for freedom. Hmm, I wonder if that silly little squirrel isn't just laughing at me instead...

Suddenley we were both rudely started by this strange sound. What on earth? Oh, it was my cell phone! I'd almost forgot what the real ring sounds like since I have special rings for all of the people who call it regularly. That squirrel started to chatter at me angrily from his tree perch. How dare this rude interuption!

It was Cheesehead asking if I was still in town. Apparently he wants me to stop and pick up some distilled water for the store's floor scrubber. I'll do it when I'm in town again later bringing son to football practice.



I finsh picking the berries and head inside to the coolness of my wonderful ceiling fan. Not much of a harvest considering no one was there to eat 1/2 of what I picked today.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Were my Expectations too High?

I showed you all my wonderful cherry tree bursting with berries just a few days ago, right? See my Bountiful Blessings post. Hmm, I guess it's been a little longer than I thought. Every branch was covered in fruit. They were a gorgeous red, but I don't know much about how to tell when they're ripe so I left them on the tree. I mean, they were so small and everything, I was waiting for them to grow a bit bigger. Cherries are usually larger than a marble, aren't they? These aren't even as big as a pea. Way too small to be ready for picking! Or so I thought.

I left them on the tree and started pouring over cherry jelly recipes. Oh the plans I was making! Cherry pie, cherry jelly, cherry syrup,....

I went out today to find most of them had been eaten off the tree already! Were they already ripe? There I go again, asleep at the stick. Grr. I ran inside to get my bucket. While there really weren't that many cherries on the tree, I didn't think I would be able to hold them all in my hands. You know what?



I think I could have. No, there aren't any around the edge where you can't see in the bucket either. What do I do with such a small amount of cherries. It may be 1/2 a cup if I'm lucky. They ARE cherries, aren't they? I sure hope those bluebirds enjoyed my fruit. Maybe I'll have better luck with collecting nuts and/or berries. I wonder how to tell when I should try to pick those?

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Garden Refugees

I meant to show you all of the work I've been up to for the last couple of days, but I've been slow. So, instead I thought I'd give you an idea of why no one wants to buy this house!

I was shocked when I went back and saw how completely over grown all of my gardens were. I felt horrible that I didn't have the time to take care of all of the poor babies, they were just screaming out for help. Poor Mom must feel overwhelmed with all of the gardens to take care of and work full time.



I was not feeling very hopeful that I'd be able to salvage anything out of this garden at all. Look at it, wouldn't you be skeptical too? This was once my prize rose garden. I replaced the roses each year since I never had the ability to get them to live through the winter. Right before we moved, I planted 3 clematis and 2 roses as a gift to the new owners of the house. With no care given to them since we moved I wasn't optomistic that they were still alive.

While browsing through the weeds, I found all 3 clematis and 1 of the roses. Not too shabby. Of course I dug them all up, I can't imagine that the next owners would want to keep this mess. Would you?



I have some wonderful sensation lilacs that were still in bloom, but they were on the decline. I should have grabbed more of them, but I only dug up and took two of them back home with me. I couldn't believe how big all of the "little" shoots had gotten by now, when we left there were several managable sized lilacs I could have brought with. So many of them are huge for one person to handle. They were thriving wonderfully in the mulch garden, as were the weeds. Look at that! I couldn't find a single place that I could see the mulch.



This plant is a remnant from the first owners. We were the third owners of this home. I have never seen anything quite like it. It sure smells like a lilac bush, but the leaves don't look like the typical lilac leaves in either shape or color. The flowers were also not clustered like the traditional lilacs.



The front garden was also badly in need of weeding. I did manage to weed this garden area while I was there, but this picture was taken before I had the chance.

I was so disappointed that my periwinkle and fern leafed bleeding heart weren't growing there anymore when I arrived. I had planned on taking them with me. Imagine my surprise when they popped up two days after my arrival. I could almost hear their tiny little plant voices pleading with me to take them with me. There were only a couple of leaves on each plant, the whole plants looked to be smaller than my pinky finger. I showed them to Cheesehead and all he could do was laugh. Of course I dug them up too. They're not big enough to showcase. They're so small they didn't even show up in my macro pictures I took of them. That's alright though, now they're safely nestled in my new shade garden!


.

I ended up taking 22 plants with me from my gardens. I wish I had taken some more, but I ran out of pots and time. Here they are awaiting the move. I dug them up the night before Cheesehead and BIL came to help me move everything. The plants rested in the garage that night and I loaded them up in the van the next morning after I had breakfast with my friends.

I have most of them planted in the ground already, however there are 9 left to plant. I ended up having to paint the garden arbor from my former rose garden, so the clematis had to wait to be planted until I had the arbor put back together.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

The Very Hungry Catepillars

Holy cow! Would you look at this? I have never seen so many catepillars together in one spot in my life. I sure hope these little boogers are good for my garden, whatever they grow into I'm going to have a bazillion of them!



This tree must be especially sweet, each branch is crawling with these catepillars. I have tons of other trees exactly like this one in my yard without a trace of them on it. You can see a bunch in three different areas of this picture. Let me assure you there were loads of others too. Is this tree just the best hangout or something?

I thought about cropping it to give you a closer look at the bugs, but I wanted to show you all of the empty stems as well as the throngs of catepillars on the other leaves. Maybe I'm a bit unsuccessful at that attempt???

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Opinions please! Chewings Fescue?

Cheesehead refuses to have a lawn full of ground cover. It's so nice of you all trying to help us reduce the amount of work for me. You're all so very sweet. We want grass for the kids to romp and play on. How could they have their water balloon fights if they couldn't step on the ground covers?

I've been doing research for a while since our grass is growing in so poorly. Our yard is pretty shady, sandy, and we need drought tolerate plantings since I can't spend all of my time watering. No irrigation systems for me, thank you very much! Um, that's a story for another time, but Anna already knows the whole story.

So, getting back to what I would like your opinions on... I have found most information pointing me towards Cheewings Fescue for our grass. It seems to meet our needs on the surface, but I would like your input. I found a place where I can get a 50 pound bag of if, but it's pretty expensive. I guess I want the experienced opinions of gardeners before I take the plunge. Has anyone had experience with it? What should I use to prep the yard? Do you think that it would be the best choice for us considering all of the options?

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

@%*#! Rabbits

At least, I think it was rabbits...

Remember how I went back to MN and dug up some flowers? Mom had dug some plants up for me and sent them back with me in whatever containers she found that seemed to fit the bill. I had some pots with, but they seemed to fit better in these shoe boxes. If you think that's funny, you should see what I brought my peonies home in! (Well, at least one of them)



Well, here is a picture of them before I had nestled them into their new home. Aren't they lovely? The purple and white bunch from the red and black box was placed in a green planter. The other box of the variety of flowers was in the cedar planter.

It has been almost a month, so all of them were alive with vibrant color adding charm and color to some dull areas with otherwise no color.



I wish I had taken a picture of them yesterday, they were glorious! Alive with a riot of purples and yellows of almost every shade. I don't think too many of them looked like the parent flowers I had bought a few years ago.

When I went to bring Peanut out to the bus stop this morning, all that was left were the stems! I suppose there are a few petals left.... ARGH! Well, I suppose they can re-bloom, but it's the principle of the matter. I want them to re-seed again like they have each and every year since I first started buying pansies. Is that even possible if the bunnies keep eating them though? If those silly beasts keep at it, I will have to put them in some hanging baskets so they can't reach the poor plants.

Well, I don't think it was the deer anyway, but I suppose it could be just about anything.... If they still get eaten in the baskets I guess we will know it wasn't the bunnies after all!



I was hoping that at least one of the two clumps had been left untouched. Nope! This clump was almost pure purple and seeing to be doing wonderfully over by my new shade garden area.

I guess I've got more work to do today. Will it ever end?

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Yard Work

It was a beautiful day to work out in the yard here today, so Peanut and I got much accomplished! (My son decided to collect pop tabs from all of the cans we've been collecting. He's trying to singlehandedly earn admission to the icecream party for his entire class. Some sort of contest I guess....)

There were so many projects to do, it was hard to know what to do first!



Look at all of those trees growing up around the house. The whole house was surrounded. I would have transplanted some of them if I had more energy, but we decided to pull them or cut them down instead.



It looks so much better now. I think I want to plant some azaleas or rhododendrons in this area! I also plan to lay edging and mulch this side of the house, but I don't want to do it all today.



This is the back of the house. We have big plans for this area. Someday we'd like to build a patio back here. The patio would be surrounded by raised flower beds and made of pavers. Won't it be dreamy?



Under the kids' swingset was quite over grown. Before adding sand, Peanut and I raked the leaves and pine needles out. After raking, we weeded the whole thing. We don't want it to be all full of grass like the last one was.



Then it was time for the sand. I managed to put 2 bags of sand in before it felt like my arms were going to fall off. I think I'll have Cheesehead help me with the rest! It's starting to look better already.



We put the edging in on the other side of the house last year. We even had the landscaping fabric down already. I don't know why I didn't get this done last year! It didn't take too long. I emptied about 8 bags of mulch over here.





Once I rearranged the fabric and laid the mulch, we decided to put some seeds down in this area. I don't think Cheesehead will want to plant anything over here since the meters are over here and buried cables. Annuals should be okay to grow here though, shouldn't they?



Here are some of the seeds we sowed along this side of the house. We planted quite a wonderful variety of them. I got these seed packets for the 2008 growing year at our local Goodwill for 20 cents per packet. I got a total of 10 packets. Not all of them were put here, but we did sow most of them here. It's a big area to fill anyway. I told MIL if I had any extras when it comes time to thin them out that I'd bring some to her.



Last, but not least we had a bunch of these trees growing in the yard. Well, I think they're trees. It looked more like a bush before I pruned the lower branches off. Sorry, I forgot to take a before picture. I believe that this is some sort of birch tree.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Grass grief

I realize it's early yet in our spring, but after all that work last fall I had hoped for better spring results.

Oh, from the road it looks pretty nice.

But then you get closer and you find all of these bare spots! I'm sure the deer didn't help it any, but could they have damaged it that much? What did I do wrong? I've never had much of a problem having nice grass in the past.

Okay, I can't get the computer to import my pictures right now, so I'll have to add them later.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Okay, I finally was able to get it to work. Here are the pictures I promised you!
This first picture is what my house looks like from the road. Not bad.... Well, you can tell where I stopped raking I guess but it looks fairly green up near the house at least.

When you get up closer though, THIS is what you see.

This is what it looks like near the driveway. LOTS of bare spots!


Even further in though it's not so pretty. I've never had such trouble growing grass before if I do all of the neccessary prep work. It is worst by the driveway. That is the same area all of the deer footprints are in. I'm sure I'll get around to it soon....

I've been thinking about trying those zoysia grass plugs, has anyone tried them? Care to tell me what you know?

We need a hair cut!

What a busy weekend! We were in MN for about 3 hours. I felt bad that I wasn't able to take much time to care for the garden I left behind. It looked like all of my bushes needed a "hair cut". Poor things. I didn't take pictures of everything though as there wasn't much lush foliage on them so you would have been looking at a bunch of sticks with buds popping out on the limbs. This is what I went back to.

Mom works full time and drives so far for work. She doesn't have the time I did to care for the gardens. I don't know that she has the knowledge I have either. Not to sound smug, but she didn't seem to know quite a few of the care tips I told her for my plants. Without her help though, I wouldn't have been able to bring back some of my plants that we dug up. I know it may have seemed silly, but you know how the next owner comes out and chages things and tends to throw out some of the poor plants. I didn't want to take the chance that would happen. I love my babies, I want as many of them to continue to live as possible. If that means I look crazy, so be it!



No wonder no one is making me offers, they don't want to take on all of that work!

Once the kids are out of school I think I'll be making a run over to give my gardens the attention they deserve. I'm not sure WHAT we were thinking when we planted these in such a small space! I may try to move these next time. I know I could be killing these plants, but how can I just let them suffer in this spot? They were begging me to help them move. Can you hear their little voices calling out for help?



My three pass down peonies in my back mulch garden were growing beautifully. We had plans of getting rid of this garden when we lived there and now it's overgrown, I'm sure the next owner won't hesitate to get rid of it. I wanted them here in my new garden, so Mom dug them up for me.



In the foreground of this picture is what used to be my rose garden. I've been debating bringing my arbor here, but Cheesehead doesn't sound too fond of that idea. I may do it next time I go anyway though. I can be a bit stubborn that way. In the background you can see another part of the mulch garden. It is huge! I like the screening it provides and the neighborhood kids seem to like to play in it. I'm planning on taking more of my flowers out as well as a few lilac bushes. Maybe if I edit it a little bit it will be easier for Mom to take care of....



These arborvitae in the middle of the mulch garden were more passed down plants. They look a bit windburnt. Poor things! I'd think about bringing them here, but the deer would probably think I just opened an all you can eat buffet for them!



This was one of Cheesehead's little darlings. He dug it up and brought it back with us too. If it survives he has plans to go and dig up the other little ones as well. You're probably wondering why in the world we would need more trees when we already live in the woods. I'd have to say that's an excellent question! Umm, how about we're tring to bring in some diversity to live with all of the white pines?!?

I spent the day yesterday planting the transplants into my new yard. Whew, was that a lot of work! I'd post those but I think I'll save it for when the plants are growing more and I've had a chance to lay down edging, landscaping fabric, and mulch. Looks like I've got a lot more work ahead of me. Today's job is to clean out the garage though, so I suppose I'll have to save more garden work for Tuesday or Wednesday.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy,