Another job done

We bought onions our yearly onions. I was so excited to get them and have them in the ground as soon as possible. We bought a yellow vidalia type onion.  It should grow fairly large and should store well (not that the onions last very long around here). We also bought a red onion called Red Candy apple onion that should be a nice red one.

Onions 

 I took some time off a few weeks ago to deal with personal matters, and while I was home and trying to wrap my head around life, I planted the onions in the same bed they were planted in last year. Pooka was at school, and she was tad upset that she didn't get to help, but it was good to keep my hands busy for at least a bit and it did help to be able to cross one more thing off the list. Now if only it was that simple to fix so many of the world's problems.

Time to grow. 

THEY CAME UP

The multiplier onions have appeared. I always worry when I overwinter something that it will die. We are glad to see these guys made it through the winter. Now to wait and see if their onions get any bigger than the little plants we buy from the nursery.

The first onions poking up

These onions I planted in the fall. They overwinter like garlic and then supposedly make more onions much like a potato. I have no idea how well these work, but the fact that they are even alive is a good start. I would love to get some larger onions. Pooka was rather happy to see more green poking up out of the yard.

I just want to soak up the sun

It has been nice enough for the citrus trees to hang out outside. They are much happier this way.

Soaking up sun

Let us hope this a sign of spring really coming.

Surprise

Look what we found on the garden cart - a sprouting red onion. It was hidden under stuff on the garden cart. Yes, this is proof my house is a mess, so please don't judge. But in reality it will let us test a theory... If we plant the onions a second year in a row, will they get bigger?

The hidden onion

I waited till Pooka came home to show her our little friend. She was all amazed we missed one and asked what I expected "Can we replant it?" So we grabbed a shovel and walked out to the back yard and found a nice little corner of the onion bed where some forgotten onions last year had reemerged. This little guy got placed in the corner of the box so I can remember where he came from.

Planted

Pooka has been checking it the last few days to make sure it is continuing to grow. Now to wait and see what happens because it is for science and not just us making sure we don't waste anything... 

Humming bird feeder

Quite a while back, like mid summer, I took the kids out to spend some gift cards and their allowance. Now, most of the money was gift cards that I had held onto since Christmas for a "Special treat" day. I like the kids to have a day to just go out and browse without too much pressure so spending their money is fun and its a great way to cure the mid-summer "I'm bored."

On this day, Pooka had been asking for a humming bird feeder. I refused to buy one because she had a garden. I figured what did we need with another thing to maintain and that she would forget about. Boy was I wrong.

Pooka's hummingbird feeder

Pooka is nothing if not determined. She wanted a hummingbird feeder, and asked if she could use her money.  I told her it was her money, she could do what she wanted with it, but I had veto power. I wouldn't veto this. Pooka bought this little hummingbird feeder with her gift cards. I made the food from a recipe online. I figured it couldn't be that hard to make. We filled the feeder and hung it by some of the tomato plants.

Her humming bird feeder in place

Yet again, I was wrong. The clear food didn't work as well, since it was still there a couple of weeks later. I will admit when I am wrong so we broke down and bought a bottle of the concentrate. That was gone in a couple of days. It worked like a charm and there were so many things that ate from it. I know I saw a few butterflies and some bees, and it helped Pooka finally see her hummingbird. Hopefully Pooka learned from this that sometimes things are better when you buy them than when they are given to you. 

Begining of September pictures

 I will fully admit we have been a bit busy. In fact, we have been swamped with real life. I completely forgot the first of the month pictures for August. This just means that there will be more of a noticeable difference in the garden. That's it, I wanted to show more of a difference.

Pooka's pollinator garden

Pooka's polinator garden is filling out. The plant I left there not knowing if it was a weed or a plant was actully milkweed, so its a good thing I left it. I will admit I need to weed it bit, but its filled out on one side. A few of the last plants we put in didn't seem to do well, so we will wait till next spring and if they do not come back (Since everything in there is a perennial) then we will replace them. Pooka and her friend K go play in her little flower bed daily and pick flowers for butterflies or the birds. Even if it adds more work, its been worth it to see the girls have so much fun.

Garlic bed

The garlic was pulled in July and we replaced it with annual herbs and veggies again this year. We have dill (that is going to seed) celery, parsley and Pooka's black eyed susan sitting in the corner. The living chair has done much better in this spot, however, I think I will need to get another pot of mint to really fill it out for next year. However, in a few weeks we will rip out all of these plants and plant next years garlic. Keeping other plants in this bed after the garlic has been pulled also keeps the weeds down.

Front bed

 The explosion that is the herb bed is out of hand. I dry and I dry herbs, and I cannot keep up. The tarrogon will be divided next spring and sent to new homes, and I will probably get rid of all but one thyme plant. With all the wet weather this year we didn't water as much, and I noticed the top tier was dying from lack of water. This means next year it either needs to be hardier OR I need to remember to water it even when its been raining. One or the other.

Peppers and basil

All of the basil plants are quite happy having flowered completely. Its gotten to the point you can't pull the flowers off. Pooka and I did not put as much energy into that this year and you can tell. The plants still did well, but they are a bit spindly and starting to die back a bit. At least we got our basil jelly this year. More on that another day. The chinese 5 color peppers AKA Death peppers are very happy in their spot. We had to stake them up so they didn't fall over with all their bounty. Daddy is a very happy man as we are drying our own hot pepper flakes and hes begun his talk of siracha-cha again.

Sunflowers

The sunflowers are doing very well. We did have a couple that fell over due to being too big, but for the most part, they do not seem to mind having been started straight into the ground. However, not all of the seeds seemed to start, and the plants themselves do seem to be much further behind in producing seeds. This was our last year of using store bought seeds so I am hoping they will produce enough seeds to continue for next year. I do still have some seeds from last year, but I know Pooka loves being able to save her seeds and have Pooka sunflowers. The leaves on the first sunflower are bigger than not only mine or Pooka's hands, but Daddy's as well. Hopefully we can continue saving at least a few seeds.

Corner of nothing

 This is a very sad picture. It had been raining so I pulled everything off the corner stand and put them on the table to get watered. As you can see, the musculin lettuce bolted horrible and our squash in this pot is still fairly small. It doesn't seem to be doing well. The rainbow char just needed a good water. As pretty as char is, we don't seem to eat it, so it will probably be pulled from the garden never to be seen again. We don't plant for pretty around here. Pooka's humming bird hanger is doing well. The flowers just keep getting bigger, however, the cold weather is causing it some issues since it does not have any ground to keep it warm. The lemon tree has a few more lemons about to finish riping and some new ones starting. Although it may need a bigger pot next year.

Long view of the messy deck

Oh the mess that is my back deck. We have lettuce and spinach that has bolted, the tomatoes on the end of the deck by the table have decided to eat the chairs. No one can say I only show the pretty shots. The blueberry bushes and lilac are doing well in their little pots, Although Audrey the morning glory never did do well this year. We got a couple of flowers, but for the most part it has just been a few leaves. I will admit this area looks better today then when I took these pictures at the begining of the month because I started to clear out most of the dead/dying plants for fall. You can't really see from this view, but the lime tree actually has limes that are getting bigger on it, so now I wait and see if we have fresh limes at Christmas.

Onion bed

 As you can tell, 99% of our onions have been harvested. I should of planted something here, but there are a few bulbs we missed. I just recently heard of a variety of onion I can plant in the fall. Our onion crop is generally fairly small onions and we need to expand this crop. I am hoping the fall variety (once I order them) will help with that. These guys will be put in the same bed for 2 years just so I can see if it works and how well. This is where Pooka yells "FOR SCIENCE" . We admit we are learning new things and experimenting on what works.

Brandywine, Rainbow cherry and fireball tomatoes

Tomatoes and more tomatoes. These are the brandywine, fireball and rainbow cherry tomatoes. I swear you should start calling Pooka Dr. Mendel. Somehow in this section grows what we are calling the Pooka tomato which is a purple/black roma. I didn't plant anything like that in the entire yard, so I have no idea where it is coming from. Also, we have fallen in love with the Brandywine tomato. Its a nice meaty tomato but we have pulled some off the plant that are a lb a piece. While it is more a paste tomato, we have used it as slicer, and are considering getting rid of all the Beefsteaks once we run out of seeds.

Tomatoes, Basil, Carnival, long sweets and cubanelle peppers

The tomatoes are rather imposing and eating my deck. The pea plants were eaten by the tomatoes and pulled fairly early. The basil has held its own, but is still fairly small. We still cannot grow a bell pepper to save our lives. I don't know what it is, but they never seem to produce. The long sweets are loving this spot, as are the cubanelle peppers. But the bell peppers we may just give up on for our friendly peppers. The purple peas are very dead in this picture, and should of been ripped out by now. They did not restart when I reseeded them.

Beefsteak, Roma and Blueberry tomatoes with pots

The rest of the tomato jungle. I have had a couple of tomato leaves get singed by the grill, but all in all the tomatoes like this spot. I don't think this is the tomatoes favorite spot, but it works. The beefsteak and romas are doing well but the blueberry tomatoes are exploding, and Pooka loves all the colors they come in. I guess its another time to call her Dr. Mendel since they have grown to multiple colors. We have 2 little watermelons growing in the pots and the raspberries are doing well.

Failure

Another year, another failure with corn. It seemed to be doing well in the pot and then a windstorm came through and it was done. I think next year we will try this in a small section of the yard. But unless something changes, I will not be buying more seeds of it. So we have until this packet of seeds dies to figure out what we are doing wrong. Where we live, you go a couple miles in almost any direction and all you see is corn. Really makes you wonder what we are doing wrong we can't grow it around here.

Tomatoillos

 The tomatillos are doing wonderfully. We are getting a ton to cook with. However, the purple ones only turn purple when they are left on the plant after they split their lantern. They don't seem to last on the plant long enough to do so. This is another plant that will be sticking around, and we may increase what we are planting of it. We will have to see how much room is in the garden next year.

Hot Peppers and Eggplant

The hot peppers and eggplants are doing well. After they got big enough to hold off mr. Bunny. Daddy loves this variety of jalapeno since it grows a large amount very quickly. However, they have been very mild this year (As well as the poblanos). Hot peppers do require hot dry weather to get hotter peppers that we just haven't had. The poblanos make a good substitute for green peppers in most of our dishes, so they will be sticking around for a long time.

Broccoli and Cucumbers

The broccolli has done well. The geometric broccoli is still not producing (So much for that one) but the standard broccoli has done well, even if every single broccoli plant has decided to fall over. I should stake them up, but for now they are okay where they are at. The cucumbers had done okay. They did loads better than last year but not as well as the first year. This location they get some sort of pest that ate just the skin off the cucumbers, but if you peeled them they were fine and maybe some squash beetles because the plant is suddenly dying back. But in the end, we got our cucumbers for lunches and salads and some pickles so we are happy.

Like every year, we have some successes and some failures. But that is what happens in science. Not everything works the way you think, so you keep trying until you figure out what does work.

July 1st pictures

I know this is a bit behind, but the 1st of the month pictures need put up. I swear they were taken on the first, I just haven't had a chance to upload them. I am lucky we are slowly catching up on all that is behind here. I guess me taking the summer off is paying off finally. 

Pollinator garden

Pooka's pollinator/humming bird garden. It looks a empty. I don't think the seeds liked having the mulch dropped on them or I may of accidentally pulled the seedlings thinking they were weeds. I guess I need to go back to the nursery for more plants.

Garlic bed

The garlic is quickly dying back. I have spent about 10 minutes a day out there most days lately just harvesting garlic, so even since this picture, its starting to clear out. Although the sight of all these beautiful bulbs of garlic in the garage drying has made it very worth it.

Herb bed part 1

Oh the herb bed looks more then a bit overgrown. I have been handing tarragon and some other herbs (sage and thyme) to anyone who stops by for more then 30 seconds. I have finally trimmed the tarragon back to a more manageable size, but come spring, I think him and the thyme are going to get split up and handed out to people with a "PLEASE TAKE IT" beg. 

Herb bed part 2

Well, it is official, the lilac in this bed is dead dead. I had hoped it would hold on, but it just didn't. At least the basil and the garlic make it look less sad, and once all the garlic is out, I will pulling the lilac.  Pooka and I have one more hope for a Gremo lilac and we are going to wait till spring to move it. The death peppers are also doing well. One went giant sized and has peppers on it while the rest have struggled a tad.

Sunflowers

The sunflowers are much smaller this year than in previous years, mostly due to their very late start. They will sprint up in no time with all this rain, but I do need to get over there and weed again.

Onions

The onions are doing fairly well. They have fallen over but re not dead yet. The weeds are bad around the bed, but thats due more to our broken weed whacker. Daddy let the smoke out so we have been a bit behind on trimming. But the onions are looking good

Brandywine, rainbow cherry and fireball tomatoes

The brandywine, rainbow cherry and fireball tomatoes are all doing well. They have since had a custom cage put around them, and are growing well. I have seen tomatoes on both the cherry and the fireballs, and I think our first fireball should be ready anytime. I really need to get better at starting these seeds at the right time, but I think the cool weather isn't helping them either.

Tomatoes, a sugar pea  and sweet peppers

The fireball tomatoes are growing pretty much on top of some sugar peas. Brother is happy to get "normal" peas and Pooka just likes the extra snacks. We have some peppers forming on the pepper plants, so here is to having home grown peppers soon. I am so tired of store bought.

Peppers and purple peas

The cubanelle pepper plants are actually fairly small, but they are starting to flower and the purple pea plant here is holding its own against the heat fairly well. Pooka loves going out to harvest her purple peas and I am glad since we can get up to 2 oz every few days.

Beefsteak tomatoes, Romas and blueberry tomatoes

The tomatoes on this side are going nuts. These had the commerical tomato cages that literally fell over onto the leaks and the grass for that matter. I was pretty sure I could lose Pooka in these plants, so we built our own custom cages. Glad to know I spent money on metal cages for nothing. At least they are good for peas and other things. We have tomatoes on everything and are watching for something to ripen.

Green beans and tomatillos

The store bought tomatillos are doing quite well and they are flowering but not yet producing more then tiny (like head of a pin) sized tomatillos. I am letting it go until it gets going better and then hopefully we will have a ton. The beans started to do well, but Mr. Wabbit has attacked them and I am trying to keep and eye on them. I may need to get out the bunny cage. Ugh.

Eggplant and hot peppers

The eggplants which are closest to the camera are doing well. The hot peppers again have peppers forming but nothing worth harvesting just yet. Here is to hoping for lots of nice hot peppers for Daddy. Daddy is already eyeing the jalapenos for making poppers with.

Purple pea, broccoli and cucumbers

The purple pea in this picture has pretty much about given up. I am going to leave it in the pot and just replant some more seeds for a fall crop. at least they will have something sturdy to climb up. The broccoli did well after fighting off the bunny but the cabbage worms have begun to attack as well. We are trying something new with it, so I am waiting to see how it goes. The cucumbers are flowering if a bit small. Hopefully I can get some cucumbers soon. I really hate buying those.



Apparently I forgot pictures of the deck and the corn and watermelon and raspberries (So all the containers), so they are just growing like mad and we may have squash and zuchini rather soon. I have even seen the beginings of a watermelon, which I will have to get pictures of

Hedging bets may equal LOTS of tomatillos

This spring, I would of told you we were never going to see purple tomatillos. They didn't seem to grow well and they were rather sad looking. So I bought regular green tomatillo plants from our nursery to be sure we had something. Anything at that point would of been better then not having them at all. I had put the 3 most likely to die purple tomatillos in pots and told them to live or die but make up their minds. Pooka was rather saddened by the idea only getting verde (green, she speaks a bit of Spanish) tomatillos but when I told her I couldn't start more she accepted it.

Tomatillos decided to live

A couple of weeks ago, I went outside and realized that the tomatillo plants I had given up on had decided that they were happy as can be. They were big enough they needed to go into the ground. I had left just a small bit of space in that bed that I could put them in, so they were planted next to the green ones. Does this mean we may not get purple tomatillos? I have no idea. I am sure they will cross pollinate, but I don't know what that will mean. Until then, we are just going to wait and let them grow. Pooka was so excited to plant her purpura (purple in Spanish) tomatillos she is hoping to make one batch of purpura salsa this year. We will have to see what we get. I guess I shouldn't of given up. However, I will take this over not having any tomatillos anyday.

The Beans have sprouted.

The garden is finally starting to look like we have been planting. The last of the things started from seed have popped up, in this case the green beans. We have 2 main types of bean this year. On the left is a Blue Lake Bean. Pooka got these a gift from her grandparents as well as a garden kit. On the right are our standard kitchen bean.

 More beans have sprouted and they have all reached a good size since these pictures were taken. There is still a bit of an empty spot. I am sure it will not stay empty long since we had some plants we gave up on come back.

We have flowers

Things are finally starting to get moving around here. We have flowers on the tomatoes which hopefully means we will have tomatoes in the not so distant future. The rainbow cherry tomatoes are flowering nicely.

Rainbow cherry tomatoes

These are the brandy wine tomatoes. I love how different their flowers are and the face that it has so much more texture to them. Pooka loves the fact it looks "different" and we are both interested to see how they compare to the romas.

Brandywine tomato flower is very textured

The roma tomatoes are in flower as well. They seem to really love their current spot. That entire section of bed just went poof and grew all the sudden. We are trying this year to use actual tomato so we will see how that works as well. So far it means alot of me going "Get in there."

Roma tomatoes are doing well

Certainly not last or least is the fireball tomatoes. I can always count on them to be the early birds and great producers. Although this will be our last year of them since we ran out of their grow ums seeds and I don't see the need to repurchase a kit for more of them. These little guys even have a tomato already starting.

Fireball Tomato flowers and tomato

Purple peas

I honestly did not plan to have two pea posts back to back, but we have peas. The purple peas have come in and they are rather prolific. I will say we have not be disappointed with them since their flowers give a nice pop of color in the garden. Pooka loves having lots of colors in her life and this gives the added bonus of not being what you expect.

Peas on the plant with flowers

 I will say that sometimes the different color makes it much easier to find the peas than sugar peas. These peas are very much "Here I am" being in such contrast with their plant. . However, sometimes the dark color also hides it when it is buried in the plant.Here is a better picture of them with the plant.

Purple Peas on the plant

I have noticed these to be rather prolific. The very random cooler spell we are having seems to be helping them quite a bit. This is just today's harvest. We are harvesting the peas when they are still rather "snow pea" thin. Supposedly, if you let these peas get too big they get rather tough since they are more like soup peas. 

The harvest today

The color is very purple, which surprised me just a bit since they were suppose to be blue podded peas. I am curious that if I leave a few on the plant for more then a day or so to fill out if they will get blue or if they will stay this neat purple color. The kids have taken to eating them raw as a snack or as a side at lunch. I am glad this experiment has gone well and Pooka is already asking if she can plant some to take to school in the fall for her lunch. Although I will say Brother is not as much of a fan and is watching the sugar peas to come in.

Purple peas

A huge difference

This year we are planting two very different types of peas. The normal sugar snap peas that have yellow flowers. These are the flowers we expect to see, a yellow white flower that is cute but more a sign of food on the way. Pooka told me the other day that she observed the difference between these peas and the blue podded peas.

Picture from last year, See the white/yellow flowers

Imagine our surprise when the purple podded peas started to flower. The plants all have multiple flower colors and they are give a great pop of color. There were pink flowers on some of the plants. Sorry, Pooka just corrected me and told me the flowers are fuchsia. I guess I live in an 8 bit color world.

Pink and purple flowers

There are blueish purple flowers mixed in as well. The bluish flowers seem to be a bit more rare right now. I had a friend over recently and she said asked what pretty flower I had in the pots. She was shocked to learn it was actually a pea plant and said if I hadn't told her better, she would of thought I was just growing flowers. Of course, this friend is starting her own journey into growing food and knew I wouldn't grow flowers unless there was a good reason.

More pea flowers.

There are also some pretty purple flowers of their own. I will say it is nice to have a pop of color out there that will still bring us food in the long run. Here is to having peas in the near future.

Another shot of the pea flowers. Gotta admit they look great