Work on the new bed progresses

Well, we bit the bullet. We broke down and pulled out the old border blocks and scooped off MOST of the rocks. Some will have to stay, but I am okay with those at this point since they are now "drainage" rocks... They have a function. This is all we got done in a few hours on a Saturday. Correction, this is what Daddy and Brother did while Pooka and I were transplanting the tomatoes. I think it will look good, and the new blocks are here. We just need time to install them. The only question is when will that get done. If there were more hours in the day.

Progress

Plans... making plans

We all remember the side bed, the bed that has contained only sunflowers for years and that was mostly due to the fact they kept the weeds down. It was not the prettiest angle of the house, but we have realized that we need a tad bit more garden space. Since the garlic took up a bit more space than usual this year, we need to utilize this bed for either basil or hot peppers. However, the rocks and the weeds would be an issue, and really the border bricks were falling into the dirt so they were not as noticeable.

Before

Daddy and I talked, and we talked some more. Now it looks like this spring (hopefully) we will be redoing this bed to match the same brick work as the front of the house. We will put in multiple rows of brick and add some fill dirt (and cardboard) to smother the weeds while making a nice new bed. We will still have to be careful what we plant here due to the utility equipment, but it will give us just a bit more room and since this is the sunniest side of the house, whatever we put here has to be able to handle full sun. Now to see if we get it done. Cross your fingers we have time for it.

We started planning. 

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.

One big push and 1st of the month pictures

I can officially say the garden is in the ground. Over Memorial day weekend, Daddy, Pooka and I made a huge 2 day long push to get everything in the ground. It was a long couple of days, but now we can sit back and work on other things without worrying that things will die in pots.

Pollinator bed

 Pooka's pollinator bed is in and starting to grow. Since we did so much from seed and in a scatter pattern, I don't know what is a weed and what is a plant. we are going to let it grow a bit and see what happens. I do know I need to pull some nettles out, but those require gloves sadly.

Garlic bed

 The garlic bed is growing quite well. We finally have some scrapes we are going to try for dinner this week. We have only been waiting for 3 years to try them. Although some of the garlic plants are really good sized, I am hoping for a much better garlic haul this year. Daddy is so tempted to pull the plants and I have to keep telling him no. You can also see the mint plant in its new home.

The herb bed part A

The herb bed you can see took a running start this year. We have had to replace a number of plants, but we are doing well. This picture is also after Aunt T took almost a half pound of tarragon in hopes of making her own plant. Looks like the tarragon needs cut back as well as some parsley and oregano. It is so nice to have fresh herbs to cook with again. At this rate, the dehydrator may need to come out sooner rather then later.

Herb bed part B

As you can see the second section of garlic is doing well but not as well as the other. But this section is primarily the grocery store grown garlic so I am still okay with it. We have the colored peppers in next to the garlic then the basil plants next to that. We keep increasing the kinds of basil we use. I don't mind buying these as starts since it means I have less to keep alive as seedlings.

The deck

The pots on the deck are doing quite well. The squash has sprouted, as has the zucchini. Soon this entire will be covered in green and making food. Audrey the morning glory as sprouted as well, so I will be keeping her in line as well.

Plant stand corner

 The little plant stand corner is doing well. Pooka's hummingbird planter has come to life and is covered in color. We haven't seen any birds yet, but maybe later this year. Everything in this corner is started and sprouted, even if it doesn't look it just yet. Some of the potted plants were the last to get done. In fact, this last weekend Pooka and I were running out between rainstorms to get the last of the lettuce and spinach seeds planted.

Onions

The onions are doing well. The store bought onion is seeming to grow quite well as well. This is another bed of leave it and let nature do her thing. I just need to watch the weeds in it.

Brandywine        rainbow cherry        fireballs

This area is our 3 year rotation for tomatoes. The brandywine tomatoes are next to the stairs, followed by Rainbow cherries then fireballs. I have already seen flowers starting on the rainbow cherries and the fireballs. Tomatoes here we come. I am so looking forward to them.

Peppers and peas

 All the sweet peppers are doing well. We have carnival next to a couple of sweet peas and then Pooka's lilac pepper, then the long sweets that are a favorite around here followed by Daddy's cubanelle peppers.











These 2 containers hold peas. The big one is blue podded peas while the small one is regular sugar peas. The sugar peas I did start later then the big one, but I see peas in our future.

Leeks beefsteaks      roma        blueberry tomatoes

This is the second half of the tomatoes. Since it doesn't have any support behind it (like a trellis) we decided to go standard tomato cages on it. I am kinda hoping this works. I also have our homegrown leeks as well as some storebought plants tucked in a bit of free space in this bed. I think they get alone well, but we will have to see. Luckily, they are close to the beefsteaks, so I am not as concerned about them. There is beefsteak, Roma and Blueberry tomatoes in this bed.

Pots galore

In this little area we have tucked away a bunch of pots. I don't know if this will work (the weeds are getting a bit big back here) but we are going to try it. The 2 green pots are the raspberries (and yes, on doesn't look so good). The blue bin is blue corn, and the white and brown with the tomato cages are the watermelons. Cross your fingers those do well.

Beans and       tomatillos and           peas

On this side of the shed I have the green beans and tomatillos. It is really hard to find companion info on beans so we are just going to see what happens. There are more blue podded peas in the blue bin next to the bed.

Hot peppers and eggplants. 

In this bed is the hot peppers. Furtherest from the camera is the jalapeno, then the poblanos and then eggplants. This area I think may of been just a bit too dry for the tomatoes but that just means we will get nice and spicy jalapenos. Supposedly eggplants like these conditions as well, so here is to hoping for some nice eggplants that we get to figure out how to use.

Peas       broccoli               cucumber

In the last bed are the cucumbers and broccoli. I know they generally like things a tad bit shadier and cooler, but with crop rotation, they may have a less then good spot every few years. The cucumber has a bit of extra room since they like to sprawl, but I have the ever handy trellis there to help them. The broccoli still has a bit of a cage around it since the bunny issue. I am hoping to take that down in the next week or so.


I know the garden isn't completely done. Pooka needs to put out all her little fairy houses and butterflies and things, but we have it in the ground and will be slowly working on getting it done now that we are not as pressed for time. I am also hoping the butterflies will help a bit with the bunny problem. We haven't seen much of a problem but its only been a week. Cross your fingers that mr. bunny found a different buffet.

Planning for spring

A couple of weeks ago, Daddy and I marked out the last of the new garden beds. This will probably be the last time the garden expands due to lack of space. However, it should give us enough room to rotate the tomatoes for 3 years. 

The last of the veggie beds.

First we marked out the new veggie bed in the back. This is on the far side of the deck and we will need to move the pots. No I don't know where they are going yet. However, it will be a nice new bed once its done. We also plan to clean out under the deck a bit, especially since we promised to rebuild the swing set that has parts under there. The old swing set was no longer safe.

Pooka's new bed

Then Pooka helped mark out the spot for her new pollinator bed. She is so excited and ready to get to work. We are using the fence from the neighbors with their permission since they have a flower bed on the other side. They really loved the idea of not having to weed this side. Before you know it, she will have plants in that bed and ready to roll. This is her little place where I will not make too many faces over the flowers. However, I will not be working on it too much either besides occasional weeding.

Now to get them all dug up and start planting.

Picking up the last of few seeds

A day running errands, means Pooka gets her snap dragon seeds and dill seeds. This means the last of the plans are in place for the garden this year. Now we just need to get everything growing and wait till there is more to do.

We have dill

We did decide to try a couple different varieties of dill seeds to see if there was a difference in them. Hopefully the seeds of change will work out and I can slowly start cutting back the number of seeds I have to buy. Hopefully.

Surprise Pooka

For Pooka's birthday, Brother and I made a big deal about this huge, heavy box.We made it seem so heavy, and so difficult to handle, you could see Pooka's eyes light up that something perfect was in the box.

Pooka's gift

Needless to say, she was a bit disappointed when all that was in the box was a small card. She read the card, and after Mommy explained it, she lite up. This GIANT box was her gift.  We gave Pooka a spot to make a flower bed the size of the box. I even promised to limit my funny faces at growing flowers since we won't get anything out of them.  She has already been spending her gift cards to some department stores on seeds. Places where most kids would of bought toys, my little one spends $20 on seeds and decorations for her new bed. This bed will be hers to design and do what she wishes and we will help her with some of the cost. But to see her light up and be happy about the perfect gift, that makes it worth it, even if I won't get any food out of it. 

What to do on another snow day?

We are home yet again due to the cold. It is nasty out there, but what do we do to keep a Pooka out of trouble and Brother's hair. We resort the seeds and seed what we need to plan on getting for the upcoming planting season. Maybe I will even get orders out today, if I don't clean. There is that little road block.

Seeds everywhere

I will also admit this is that time of year where I get more then a bit overwhelmed with everything. Where are we going to put it? How do I know how much to plant? How much do I let a Pooka follow her curious instincts to try new things when I want to scream "Don't we have enough?" I generally get excited again quickly enough, but it can be more then a bit overwhelming. Besides, all it takes is that little Pooka face giving me the "Mommy, wouldn't this be great?" and I melt more then I should.

Looking ahead

Last night I did something. Something I swore I didn't have time for. Something that makes me wonder what I have gotten myself into.

I ordered garlic online for next year. While our garlic harvest hasn't been great, it is something that Daddy and I use a metric ton of. I swear we always have at least 3 bulbs in our fridge.

Part of this years's harvest

Add to that the fact that we have started making our own garlic powder. Yes we are making garlic powder, and Daddy has decided he really likes the homemade stuff light years better then the store bought stuff.

Homemade garlic powder

So next year, we are going to try a hard neck and a soft neck garlic. One is even purple for Pooka. I am not going to lie and say the garlic is for her. Its for Daddy and I, but she got to pick one, and it was the purple. Now to see what it looks like when it gets here.

That time of year

In some ways, I love this time of year. It is cool in the evenings which makes for great sleeping weather. The garden is producing food and we are canning and drying to prepare for winter. This time of year, I start to feel we are almost done with the garden, and that soon the cold and the snow will be here.

Food getting ready for winter

However, this time of year comes with a double edge. There is so much that needs done. We have sunflower seeds that have been pulled from the plants that need harvested, I have coriander that needs pulled from its plant. We have herbs to dry, canning to be done, hot pepper flakes to be made.

Sunflowers need cut down

The to do list seems overwhelming, and I fully admit I am so overwhelmed I do not know where to start some days. I know I need to start pulling the dead plants. Daddy picked up some more pea seeds that are cold weather tolerant which will be good in the kids lunches. Even aside from all the garden work that needs done, there is garden club starting, baseball, and scouts and all the other kids activities with school going.

Dead plants need removed

There just never seems to be enough hours in the day. It will get done. It always gets done, even if it feels like I a going nuts in the process. Pooka helps quite well for someone her age, but she is only 5 and she has the attention span for some of these things like a 5 year old. I guess it all comes down to getting it together and doing stuff. So if you will excuse me, I need to get back to work. 

Better late then never - August Overview

I promised these pictures are from the first, even if life has kept us busy of late. The temperatures have been milder this year then most. The garden is certainly loving it tho.

Garlic bed

The old garlic bed has been replanted twice with new annuals and Pooka's new plants. Those will be in a post later. Almost everything in this bed we will have no problem tearing up in the fall to replant garlic. Until then, we will see what we get.

Front yard beds

 The rest of the front bed is filling in nicely. We have been harvesting herbs not only for meals, but we have been drying plenty of herbs as well. It will be so nice come all winter to cook with.

sunflowers

 The Sunflowers are growing. Some of them have reached over 10 feet tall, and the Pooka a few of the Pooka sunflowers have multiple heads. Pooka loves to have Daddy go stand next to them so she can see how tall they are. We have yet to see the velvet sunflowers bloom, but they have started to form buds so their bloom is not too far off.

deck view one

The back deck is covered yet again in plants. The eggplants are getting ready to produce and we are getting some very nice strawberries. Our second set of green onions is growing and we plan are starting to get squash off the squash plants.

Pot stand

The lilac is doing well and the celery plants are doing much better in this slightly shadier spot. The snapdragons are even starting to bloom which gives this little spot some color as well as the lavender sitting on the table between the two chairs. I will say the zinnias died as well as the snapdragons in the easter baskets. At least we know now that easter basket don't work. Good to know.

Deck View 2

Around the table the lettuce and the strawberries are doing okay. The zucchini is going okay. We have yet to get much from it, but it is trying. The pots on the table have all sprouted but are not ready to transplant just yet.

Broccoli and nothing

The bed next to the house is still holding on. The broccoli is still fighting no matter how much the cabbage worms are trying to kill it. The bok choy seeds I planted do not seem to be doing much, but that is why we also started some in a pot. Hopefully in a few days we will be able to transplant the little bok choy

Sugar Snap Peas, Green beans, and Basil

 The peas are still producing no matter how sad they appear. They are holding on but the heat spell we had a week did put some stress on them. The green beans are doing well in their spot. We never seem to have enough for the meals, but the kids are enjoying having green beans as a snack occasionally. The basil is doing very well and is in need of being cut back again. More herbs to dry.

Sweet peppers, Tomatillos, Red onion and romaine

 The Peppers are doing okay. We are finally starting to see some real production out of these and it is making us all very happy. The tomatillos are loaded down with and should be ready soon. Pooka is so excited to have her green salsa. The sweet onions are doing well and some are even flowering. The reds have been pulled, but the lettuce seeds we planted there are sprouted. Maybe the romaine will do better in this setting then the hanging pots

corn squash and peas

The sisters for the corn didn't take. The corn is doing well, if suffering a bit from needing more nitrogen.  I am going to try putting more peas in the container and seeing if it helps. The squash has produced a few times, but it seems to be having its own issue. The dirt from the potatoes is in the black bucket in the back with pea sprouts starting.

Cucumbers and broccoli

The cucumbers are climbing and producing while the regular broccoli is doing well. The geometric broccoli is starting to take off. We have had a couple of broccoli harvests already, but as long as the plants don't bolt, we should be able to get many more.

Tomatoes

The tomatoes look smaller if anything. What happened was that the tomatoes actually fell over. We have already harvested over 180 oz or almost 11.5 lbs of tomatoes. Pooka has already asked to see if we can make homemade ketchup. Brother agreed, but has started to worry maybe he shouldn't have. The tomatoes have become a giant mess I will have to untangle soon.

Spicy peppers and cherry tomatoes

The hot peppers are taking off. We have harvested over 9 oz of jalapeno. The poblano peppers are finally flowering, but we haven't seen any yet. The cherry tomatoes are taking off although we have only seen yellow and orange tomatoes. Pooka is looking desperately for a purple tomato. Hopefully she finds one this year.


As you can see, the garden is doing very well. Pooka has harvested over 421 oz or 26+ lbs of food. Pooka says this total "is the best news ever." I am glad she is happy being her and happy with what she is growing. If we are growing plants that make food, that makes Daddy happy the grocery bill is lower.