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

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.

The part of the year I didn't tell you about.

With our bit of a disappearing act, I know many of you (okay the 2 who read this) are wondering what has been going on around here.

The garden did well before the end of the year, I need to update all the pages with our total output from the garden and our canning numbers. The garden put out a total of 150 lbs of produce. That doesn't even count all the herbs we pulled out and dried. We are still canning some jams from frozen fruit I bought over the summer. At least canning in the winter I don't need to worry about putting added humidity into the air.

Final clear out of tomatoes only. 

In the end, our savings from the garden totaled 128.6% return on investment on our EVERYTHING cost, including the bricks for the new herb bed out front. The consumable return on investment was much much higher. We have been asked if we see that money come back and my honest answer is yes. Our grocery bill is still on the small side since we are able to pull the canned tomatoes out for dinner, or the fact I haven't bought jam in 2 years. Although right now I cringe when I go to the store and have to pay a dollar per pepper when I know ours taste so much better and is not outrageously priced.

We also took in a few new plants at the very end of last season. Pooka asked if we could get a rosebush from her great grandma's house for her. Our dear friend Aunt S came up and helped me try as best we could to transplant it. However, it had been in the ground at Great Grandma's for about 20 years and it didn't like the idea. Right now it is sitting dormant in the garage in a pot and we are hoping that it will survive being transplanted again in the spring. Aunt S and I had decided that the roots were too small to risk putting in the ground when we first grabbed it.

Great Grandma's rose bush we are keeping

With the rose bush came some free succulents from Great Grandma's. We left quite a few in the pot with the rose bush. We also tried planting one in the ground outside, but I am not 100 certain it will survive the winter.

Succulent in the ground,. 

Pooka kept quite a few in the pot with the rose bush, but we did try to transplant one into a pot in the house. It seems to still be alive, if looking a bit spindle at the moment.

Pooka's plants for her room.

This is a quick update of what has been going on. More to come in the next few days.

September first pictures

I know this post is late, life has kinda been a tad nuts with all of us trying to get into school routines. Sadly, the garden is showing signs of neglect, but I am hoping to work on that this weekend and fix it back up. I know a few plants have given their last out there.

The front small bed is looking rather nice. The dill has taken off and the milkweed is blooming again. I remember just a month ago this bed looked so barren. It has filled out and is looking very alive.

 Sadly, yes the front bed is overgrown. We are trying to get back into the habit of drying herbs and cutting it back, but its been a bit harder to figure out how to get it all lined up right. However, it is nice to still be about to walk outside and just grab some herbs, which was the whole point. Next year we will probably cut back a bit on what goes in there.

This is the basil circle that is suppose to go around my lilac. The tree itself is looking rather sad, but the basil has gone to flower and I am having a hard time keeping up with it. However, you can see the pretty colors of Pooka's 5 color chinese peppers through all the basil.

The sunflowers are about done. Most have lost their blooms and I either cut the blooms away to save the seeds or the animals have gotten them. This weekend we are hoping to go out there and kill most of it off. We also need to figure out something better for dealing with the weeds. But that will be a discussion over the winter. 

The small bed under the window is doing well. We haven't gotten any broccoli off these plants yet, but last year it was about now the broccoli started to come in and these plants were started a bit late. We just transplanted some new Pak Choi into this bed so thats why they look a tad wilted. They were mad I had uprooted them from their pot.

We have a few new green bean plants starting, but the peas have yet to sprout. I am thinking I may go out and buy another package of peas if I can find them and put them in. It all depends. there is also another Pak Choi plant in here as well as the way overgrown basil. Again, the herbs need cut back. Work never ends it seems.

The pepper plants are going strong. They have liked this heat wave we are getting and I am collecting sweet peppers right and left. We finally had enough to freeze the other day. The tomatillos are still a question on if the fungicide will work or not.

 I think the corn is dead. I think there is one ear in there I need to go pick, but it may of rotten a bit. That one I just didn't give the attention to this year. I promised Kiddo we will try again next year. However, the beans in the peas in that pot are doing well, as well as the peas in the back pot. The squash I think is done. I need to pull it but that is part of this weekends clean up I think. 

The broccoli is doing well and we are due to have broccoli again tonight. I did realize this year we need a few more cucumber plants to get what we need. As Aunt Pooka told us this weekend, its a balancing act figuring how much you need but not getting too much. This is the part I find hard. Too bad no one says "This many tomatoes, this many cucumber for a family of 4."

Oh, tomatoes, tomatoes. They are everywhere. While our tomatoes may not be as tall as they were last year, they are covered in nice pretty giant green tomatoes. I just hope the season stays warm enough to harvest them all. I will say we did decide next year to cut back the tomatoes plant number a bit, but like with the cucumbers, we aren't sure how many is "enough".

The cherry tomatoes have started to reach a nice height. We still have not seen any purple ones, but Pooka is loving having yellow cherry tomatoes. They do drive Daddy nuts since he has a hard time deciding when they are ripe. The jalapenos are doing well, but the poblano peppers have yet to have much on them. The plant is finally starting to produce, but we haven't been able to harvest anything yet. I think this may be the year for bad peppers. then again they like HOT weather and it has been cool.

The celery is doing well, the marigold and the snapdragons are blooming again. I also really need to cut the scallions back, but that is a good problem to have. I think I may cut them back and try to freeze them for later this winter. Pooka loves using our "chopper box" to cut the veggies, this would be a good one for her to use.

The deck is a giant mess, which is why I only took one picture. Most of the squash is dead, or dying, and I need to pull some bolted lettuce and restart it. All in all, the deck is overgrown, but it is producing, which is the point. We even have 4 eggplants on one plant. Maybe those deserve space in the yard next year. Those and the free yellow squash since we actually found we like that fresh but not store bought. Pooka was so happy to try new things and even happier to know she likes them.