boogaj

My yard is so sunny now

Trees, trees, trees. I've lost track of how many they have cut out of our yard this past week. I know there were at least 7, but if you throw in all the little ones here and there, it's probably over a dozen. And then there is the pruning! So, much pruning. 

A hard winter and an Emerald Ash Borer infestation in a huge part of the US and Canada, has taken it's tole on our yard. I'm sitting here with the windows open on a gorgeous Spring (nearly Summer!) day, and my ears are being assaulted by the sound of chainsaws.

Glad we planted a couple of apple trees earlier this Spring, although the 2 dwarf trees will hardly make up for what we lost. And thank goodness, mama Robin decided to nest in the lilacs, and not one of the trees!

Garden Trellises

Pete built me two more garden trellises over the weekend.  These are a foot taller than the ones that he built last year becasue the cucumbers went crazy and grew right over the tops of the 4 foot trellises.

You can see the shorter ones that he built last year in this photo.  I'm using them for the peas this year. 

One thing I love about these, is that they fold flat for easy storage in the winter. 

Renewing the strawberry patch

In true Chicago fashion, the weather went from freezing and snowing to hot and sunny in the span of a few days. The bad news is that I got my first sunburn of the year over the weekend, the good news is that I spent a lot of time in the garden.

As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, my strawberry bed was looking a little rough.  This is actually just one end of the patch, which is about 3 feet wide by maybe 12 feet.

I raked up all the mulch and straw that I could, then I got to work digging up all the existing plants. After that Pete helped me add some of our homemade compost as well as some store bought mushroom compost to the bed. I mixed it all up and planted the plants I had dug up previously, keeping them nicely spaced.

I also planted a few new strawberries which, as you can see, have some crazy pink blooms! The variety is "Tristan" which supposedly sends out few runners, so I planted them on the edge of the bed. 

Two of the other raised beds were also prepped with more garden soil and compost. I'm itching to get some seeds in the ground, but I'm holding off since the weather has been unpredictable lately.

Tomato Seeds

 

Last year I started my seeds much too early. In fact, I started some in February! This means that they were ready to be planted in April, and my planting "safe" date is mid May. I suppose I was a little eager -- ha ha!

This year I set reminders in my phone both 6 and 8 weeks before my mid May planting date and started the seeds when they should be started. So last weekend, while battling a nasty virus that I still haven't fully conquered, I started a flat of tomato seeds. Since we loved eating the cherry tomatoes and found that they gave us by far the best yields, I planted three varieties of cherry tomatoes this year: Black Cherry, Bing Cherry and a new one for us -- Matt's Wild Cherry. Only a few days later I already see sprouts!  It's amazing how quickly they grow!

So we harvested the watermelon...

And I didn't have my camera with me when I cut it up, but that's it on the right of this top photo.  And the tomatillos that you see in the background -- never ending.  I've made salsa -- 2 kinds -- and now I've taken to freezing them.  

We also got a few carrots.  I forgot that I had bought a packet of some multicolored carrots, so it was a surprise when I pulled these up.  To tell you the truth, I've never had much luck growing carrots, so even plain old orange ones would have surprised me.  

We're still getting quite a few tomatoes from the garden, but nothing we can't eat in a day.  In fact, I have one lonely little paste tomato sitting on the counter right now.  I'm glad to see that we are eating what we grow.  Nice to know that my early Spring gardening decisions were pretty good ones.  (Except for the many tomatillos.  Note to self -- 2 tomatillo plants will suffice.)

Watermelon Watch

It's growing!

Baby Watermelon

I am growing watermelons!  I can hardly believe that the tiny, struggling seedling I started back in April from little seeds are now huge and producing a bunch of tiny watermelons.  I have never grown any kind of melon before and I didn't have high hopes for these.  The plants were so small for so long -- then one day they went crazy.  I'm ridiculously excited and check on the baby watermelons several times each day.

Tomatoes are just starting to turn red here and there.  I love the bright green against the red-orange on this one.  I think these are Brandywine, which I've never had much luck growing in the past.  It looks like the wet Spring was just what they needed.

And we harvested the garlic!  This was a new crop for us this year and I have to say it was crazy easy to grow.  Pete stuck the cloves in the ground last autumn and we dug them up this past weekend -- that's it.  We have laid them on a piece of fencing over the basement stairs in, what we call, our vestibule. They have plenty of air circulation, but I'm hoping it's not too hot in there.  We shall see.  

There is so much happening in the garden right now that I could go on and on, but I'll finish up with one last photo -- the first of many cukes is nearly ready for harvest.  I think 2 cucumber plants will be more than enough to keep us in cukes for the rest of the summer.  These things are prolific!

Crazy Cukes on our Handmade Trellis

So Pete and I built these trellises at the beginning on June.  You can see the little cucumbers and watermelons at the very bottom of each trellis.

Tiny, right?  Well, now it's the end of June and look what happened...

The crazy cukes are over the top of the trellis and branching out everywhere, and the watermelons aren't far behind.  

In other gardening news, I've been making an effort to pick yard bouquets on a regular basis.  I love how these random flowers look in my old blue canning jar.

Strawberry Time

Finally getting some strawberries from the garden.  The squirrels are stealing their fair share, but still leaving a few for us.  I'm looking forward to going to my favorite u-pick -- hopefully next week -- so I can get enough to make a good stock of strawberry jam.

First Harvest of the year

We pulled and ate one of the radishes today.  This is the first official harvest of the year, and I'm pretty excited that it is happening early in May.  

And soon we will have strawberries!  Our strawberries apparently liked the wet Spring -- they look amazing this year.

The cherry tomatoes should be ripe before long and since I planted a ridiculous number of them, we will have more than we can handle.

I'm feeling pretty good about the garden this year.  It's taken several years of trial and error to get to the point where I sort of feel like I know what I'm doing and I also know what I like to grow.  

This will definitely be the year of the tomato since I planted a ridiculous number of plants, but it is also the first year I'm planting radishes, beets, tomatillos, watermelons and garlic (which was planted last fall).  Old favorites are back too -- tomatoes (obviously), strawberries, raspberries (which are multiplying like mad!), potatoes, jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, herbs (flat leaf parsley, basil, sage, oregano, cilantro and thyme), carrots and lettuce.  And I shouldn't forget the flowers which I grew from seed this year -- petunias, impatiens, marigolds, and sunflowers.

Whew.  I really need to keep a gardening journal to keep all this straight from year to year, but I suppose the blog will suffice.

Lilacs in bloom -- and why I take so many photos

Our lilacs are in full bloom and look gorgeous.  When we moved into our house, the lilacs were stunted and sickly as a result of a big, ugly fence which blocked much of their sunlight, and possibly hot bbq grill ashes which the previous owner appears to have dumped at their base.  In the 8 years we've lived here, we removed the fence and improved the bed in which they reside.  (We used to call it the gravel pit, because it was a nasty, weedy patch filled with gravel and broken up bits of asphalt.) 

I like to look back at photos from previous years so that I can see when things bloomed.  For instance, last year our lilacs were in full bloom on April 7th!  A full month earlier.  Crazy.  

Garlic

I'm all about gardening these last few weeks. The garlic is doing great despite the fact that I've done nothing but remove the thick layer of winter mulch from their bed. I can't remember if I grew a hardneck variety, so I'm not sure if these will produce scapes -- must figure that out.

Since I have a fancy new camera...

... I've been taking a lot of photos.  Be prepared for an onslaught of garden photos.

Tomatoes

My seed starting set up is getting a lot of use -- in fact, three shelves are full.  On the top are the tomatoes that I already transplanted into bigger pots.  They are growing like mad!  The middle row holds more tomatoes on the right and a variety of things on the left -- marigolds, jalapenos, tomatillos & sunflowers.  The bottom shelf holds flowers on the right -- impatiens & petunias -- and on the left there are some cucumbers, watermelons and some pathetic flowers and basil that never got transplanted into larger pots.  

We have uncovered the strawberries in the garden and the garlic is starting to peek up through the earth.  

Can you tell that I'm excited about the garden this year?

We're finally getting a snow "storm" and I'm starting seeds.

Lots of things have been going on around here, including a lot of garden planning.  I love this high radiator in my front hall, because it is perfect for two trays of germinating seeds.  Who needs one of those fancy heating pads when you have one built right into the house?

The plants I started a few weeks ago are looking good -- actually they are much bigger than this, but I don't have a recent photo.  

I am so excited about the garden this year!

Seed Starting

I guess it might seem a little early to be starting seeds, but these are mostly petunias and impatiens which take forever to germinate.  I'm still searching through seed catalogs for my veggies seeds, and looking forward very much to getting those started in my new seed starting tower...

This set up, using some sturdy steel shelving, 4 shop lights and a powerstrip with an automatic timer was our weekend project.  As you can imagine, I'm itching to get more seeds started so I can fill these shelves!

Granny-ing Along

I'm finding the Great Granny Along blocks to be addictive.  After sewing 12 of them, I'm more than happy to continue making more.  At this point I'm thinking 24 (for a 4X6 arrangement) or 25 (for a nice square quilt) is where I'll stop.

In other news, only one of the many sunflower seed I planted was nice enough to germinate.  I'm blaming it on the ridiculously dry weather.  I'm happy though becasue the one that did grow is gorgeous and appears to have quite a few buds.  Crazy drought.

Out with the Barberry

Before...

Okay, this isn't really the "before" photo because only a few weeks ago there were unruly barberry bushes and weeds in this lovely, mulched bed.  I ripped them out because I hate them.  Barberry is ubiquitous around here, and I guess their reddish foliage is kind of pretty, but they are a thorny nightmare in my opinion.  I always had to have Pete pull a bunch of splinters out of my hands after I trimmed them -- even when I wore gloves. 

After...

And now we have some lovely roses, some new daylilies and some old daylilies that needed a new home. We have a local nursery that specializes in daylilies and has probably about 30 or so varieties, so we picked up some with unusual coloring.

In other news, our mama robin has had her babies.  She's up there feeding them in this photo.  We (or maybe just I) have been so worried about her with the wild storm we had about a week ago and the crazy heat wave last week.  I heard the babies starting to squawk a little bit today though, so all appears to be well!

Jam from My Own Strawberries!

I totally made strawberry jam -- from my own homegrown strawberries! This is a first, as I've never had enough ripe berries at the same time to make it a possibility.  The last few days though I've been getting about 3/4 lb. of berries every day, so I decided to make a small batch of jam.

Small batch jam takes very little time to bring up to temperature, plus there is less hassle since you aren't getting all that canning stuff out and sterilized and such.  I had just enough to fill my cute little LeCreuset jam pot a little over half full. 

 

Really Small Batch Strawberry Jam Recipe

3/4 lb. of berries (weight before removing tops)

1 cup sugar

Juice and zest of one small lemon

1 tsp pectin (I used the Ball low sugar pectin)

Trim and quarter your garden fresh berries and throw them in a heavy bottomed pan with the sugar, lemon juice and zest.  Cook over medium heat, stirring now and then until the mixture reaches 220º or appears to be gelling.  Add 1 tsp. of pectin -- sprinkling over top of jam -- and stir well while continuing to cook for about a minute.

Transfer strawberry jam to a suitable container and refrigerate once it cools a bit.  

Strawberry Infused Vodka

It's going to be very difficult to wait two weeks before cracking open the strawberry vodka I've got brewing in the pantry.  

We've been getting about a pint of strawberries from the garden every day, which is awesome, so when I skipped Monday (our super busy day here), I was in for a good harvest on Tuesday.  In fact, I had enough for the strawberry vodka with plenty left for snacking.

I've seen numerous posts around the blogs concerning strawberry infused vodka and it appears that all you have to do is cut up some berries and add the liquor.  I did just that, filling a clean pint jar 3/4 full of cut berries and then filling the jar with my favorite vodka.  (Yes, it's a giant bottle -- but it was on sale at Binny's for nearly the same price as the regular size.)

I'm seriously looking forward to a strawberry vodka tonic and perhaps a sparkling strawberry vodka lemonade.  Yum!

More Garden Stuff

Potatoes!  Onions!  (And peonies too!)  More and more of our yard is being taken over by edible plants.  This back bed was filled with random perennials, some scraggly yews and weeds when we bought the house back in 2004.  Today most of that was been ripped out to make way for our newest farming project -- potatoes.  They seem to be taking well to this old planting bed, although the ones growing in the shade of the fence are taking longer to get established.

The strawberries are producing well this spring and I think I found the secret to keeping the squirrels from eating/damaging them -- different birdseed in the feeders.  The safflower and thistle are safe because the squirrels don't like them and stay away from our yard.  

And in the other end of the main raised bed, peppers and tomatoes.  I bought them from several different sources this year (and didn't even attempt starting seeds), so things were planted pretty randomly.  I did discover that the best place to purchase veggie plants in our area is Keller's Farmstand.  We went to their location in Naperville, but they also sell plants at their Oswego location.  That beautiful, hearty looking pepper you see in the corner is from Keller's.  They grow them locally, so I don't think they suffer from shock like some of the other things I've purchased.

The raspberries are coming along nicely -- you can see the new bed in the photo above -- it's to the east of the main bed.  And the secondary strawberry patch, although a weedy mess, is also producing quite well this year.  

I'm really enjoying gardening this year and looking forward to harvesting lots of veggies, and hopefully some raspberries, this summer.

Weeding, Pruning, Planting, Harvesting

A serious amount of my time has been spent in the garden recently.  We don't use any weed killer (or any chemicals, for that matter) in the yard & garden, so there are *always* weeds to pull.  I'll never be able to keep up with them, but I make an attempt pretty much daily.

There is a pay off for all of this work.  Despite the fact that it is only May, we've already eaten several salads from the garden.  I just threw an old packet of seeds into an old flower box with some fresh potting soil and it went crazy!  The seeds were at least two years old, so I wasn't even sure they would germinate -- ha!

Today I picked the first few ripe strawberries -- the first of many.  There are too many green and pink berries to count, and I think I may even have enough to make jam next week.

So, that's were I've been.  

Just a Tribble

I've been looking for a knitting project that would get me excited about knitting again, but I haven't really seen anything new and different out there.  Any suggestions on a fun and interesting knitting project?

In the mean time, I knit a Tribble for fun.  It's such and easy project that it took me almost no time at all and I'm already using it in the kitchen.  Perhaps not very exciting, but that's the state of my recent crafting endeavors.

I've been baking too -- making Maddie's favorite which is banana bread based on this recipe.  Of course, I make it gluten free, subbing 210 gr of my GF flour blend for the flour.  I also like to use brown sugar for half the sugar, add a bit extra vanilla extract, and top it (in this case) or mix in some toasted pecan pieces and semi-sweet chocolate.  So delicious!!

I've also been working in the yard -- pulling weeds, planting potatoes, and other things.  Pete spent the better part of yesterday building a new raised bed for the raspberry plants that just arrived.  So that's strawberries, herbs, onions, potatoes, lettuces, blueberries and raspberries, so far.  The pepper & tomato plants should arrive soon and I really have to get the carrot seeds in the ground.  I'm pretty excited about the garden this year.

 

The New Winter

Technically it's still winter, but with high temps in the low 80's the last couple of days, and forecasted high temps in the 70's and 80's for at least the next 10 days, I feel like I've fallen into Summer.  I just could not wrap my mind around this bizarre weather for the last few days and continued to wear jeans and even wore a jacket once, but now I'm embracing the June-esque temps and wearing shorts.  After all, at this rate, it will probably be in the 100's all summer.  Guess I better enjoy it while I can.

Oh, and one more thing... what do I do with the garden???  We did some yard work last weekend and I trimmed back and cleaned out my herb garden.  Today I looked and the flat leaf parsley, rosemary and thyme are all thriving.  Nothing really died over the "Winter" except for the basil.  I'm half tempted to plant some basil seed and see what happens.  After all, it may not freeze overnight again this year.  Crazy!

My Favorite Time of the Year

I love the autumn -- cool days, chilly nights and yet, plenty of warm sunny days mixed in.  The strawberry plants must love this weather too, because they have started to produce berries again.

And after swaddling them in bird netting (to keep out the squirrels -- not birds), the tomato plants are finally giving us some sweet, juicy tomatoes!  The basil is getting a bit long in the tooth and slightly bitter, but this was still a nice lunch.

Full Bloom

Despite the heat, the flower garden is looking beautiful.  The Black Eyed Susans and Cone Flowers (also known as Echinacea) seem to thrive in this weather.

If you are looking to attract butterflies and bees to your garden, Echinacea is the plant for you.  And as a bonus, it will attract goldfinches like mad as soon as it goes to seed.

Can you see all the pollen on this little bee's legs?  All the bees on these flowers were laden down with the stuff. 

Today even the weeds were looking pretty.  This lush little patch is hidden in a cool, damp spot and I couldn't resist taking a photo of the pretty little flowers.  Forget the grass -- which is brown right now -- I'll take weeds in the lawn any day!

Progress on a couple fronts...

In the last 7 days, we have been without water and then power.  Things are back to normal now and I'm looking forward to a weekend of cooking, eating, relaxing and watching Harry Potter movies.  (It's hot here -- and I don't do heat well, so indoor activities are called for.)

Despite the troubles of the past week, I've made progress on my first log cabin quilt.  These 12 squares are just laid out together so I could get an idea of size.  I believe I have enough fabric to add another round to each block, which should get it to a more usable size.

And while it hasn't rained much here in the last several weeks, the garden is starting to show signs of activity.  Here is a little cuke that is starting to grow (thanks to my daily watering).  And this morning while picking strawberries, I saw a tiny green tomato.  Onions look like they need to be pulled up soon and I probably need to pull up a carrot to see if it's doing anything.  We can't seem to grow carrots very well here in our clay-ish soil, so my hopes are not high.  Oh, and also the baby bunny ate a bunch of the carrot tops when he/she was still small enough to get through the fencing around the garden. 

Time to go find a butterbeer recipe!

Foraging for Breakfast

I was feeling all pioneer-like after foraging for my breakfast, until I came inside, put them in a blender and made a smoothie.

Wild Strawberries?

These recently popped up in our side yard, where there is quite a bit of shade.  We don't use one of those lawn services that spray the heck out of your yard, so "weeds" grow freely in our organic lawn.  (Except dandelions, which we try to pluck out before they completely overrun the place.)

The patch is quite large and I don't mind them a bit because grass never really grew over here anyway.  These are much nicer to look at than dirt.

My question is this -- Does anyone know what berry this might be?  They almost look like mini strawberry plants -- smaller leaves, smaller berries and lower to the ground.  I don't remember if they flowered -- I didn't really notice them until my explorer daughter found them in their out of the way hiding spot.

New Orchid -- Phalaenopsis "Golden Treasure"

 

While we didn't find much produce at the farmers' market over the weekend, the orchid guy was there as usual.  I fell in love with this Phalaenopsis, named "Golden Treasure", and had to bring it home with me.  I don't have a decent photo of the whole plant, but it has three stems -- one with a secondary branch.  This beauty should be flowering for months.  And the blooms are even more gorgeous in person -- the palest yellow striped with a showy magenta. 

The orchid buying experience got me thinking about two of my other orchids which were in serious need of re-potting -- so now they are in happy new homes, which will hopefully get that little 2 leafed guy growing and blooming.  I have a fourth orchid also which recently finished blooming -- as seen in this post.  I think, perhaps, that this orchid thing is addictive.

Rose Petal Jam

This morning I logged on and checked a few blogs in my feed reader -- once again coming upon a post about Rose Petal Jam from Norma.  For some reason that I cannot explain, I decided then and there that today I would make this jam, because if Norma keeps making it year after year, it has to be good.

We have three main rose varieties.  First the big, old rose bush that was here when we bought the house:

Then there are the roses we planted on the side of the house -- which looked pretty bad last year, but seem to be doing well so far this Spring:

And finally, the most recent addition is in the back corner of the yard, which is somewhat shady, so they are not flowering yet.  (Ooooh!  Maybe that means I can make more jam later this summer!)

I used a mix of the two that are flowering at the moment, and when I mixed them up in the blender...

Love that color! 

The entire process was very easy, quick and painless.  And I discovered another reason to love my new dishwasher -- the "sanitize" feature!  So easy to get canning jars ready by running them through that cycle.

I ended up with a pretty good supply.  Considering there are only 3 of us, this should last a while.  And isn't it so pretty?

A note on the flavor.  Norma described it as "Summer on a spoon," and I would have to agree.  I'm sure the variety of rose determines the flavor to a certain extent, and mine really did taste a bit like the petals smelled.  I bit floral, a little like ripe berries and a pop of brightness from the lemon.  Highly addictive!

Today...

... is hot.  Like ridiculous hot.  Summer hot.  92º and climbing. (The heat and I are not friends.)

... I ate my first garden grown strawberry of 2011.  Really, try growing them.  They are *so* easy to grow and garden strawberries are like 1000 times more delicious than grocery store strawberries.  I kid you not.

... the peonies are blooming and I am enjoying them while I can.  In this heat they won't last long.

... Pete and Maddie stopped by a church rummage sale and brought home this little gem.  I love Dala horses, and this is a sweet little piece.  (Sverige means Sweden in Swedish.)

... I plan to have a cool drink and relax so I can (finally) get over this head cold.

 

Future Strawberries

Photo Blogging

The past two weeks have been crazy, with wrapping up the kitchen remodel and trying to put the house back together.  This leaves little time to blog, but I have snapped a few photos...

Orchids

I've become somewhat fascinated with orchids since I got this one to bloom again.  My office is quite sunny with windows on three sides, so it's the perfect place to keep houseplants and the orchids seem to love it. 

There is one last bloom that has yet to open on this beautiful Phalaenopsis, and the blooms last quite a long time, so I am getting much enjoyment from this beauty as it sits right above my computer.

I actually have two other orchids growing in my little jungle, both of which need to be re-potted ASAP.  The little one that is blooming in the background is another Phalaenopsis which I picked up at IKEA last weekend.  IKEA is a great place to find orchids on the cheap, BTW.

Tomorrow -- bartering.  I have some goodies I want to trade.  Stop by and have a look!

The Orchid is Blooming!

I somehow managed to get the orchid to bloom again -- and during the winter no less. 

Ode to an Onion

Today I made turkey stock.  I get turkey necks at the farmers market from time to time and they make awesome stock.  You just throw about 3 lbs of them into a stockpot with about 14 cups of water, a teaspoon of salt, a couple carrots, a few smashed garlic cloves and some onion or shallots.  You can also throw in other veggies and herbs.  I went out to the garden and got some thyme, rosemary and oregano and threw those in there.  The house smells wonderful and my freezer is now full of stock.

Since I have all this stock, tonight is risotto night -- which takes 4-6 cups of the stuff.  For the risotto I also need an onion or a couple of shallots.  Unfortunately I used all my shallots on the stock, so back out to the garden...

I dug up an onion thinking it was going to be bad.  We had a weird summer -- too much rain early on and too much dry heat late in the season.  I didn't actually think the onions were any good.  I dug one up, brought it in, washed it off and peeled the outer layers off.  Isn't it gorgeous?    I love it when the garden gives me just what I need -- twice in one day!

Backyard View

I love the window above my desk, which looks out onto the backyard -- and more specifically, two of our bird feeders.  In the last 10 minutes I've seen a male cardinal, goldfinches, a nuthatch, various other finches (including perhaps a red finch, or house finch?  My daughter is much better at identifying these), and a European starling.  We also have attracted catbirds, mourning doves, robins (of course!), many woodpeckers and a couple of days ago we caught a glimpse of a blue jay.  In fact, we have a bird identification guide, and we try to mark off the birds we've seen in the yard. 

What unique birds do you attract to your yard, and how do you do it?

My day so far...

Maddie and I hit the garage sales, as we like to do each Friday morning.  I found this excellent blue polka dot Pyrex bowl for only 50¢ and Maddie found a couple books and a Pokemon game of some sort.  I passed on a Wagner cast iron corn bread pan, but I may have to go back tomorrow and try to make a deal (if it is still there!)

Then home and out into the crazy heat to harvest some goodies from the garden.  The green beans have been ripening like mad, the strawberries are hanging in there and I could have picked twice as many peppers.  The jalapenos are plump and fragrant this year and my kitchen smells quite peppery.

I also bought a half dozen ears of corn from the local farmstand, so I'm thinking stuffed jalapenos, boiled sweet corn and a side of green beans with a fresh made margarita on the side, perhaps?  Now if I could just get my tomatoes to ripen...

Garden Happenings

Can you see the baby beans?

 

And look at those jalapenos!  They are big producers this summer.

 

And these bell peppers doubled in size over the weekend!

 

The broccoli is taking its own sweet time, but I finally see the beginnings of something.

 

The tomatoes are growing slowly, but I'm starting to see lots of little green fellas. 

We are trying 4 different varieties and the Amish Paste once again seem to be doing best.

 

The cilantro goes to seed so quickly that I don't know why I plant it, but this moth seems to like the flowers.

 

The strawberries are still going strong.

 

We harvest them about every other day.

 

The late season berries are even bigger than the ones we got in the spring.

 

And this onion looks like it's getting big!  Have to figure out when I need to harvest these.  (Don't mind the weed!)

Anyone out there have a good recipe that uses jalapenos?  It looks like I'm going to have lots of them.

Strawberries and Peonies

 

The heat wave has it's benefits -- namely the quickly ripening strawberries in our garden.  While the dastardly squirrels managed to steal and bury many of the first to turn pink, we are finally starting to harvest some for ourselves after enclosing the plants in netting.  (As I planted other parts of the garden this past weekend, I nearly cried every time I turned up some dirt only to find more buried, slightly pink berries -- darn squirrels!)

 

The peonies have burst open this week, providing me with lots of fresh cut bouquets.  And can you see the red roses in bloom just outside the window in this photo?  That rose bush has done almost nothing over the past 6 years that we have lived here, then suddenly it decided to burst into bloom this year!  A beautiful sight outside my kitchen window.

End of Season

Well, it's that time of the year.  Tonight we are under a frost advisory, so I had to pull what I thought looked good from the garden -- the rest of the broccoli, a bunch of little jalapenos and some tomatoes that I think may ripen inside. 

I'll have to do a post on the successes and failures of the garden soon, while it is fresh in my mind.  I think things went better than expected for our first year of serious veggie/fruit gardening and I'm already looking forward to the 2010 seed catalogs arriving in my mail box.

Garden Harvest

A view of the garden from my kitchen window -- Pete and Maddie are in the background harvesting a carrot. . .

 

(Yes, he is happy to see you -- he he.)  We had very few carrots come up and I guess I was too lazy to do a second planting, but at least we have a few.  And I only need one for the pasta sauce I'm making tomorrow.

 

And since the tomatoes are finally turning red, I decided to make some garden salsa.  Luckily we still have a few jalapenos ripening, so I was able to throw a couple of those in there too. 

Julie's Garden Salsa

3 medium sized tomatoes, diced
2 jalapenos, finely diced, seeds removed (unless you like it hot!)
1/2 of a small red onion, finely diced
1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic, finely diced or run through a garlic press
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt to taste
Cilantro, chopped

Just combine everything, stir well and taste. Add more of whatever you think it needs.

My salsa is a bit lacking because my cilantro has already gone to seed and the grocery didn't stock cilantro (?!?) but no matter, gotta make do with what you have.

Chicago Botanic Garden

This past weekend we took a little trip up to the Chicago Botanic Garden so we could check out the Bonsai Show.  Maddie has a bonsai book (which Pete and I purchased years ago at the Bonsai Show at the CBG) and has been interested in getting a bonsai of her own.  If you have any interest in bonsai, I have to recommend this yearly event which includes an exhibition of many bonsai created by both amateurs and professionals as well as a nice selection of vendors -- some quite helpful.

 

There is so much to see at the Chicago Botanic Garden in addition to the show.  The variety of gardens, all within walking distance of each other, are quite amazing.  There is a rose garden, fruit and vegetable gardens, water & waterfall gardens, a Japanese garden (actually a couple of islands) and so much more. 

 

If you live in the Chicago area and haven't been to the Chicago Botanic Garden before, I highly recommend it.  Check out their website before you go because they have lots of great events all season long.

Pickles from our Picklers

As part of the garden project for this summer, I planted two varieties of pickles -- a pickler and a regular, fresh eating type. The picklers went crazy and before I could figure out if they were ripe, a bunch went from immature to overripe in a week. I salvaged about 3 of them, and while they appeared to be a bit seedy, I decided to forge ahead and can a couple pints. At least we'll know if the flavor is good and will be able to adjust future batches.

These are simple to make -- slice up your cukes and place them in a jar with a garlic clove and a tsp. of dill seeds (important -- last year I used plain dill and it wasn't right. You either need dill heads, which are dill that's going to seed, or just pick up a jar of dill seeds and use those.) Then bring a vinegar, water and salt (non-iodized) to a boil on the stove. Use one cup of water, one cup of vinegar and one Tbsp. of salt for each pint you'll be canning. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the pickles in the jars, screw on lids and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

I think you need to let these sit for several days so the brine can penetrate the pickles. Maybe we'll crack open the first jar this weekend and give them a taste. In the meantime, I'm keeping a close eye on the sneaky picklers, so I don't lose anymore to over ripeness.

Garden Surprises

I took this photo of the garden this morning from my office window which I think shows off the amazing amount of growth that has occurred in the last few weeks. And while we have enjoyed eating from the garden -- salads, fresh pesto, peas and the occasional strawberry so far -- the surprising thing is that just having the garden has been so entertaining.

Every day Maddie loves going out and just looking at the garden -- seeing what is blooming, what it starting to grow, what is ready to be harvested. She loves picking the peas and helping me to shuck them. I have caught Pete stopping to check out the garden as he returns from work on many days and recently we have all had fun counting the new green tomatoes as they begin to grow.

I still am unsure how to grow so many of the things I've planted -- when to sow, water or harvest them -- but I'm growing more confident as time passes. There have been successes and failures (the lettuce is going to seed), but all in all, I'm calling the garden a success -- even if we don't harvest another thing -- because the whole family has enjoyed just having the garden so much.

Weekend Project -- Gardening

This year my big outdoor project is the new vegetable (and fruit!) garden. We have a 12' X 8' raised bed which is too big, I know. Two smaller beds would have been perfect, but this is what my contractor put in when I wasn't paying attention. I decided to put a path down the middle so that I can reach everything I grow.

This past Sunday I planted carrots, lettuce, spinach, peas, cucumbers and basil from seeds. I also transplanted some basil I had started indoors and transplanted the strawberry plants we purchased from the local nursery. I'm waiting a week or two to transplant the other seedlings I started indoors -- 2 varieties of tomatoes, green peppers, more basil and some flowers.

While I was planting, Pete was putting in the fence around the garden (and even making a gate!) We have rabbits and I've already seen them in the yard this spring, looking for goodies to nibble. They ate the leaves of the crocus plants down to stubs and I saw them eating the few weeds that were in the raised bed last week. We are hoping this fence will be enough to keep them away. Fingers crossed!

The Pea Patch

So at the end of August, the backyard project was finished and I finally had my raised bed.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any seed that late in the year (despite several trips to garden centers around town).  Then one Saturday Pete and Maddie stopped at the local Ace Hardware and while looking through the clearance bins found a lonely packet of peas.  Hmmmm. . .

I rushed to plant them so that they would have a good chance of growing before the first frost hit.  When they began to flower a couple of weeks ago, I had high hopes.  In fact, we do have some pea pods:

The weather is supposed to take a turn later this week, but today is sunny and warmer than the forecast predicted.  Grow peas, grow!

A Terrarium

This is a project I've been wanting to tackle for ages -- but of course it didn't work out at all as I had planned.  About a month ago I bought some awesome huge, old canning jars and I planned to make little terrariums in them -- one for me and one for Maddie.  Never mind that my hand couldn't even fit in the mouth of the jar, or that I couldn't find plants small enough anywhere.  I carried the list of supplies and plants with me optimistically for weeks -- visiting every "garden" center I could find.  I ended up buying rocks for the bottom layer from Hobby Lobby (and needed a second bag which Pete graciously ran out in a downpour to acquire!) and never found horticultural charcoal -- I'm using fish tank filter charcoal instead.  Sphagnum moss (used to keep the layers from leaking into one another) was nowhere to be found, so I cut pieces of tulle and used that instead.  And finally . . .

gave up entirely on the jars and opted for an old fish tank that had been banished to the basement awaiting the next fish or a new purpose.

Whew.  (This is why I call these things my "crazy" projects!)

New Lawn Toy

The way we take care of our lawn has been evolving.  First we gave up the professional lawn mowing -- I mean, they used a big gas guzzling monster mower and had to drive a big truck to get it here.  Not very environmentally friendly.  After that we canceled the lawn service -- no more chemical herbicides, pesticides and fossil fuel fertilizers.  And finally. . . we got a new mower.  Not gas, not electric, just good old fashioned human power. 

We purchased it last night and today Maddie was very excited to see it in action, so even though there isn't much grass to cut yet, I took it out and gave it a spin around the back yard.  It is a good work out and I think I'll be able to give up the elliptical machine on the days I mow.  I also like that I can mow the lawn -- at my leisure -- without a lot of fuss.  There isn't any gas or oil that has to be added, there isn't any cord that I have to pull (I've never been able to start a gas mower!)  Oh -- and a reel mower is quite inexpensive.  We got the wider model (20 in.) because we have almost a 1/2 acre lot and it was just over $100 -- the smaller model was under $100 (and no gas or annual service charge!)

Peonies

It was an awful year for the lilacs, but whatever the lilacs dislike, the peonies must love.  Our two peony bushes are looking incredible this year!  The pink one is blooming now. . .

Almost open. . .

Open!

But you know what they say about peonies -- the ants love 'em!  I guess there is nectar on the buds.  They seem to leave the flowers alone -- but look at a bud on the bush that hasn't started bloomin yet. . .

This makes my happy that they are located at the back edge of the yard and nowhere near the house!