Harvest Monday.............8/29/2011

Due to me not being very organized last week and the storm preparations, I didn't take many pictures of the harvests, here are a few.

I picked a lot of MWC tomatoes on Saturday before the storm. They will be dried for use over the winter.

A basket of goodies harvested from the plots before the storm.

My backyard harvest on Saturday

This is the kitchen island this morning.

Harvest total for the week: 42 lbs.

Beans, Purple Pole - 24 oz.

Cabbage, Red - 24 oz.

Cantaloupe - 73.5 oz.

Cucumbers:

    Slicing - 23 oz.

    Burr - 5 oz.

Eggplant - 20 oz.

Peppers:

    Bell - 31 oz.

    Hot & Spice - 42 oz.

Pumpkin, Fortna White - 152 oz.

Spaghetti Squash - 48 oz.

Sweet Dumpling Squash - 62.5 oz.

Tomatoes:

    Green - 42 oz.

    Red - 125 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday, to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens around the globe!

The Gardens after Irene

After our walk this morning and a nice big Sunday breakfast and electricity. The electric went off for about 8 hours. We are very lucky that we only got about 6" of rain (last estimate I checked) and the winds were not all that bad. The wind did blow pretty good until about 6 PM this evening.

The home garden looks really good!

Around 4:30 PM I was bored and decided to go to the plots.

The one Three Sisters planting. The corn & beans knocked over and the Sweet Dumpling support as well. I picked all the Sweet Dumplings before the storm.

Tomato Alley....not looking all that bad, just leaning a little. The plants are still alive!

The Purple Pole Bean Tepee, laying down on the job. I don't think the plants were up-rooted. So I will see what I can do with it tomorrow.

The other Three Sisters planting. The corn and beans were blown over also.

A couple of the Bell Pepper plants were blown over. But I don't think that they are broken.

The hot & spice peppers looked fine. The leeks were leaning a bit.

Newly planted broccoli & cauliflower look fine.

The Brussels Sprouts leaning a bit too.

One of the gardeners there fence blew down

The port o potty also blew over

Some corn blowing in the wind

I thought this picture really captured the weather as I was leaving.

All in all....not that bad. Tomorrow afternoon I will get over there and start cleaning up!

Our Neighborhood After Irene

Around 9:30 AM this morning, "The Italian" and I ventured out in the light rain and wind to walk around and look at the flooding and damage. We live on top of a hill about 4 blocks from one of the local city parks. Here are lots of pictures!!

First look...not bad

Hazards you don't think about

First look at the park...all of the pictures of the park are flash flooding and you can see in a lot of the pictures how much the water had already receded.

Water around a sculpture

Lots of these around the area

parking lots

this is normally a grassy area

here you can see the tiny bridge for the tiny creek that caused all this flooding

walking back

in 30 minutes the water had receded back quite a bit from this sculpture

a block and a half down our street

this is what happens when you have your side walks replaced and they cut the roots to the trees!

They were very lucky!

I am doing a separate post on the gardens after Irene.

Irene Update 2

After my update this morning, we took a long walk and took pictures of the damage and flooding at a nearby park. We came home cooked a nice big breakfast and I down loaded the pics to the computer. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I finished the power went out and it is still out 5 hours later!

I will post some pics as soon as we are up and running again.

We are Ready Irene! UPDATE

Yesterday I spent most of the day getting ready for Irene! We are located right on the line of severe flooding and tropical storm conditions. The forecast for our area is 50-60 mph wind and a lot rain....could be 12" or more in less then 24 hours! I didn't realize how much time it would take to get prepared.

This was my harvest today!!

"The Italian" had strung up lights over the deck area and through the garden for our wedding here at the house three years ago.

As you can see, the Paniculata Clematis vine fell down onto the light wires last week in a wind storm. I really don't want to be cleaning up broken light bulbs if the wires come down.

Deck area cleared off

We could not fit the couch chairs and table bases in the garage. So, I took the glass tops inside and piled the furniture up in an area where we don't get much wind. The dining table that is laying there was put in to the garage. The flower pots and slate quoit boards are pushed up against the furniture. They weigh a ton and should help to keep the furniture in place.

A view from the deck toward the house. The big flower pots are so heavy that they can't be moved and the oak rockers were flipped over so they don't do it on their own. They are so heavy that it would take a lot more then 60 mph wind to move those babies!

I put the Bay Leaf tree, citrus trees & some small flower pots under cover by the back door. If it gets too windy I can easily move them in to the house.

Last night before dinner I went to the plots, harvested what I could and tried to stablize the purple pole bean teepee a bit. I will be surprised if it is still up right tomorrow afternoon.

Inside the house the camp stove, propane and camping cook pots were pulled out and made readily available for cooking. The travel lap top is charging and the air card is ready! I moved a lot of frozen food from the chest freezer to the side by sides and made 8 large blocks of ice in plastic containers.

When we get really hard down pours we can get some water in the basement. The ground here is solid clay! It comes in at a certain point and runs to the drain. I spent a little time down in the basement to make sure there is an easy flow to the drain.

We are well stocked in adult beverages and food.....as you know, we do have the wine collector across the street!! So, I guess that we are ready for you Irene!! The humidity outside and inside is just unbelievable right now!

UPDATE:  It's 8AM. We were out of electricity for awhile but the electric is back on for now. There was one large tree branch in the street out front this morning and some water in the basement. The water in the basement is not bad and flowing in to the drain. It looks like we have 2-4 hours of tropical storm winds and rain left. The home garden looks good so far. Who knows about the plots. I will have a hard time getting over there due to flooding. I will post some pics later today.

The State of the Plots............Part 2

Last week was very busy around here and I didn't post Part 2. Although things have changed a bit at the plots, here it is!

The other "Three Sisters" planting is very happy. There is popcorn, Long Island Cheese Squash, Fortna White Pumpkins, Greek Sweet Red Winter Squash (which never produced a female flower) and Trail of Tears Beans planted here. As you can see, the grass in the paths is very happy too. I was going to weed wack it today...but, didn't get to it.

Here are some dry beans, some leeks to the left and a few small broccoli & cauliflower in Bed #2. There are also dry beans planted in Bed #1 between the Brussels Sprouts in the back right of the picture.

This is the one Aspargus bed. There are Sadies Horse Beans and Trail of Tears beans growing up the fence in the back. All of the bushy stuff to the left of the asparagus is parsley. They are supposed to be good companion plants.

The tepee planted with Dean's Purple Pole Beans is really tall. I think about 8' right now. I will be surprised if this is still standing after Irene makes her way through our area this weekend!

Some broccoli & cauliflower was finally planted at the end of Bed #2 today. Don't mind the convalescing mummy tomato plants in the background. They are still alive...so, that's a good thing!

The Bell Peppers are huge! You can't tell from this picture, but, they are at least 3' high and loaded with peppers!

The hot & spice peppers are doing great also! They aren't as tall as the bells, but they are loaded with peppers! I left the celery (right end of pic) in the ground and it doesn't look all that bad. I can dry some of the leaves and freeze some of the stalks that are good.

The two remaining Moon & Stars watermelons are growing like crazy in spite of the little nibble that the groundhog took out of the one!

The Burr Gherkin Cucumber plants are growing like crazy! They are in between the two trellises were the cantaloupe and Korean melons were growing. I removed those vines today. You can also see some more convalescing mummy tomato plants in the background.

There are at least 4 more Fortna White Pumpkins on the vines....looking good!

And the zucchini plants are still producing!!

Well, that's all the Happy Stuff going on at the plots, with the exception of fall raspberries starting to ripen!!

So, what kind of Happy Stuff do you have going on in your garden??