The Home Garden Mid-July

The Home Garden is starting to look much better the past couple of days since our nice rain on Sunday evening. It's still not up to par...but, all in all it is doing surprisingly well.

This is the Left Cold Frame Bed

It is filled mostly with dry beans now. There are a couple of Celery plants hiding in the back and some bare spots in the front. I'm going to sow some lettuce in the empty spaces soon.

This is the Right Cold Frame Bed

I pulled almost all of the Spring Carrots from this bed on Monday. There are still a few tiny ones left around the edges. There is also some huge Lacinto Kale in this bed still going strong.

This Kale was planted out last September!

This is Bed #1

There are a couple of cabbages left in this bed. I sure wish they would head up so I can harvest them. I sowed some Little Marvel Peas in this bed a couple of days ago. Hopefully, we will get a nice fall crop as I was not happy with my Spring Shelling Peas.

At the other end of Bed 1 there are a few Celery Plants, a couple of Dry beans and some newly planted Pepper Plants. "The Italian" brought me home 7 pepper plants last night. He got them for free and are varieties that he wants. I guess, it's better late then never for him to decide he wants a particular variety of anything besides tomatoes in the garden! Most of this bed will be sown with Spinach at the end of the season to overwinter. That's the only way I have been successful with spinach.

Bed #2 

There are 4 tomatoes planted in this bed.

3 known varieties and 1 unknown variety. There is a lot of that going on with my tomatoes this year! 

This is what is left of the carrots that were growing in between the tomatoes. Some bunny thought it was a Bunny Buffet!

The Sungold tomatoes are coming on like gangbusters! Boy, they are a wonderfully sweet tomato! Thanks Dave!

These are Paul Robeson tomatoes. Seed compliments of Jeff. These babies are huge and boy are they great tasting! Come on and get ripe already!

Bed #3

This is where most of the garlic was planted. Now there are dry beans and slicing cucumbers growing for "The Italian". 

These cucs are finally putting out a few a day. As you can see, the earlier leaves dried up and were spotted. The plants looks great now!

The Fall Broccoli, Cauliflower & Cabbage starts are undercover on the back porch. They are about 2-3 weeks old. Something was nibbling on them, so they were given a good dusting of DE and covered with a shade cloth. I hope this works.

My Dwarf Carmine Jewel Cherry Tree is growing very very well. Truthfully, I'm very surprised how much it has grown.

The Herb Garden is not looking great. It's usually overgrown and nice and green. The drought has been a bit tough on it.

The back part of the Herb Garden is very sparse too. The Spaghetti Squash are starting to take off and  

climb along the fence in both directions.

The Sage Bush is the only thing in the Herb Garden that is looking great.

We also have one some what pretty flower pot right now.

My flower pots are not nearly as nice as they have been in the past.

The Home Garden Mid-June

The home garden is looking pretty messy right now. I guess that it's just going through a transition from spring crops to summer. All of the rain and heat we had for several weeks didn't help much either Warning, lots of pics

Click on any pic to enlarge.

The Left Cold Frame Bed has been pretty much cleaned out. Most of the lettuce and all of the Collards, Kale & Asian Greens bolted from the heat. There are a couple of celery plants in the back and still a little bit of lettuce. I decided to plant some dry beans in this bed. They are the little sprouts you can see coming up. Later in the season, I will plant this bed with carrots.

The Right Cold Frame Bed is filled mostly with carrots. The Kale in the back is still doing well. It was planted last fall. I wonder how long it will last? There's also a little lettuce under the kale in the back and some recently planted carrots under the boards.

The Herb Garden really took a hit from all the rain. I had several newly planted herbs that just died. As you can see, the oregano was recently trimmed back. It was huge! In a few weeks it will be huge again. There's Miss Banana on the back corner of the deck. She follows me everywhere.....instead of cleaning out the bunny nests like she did when she was younger!

The back section of the Herb Garden.

This is where many of the newly planted herbs died. The Spaghetti Squash are coming up along the fence. This past week, I planted a few new herbs here...Marjoram, Curry and Variegated Thyme.

My Sage Bush is looking pretty good. It got hit late last season with a ton of rain. It used to be at least twice this size.

Some Slicing Cucs for "The Italian" are coming up along the edge of the Garlic Bed.

I don't know what is going on with the Soft Neck Garlic. It's all leaning. The Hard Neck Variety isn't doing this. Anyone know???

The four early tomatoes with a few carrots and marigolds planted here and there. My early tomatoes are usually way ahead of the later ones. Not this year. I think some of the later maters at the plots are doing much better. 

The Sungold is fruiting.

Thanks for the seeds Dave! We can't wait to taste them!

This is supposed to be an Eva's Purple Ball. It really looks like a Cherokee Purple to me. Time will tell!

This is Bed #1. It looks like a hot mess to me!

I pulled all of the Snap Peas on both ends. Those really tall leaning peas are a different variety of shelling peas. They are at least 7' tall. I like the Little Marvels much better. So, I'm going to plant a fall crop at the plots. All of the spinach and lettuce was pulled. The early broccoli is done. Right now there are a few celery plants, some dried beans, carrots under the boards, a couple of cabbage plants and the balance of the hard neck garlic at the far end.

This is one of the broccoli heads I cut a few days ago.

The Perennial Beds are very lush right now. There isn't a lot of color though. They too are going through a transition. You can see Miss Banana following me around!

We do have some bright blossoms here and.....

there!

Here's Alvin....my Flower Child. 

He sleeps all day among the plants. Occasionally he gets a vole too!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.........5/31/2012

Boy, this week has just flown by! I really thought today was Wednesday. I haven't posted or hardly read any blogs this past week. I think the heat really got to me.

This week I am going to post a recipe for Rose Petal Jelly. Although I did post this recipe last year,  I'm sure many of you did not see it. This jelly recipe was originally posted by Lynn at Wood Ridge Homestead in the Shenandoah Valley.

Tuesday afternoon, I noticed that the white roses were starting to go due to all of the rain. So, Sophia and I went out and picked  basket full of white roses and some red roses to make the jelly. My white roses are very fragrant, which is needed for a good jelly. My red roses, have hardly any fragrance. But they are added to give the jelly as nice color.

Rose Petal Jelly

• 1 1/2 cups Rose petals, tightly packed
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 1/2 cups sugar (preferably white sugar)
• 3 oz packet liquid pectin

Gather fresh Rose petals to measure 1 1/2 cups tightly packed. Rinse petals and pat dry. Place petals in large pot and bruise petals so the scent and color can be extracted.

Add 2 1/4 cups of water to the petals in the pot and heat to boil. Turn down heat and simmer for several minutes, making sure the petals impart their color in the water. More than likely, the water may appear somewhat grey — the color will brighten with the addition of some lemon juice.

After the Rose petals have simmered for a few minutes, remove from heat. Using a fine sieve, strain the petals from the liquid.  Discard the petals and measure 1 3/4 cups of the distilled liquid for the jelly. Return the liquid to the pot, then add 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice and stir. The petal water will brighten significantly.

Add the sugar and stir to dissolve, then heat to boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Add liquid pectin and return to hard boil. Then allow jelly to boil for 1 minute while stirring continually.
Remove from heat and ladle jelly into 4 sterilized half-pint jars leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Add sterilized lids and rings. Process in water bath for 5 minute

Yield:  about 4 half pints


After we started on the jelly, I noticed that we didn't have enough sugar to make the jelly. The liquid is now in the refrigerator.

Sophia and I will finish the jelly this afternoon when she gets home from school.

This is what it looks like when it is finished.

It's really pretty and tasty too!

What's been going in or out of your cupboard lately......anything good????

The Home Garden at the beginning of May

I haven't posted much about the Home Garden lately since I've been so busy with the Community Garden move. The garden is growing well...but it's pretty messy around here!

This is the Left Cold Frame Bed

All of the overwintered Kale & Collards have been removed in the back of the bed. I planted some Celery and Baby Choi in their place. Do you think that we have enough lettuce growing???? Maybe somebody needs to harvest some!

This is the Right Cold Frame Bed

The overwintered Kale in the back of this bed is still doing well. It does look a bit funny since I just harvested most of the leaves. There is also some lettuce in the back that definitely needs to be harvested. Maybe Miss Banana will take care of that for me today! The mid section of this bed has carrots growing in it. I am keeping the bird netting on to deter those darn squirrels and birds!

Look at all those little carrots!

The Garlic is growing like crazy!

And so are the Snow Peas behind it! 

I know that they are not supposed to be friends....but, I have growing peas and garlic next to each other for years and they do just fine. Look at those boards just laying there....what a mess!

There are 4 Early Tomatoes growing in Kozy Koats in this bed with carrots in between. The pill bugs were so bad under the boards that I had to remove them. I decided to put the shade cloth over them for awhile so they could get a little bigger.

This is Bed #1

There are two different varieties of Snap Peas growing on each end and Shelling Peas along the long side.

Bed #1

Garlic growing at one end.

Bed #1

Some Pak Choi, Lettuce and Spinach at the other end

Bed #1

I also planted a few Broccoli Plants, Chinese Cabbage and I think a couple of regular Cabbage plants in the middle

One end of the messy deck. The cushions and table tops need to be brought out of the basement and put on the furniture. Someone also needs to replace 4 boards on the deck and then power wash and stain it!

My new little Dwarf Carmine Jewel Cherry Tree is in it's pot.

The Herb Garden definitely needs a little cleaning up!

This is the part of the Herb Garden behind the messy patio furniture.

That's a bunch of self seeded Cilantro, weeds and greens from the daffodils!

There is one flower pot that is looking good!

I planted perennials in some of the pots last year and this one doesn't need a thing added to it!

My new Dwarf Tophat Blueberry bush and some weeds in the stone pathway in the background.

The Carrots that I started in this pot in the basement were very happy until I took them outside. I'm sure they will perk up and green up once they get used to being outside. I also have three more large pots that need carrots planted in. That will have to wait until after vacation. And there's that dirty deck again!

Not the best color in this pic.

Here are the Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants and some herbs hardening off on the back porch waiting to to planted......

Here!! Yes, the beds at the plots are finished!!! Yippee!!

Well, it's going to be a busy week! Today I will be baking for the graduation picnic tomorrow. "The Italian's" daughter is graduating from college tomorrow. We will be leaving early in the AM. Then her graduation dinner here (not at our house) on Sunday....then the plots must be planted before vacation next week!