Too Hot & Humid & Harvests

Geez, we sure are having some hot & humid weather here! Way too humid to go out and work in the garden. Yesterday I went to the plots and harvested the last head of broccoli, the first two heads of cauliflower and a few onions that had flopped over. By 9AM it was too hot and humid for me to work....so, I went home.

"The Italian" and I had grand expectations of going to the plots at 6AM this morning to do some much needed work and pick some raspberries. The plots look like a jungle! Well, that didn't happen. Instead I went to the store and then spent a couple of hours pulling weeds in the perennial beds along the side of the house while they were still in the shade. I have no idea when I will get around to tackling the bed out front! It's totally overgrown and truthfully embarrassing. It will only take about an hour to do. Maybe I'll get to it one night this week after work since we really need to go to the plots tonight.

The last head of the Spring Broccoli & some side shoots

 

Nunzio "The Inspector General" checking out of first two beautiful heads of Cauliflower.These two are "Minuteman". They weighed in at 1 lb. 7 oz. each. I think they are the nicest heads I've ever grown!

 

Speaking of Nunzio.....he sure is getting big!

He had a blast yesterday playing with some toys I hung from the fan!

 

We've been getting some wonderful sweet Sungold tomatoes!

Most of them get eaten before they can be weighed or photographed.

 

The Onions are starting....and it looks like it's going to be a great year!

These are a few of the Walla Walla Onions. My largest so far has been 8.5 oz. I know they aren't as big as Granny has grown......but, they are great for me! I planted three varieties of storage onions; Copra, Candy & Red Wing. A few of the Copra onions have been harvested. Only a few of the onions have been weighed so far. I planted 370 onions total. I guess there won't be a shortage of onions this year!

 

Tomorrow will be Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions. Hop on over there and see what's happening in gardens around the globe!

 

 

New Addition to the Family

For those of you who have been following this blog for some time, you will remember Alvin, one of my cats. I posted about him here, here and here. This past week we had to put him down. It was a very very hard thing to do. But, I had no choice, there was nothing the vet could do for him.

Three weeks ago when I took Alvin to the groomer, I fell in love with a rescue kitty. After Alvin's passing, I called the groomer to see if she still had him......and the answer was yes! We couldn't believe that she still had this little guy! I guess it was meant to be!

Welcome Nunzio!

He was named by "The Italian"



Here he is in the cage before we brought him home.

 

Little Nunzio half asleep.

This is the only time you can get a picture of him!

He is one active little fellow!

 

Cat in the Box

Alvin has been spending a lot of time in his box lately. Maybe it's because of all the publicity on the internet!

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!

Miss Banana Plots

I know what you may be thinking....it's April Fools Day. Yes it is....but, it is also Miss Banana's 10th Birthday! Now she is older then me in cat years!

This is my Miss Banana Princess Girl!!

OK, now on to the plots part. I spent about 5 hours at the plots today until it started to rain. I wanted to get the posts & fencing up on three sides. 

I put 6' posts in the four corners. Then I put 5' posts along two sides. I'm also going to put 5' posts across the side along the road where the gates will be located. The county  put large drums on pallets for us to put our rocks in. I already filled up the one by me with the one pile of rocks from 2 weeks ago.

The posts were pretty easy to get in the ground. I only had 3 that I had to move a bit due to rocks.

Across the back I put in shorter posts and 3' fencing that I had from the old site. 

Tomorrow I am planning to install the 4' fencing along the two sides and remove the gates from the old site.

We made it home just in time for.............

SNOW!!!! Yes, it is snowing here in eastern Pennsylvania in October! I really can't remember the last time that we had snow in October. We haven't even had a frost yet.......but, that will change tonight. It looks like we will get about 6" of snow.....just crazy!

As you can see, I haven't put the patio furniture away and the annual flowers are still alive.

I did manage to put the cold frame tops on early this morning before the snow started. I am so happy that I re-covered the tops before we left. I will attach them permanently when the weather calms down....but, the bricks will have to do for now.

The veggies growing in the basement are looking good and will have to wait a bit to get hardened off and planted in the cold frames.

As usual, we had a great time in New Orleans. I did read all of the Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard posts both weeks and some other posts as well. For some reason though, our travel computer would not let me comment on most blogs.

I will do a post or two about some of what we did while we were away. For now, the kit-cats and the washing machine really need my attention!

Boy....What a Day!

The first thing this morning I went outside to do some watering. We haven't had any rain since.....I can't remember. Anyway, I found this.

Do you think it is pregnant....or just ready to burst and wake me up?

I took a chance and did the watering before I repaired the hose. All went well. So I went inside and went down in the basement to get some clothes out of the dryer. While I was down there I heard all this running around upstairs. We have hardwood floors so you can hear everything. Oh, it was just the princess "Miss Banana" doing her usual morning crazy cat business.

Or was it???? It sounded like a little more then just "Miss Banana"!! I think I have heard this commotion before....

It was the princess all right chasing one of these around the house! It's not the first time...oh no! The first time was 6AM a few years ago when I was getting ready to leave for work!

I called for "The Italian" since he was still in bed reading. He came down and took the princess upstairs and locked her in the spare bedroom. After a few minutes, Alvin (the almost blind cat) realized that something was going on and came in the house to help! Well, it really did take too long for us to chase that little chipmunk out the back door. Needless to say, the back door was closed for the day.

After that was settled I loaded up my water containers and headed for the plots. "The Italian" was going out with his daughter for a few hours so I gave him a list of things we needed from the store. The store shopping is his job, not mine. I just hate it. Things went well at the plots. The water truck is there and I spent several hours watering the entire plot. This was the first time that I have watered everything over there thoroughly. I have not been watering there much. I think that it is best for those plants not to get used to too much watering. They need to fend for themselves a bit! I was also thinking that maybe if I watered really well, it would rain! Fat chance of that!

I came home feeling good. As soon as I got home "The Italian" came in with items I requested from the store. Look what I found in the bag.....

Yep, paper towels. They were on the list. But you have to understand me. There are two big no no's in life. One, no sweat pants! I just hate them! Two, only white paper towels... oh, and only white bed sheets! I guess that is three. What is with the green dragonflies and yellow butterflies?? Yes, I'm going to have to look at them in the kitchen for a month or maybe two months.....since we hardly ever use paper towels. OK, I can live with them. I have definitely seen worse.

After the shock of the paper towels I decided to take a bath. It looked like "The Italian" and I were going to get to spend a nice relaxing evening together. So, I put on a short dress instead of my usual long tied died hippie dresses that I love to garden in.....only to realize this

Yes, that's my arm on the left and my leg on the right!! Do you think that I should have asked him to get me a stronger sunscreen at the store??? I guess it is time to start wearing my short overalls to the plots!

Guess what today is?????

It's somebody's Birthday!!! No, it's not mine or "The Italian's"

No it's not

Miss Banana's

It's

 Alvin's 9th BD!!! Now he's the same age as us!!

The Great Blind Vole Catcher!!

Cooking with Cat Hair or should I say....

trying not to! Right before our wedding a couple of years ago, we did a little work on the kitchen. We decided to take out the old radiator before we installed the new tile floor. Although we wanted to install radiant heat, we didn't get around to it. So, we installed a kick space heater in the island cabinet.

As you can see....this is the favorite spot for the cats to sleep in the winter! A great deal of the time, both the cats are there. This is Alvin, the almost blind great vole catcher.

As you can see, this is the absolute worse place for the cats to sleep....right under your feet while your trying to cook!

Right above the island is the pot rack.....so, the heat blows on the cats and sends the cat hair flying right on to everything on the pot rack. Yesterday, I took Alvin to the groomer and he got a haircut and a bath. This will help a great deal....since, Alvin has a very thick coat and is the biggest culprit in the cat hair department.

Now, I think he is cold......he has been right there in our way since his haircut yesterday! He does look very content though!!



Cauliflower & less Voles!!

I am so excited to see that the cauliflower plants are producing heads! All all my plants have heads ranging in size from 1/2 inch to 2 1/2 inches. I was concerned due to the extremely hot weather we have been having.

Isn't that a beautiful site?

Alvin (the 90% blind cat) is finally catching voles again. He caught two in the past 2 days. I hope that no one is offended by this picture.

Busy day in the garden!

Yesterday was a busy day around here! The day started off with a successful trapping of a feral cat. I am a cat lover to say the least. I have two cats, Alvin and Miss Banana. This feral cat has been causing havoc in the neighborhood! He has attacked my cat Alvin two times in the past year and cost me $500. in vet bills! Alvin is a special needs cat. He is about 80% blind and has brain damage since birth.

This is Alvin enjoying our wedding reception at our home.

 We are trying to get everything ready outside before it's time to plant all of the peppers, the balance of the tomatoes, all of my flower pots and the other warm weather crops. My husband has been trying to get the deck pressure washed! He was only able to get a small area finished before "date night" last night. It's now raining and will continue to rain for about two days. We do need the rain!

I planted 107 onion seedlings! 30 Copra, 19 Patterson, 36 Redwing and 32 Prince. I still have 22 Redwing seedling left to plant. I can't plant those until the hubby is finished pressure washing the deck. The deck comes right up to the bed were they are going to be planted. That pressure washer will take them out in an instant!

I also planted some parsley, basil and marigolds. I companion plant, so there are onions everywhere there was a spot to put one! Hopefully the onions will do better then last year. We had a very wet spring and they were very small.

The Pak Choi is looking great. They did have an encounter with I believe slugs, when I first planted them. I added some diatomaceous earth and the nibbling has stopped. The Pak Choi is planted at both ends of the garlic bed.

The mixed lettuce is also looking good. I think that it is about time to thin it.

My favorite lettuce, Buttercrunch! I can't wait until it is time to eat it! Next year I will have to start some lettuce inside.

The snow peas are looking good. My English peas aren't doing as well as the snow peas. I guess I will have to try those rootrainers that Dan used this year for his peas. Hopefully we will enough peas to freeze this year. Last year, that darn groundhog ate 3 crops of peas!