This week's bouquet

Bouquets are finally back.  I took way too long of a hiatus, but it’s never too late to bring some sunshine inside.  Especially when the skies are opening up and lightning is flashing.  

This week’s bouquets:

White hydrangea, wild daisy’s, ebb tide that ended up red (supposed to be purple), lamb’s ear

New Canning Goals

So I finally took the dive this weekend.  I purchased a brand new heavy duty canning pot with rack, a jar lifter, wide mouth funnel, some extra lids, and one case of each size to start with.  I even picked up some of the twist on caps to use afterwards.  We have some jam we picked up and I think these will be easier then the rings etc. Now the trick will be to finally decide what to do, when to do it, and where to get the produce.  Unfortunately I don’t think there will be volumes coming out of my garden quite yet.  So this year a friend and I are going to hit up the markets to start with and then see how things go.  It will be interesting to see what we ultimately come up with.  The downer . . . . I’m pretty sure that once we start down this road there’ll be no turning back. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up

Finally a Free Weekend

Well finally got a free weekend.  Note to self NEVER EVER travel during May.  We were doing okay and managing to stay on top of things, but the reality is that I just lost way too much time that week leading up to our travel and forget about the time that we were actually travelling.  At least it’s still june though and I have at least managed to keep the veggie garden completely weeded (l’m leaving the section that we just seeded for a little while) and I’ve managed to get the veggies into the front side walk. 

Final tally so far in the veggie garden: minus some hardware lettuce ( salad bowl, black seeded Simpson, mix, spicy mix, butter crunch, spinach, arugula, romaine, white cucumber, cucumber, pickling cukes, Catalina beans, sun sugar cherry tomato, sugar beet, carrots, leeks, ca wonder, mix tomatoes, mustard, amaranth, orange sweet pepper, havarti green beans, rice, parsley, dill, parsnips, chocolate sweet pepper, amish past, basil, lemon basil, soy beans, red mini sweet peppers, san marzano tomatoes, alpine strawberries, celery, squash, cilantro, yellow mini sweet peppers, stevia, green onion, black beans and kidney beans

Still missing: flax, buck wheat, cumin, garlic, red onion, brussel sprouts, summer savory, winter savory, lovage and chervil,  I’ll be putting these in seed starting trays, I think they’re getting lost in the weeds.  olate sweet pepper, egg plant black beauty and white, corn, Lima beans, red watermelon, shallots, sweet onion, spaghetti squash, strawberry popcorn, black futzu pumpkin, small red beans, mini chocolate sweet peppers, Amish paste, basil, lemon basil, soy beans, red mini sweet peppers, San marzano tomatoes, alpine strawberries, celery, squash, cilantro, yellow mini sweet peppers, stevia, green onions, black beans and kidney beans. Now to sit back and see what grows. On to the front I go.

The front sidewalk will be a totally different story though with those damn violas.  I gave up on them and I think that will have to be a complete day at this point.  It doesn’t help that the mulch is almost completely gone, but it has been 4 years since we put anything on it and even then it wasn’t that thick (we did it in the dark).  I’m hoping to get the rest of the plants put in this week.  The rest of the front sections don’t look completely lost so crossing my fingers that they will go quickly.  So far the weather is not looking promising, but I can cross my fingers. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.  

New veggie garden! ! !

Welcome to my new veggie garden.  Not perfect because it’s not square so it didn’t quite line up the way I would have hopped and somehow a foot got cut off on my end, and added to the back.  Made for some frustrating reworking after spending all the time to figure it all out, but at least my husband can reach the corners.  I for sure can’t.  Now it’s all filled in and finally planted.  I’m loving the layout so far.  There’s a little getting used to it because you have to walk around sometimes just to get to the other side of the lettuce, but if that’s the worst thing I think I can managed.  We’ll have to see how it works out for the whole summer, but if I could do it again I would definitely keep it to 4 feet and not try to push it to the 5.  It’s just a little too far to comfortably stretch, but live and learn.  Now to see what I can do with it.  These pictures are before leaving for two weeks.  The last one you can see how nice I left it. 

Why you shouldn't leave for two weeks

Well it's been a crazy week. We're just barely adjusting back to east coast time and had another full weekend. Didn't even touch the gardens last weekend other than to take note of what was going on, and the grass got mowed. I spent the day unpacking and doing laundry. Oh and of course taking stock of my in door plants. A couple aren't happy, but not too bad. Lost one banana that wasn't doing great before we left, but that was about it. I think the biggest lose was 5 of my lemons. The other two though are doing great and are getting big.

The yard was a mess. I swear we must have had perfect growing weather while we were gone. Lesson learned traveling in may in the middle of planting time is not a good idea. At least with the new veggie garden I got through about 130 square feet in about an hour after nothing for almost THREE weeks. That's crazy. Now I just need to get through the rest of it and get my butt in gear. I've already gotten most of the plants that I had to buy because I lost mine or they just wouldn't grow. Next year I'll again. In the mean time I'm going to try really hard to catch up and attempt to salvage this year.

Mother nature waits for no one.

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.

Winter garden update

            Well another year with the winter garden.  This makes year two.  Over all I’m not sure if it was better or worse then last year.  It was planned a little bit better.  My plants were all started from seed and we had a good variety going.  However, a nice little caterpillar decided to take up home in my tomatoes so the little bugger ate all my tomato leaves and blossoms so that never really ever recovered.  Otherwise I really would have been in AWESOME shape for the winter with at least cherry tomatoes.  We had fresh peppers all the way until Christmas this year which was fantastic.  The herbs still need a little work, but maybe this year.  This biggest thing that killed us this year was actually the wood stove.  What we thought would be fantastic for the heat that it would give off but it ended up being our downside this year only because we didn’t keep up with the watering.  Great news is that now we know that the water reserves that were our down fall last year might well be the best thing ever come next year when we go for try number three.  We’ll be starting it up early this year.  Once everything else is in we’ll get it going for next year and make sure all the herbs are nice and happy by the time august comes around.  Live and learn and I am bound and determine to get this right yet. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.  

Surprise Vacation

Well another weekend has gone by and I haven’t even touched dirt.  A last minute vacation or at least last minute booking whisked me away to see family while my husband works.  The great thing I get two weeks off with a whole lot of nothing.  I have been able to spend mornings walking and trying to get myself back into some sort of shape while enjoying afternoons on the beach, and I’ve actually read one whole book already.  The downside, it’s actually killing me to not be able to play in the dirt at such a critical time of the year.  My friends are getting theirs all set, but the most I’ve been able to do is play with some new programs to get an idea of how much I should be planting.  Now don’t get me wrong it’s been pretty fun to see the different layouts I can do, but of course I left my graph paper at home so I can only really do things on line for right now, but it’s been neat to see how the different programs work (more on that later).  I actually have someone plant sitting for me this time.  Still hoping my lemons hold on for me. 

I don’t come back until late Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, and I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to be able to do too much that weekend while I try to adjust back to the east coast time.  What’s worse is even the next weekend I’m booked, NH Saturday and then Comstock Ferre Festival on Sunday.  So in the meantime I’ll be enjoying some more sun and waves crossing my fingers that everything holds on at home.  I threw in the vine seeds right before we left so they should be HUGE by the time we get back. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.