maintenance

my seeds sprouted immediately! i planted brocoli raab, arugula & tuscan kale. the little sprouties are growing bit by bit. i am going to plant the second bed with a ground cover or crimson clover. i need to do that today, because it's getting late.

i am finishing with turning the soil along the side walk and i want to finish up that today too, i have a ton of blue hispanica that i have dug up from all over the yard & some muscari that my mom gave me and they need to go somewhere. i might get some lavender to put in too. it's drought tolerant and i LOVE it.

pickle power!

bread & butter pickles - they turned out ok. i guess i'm just not a bread & butter pickle girl. i haven't tried one on a hamburger yet though, i suspect that might be pretty awesome!

zucchini pickles - these were kick ASS! they were refrigerator pickles, so we had to eat 'em up before their 3-ish weeks were up. luckily that wasn't a problem!

pickled blueberries - yum. a revelation! they were particularly good with ham.

green tomato relish - hmmm... well we haven't really tried it yet. i guess i should finally crack one open and see if it's still edible. :(

pickled red onions - OMG! i am completely addicted to these!! i make tham regularly now, good on tacos, sammiches, or alongside just about anything

olive oil pickles - these were AMAZING! crunchy & vinegarly, just like pickles should be. i am sad thay are all eaten up.

pickled prunes - yum yum yum. i need to make some more of these!

bulbs

i have been excited (& intimidated for some reason) to explore the world of bulbs! tulips! dahlias! i was never really interested in hyacinths or daffodils (until i saw THESE), but i did discover some other little things i had never heard of that caught my eye!.

back when it was tulip season i got all jazzed up and started a wish list here. over the past few weeks i realized that i was actually time to order some & get them in the ground! so i filled up my shopping cart & was a little shocked all the things i wanted added up to about $100 & where were they all going to to go!?! and then i got distracted.

last week i decided i needed to look again. it's REALLY time now! but now everything on the website is listed as "call for availability". hmpf! i didn't really want to deal with calling. also i didn't want to hear that one (or any) of the items on my list was sold out & i was out of luck.

so i decided that i would just go to the farmers market and buy some bulbs from the cute little old flower guy with the funny accent. i ended up with a variety pack of tulips, a pack of reddish orange tulips, some white daffys with orange centers (kind of like the professor einstein ones i had my eye on), an interesting looking allium and he had some of the melegris!!!

everyone is in the ground now & i am exited to see what comes up! i still have a bucket full of bulbs in dirt that i dug up for various places around the yard from previous owners. i will have to figure out where they are going to go. they are mostly these and these, and a few of these from my mom.

the only thing i am sad not to have is some of these, i don't know what it is about them, they aren't that different from the hispanica blue's, but there is just something about them that feels elegant & fancy.

a sunny day to play in the garden!

i was too busy to snap any pics but yesterday i:

moved the feverfew from it's spot in the herb garden to one of the beds in the front yard (it had outgrown it's space).

dug up one of the 3 lavenders i planted outside my studio door (the first thing i planted in our yard 2 summers ago!) because they were really crowding each other and i put it in the ground outside the fence under the mailbox.

i scattered some love in a mist and some straw flowers (the straw flowers are staring to go to seed!) seeds in the hole left by the lavender, the other 2 lavenders should fill in eventually & i think the flowers will mix in nicely until then.

i pulled the 2 snow in summer plants out of the little round terra cotta tubes & moved them to the bigger rectangular chimney liners so that they have more room to spill.

when i pulled out the lavender i was able to retrieve the rest of the pebble collection i had carefully filled the space with when the lavenders were small, so those are now filling in the curvy edge of the herb bed.

i collected some hollyhock seeds from the plants outside of theo & threw some in a pot and some in the ground, so we'll see if they do anything.

all in all a very satisfying day! today its raining so i am glad used the sunny saturday to play.

all the veggies are on their way out, and it's getting a little on the late side for winter crops, so they need to come out of the ground soon! maybe today if it stops raining.

it's time for broccoli raab & kale!

and then the rains came...

no indian summer for us here in the great pnw! we are launching straight into a long wet "wall" "finter"? what should we call it?

we had a freak gorgeous day yesterday and i spent the majority of it out in the garden cleaning up and moving some things around, mulching and pruning. i know it was a good day when i go to take a shower and a river of mud flows down toward the drain!

i think that the garden is liking the loooooooong wet drink of water. the ground is soaked & everything is GREEN.

i harvested all the tomatoes, some ripe, mostly green from the purple calabash and pulled it out. i harvested one last handfull of beans and pulled out all but 2 of the green beans. we are still rolling in the cucumbers! the zukes are still producing! i am fixing to start sowing some winter veggies: brocoli raab, kale, maybe radishes...

if there were 48 hours in the day i would like to make some pickled blueberries (i bought too many at the farmer's market last week, green tomato relish, and another batch of cucumber pickles!

pickles!

we have had a bumper crop of cucumbers! their plenty has well made up for their tardiness.

when we lived in philly and shopped at our local co-op they always carried kirby-style pickling cucumbers, and they became our regular cucumbers. i had never had these kind of cucumbers before . i was accustomed to the typical variety you find at the grocery store, which can be good, but this other kind of cucumber is delicious with the skin on, they can be sweet, the are crunchy, and they are wonderful! here in seattle these cucumbers are hard to find. so i was excited to grow our favorites so we could enjoy them again.

they were slow starters, but now they have completely taken over their little corner of the garden and are starting to take over the path. at first we were trying to keep up by eating them with lunch and dinner, but then i started stock piling so that i could make some actual pickles. we settled on a bread and butter pickle recipe and made a batch last weekend. we won't know how they turned out for 2 more weeks. i am EXCITED!


tomato update: there are many tomatoes on the vine still. so far we have gotten two truly red edible tomatoes. there are maybe a dozen or so that are ripening now and then there are MANY green ones. i pruned like crazy the other day in the hopes that the ones that are red will actually ripen, and i pruned a bunch of green tomatoes that will become green tomato relish this weekend!

i have even harvested a few fish peppers and there are a few more on the vine! i haven't tried them yet, i am thinking of

the beans are pretty much all done, the zucchinis are slowing down (i am going to make some zucchini refrigerator pickles this weekend too!), and the chard is hanging in there. the new batch of lettuce is doing well, we have had a couple salads from it already. it's almost time to plant some fall crops: brocoli raab, kale, another batch of chard perhaps, and some arugula again!

today is the first day in a long time that i have had any time to send in the garden. there's not much going on out there other than maintenance right now. pruning and cleaning up, putting a few things in the ground, weeding, etc... SO i'm going to get out there!!!

late august

the sun has been shining, but our tomatoes are STILL green. :(

the cucumber plant is taking over the world!

the fish pepper plant has been flowering! really sweet little white flowers. no fruit yet, but... :)

the bee balm plant is budding, and one of the 1,000,000 sunflower seeds i planted looks like it might actually flower

the garden in august

we tried a cucumber yesterday, it was about the size of my thumb, and it was pretty good. i am excited for the cucumber harvest. i might have to try making some pickles.

our 2 zucchini plants have been keeping us in the zucchini. we don't have a surplus yet, is it possible that 2 plants produces the perfect amount for us?

same story with the beans, in fact i wish we had a surplus of those. i was looking forward to making some pickled beans! there's still time i guess.

the tomatoes are getting bigger, no sign of ripening yet, we are supposed to get about a solid week of some hot sunny weather so my fingers are crossed!

everything else is humming right along, growing and leafing and blooming! i'm not sure what happened but i have sort of slacked off on fussing out there. i guess between hurting my back & trying to take it easy, and then the busyness of getting back to work.

i am eager to put some things that are in pots into the ground, and to move a few things around, but i am trying to be patient and wait until the weather is reliably cooler so that i don't stress anyone out.

i know! no pictures! booooooring! i'm off the coast for the weekend, i can't wait to see what everything looks like when we get back after 2 beautiful sunny days!!!

ah, summer!

i wish! this summer is the suck! i want to go to where it is sunny... east of the mountans... santorini. i had seriously forgotten how bad it could be here. last summer was so freaking awesome!

anyway. so far we are keeping up the the beans, chard & zucchini's. i just bought a planter for the deck and put in a whole new crop of lettuce!!!! i am very excited about that! they are sprouting already too! (!!!!)

i am already starting to think about next year and what we can do better (figuring out an easier/better way to water for instance, and ordering up MORE SUN!).

in other news: we are going to the ocean next weekend, and we will be staying in the rain forest.

eating the bounty

we harvested zucchinis & grilled them. they were delicious. i tried making fried squash blossoms, they were yummy but we don't have the right pan for the frying, they stuck like crazy.


we have had a couple bean harvests and they are awesome!!!


the lettuce is starting to get bitter, but it's still delicious and i just planted a new crop so that we will continue to have fresh yummy lettuce! we are harvesting them by the head now and just eating them up (as well as sending heads home with anyone who stops by!).

the cucumbers are itty bitty cornichon size, there are lots of flowers, and the vines are starting to sprawl.

the chard is still humming along. i had to pull one of the plants because it bolted & it was taking up too much space, but there are still like 6 more of them

i put in a new batch of radishes, but they are getting crowded and shaded by the zucchini, i'm not sure if they will grow or not. the zucchini plants are HUGE, the leaves are ENORMOUS!

the potatoes still haven't bloomed. i don't even see any blossoms. the potatoes were/are definitely an experiment.

the artichoke is growing!

our cherry tomoato plant is starting to ripen!!!

the good, the bad and the ugly

first let's talk about something good: tomatoes!!

SO we have never done this vegetable gardening thing before. this means that we are doing a lot of learning as we go. one thing i have learned is that since the goal of vegetable gardening is to eat what you grow, there are a lot of hopes and dreams that go with every seed you put in the ground. it is a little bit of magic to raise up food from tiny little seedlings!

here in the beautiful pacific northwest, we really don't get enough heat and sun to grow hot weather veggies such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and the like, especially not from seed. knowing that, we still really wanted to try tomatoes, since they are such the quintessential summer food. i bought 2 starts at a local edible plant sale in the spring. they start them from seeds in the greenhouse so they get a decent head start in life. i bought a moskovich and a purple calabash.

i have many books about gardening. many of them say the same thing, and some of them say slightly different things, and some of them say things the others don't say. this can be confusing and overwhelming or the first time gardener. you can always ask fellow gardeners or the interweb questions, but you will pretty much get the same result. LOTS of different answers. sometimes you just have to use your best judgment and hope for the best.

so i put my two tomato starts right into the ground immediately. i was super excited! and then it rained. a lot. for a long time. in retrospect it might have been better hold off putting them in the ground until it was more reliably dry and sunny. i think the roots ended up growing too close to the surface because it was so wet for so long. but then i recently read that i was supposed to dig them in a little extra deeper because they do grow extra roots near the surface (good to know!).

so fast forwarding a little.... we put tomato cages around them and waited and waited and waited. they grew and grew and grew. i did things like pinch off the suckers, and pet their leaves to help them grow hearty. then as soon as the sun started really shining, they went crazy! they got huge, and there were lots of flowers but zero fruit. we were well into july at this point, and it just wasn't looking good. i was starting to lose hope that we would ever see any tomatoes.

then we had the tomato emergency! it was at that point that i realized that i could and should prune the plants back quite a bit so that they could focus their energy on making fruit, and i did that. a few days later, even though they were in tomato cages (which is all i thought you really needed to do for a tomato) i noticed how seriously droopy they were. it finally occurred to us (we remembered that we had read) that they needed to have all their individual stalks staked so they could stand UP. they recommended that you use a ripped up t-shirt for this because it would be soft, so i found an old t-shirt to donate to the cause and jak and i staked it all up good! in the process of all this staking i discovered that there were lots of other little tomatoes hidden amongst the leaves that we hadn't seen, and since then i have seen literally dozens more appear!! now i just hope they actually ripen. if not... fried green tomatoes i guess!!

while i was ripping up t-shirt strips to tie up their stalks i was excited and i felt bad that we hadn't realized they needed this. i felt bad that i had sort of given up on them. the bottom hem strip of the t-shirt came off in one big loop and i threw it around my neck while i was wrestling with the 2 plants. afterward, feeling happy & hopeful, full of renewed summer tomato dreams i realized i was still wearing the t-shirt strip like a necklace. i decided that in solidarity with my tomatoes i would keep wearing it until we harvest our first tomato!

it's also worth mentioning that the plants had/have been wilting like crazy and so we have been watering the hell out of them almost every day. i don't know if this is because the roots are too close to the surface, or because we let them get too big & didn't prune them back or what, but they are thirsty. also all the books recommend that they get fertilized. we gave them our regular organic fertilizer mix that we use, but we didn't give them any tomato specific fertilizer. i don't know if that would have made any difference or not.

the bad and the ugly: aphids

i am not a friend of the aphid. aphids are TOTAL pooheads, and so are their busybody friends the ants. i was living in uneasy peace with them for awhile. i was diligently going over my artichoke, zucchinis and the green bean plants with an eagle eye and spraying off the aphids one by one, several times a day! i let them inhabit and almost kill my nasturtiums, they did a number on the borage too. since both of those plants are annuals, i was willing to let nature take it's course. but when i saw that they were going after my jasmine i declared war!!!

i broke down and bought some "organic" insecticidal soap and sprayed the jasmine down. i also sprayed some of the other flowers in the front yard that were showing signs of aphid infestation. i bought a big container of ladybugs just for the raised veggie beds and had a blast watching them make a ladybug city out of the garden (aphids are a favorite food of the ladybug!).

i was feeling really irrational about the whole thing. i wanted to obliterate every aphid in my garden (safely and organically of course!) and then i did some more reading and research. i guess that aphids and ants and the like are just a part of the garden, and i am just going to have to learn to live with them. i just need to ramp up my efforts to attract beneficial insects so that they can keep the aphid population in check.

OMG

we finally have tomatoes! several!!!! they are about the size of my pinky, but !!!!!!!!!!!

also the zukes are TOTALLY zukeing out, we will finally get to find out what all this squash blossom nonsense is all about. we are planning our first zucchini harvest for tuesday night, stay tuned!!

also, we saw our first cucumber blossom today, and the pepper is budded up!

the beans are starting to produce. we picked a handful the other day, and i think we will have enough for a side dish pretty soon!

i. do. not. want. to. talk. about. the. a-p-h-i-d-s right. now. i just can't.

p.s. i am not ready to go back to work tomorrow. i'd like another week in my garden please? thank you.

broke down

OK, enough with the updating. i'm sure i left a few things out, like the xeriscape flower seeds and the this and the that, but WHATEVER!

moving on... or the lack of moving... because on monday i lost my mind and tried to dig out a 30'-ish x 3'-ish bed all by myself with a shovel. and then spent the next 2 days flat on my back. oops.

lesson learned: if you back is telling you to stop. listen!

so that has been very frustrating. i had any many MANY plans and schemes for my 2 week staycation and i just lost pretty much 4 days of it. i feel better today, but i still need to take it easy.

i did this over the weekend:

i dug out this little 5'-ish bed, mixed in topsoil. made a little fence from our old cherry tree twigs and mulched. pretty sweet ya?

i am really happy with the way the fence turned out. i want to fill this bed with plants eventually!

this is what i was trying to dig out on monday. grrr.... i have no one to blame but myself. mad. mad. mad!

garden update - the deck

the deck

this is crazy, things are changing so quickly that by the time i am done with all this updating i am going to have to start all over again!

baby tears - this is in a long skinny metal planter that jak made for me out of some computer/electro-gear. it is spreading like crazy. i LOVE it. i am going to definitely start harvesting it next year if it makes it through the winter. i love the way it has weaved in and out of all the bottles and things that are in the planter.

purpley red stuff - i don't even know what this stuff is called. it's next to the baby tears & it did survive the winter last year and it has been spreading slowly. i am going to give it another year before i find it a home in the ground. it's really pretty & kind of like a mini fern.


mint & oregano - this planter was full of mint when we bought the house. last summer we tore half of it out and planted some oregano. so now it is a battle royale: mint vs. oregano! who will be victorious?! so far they are both holding their ground. this is also the wine cork planter. all the corks from all the bottles of wine we have consumed (not just the 2 of us, we DO have parties!) go here.

heuchera coral bells - i love these plants, i want MORE of them. it's in a pot for now, but it is going to go into the ground for sure. i really want a key lime one too!

mexican feather grass - i bought this last year and it was big and fluffy and awesome. "they" said to cut it down to the ground & it would we grow as full or fuller than before, but this has not been the case, it's been kind of lame. :(

brass buttons & sweet allysum - the brass buttons are doing well & spreading. there are like a fuzzier heartier purpley red thing. they can be a ground cover and if they survive the winter that is exactly where they will be going! the sweet allysum has been a little neglected, i should have been deadheading it to keep it blooming. i think it's an annual, so it won't last. i bought it because the flowers are edible and i thought they would be really pretty on some ice cream or a dessert for a party, which we never had, because summer has been so lame this year.

in the midst of writing all these updates, i relocated a bunch of pots that were on the deck, because i want to put them in the ground, so i moved these plants into the ground in the front yard: rosemary, heather, sage, october daphne, 2 sedums, the crazy brain one and another pretty one who's name i don't know.

garden update - the back

the back


irish moss - i started this last year in a container. it did pretty well & survived the winter outside so i put it in the ground & it has taken off!

lavender(s) - the first summer we lived here, i tore out some bushes next to the basement door and planted 3 lavender plants. they have taken over! i love lavender, but i think in the fall i might dig one or 2 of them out and move them so they can have as much space as they need.

sunflowers - late in the season (a few weeks ago) i planted a whole package of italian white sunflower (creamy white petals & inky brown centers!) seeds here there & everywhere. i don't know if they will get enough time to bloom, but there are about 15 or so that are going for it!

bee's friend - also late in the season i planted a package of these & there were a few sprouts, but they didn't make it. :(

peony - when i dug up those bushes & planted the lavender i found a peony bulb. this you it made 2 flowers!!! it has cool leaves, dies back to the ground in the winter & comes back in the spring. i kind of want another one!

tomato EMERGENCY!

when i went outside to check on everyone this morning i discovered that one of our tomato plants is SO big that it toppled over the cage! yikes!!! emergency! EMERGENCY!!!

we righted it and staked it with a bamboo pole. during the rescue operation i discovered that deep within the many bajillion vines there is a FREAKING TOMATO IN THERE!!! about the size of a baby's fist. wahoo! GO TOMATO! ...and while your're at it, don't fall over again!

garden update - the edibles & then some

the herb garden



thyme(s) - lemon, silver and 2 "regular". we like thyme!

lemon verbena - this reminds me of the anniversary we celebrated at the herb farm, which was also the first night we spent in this house. the smell is incredible! like a warm summer night in a lemon grove, or like what you might imagine swimming in a warm pool of freshly squeezed lemon juice would smell like.

sage - my mom gave us this one. it's big & getting bigger. it smells like new mexico!

rosemary - we bought this last year & put it in the ground this year.

tarragon - we seem to have trouble growing good tarragon.

parsley (curly & italian) - a bunch of plants from over the past 2 years. we are trying to figure out how to get a consistent supply.

chives - i need to remember this stuff next time we make potato salad!


feverfew - not an herb. this has been blooming it's socks off for months & shows no sign of stopping!

curry plant - also not an herb, it just smells like curry, i couldn't resist it!

the kitchen garden


radish - we have finally gotten into the swing of succession planting. we have a batch that is almost ready to harvest and a batch that will be ready in a few weeks. we eat a lot of radishes around here!

beets - i got these chiogga beet seeds from a seed swap, so i am trying 'em out!

arugula - the arugula was amazing in salads for weeks & then it bolted the weekend we went camping. i discovered that the flowers are edible. they were beautiful & yummy little bursts of arugula essence in salads. when we pulled it all out we harvested it one last time and made white arugula pizzas with homemade dough. i can't wait to plant it again in the fall!

tomatoes - one sungold cherry plant and 2 big tomato plants. the cherry tomato has fruit (yay!), the big ones have lots of flowers & no fruit (boo!)

the zucchini's 2 weeks ago

the zucchini's now

zucchini - the zucchini plants have grown exponentially over the last 2 weeks. i see lots of blossoms.

beans - we have several bush bean plants & one vine. tons of flowers right now. i can't wait for beans!!

lettuce - the lettuces have been AMAZING! flashy trouts back is like a tender romaine, divina is like a butter lettuce & the sorrel (another herb farm discovery) is lemon zesty. we have been eating huge salads almost every day & we can barely keep up.

chard - bright lights rainbow chard! we have harvested several times & it is delicious.

cucumbers - these seem to be growing kind of slow... :(


yukon gold potatoes - i am excited to see if this growing potatoes in a pot thing works out!

artichoke - i am SO excited about my artichoke. there are 2 so far!!!!!

fish pepper - i just moved this guy out of the ground and into the raised bed in between our cucumbers. it doesn't seem to be doing so well. i don't think it has been hot enough, but we'll see!



RIP jalapeno - i don't know if it was a bird or a squirrel, but someone turned the lights out on our jalapeno. so sad.

GAH!

SO frustrating: i wrote 3/4 of the next post and the interwebs ate it!
grrrrrrrrrr.

it's hard to write about the garden while what i really want to be doing is BE out there in it. so i will re-write the post tonight.

garden update - the north side

the north side is supposed to be the shady side,but it actually gets a fair amount of sun.

along the side of the house:

bleeding heart - doing well, this is right outside the guest bedroom window/my sewing room. i am hoping that over time it will fill the window.

himilayan blue popy - my mom gave me this, it bloomed and now it's done. it was REAL pretty!

violet - also from my mom, this is sometimes considered a weed, & can be invasive so i have contained it in a pot for now. it likes the shade and has pretty purple flowers. it might be nice to just let it go...

wood sorrel - i LOVE this plant, it looks alot like clover and it has pretty white flowers, it's a nw native plant & i am hoping that it spreads.

insideout plant - this is anothe native that has really cool leaves and funny inside out white flowers, it seems to be doing well, it bloomed and it has been making new leaves.

english primrose - i fell in love with these DARK purple (practically black) & bright yellow flowers, it has been flowering consistently for months now, i hope it prospers!

in the semi-rounds across from the deck:

foxgloves - i planted 2, one on either end, one is apricot & one is "pam's choice": white flowers with heavily speckled, maroon-purple throats. neither has bloomed & i'm not sure that they will this year.

piggyback plant - this is a funny little leafy green plant that has little piggy back leaves on its bigger leaves.



icelandic poppy - fun! pretty! they bloomed & now they're done, i hope they bloom again next year. (my camera freaks out whenever i try to shoot RED reds, i'm sure there's probably some setting or adjustment i can make to remedy this, but sometimes it winds up looking kind of cool!)

buplurum - these were from the original seeds i planted in all of these rounds, and either nothing came up, it got eaten by bugs, or it got alienated by weeds & i didn't know what was weed & what was flowers because everything was comingup at once. SO anyway 2 of these survived all the drama & they are AWESOME!

next to the deck

wandering jew(s) - i have 2. one is a funny fuzzy one that likes the shade & can live outside, i planted them in some containers that they can spill (wander) out of. the other my mom gave me a few days ago & i just put it in the ground.

sweet woodruff - i planted 2 of these. they have cool leaves & pretty white flowers. something has been eating holes in the leaves, but it doesn't seem to be bothering it...

yellowgreen stuff - i lost the identifier for this one. i don't remember if it's a sedum or some kind of a creeping jenny, but its a yellow green color & it's cool as hell and it seems to to be happy.

japanese skimmia - the first summer we lived here i pulled these 2 bushes out of the spot by my studio door (so i could plant some lavender) and we threw them in the ground by the deck, they have recovered & prospered in their new location.

whisteria - when we moved in there were 2 of these, massive & ill cared for, we decided to kill one and keep one (jak wanted to kill them both). the one we kept grows like crazy every year, but we just hadn't figured out what we to train it onto yet, so we just keep cutting it back. we have finally decided what direction we want it to go and it's going there, we will see what happens!

stay tuned for: what you really want to know about (right?!) the kitchen garden... up next!

garden update - the front part 3

i wish i could bring you this photo in smell-o-vision!

i forgot about the jasmine!! OMG the jasmine!!! it smells like SAVANNAH!

my mom gave this to us last year and it is doing very well. i came this close to buying another one the other day!

it just started blooming, and every time i smell it i have flashbacks of spanish moss and humid southern nights.