A Super Lazy Sunday

I did cut down some of the weed trees on the patio. Then I went to check out a possible new dog, a German Shepard mix about 8-9 months old. He is doing well with the lady’s other dogs, rabbits and chicken and seems calm and friendly.  He did jump over a low spot in her fence so I need to beef up a couple of spots on mine before bringing him home. I didn’t think to get a picture. 

I did some errands and picked up a load of spoiled hay for the compost pile. 

That is a San Marzano tomato growing in a pot. 

That tomato plant is totally astounding. It is loaded with fruit. It has grown over the pepper and an empty pot next to it. 

That’s the base of the plant. I think that’s just about an 18” pot.  I’m wondering how many pounds of fruit it will give and if any will ripen on the plant before frost. 

One Heat Master was ripe so I also picked a sprig of basil to go with it.  I did regular chores and watched a video. I spread some of that hay in different chicken pens and basically goofed off part of the day. 

Farmer Friday

almost 2 pounds of basil

pesto!

Farmer Friday! A little late getting this done, I've had a ton of stuff to do this week and today. The other day I picked a bunch of basil and made pesto.

cherry tomatoes

More cherry tomatoes, still a lot of splits and rots from the rain. Not as many as before, and some of the plants seem to have a blight or something. I'll be cutting them out this week as soon as I have time.

trying to get in the garden gate!

Wild asters, lambsquarters, volunteer tomatoes and a giant squash vine are clogging up the access to the new garden, but I did manage to get in to pick beans.

picking beans

part of the bean harvest

I was worried that I wouldn't have enough beans to fill my pre-paid orders, but there were plenty, almost 10 pounds!

squash, lots of gold patty pan

More squash of course. this week there were a lot of gold patty pans, with a few of each of the other kinds.

Armenian and Market Moore cucumbers

A good amount of both kinds of cucumbers. I also picked some greens, kale, chard and collards, but I figure you've already seen them. I didn't have time today to pick herbs and flowers, so I'll do that in the morning before I go to market.

Wednesday Wanderings.... a Little of This and That

little goose

Well little goose went to it's home on Tues. It will grow up with another goose, some ducks and a chicken. I was worried the adult goose would be an issue adding the baby to the flock, but it was the chicken that tried to jump him. Hopefully everyone will settle in and be fine.

over a pound of basil

I picked over a pound of basil from the driveway bed.

yummy pesto

I made some yummy pesto. I put some in the freezer and kept a jar out to use right away.

time to clean up the fence line

mostly done

The rains have kicked plant growth into high gear, so I spent some time cleaning up under the electric fence line.

a rainbow early Monday morning

a pretty daylilly

I have started a youtube channel and have been making a virtual garden tour for you. I'm up to part 3 but it will take several more parts to cover everything.

Farmer Friday

cleaning up

I cleaned up this bed in the creek side garden this week. I've been holding off planting a lot of stuff, waiting for rain. We got a good rain Monday night so time to get in gear. 

red wigglers

I was really happy to see s lot of earthworms in there. Worms are one of the biggest fertility boosters you have. 

planting seeds

 Later I planted a row of rainbow carrots, a row of turnips and half a row of red and green Mizuna mustard. I couldn't find the rest of my mustard seed so I planted the other half of the row to dill.  I sprinkled some radish seed in with the carrots. 

Scarlet kale

I planted out some Scarlet kale seedlings

Collards

And a few more collards. The ones that I planted before that got a little crispy are looking better. 

driveway bed with lime basil

The lime basil by the driveway has really taken off. I cut them all down to dry. 

bush beans under bird net

The green and yellow beans are doing well.  There weren't even a handful of pods to pick today but they are loaded with flowers and tiny beans. 

Scarlet kale

I picked lots of kale. Cherry tomatoes are way down this week. The plants are loaded with green fruit but there were a lot of splits in the ripe ones. 

erosion control

The storm Monday did some damage to the swale above the new garden so I worked in that a little bit. 

assorted summer squashes

The squash harvest was also down this week. But they are putting out new growth and I see a lot of tiny fruits coming on for next week. 

Market More cucumber

FINALLY!!! A little cucumber!

a bowl of herbs

Lots of herb orders this week. Thai and Italian basil, curly parsley, oregano and sage. 

new potatoes with herbs for roasting

I had some new potatoes set aside for us (sold all the rest already) and roasted them with fresh chopped parsley, sage, basil and oregano. So yummy!

April in the Garden

First iris to bloom in the yard

I love this time of year, when some of my favorite flowers are blooming, iris, lilacs, roses, apple trees... It seems the garden is bursting at the seams these days!

I have so many old bearded iris in the yard, these plain white ones and some plain dark purples are the early bloomers; later there will be a tall yellow and a two toned purple and lavender.

lilacs in bloom

I love my lilac bush, it smells heavenly. The scent of iris and lilacs reminds me of when I was a kid and mom would put vases of them around the house.

apple blossoms

While that late snow browned the edges of some of the petals, the apple blossoms seem to be ok.

the terrace garden

On the hillside terrace garden the poppies, cilantro and wild flowers are getting a good start.

patio garden, west side of house

The patio still needs some cleaning up.

Princepe Borghese

But the Princepe Borhese tomatos are blooming.

Sweet Magnolia, a purple snow pea

Between the crazy weather and some rabbits, there are only a couple of Sweet Magnolia plants left, but they are making peas.

Sweet Magnolia pea blossom

And their flowers are pretty too!

Bleushokker pea blossom

There are only a couple of Bleushokker peas left too. They were in the coldest spot in the back garden and the Dec. snows did most of them in. They do have pretty flowers and they are the yummiest soup pea ever!

weedy spot in the back garden

I tried to get this silly picture to be vertical, but Blogger doesn't want to do it so it's sideways. This is a corner of the back garden, on the east end. This is a narrow trellis bed where I had planted Sugar Snap peas. there were only a couple of plants left in there and they were pretty sad looking with the crazy weather we've had this year, so I pulled them out along with all the weeds and fed them to the chickens.

Most of the weeds are gone.

Most of the weeds are gone now. I will probably plant either beans or cukes here, haven't made up my mind which one. On the right of this picture you can see the Mammoth Melting Sugar peas, which just started producing. More about those on Harvest Monday!

brassicas

This is one of the two brassica beds. on the right side is the purple sprouting broccoli, in the center are the Romanesco and on the left are either De Ciccio or Waltham, the tags got lost so I'm not sure which. I weeded out all the hen bit and discovered the bed was pretty dry; perhaps that's why they haven't done as well as they should have. Either that or I'll blame it on poor soil, late planting and crazy weather! Behind this bed is the one with the Mammoth Melting Sugar peas and behind that, the trellis bed that I weeded out.

Red Pontiac potaoes

The Red Pontiac potatoes that I planted in January are sprouting up and looking good. Some of them were just breaking ground when the snow came a couple of weeks ago; I just piled a little dirt over their tops and they didn't get frost bite.

Cecile Brunner Rose

The Cecile Brunner climbing rose that I planted a few years ago has grown quite large. I spotted the first blossom this after, after catching a whiff of it as I walked by. While the blossoms are very small, they are very fragrant. I hate that modern roses have so little scent and refuse to buy them. I want roses to smell, what use is pretty if there is no fragrance?

bolting celery

In the greenhouse the celery is bolting. The cilantro is already there. I let it bloom all over because it's small fine flowers are good for the beneficial insects.

Cilantro/coriander blooming

snapdragon

The snapdragons are blooming in their wall pots. The ones I planted around the yard are a bit behind since the air and soil outside are cooler.

tomato plants on the shelves, peas in the background

The greenhouse shelves are loaded with plants; more small fruited tomatoes, Snow White, Currant, Princepe Borghese.

baby tomato plants

The large fruited tomatoes were started later and so are smaller; Amish Paste, Italian Heirloom, Black from Tula.

basil seedlings

Lots of Classic Italian and Lime Basil seedlings.

green strawberry

There are some green strawberries in the greenhouse bed.

old seeds sprout!

The greatest thing though, is those Hale's Best Jumbo cantaloupe seeds that I saved in 2003 had almost 100% germination in the greenhouse under their cute little Victorian cloche!

Chickens!

And here are all the chickens, my four hens and my young Buff Orpington rooster, standing tall in the center. He isn't crowing yet but I have seen him getting after the hens, so I think I'll set aside some money next month for an incubator. I'd like to hatch small lots of chicks at a time for meat.


These chickens are not as tame as my previous ones. My other chickens I raised from chicks when my grand daughters were with me all the time and the girls were always petting and playing with them so they were very tame. These were in a large pen with about 50 others and while not exactly wild they don't come sit in your lap either! In fact they are just now getting the idea that when I come up to the fence and call them they should come because it means I have a treat, either scraps, weeds or worms.