Tag Archives: gardening

The saddest day of the year

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I love the fall. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful of all the seasons.

But I hate taking down the garden. still, it has to be done. We are beginning to see frost at night. The cucumber plants all died and the tomatoes are starting to exhibit dead leaves, curled in the characteristic ‘I am too cold” manner.

So I picked all the green tomatoes and brought them into the house to ripen. All the pepper plants and beans are gone. I left one tomato plant that is gamely trying to survive and flower, the broccoli – I think we might have a late harvest -, the turnips and the swiss chard. Even they will have to be cut down in a few weeks. The compost will be spread on the ground and the whole thing covered with black plastic for the winter.

empty garden

everything but broccoli and swiss chard are gone.

A word about the beans. I love green beans and always plant a lot of them. Beans are the plant that keep on giving. This year, somehow, I ended up with pole beans and they really keep giving. I cannot even guess how many pounds I froze. Anyway, I have always planted the bush variety. And after seeing the stalks on the pole beans I have a whole new feeling about Jack and the Beanstalk. The little tendrils that clung to the fence, the strings, the poles, thickened into strong green vines. I had to cut them off the supports. I now believe that if a bean plant grew that tall, the stalks would indeed support a giant.

beanstalk

Groundhog Chapter 3

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Another groundhog moved into the yard, driving the dog crazy. This time the groundhog must have been a real risk taker. He came out in the middle of the day when Shelby was running around the yard. I suppose no on is surprised to hear Shelby killed this ground hog too.

I think what astonishes me most is how Shelby can be so gentle with the babies and so ferocious with an animal.

mason and shelby

 

 

 

 

 

Shelby not only allows the children to lie on her, play with her collar and take food from her, she allows them to put their hands in her mouth. But put a groundhog in the yard and she is a different dog.

mason and shelby two

 

 

 

 

 

The dual nature of dogs, fascinating.

 

Of corn and raccoons

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Since there is nothing as delicious as fresh veggies, especially corn, I have tried to plant the latter over and over. What happens? The raccoons beat a path to the garden, scaling the fence and trampling everything in their path to get to the tasty morsels.

This year I thought I’d outsmart them. Burpee developed a special desk variety.The stalks grew tall and lush.

stalks

 

 

 

 

 

Ears were clearly growing on the stalks. So I picked some.

corn

 

 

 

 

 

this is three ears.

Laughter may commence.

Summer bounty

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I love the fresh veggies from my garden but, at this time of the year, I begin to feel overwhelmed. Everything is bearing and I am awash in produce from cucumbers to turnips to tomatoes.

tomatoes

 

I am busy freezing green beans and zucchini and making tomato sauce. This year I am trying something different: sundried tomatoes. I borrowed a dehydrator from a friend and dried about 8 pounds of tomatoes. I am storing them in olive oil. I now understand why the sundried tomatoes I buy in the store are so expensive. It take a lot of tomatoes to fill a jar.

dried tomatoes

Exploding garden

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I can barely keep up with the garden produce. The zucchini has taken over, the basil is huge. Even I may get tired of pesto.

 

basil

 

 

And the beans!

beans

 

beans two

Do you see the twine? These are supposed to be bush beans but some of the seeds didn’t get the message. They are twining up the cucumbers and squash and have taken down some of the poles. Hence, my little fix – twine tied to the fence. I will be freezing them this year.

A groundhog moved into the abandoned burrow and has eaten all my mums. But Shelby is on patrol and the hog hasn’t made it to the garden.

shelby on guard

 

 

My garden = rainforest

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It is amazing how well a garden grows without critters. Shelby is doing a good job of keeping everything at bay.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

 

Shelby in pursuit

 

 

My tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and beans are taking over.

rainforest

 

 

 

 

 

But this is what they look like harvested.

cukes and zucchini

 

 

 

 

 

And I am going to have tons of tomatoes. This is ONE plant.

tomatoes

 

Cucumbers and Las vegas

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cukes

Four of these beauties were waiting for me when I returned home from ALA. I mention that to show the difference in the climates. Las Vegas is in a desert and is unbelievably hot and dry.

I do not like Las vegas, and not just the climate. (as a gardener, the whole desert thing doesn’t work for me). But I also don’t drink, smoke or gamble. the casinos have no windows or clocks since they are trying to encourage people to gamble. Women in skimpy costumes walk around pushing cocktails. And the place smells of smoke. I admit, though, that I am a little more tolerant of the smoking. at least that doesn’t put someone’s family’s financial future in jeopardy.

More than anything, I got the feeling that I had stepped back in time, to the glory days of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.

vegetable garden

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Now that the ground hog is gone, my garden is doing well. Something, and I think it is a rabbit, is biting the tops off my peas. But all the other plants are lush.

First, a note about recycling. I recycle all my kitchen garbage. Not bones or anything like that but all the peelings, spoiled fruit, coffee grounds and tea leaves. I keep a bucket in the kitchen to put the stuff in.

bucket

When the bucket is full I take it outside to Big Bertha, my recycling barrel.

bertha

I used to have a barrel that looked like darth Vader’s helmet but I couldn’t turn it. This one turns. In the fall, I spread the compost on the garden, cover it with black plastic, and turn it in to the soil in the spring. I took clay soil and after five years of this turned it into great garden soil. Then we moved but that is another story.

Anyway, with what I have in the earth boxes on the garden I have ten tomato plants. Why so many? I can’t bear to kill any of them so I let them live. And I will have tomatoes coming out of my ears this year. All the plants already have tons of flowers.

tomato flowers

We have already eaten swiss chard.  the cucumbers and squash are covered with blossoms.

s. cukes and squash

Finally, I have several rows of green beans. I fill in empty rows with beans. They grow well, produce heavily and, like peas, put nitrogen into the soil.

beans

I also began a row of turnips. The beets are doing OK. My root crops don’t do as well as I’d like. But next year I plan to put in a row of kale and a row of spinach. I am pondering potatoes.

More about Shelby and the groundhog

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Since Shelby’s epic battle with the groundhog, she has been swaggering around the house as though she met and defeated a lion. She had done her job – and has none of the conflicted emotions I am experiencing. She spends as much time as she can outside on guard, either watching the groundhog holes or sitting on the deck keeping an eye on her territory.

I know we have at least one rabbit around. So far he has been both faster and smarter than Shelby. I hope he has the good sense to leave. I don’t think I could take another dead animal.

shelby on guard