gardenmama's Blog at GardenStew.com

Preparing for Hurricane Irene

gardenmama — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:23:57 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 8:23 am (GMT 0)

Hurricane Irene is barreling up the East Coast, she is HUGE! In order for me to handle the uncertainty of the impending storm I got busy on Thursday. I decided not to be one of those people who didn't take it seriously and one that got what she knew she would need for her family. I printed out my list and off to Walmart I went.

On thursday morning Walmart was already low on water, batteries and flashlights. I picked up a couple of new flashlights that took AA batteries and C. I couldn't find D batteries anywhere! ( and that has been the #1 post on my facebook page, no one could find them anywhere. I think it is because newwer flashlights are LED and take a smaller battery since they use less power) I picked up the basics, water, bread, snack foods, soups etc. I also picked up a propane lantern. They are expecting it could be 5 days with out power. So I think we are okay with food and water.

Once home I charged up out MP3 players, they all have radio capability. Each of us has one so we should be good there. I collected all the emergency supplies and put then in 2 places. Our sun porch has the paper good and camping cooking supplies. The dining room table is emergency supply central: flashlights, candles, matches MP 3 players and chocolate. YES chocolate. REALLY WE WILL NEED THIS! I also have lots of books, crayons, drawing materials and word puzzles. We will need to keep our brains busy.

The wine is gone. My husband and I needed to relax tonight...might need the harder stuff on Sunday.
[IMG]http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll230

On Friday and saturday we spend time loading up our garage with the large items that could blow around and do damage. We tipped over the swing set and laid down the tin men in the grass. We braced what ever couldn't fit in the garage against the fence around the yard. I have put our gas grill in the garage for cooking. The cars are packed out of the reach of any tree that might fall.

My husband is most worried about injuries and property damage. We have some trees that could do damage to the house and the inlaw unit. We plan to stay most of our time in the living room and dining room. That is the side of the house away from the trees. We will be camping out Sunday night in the living room in case trees come down.

The two bath tubs are filled with water, so is the washing machine. I have filled all large cooking pots with water as well as 7 pitchers and every water bottle, beach bucket I can find. We have a 55 gallon rain barrel filling up and a bucket ready to catch all over flow. We have several more buckets we fill as well.

Saturday afternoon I was thinking about what to make for dinner...then I remembered I had several beef tenderloin steaks in the freezer. Mother nature is not going to ruin these steaks...so we had homemade fries, grilled filet mignon, cucumber and tomato salad and fresh biscuits. It was perfect!

I was up at 2:30 this morning, the minute the rain started...I couldn't get back to sleep. So here I am blogging. It helps to get it all out. The worry for all my family and friends spread from NC to Maine. All we can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Everyone be safe, be smart and take care.

Finally a good picking!

gardenmama — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 15:57:38 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 7:57 pm (GMT 0)

The garden is finally producing. Today, in order to save the tomatoes from slugs and other insects I picked some green and slightly ripe tomatoes. I will ripen them up on the porch. The string beans are growing and I also picked basil and another HUGE eggplant.

My husband has been busy the past few weeks. He loves to work with wood and has been working on a 3D T-REX puzzle. He finished it today! He plans to make a Mammouth and Brontosaurus!

Well we finally got some rain.....

gardenmama — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:37:58 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:37 am (GMT 0)

But along with the 5 inches of rain this week we got lots and lots of SLUGS! And they are not lazy! They are climbing up tomato plants to get to the slowly ripening tomatoes, climbing up bee balm! I HATE slugs. I wonder where my lovely red bellied snake has gone? The garter snakes need to show themselves as well. They need to eat all these destructive, gross creatures!

They love to eat hosta! All 9 of my plants are being munched away!

This slug is over 3 inches long! We almost stepped on him!

Logan turned 8! Where did the time go?

gardenmama — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:01:55 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 2:01 pm (GMT 0)

My son Logan turned 8 on July 31st. On the 30th we had a large family party for him. A few of his school friends were able to come. The past 3 years he has wanted a party at the beach. But things have changed! Logan still loves the beach but over the past year he has slowly moved away from being a Thomas the Tank lover to being COMPLETELY obsessed with the Dukes of Hazzard and the General Lee. (mommy is not thrilled by this, I had to live through this when I was young and my brother was obsessed with that show and car!) So A Dukes of Hazzard party it would be. But of course there isn't party decorations so we had to do that ourselves...Confederate Flags were hung..orange and blue streamers...Instead of pin the tail on the donkey I made a game of Pin the 01 on the General Lee and my mother in law made a General Lee pinata...and then of course the CAKE! Those of you that have read my blog entries from the past know I LOVE TO COOK! And now I have a WORKING oven I am baking more than ever! So I decided if we were going to do this party we would do it right. I set out and MADE a cake that resembled the General Lee! Home made cake, carved like the car and decorated. It took over 4 hours but I pulled it off! If was so worth it to see how happy Logan was and how much everyone enjoyed the party!

We had a fabulous day! How times fly.

Snakes in the garden.

gardenmama — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 21:18:09 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 1:18 am (GMT 0)

Hello again. Two blogs in 1 night! So I mentioned snakes in the garden. At the beginning of June we were moving and emptying some tires that we were not using. My husband was doing the tipping of the tires. And we had garter snakes! There was small male garter snake in the first tire we tipped over. He was fast...I screamed and ran off. Then I decided that pictures were needed. I had Logan run in the house and get the camera.

No snakes in the second tire but when we got to the 3rd tire a huge, slow female garter popped out. She was brownish, had recently shed her ski and was very slow. Upton research it said females are sluggish so that they can use most of their energy to birth live young. They will on average give birth to 50 babies and as many as 98! Yep...that is a lot of LIVE young!

Then as we were tipping the 4th tire out came another fast male that slithered off.

And then a snake I had never seen before. At first glace it looked like a pile of red slugs..but then it moved slowly away. I researched it afterwards and it was called the Red Bellied snake. They are slug specialists. It was only about 12 inches long and very shy.

We have been keep tabs on the snakes this summer. The female seems to have moved to the neighbors yard and look up residence in an old motorcycle. One of the males is still living in the garden. He makes himself known from time to time. You can hear him slithering on the black plastic.

This was a unit for Logan for home school science. It is so easy to find science units to cover. Science is everywhere!

Hello everyone..I missed the Stew.

gardenmama — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 19:21:04 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 11:21 pm (GMT 0)

Hello all. It has been a while. I don't know why but a change was needed and I spent more time on facebook. I have planted a smaller garden then normal this year and my son is planting his own as well This past year was a very stressful year for our son, who just turned 8. A lot of bullying at school, a very stern teacher and other stressors that lead to severe migraines and other behavioral problems. In April we decided it was time to home school him. He is thrilled and so are we. He is such a loving and caring child who LOVES learning. But as we have found out...School and learning have very little in common.Since the end of school there have been NO MIGRAINE headaches and he hasn't been grinding his teeth. He is turning back into the happy loving child he used to be.

Our major science project is the garden. He has planted 8 tires with tomatoes, string beans, eggplant, zucchini, marigolds and cukes. The garden went in several weeks late due to flooding and horrible rains here in Vermont. WE got over 12 inches of rain in MAY! Logans garden tires are producing everything but cukes. They got a late start and it was very very hot too. We have have 4 zucchini of his plants and his tomatoes are doing well. AND there are 3 eggplants growing! He loves helping in the garden, though the smelly fish emulsion feeding he doesn't like much!

Another science project brought on by the garden was a unit on garter snakes. I HATE snakes and this year there were several snakes that were in the garden on a regular basis. So needless to say..I don't run away screaming like a little girl anymore...I know they eat the bugs and the spiders and slugs. So they are helping...they just stay out of my way and I don't reach into any of the tires!

My garden is going okay. Since planting late and the beans getting drowned and eaten by some bug..they are slow to come but they are starting to get flowers on them. So hopefully we will have string beans in the next few weeks. We have lots of tomatoes of all kinds...only the sungold cherries have started to ripen. Today I have all the tomato plants a good trimming and now we should start to see some ripen. No caterpillars we found! Since we started the recycle tire garden we have not got a single one of those tomato hook worms!

The blackberry bushes are loaded with large plump berries. We are having a bumper crop this year. I picked 2 gallons the other night and another gallon tonight!

The flower beds are doing very well. The glads have opened this week with the August heat and are gorgeous. The zinnias that Logan planted are so pretty as well. And this year the morning glories started all by themselves from the seeds of last year.

I will try to blog more. I am also blogging Logan's home schooling experiences as well.

Enjoy everyone and Happy gardening!

What a strange week of weather we have had....

gardenmama — Sun, 02 May 2010 12:08:17 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 4:08 pm (GMT 0)

We have seen all sorts of weather this week in Vermont from HUGE winter storm that dumped up to 2 feet of snow in Northern Vermont, to pouring rain, wind and summer like days.

This picture is of the first daffodil of the season.
I took it last Saturday afternoon, the 24th of April.

The spring garden...daffodils and tulips waiting to open. Taken Saturday April 24th.

We had a gorgeous weekend, the 24th and 25th. Summer like weather, sunny skies and a nice breezes....then Tuesday night the 27th it started....THE SNOW....it started snowing in the afternoon and snowed all night and all day Wednesday....

Tues Night the 27th

Wednesday Morning April 28th

Before the snow turned to rain in the late afternoon on Wednesday we had over 10 inches of heavy wet snow. TOOOOOO went for snow balls and snowmen. I took the following pictures of my poor tulips in the afternoon when it was still snowing.

This picture is being published in several newspapers this week.

All the snow we had was gone by Thursday afternoon. It rained all night on Wednesday and the sun came out on Thursday. AND by Friday it was near 70. This weekend we are back to hot and humid summer like temps. It is near 80 today. The sun is out and feel like any lovely summer day.

I have been in the recycled tire garden this morning. i pulled all the weeds from under and in the tires....went to our local garden center and bought all the new peat, compost and other dirts and plan to spend the afternoon replenishing the tires. It still is too early to put anything in the ground, except for the peas which I planted over 3 weeks ago and are doing well.

So heading out soon to get down and dirty in the garden.

I hope everyone is well out there is stewie land.

Spring weather was here...and winter is returning!

gardenmama — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:54:15 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:54 pm (GMT 0)

Last week was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny skies and temp's kissing 70! Yes I knew it was a bit early but all the snow melted, crocus were coming up and the ground was dry. Out came the flip flops and capris. It was so nice for a week. Then it happened. Cold weather started coming back. It snowed last night and stayed in some areas. And by friday the high will be 27 F! and Friday night kissing 0! I want summer so badly!!! well at this point I would settle for spring like 50's and 60's again!

Winter came..better late than never....I guess

gardenmama — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:54:57 -0500

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:54 pm (GMT 0)

Well we have managed to not get a single flake of some of the largest snow storms to hit the North East this winter...UNTIL NOW! I woke to up 8 inches of heavy packed snow and it came down all day long. We got over 16 inches of snow with more expected over the next few days, mixed with rain and wind. Here are a few pictures from the day.

(logan helping clear the driveway)

(logan loves to help)

(the mail boxes are there somewhere)

(over a foot of snow on the car)

(logan sitting on top of a snow bank)

Day Four of planting and seedings are starting to emerge.

gardenmama — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:56:01 -0500

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:56 pm (GMT 0)

Good day all. I have been anxiously awaiting this day. Something is growing! I have 3 seedlings that have emerged from the peat pellet. It just makes me day a bit brighter and this part of winter less hard to deal with.

(day 4 at 4:30 pm 3 seedlings have emerged!!!)

This winter has been harder on me for some reason. Maybe the lack of snow has something to do with it. The snow we have now is hard as ice from rain we got a few weeks ago. Too dangerous to sled on, can't make anything with it and it is now all dingy and dirty.

When the seedling emerge it reminds me that it is almost over..winter will soon be leaving us and Spring coming back. I can't wait until day light savings time starts in a few weeks. Light longer at night is sooo needed. Once that happens we can go out for walks after dinner and when the yard melts we can play ball after dinner again. I am so looking forward to that again.

This year we are all getting bikes and will be biking on the snowmobile trails on our road. That will be great.

Hope everyone is well out there is stew land.

I am back!!!! Bring on the planting season!

gardenmama — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:53:31 -0500

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:53 pm (GMT 0)

Hello all Stewies! I am back! It is time to start the spring planting. Today is the day, yes Valentines Day to start my seeds. I am starting 3 trays of tomato seeds today. I am still looking for a few varieties that I love but haven't seen any seeds for them yet. I will find them!

I have been fairly busy since the end of the garden. In November I started selling Lia Sophia jewelry. I go to peoples homes and give AWESOME parties. If I am lucky I will build up my business this spring and summer and won't have to drive school bus anymore. So here is to hoping. If I don't have to drive bus anymore that means being able to spend more time my gardens! YEAH!

My mother in law and father in law arrived her eon December 5th and are permanent residents of the states now. They come from England. Been busy getting them all settled. My mother in law is taking her driving road test in a few weeks and then will be out to look for work.

Logan is in 1st grade and is doing very very well. He loves school.

This is one of many blogs to come. So much to document now that I am start my plants. Yeah! MANY MANY pictures to come as well!

I hope everyone out in STEWLAND is well!

Let spring come on in!

YEAH!!!

The garden is nearly past...

gardenmama — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:14:30 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 3:14 pm (GMT 0)

This summer has been a big let down. The weather never fully cooperated for me then a day or two at a time. too much rain and not enough dry days. I can't fully complain I didn't get early blight like a lot of people in the area but my plants were not the best looking. For the past 3 weeks I have been picking a lot of tomatoes and cooking them down with peppers from the garden. I have made several wonderful batches of tomato base which makes a great sauce with the addition of tomato paste or add some fresh veggies and it is a great soup..

I spent most of Monday morning, (us labor day) pulling out the 30 spent tomato plants, all the cukes, string beans and some other things. All that is left is zucchini, eggplant and some hot peppers and a handful of tomato plants.

The nights were too cold for a lot of the tomato plants and the cukes so that is why I pulled all the cukes. I have a few trays of tomatoes ripening in the sun porch and I have a huge bag of green tomatoes that a friend is making into relish.

The sunflowers are still gorgeous and blooming with plenty more coming along.

My honey made a nice table to have by the fire pit. When we bought the house 4 years ago we found a nice piece of pink marble or granite (don't know which) in the garage. The long time owner had worked at one of the Quarries in the Barre VT area and brought lots of mistakes etc home. This one happened to be a large grave marker...Sooo the slab has been sitting around and finally Michael made a table out of it.

On Saturday my dear friend Tami got married and my honey and son went with me to the wedding. It was a lovely sunny day and a wonderful wedding and after party. All us girls from high school that were in a group together all sat together and took the bride away for a few pictures. The picture of us all together is taken in the same exact order as a year book photo was taken back in 1989! It was a great day.

Me and my family

Me and my friend Tami, the gorgeous bride

All the girls...20 years later and better friends then ever.

We are once again trying to prevent the skunk from getting underneath the in law apartment. My honey spent Sunday afternoon digging a 12 inch deep and wide trench, lining it with fencing and then back filling. Hopefully this will work!

After the wedding on Saturday we went back to my brothers house where several other friends joined us with their kids. We had a great bonfire with S'mores! An over all great day!

Summer is FINALLY here...hot hot hot!!!!

gardenmama — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:21:58 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 3:21 pm (GMT 0)

We have been waiting and waiting for summer to REALLY show up....It has been a mostly cool and rainy summer with a nice day here and there thrown in for a tease! However this week, well since Thursday it has been DRY and HOT! My son and I have been spending quite a lot of time at the lake in Groton. We went on Monday, Wednesday (it ended up pouring), Friday and saturday. He loves to swim around in his blue tube. He isn't afraid of the water this year. He doesn't know how to swim but isn't afraid to paddle around in his tube. the beach was packed for the first time this summer. We have been going and maybe 25-30 people. there had to have been several hundreds if not low 1000's. there was no parking available in the afternoon and cars were parking on the road.

The garden is doing great and I am doing some amazing cooking..this week I made an amazing roasted garlic and fresh basil pizza..Best pizza I have ever made. I use my pizza stone on my gas grill. Comes out like a good brick oven pizza. Then the next night I picked, peppers, onions, a zucchini and bought and eggplant..I made what i call a deconstructed ratatouille. Basically it isn't a stew. I grilled everything, cut it up into cubes...roasted some garlic and onions and served it on a fresh basil flavoured couscous.... FABULOUS!

For about a week all I had on my zucchini was male flowers and then about a week after a good fertilizing I have 13 on 4 plants and more coming....be careful what you wish for! The cukes are coming slowly but about 2 a day and they are so yummy. I planted straight 8's this year and they are sweet and not bitter like pickling cukes. I have a new favorite! Blueberries are not in huge abundance but they are BIG! The one pictured below is just about as big as a quarter (25 cent piece)!

Finally a growing eggplant! and there are several others starting! WHOO HOO

We are all heading to York Beach Maine tomorrow. My husband took the day off. We are meeting my best friend Jessica there with her kids for the day. I can't wait! SUN SUN SUNS and surf surf! See you all later! Bye!

The garden is really coming along now.

gardenmama — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:52:25 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 2:52 pm (GMT 0)

Lots of different types of tomatoes are starting to turn and be turned into salad. This week I have picked a black brandy wine, sun cherries, grape tomatoes and regular tomatoes. The peppers are starting to come and cukes are really growing fast. Zucchini has slowed but is coming along again. I have been grilling zucchini and making zucchini bread.

Flowers are in bloom, of all sorts. Sunflowers, phlox, and others.

gardening, building and birthdays Oh my!

gardenmama — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:01:12 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 4:01 pm (GMT 0)

The garden is coming along quite nice. We got a lot of rain on Sunday but for most of last week it was dry and the garden got to dry out a bit and do some growing.

Here are the cukes. With all the rain and the heat they have really taken off.

FINALLY an eggplant flower. I hope I have enough of the summer left to pick a few. I had no idea the flowers were purple!

Hungarian Wax Peppers are getting close to getting picked. They haven't thrived like my other pepper plants but I have tons of the other varieties!

The string beans are finally flowering and in thei picture you can also see a tiny bean!

On Saturday night my honey decided we should have a fire and that means S"MORES! I had some huge marshmellows left over from a visit to memorial day so I started a huge fire and we made amazingly yummy s'mores.

Michael has been doing a bit of building and he made this windmill and it is mounted on one of the honeysuckle (formerly rose) trellis'.

On Sunday we had Logan's birthday party at Groton State Park and Lake. Rain or shine i decided to go, and of course there was more rain then shine. But the kids didn't care. Since not very many people were there the covered pavilion was available so we set up his party under there and the canopy tent at the beach. We stayed dry and the kids had a great time. We stayed until about 2:30 when it really started to come down.

Starting to harvest!

gardenmama — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:22:19 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 3:22 pm (GMT 0)

Things are starting to slow down here...and I am spending more time in the yard and garden. Berries are coming by the bowl full, zucchinis are coming and coming...and tomatoes are growing and turning. We have still had a lot of rain and I was in the garden for an hour the other day trimming off A LOT of leaves. I pulled off a 5 gallon pail full of spotted and yellowing leaves. I sprayed the plants and everyone looks pretty healthy now.

This super cherry is over 6 feet tall..and growing rapidly.

All the rain and the heat have burst my sunflowers...they are so pretty and are all at different stages. I should have sunflowers until fall.

Here is the tinman hard at work.

I have been harvesting peppers, tomatoes and zucchini...

This puppy is 5 months old and I call her a miracle worker. Until our neighbor got her Logan was terrified of dogs...now he wants a puppy. This is Riley, a lab mix.

Summer arrived this week and it was HOT HOT HOT. We finally pulled out the sprinkler and Logan enjoyed.

Logan's birthday is today...Happy 6th Birthday Logan. His party is Sunday and we are heading to the local beach. Logan wanted a pinata but I really didn't want to spend over $20 on something that we will destroy. So we made one! I used an brown shopping bag with a handle and made an pull away bottom. We decorated it with Thomas the Tank stickers and ribbons. One of the ribbons pulls the bottom away! All the candy will fall out.

Lots of humid weather and rian makes the garden grow.

gardenmama — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:05:43 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 2:05 pm (GMT 0)

During the past 2-3 weeks I can say that there has been MAYBE 2-3 relaly nice summer days. Most of the days have been cloudy, humid and rainy. Last Thursday before I left town for the 4th of July weekend I took some pictures of the garden and flower progress. The Clemitis are gorgeous, the day lilies are in bloom and HOW DOES MY GARDEN GROW? The answer to that is very very fast. On Thursday morning of this week I did get a chance to get out into the garden (since the past few days was nothing but wet and one storm after the other) and spray some fungicide on all the plants to hopefully prevent fungus growth int he wet conditions. All the tomato plants are looking great. I have tons of growing tomatoes and flowers..and soon will be picking the first one. I think it might be a paste roma.

Here are some pictures from last weeks garden. I took new ones last night but have not uploaded them and do not have the camera with me at the moment. So that means that i will have to do another blog this weekend!

The family went to Connecticut last weekend to celebrate the 4th of July holiday with family. I took some amazing pictures at the fireworks that night. These were the best fireworks that I have ever seen. My camera has a setting for them and I got some amazing shots!

I've been very busy so here is a long post of updates.

gardenmama — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:06:07 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:06 pm (GMT 0)

I had 2 rose bushes die this past winter...well we are not sure they are dead but they didn't start growing a few weeks ago....so we decided to dig them up and plant something in their place. My husband and I went to a nice landscaping place and picked out two new honeysuckles. One is called flame and has pinkish red blooms and the other is called the Ghost and has very light white blooms.

I also picked up several annuals in red, white and blue and planted them in the tractor tire on the front lawn.

After the arbor got blown apart int he wind storm a few weeks ago my husband planned to build me new fences. He cut up the yellow birch and used parts of it to make 2 fence panels. The morning glories and clematis will grow up them in the summer.

Everyday I find another tomato growing in the garden. The plants are doing so much better then I had expected. More and more flowers everyday as well.

Peppers are coming too!

I have been doing a lot of work for my brother on the Michael A Corcoran Cancer Research and Scholarship Fund. My brother started this organization in honor of our father who passed away from a cancer he contracted from his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. He served from 67-69. The organization was started so that we could offer scholarships to Vets and their children who live in the Upper Valley region of Vietnam.

This past weekend my brother, myself and some other members of the family set up a booth at the Quechee Balloon festival in Quechee, VT. We were there promoting the organization, spreading the word and raising money. We made a lot of business contacts for the future. It was a great weekend. The weather wasn't always great but promoting our cause is what is important. You can check us out at our website at:
www.michaelacorcoranscholarshipfund.com

This is my brother in front of our organizations location at the festival.

This is me with my brother and his wife at the festival.

Here are some of my favorite shots of the Hot Air Balloons over the weekend.

About 5 times on Saturday a paratrooping group flew over and then dropped on the the field at the festival. They were amazing.

Lots of hard work....the garden is finally all planted!

gardenmama — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:39:26 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 1:39 pm (GMT 0)

We had an absolutely gorgeous weekend...FINALLY! So out the door I went at 8am on Saturday, and headed right to the garden patch. First on the list was to till the dirt portion of the garden, so that I could smooth it out and place more black plastic and tires. After the tilling was done my honey and I laid down the plastic, placed tires on and strategically placed bricks to prevent the plastic from blowing up. Afterwards it was finally time to bring out all the tomato plants from the sun porch. While I was moving plants out and planting them in the tires I made a great discovery....3 cherry tomatoes growing already! WHOO HOO! I couldn't believe it!

After a lot of bending and walking to and from the house all 34 tomato plants were in the ground and looking happy. I have never had such success starting my tomato plants. All the plants took great and a few are over 3 FEET TALL!!! WOW

You will notice if you followed my blog last summer that the entire garden is now on plastic and planted in tires. Hopefully the weed problem is long gone! I have decided not to plant pumpkins this year. They take over everything! There wasn't a single place last fall that I could walk without walking on pumpkin vines. So my honey is going to let me buy as many as I want this fall! Next year we may have a load of manure delivered on our back hill and plant them there. We shall see.

Peas are growing nicely.

Hot peppers in the tire.

The tinman has reported back to work!

On Saturday my brother came after lunch and helped cut up the tree that had fallen on the apartment. we also cut down one of the other trees sharing the same trunk.

My bearded irises are in bloom! and are gorgeous!

A year later and the WINDS RETURN...

gardenmama — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:18:52 -0400

Author: gardenmama
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:18 pm (GMT 0)

Last night we were visited once again with HUGE winds. This time we were home and experienced it all first hand. Around 5pm last night we heard the winds picking up. We could hear small branches brushing up against the house. The around an half an hour later I looked outside and noticed my arbor was leaning, then saw that the swingset had been THROWN into it! we went outside to stop things from blowing around and while we were out there, a panel of the trellis blew off and nearly hit me and Logan. Then a few minutes later a HGUE gust came through and blew it completely apart, cracking it off at the base. The little green houses were blown all over.

This is the trellis before it was totally destroyed.

The panel that nearly hit me and Logan.

The trellis totally ripped off at the base and all the other debris.

Once we decided it was time to go in I noticed that there were branches on the roof of the apartment...Well not just branches a HUGE part of a yellow birch. No damage, just a lot of work needing to come up this weekend.

We were lucky that the power just went of quick and came back on.