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Preparing for Hurricane Irene
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gardenmama's Blog
Finally a Blue Sky weekend!!!!
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 8:49 pm Saturday morning started off with showers, I didn't think that weekend would amount to much more then laundry and some baking. I took my honey to work early Saturday morning and then Logan and I took a nap. I heard rain on on the roof while we slept. But when we woke a few hours later, a miracle had occurred. The sky was clear and the sun was OUT! I just hoped as we went to pick up my husband that it remained clear long enough to mow the lawn. 
We arrived home about half 11 and wouldn't you know it...Blue skys. I pulled the mower out and started and we finished the lawn! The sky was clear all day. We managed to mow all the lawn, weed wack around the flower beds, pull up the dried up peas, weed the garden, tie up the tomatoes again and give them yet another haircut, burn out Gypsy Moth nests in the apple tree and do some berry picking. Whew...what a day...We were all so knackered from the days doings that we cleaned up and got take out from a truckstop up the street, planted ourselves in front of the tele and watched a movie and some olympic games. 
I found 1 zucchini hanging down the back side of my tires. Not a huge one but good enough for 2 meals for me. A gardeners feet, well at least mine look like this after a hard day in the garden. 
I tore down the potato tires to see if anything had survived once the leaves had died. I found 2 of the tiniest potatoes I had ever seen. All the stems and other spuds had already composted. All the worms that I found in the pile of dirt I moved into my tire composter. Hopefully they will do a good job in there , like they did in the potato tires. Of course I tossed the tiny potatoes in the compost bin BEFORE i could get a picture. We expected today, Sunday , to be rainy and stormy. So far so good. The sky was blue most of the morning. Though today I did have to get some indoor things done before fresh produce was no longer fresh. i froze over 12 cups of blueberries and blackberries we picked on Saturday. So this morning while my honey and son watched Manchester United beat Portsmouth in the Charity Shield (WHOO HOO) I made 3 pints of dill pickles and 3 batches of Zucchini Spice Muffins and Breads. I did a total of 6 batches of the zucchini breads today. Some I put mini chocolate chips in. What a great way to get people who hate veggies to eat veggies. After lunch we all went outside for a bit and I picked 2 yellow tomatoes, 4 little cukes, a large handful of green beans and a few grape tomatoes. I blanched and froze the green beans. 
After I finished my baking at around 12:30 I went out to take pictures of the flowers. I got some good shots of bees doing their jobs. 
This is one HUGE bee..anyone know what kind it is? 
This is a huge honey bee...we thought it was dead. It wasn't moving at all. My honey was able to pull the bee balm towards me to get this picture. I was wondering if it was a queen that has lost her hive. 
The glads are all blooming and gorgeous. I had to stake and tie them so that they would stop falling in the rains. 
This is a picture of our side yard from the rear. 
After taking pics of the yard I came back indoors and made the last 3 batches of the zucchini muffins. I will be sending some in to work my honey. That HUGE zucchini made 24 GIANT , muffins and 2 rounds breads. They are yummy. Strong storms are headed this way. I hope to get that last batch of muffins baked and dinner cooked before the skies open! I hope everyone has had great weekend! Last edited: Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:08 am This blog entry has been viewed 467 times
Between the rian drops....
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 11:39 pm The rains have come AGAIN!!! Sooooooooooooo I have started to turn my harvest into some yummies..I made blueberry muffins the other morning...Thursday morning I had 7 pickling cucumbers that I needed to turn into something (Logan and I can only eat so many cukes in a day) so I looked up pickle recipes. So Thursday after lunch I pulled out my slicing mandolin, a couple of Ball canning jars and got to work. I sliced up 4 large white onions and my cucumbers. I made 4 pints of bread and butter pickles. Never made then before and it was very easy. The hardest part will be waiting 6-8 weeks to taste them! My mom loves bread and butter pickles so I hope they come out good. My mom and dad made pickles in the 80's and made amazing pickles. I hope I can do half as good. 
On the way to pick up my honey from work in the afternoon the skies opened and we got a whopper of a storm. The thunder and lightening was intense and the rain came down in buckets. When we got home it had let up and was just lightly sprinkling. When we got home i ventured out to the garden to see what I could find. There was a couple of cherry tomatoes, a cuke, green beans and blackberries. It started raining again so I didn't get to pick blueberries. 
It is nice to have a cuke and tomato salad just about every night. I add some fresh basil as well. A few nights ago my husband brought this HUGE zucchini home from work. A man he works with has a huge garden and loves to share. This one will become Zucchini bread this weekend. I will send his co worker some. 
The skies opened up again this afternoon. We got home and immediately went out to the garden and blueberry bushes. The thunder clapped in the distance so we worked quickly to pick what we could. I found 8 cucumbers ready to become dill pickles this weekend. As well as some green beans, a few peas and a green pepper. My honey and I picked at a very quick pace. We picked until a huge clap of thunder sounded over our heads and the rain started coming down again. 
I don't think we will be picking too much this weekend. Rain is expected for the whole weekend. That cucumbers are going to love it, along with the few watermelons that have really started to grow and the pumpkins. I would however LOVE it if the rains held off for a few days and give my tomatoes a chance to get ripe! Good news on the tomato front, no more blossom end rot has been found! The tomatoes are getting much bigger. So when the sun finally shines I will be busy, busy ...BUSY! Everyone have a fantastic night and weekend! This blog entry has been viewed 499 times
A little snack
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:40 pm This morning I decided it was time that the tomatoes, sweet bell pepper and 1 jalapeno that I picked the other night were put to good use. They were nice and ripe and needed to be used. So out came the wooden cutting board, the nice sharp knife and the food processor....cut up some fresh parsley and added an onion...and Voila...Fresh Salsa!!! 
A nice healthy snack... 
This blog entry has been viewed 517 times
Here comes the rain again.....
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 2:24 pm I wish I could send all this rain to those of you that are in droughts in the US. It has been raining here most of the night and hard all morning. Some areas have received over 4 inches of rain already and flash flooding is occurring. I don't think that I will be in any area of flash floods....well any how... Last night my hubby, son and myself spent about 45 minutes before supper picking blueberries and walking through the veggie garden. I found a few more cucumbers . I think I have enough now to make a small batch of bread and butter pickles. Logan picked a grape tomato and a cherry tomato. There are plenty on tiny green beans growing but not too many ready for picking. We counted about 10 Jalapeno peppers and the green sweet bells are doing amazing! I still can't get over the difference in the pepper plants this summer. Yesterday morning I spent about 40 minutes pulling off tomato leaves again...This time i got a bit radical so that the fruit can really start to get bigger. I don't have pictures this morning but I started from seed a plum tomato called "Mamma Roma". The description was a huge plum. Well let me tell you. Some of them are going to be close to 4 times the size of a normal plum! OH MY GOSH is all I can say. I can't wait to harvest these and make sauce. Rain in expected for the next several days, sometimes very hard with severe thunderstorms. I hope everyone is well and that there gardens are thriving and they are enjoying them. This blog entry has been viewed 366 times
Lot's of picking needed to be done...
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:38 am Last night after dinner I opened the door to look outside and realized it was so cool and refreshing outside. I had been so tired from the previous days activities that I had taken a nap during the day and when I woke up I worked on getting all the pictures of the class reunion online. I had no idea that it was so nice out. So at around 6:45pm my honey, little helper and i went out to the garden and blueberry bushes. Well did I find a few surprises for me. The 3 red toms that i had seen the day before were nice and soft when i gave them a light squeeze and one of the lemon boys was a bit soft. So I picked them. Once in the garden patch, I started looking around. picking up leaves and seeing what might be hiding on me. First thing I picked was a jalapeno pepper. Yum...Then I picked up a few cukes leaves...SURPRISE..a couple biggies hiding under the leaves. It is amazing what you can miss in the garden.... 
Logan was a little temped by that cuke! 
Then I noticed that the tom plants are in need of another haircut. I pulled a few leaves and suckers off...i need to spend some serious time out there today. I need to stop their growth upwards and outwards. Time to focus all that energy on the fruit. I can't believe that it is august already. I can't help but pout...snow in just a few months... 
Here is Logan with a few of the tomato plants. Most of the plants are over 4 feet tall. 
I found a few more green beans...lots of babies growing, soon there will be plenty to eat, share and freeze. The zucchini is a bit of a disappointment. Lots of male flowers and not many female. Only 1 little zucchini growing right now, and lots of male flowers. Michael spent his time on the 3 blueberry bushes. He picked another 2 quarts of berries. Blackberries are also starting to ripen. Here is Logan under one of the blueberry bushes. 
Here are pics of today harvest. 
This is what we picked this weekend: 
New sunflowers in the garden this weekend: 
I did find 2 more tomatoes that have been damaged by blossom end rot. they are all on the same plant. i haven't found any of the other plants suffering from it. The rot is on one of the plants that grew faster and got fruit sooner. I hope there won't be any more destroyed. 
The rain is supposed to come back today. Tuesday is the only day this week that is supposed to be sunny and dry. All this rain and thunder is getting a bit old! This blog entry has been viewed 402 times
Fresh flower and blueberries.
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 8:11 pm Well I finally have new batteries in the camera...LAUGHING...Yesterday was the first time in 18 years since high school class has gotten together for a reunion. I went to a small high school in Vermont and my class graduated 28 people. Through out the day about 17 class members with their families came for food and fun. It was really great to see everyone and so great to see our kids all getting along and playing together. The reunion was held at a campground/field in Bradford, Vt. There was a river that flowed nearby and the kids played in and around the shallow river all day long. A member of our class passed away in the spring and we set up a table to remember her. I cut these flowers for the table out of my gardens. 
When we got home around 6pm, my honey headed to the blueberry bushes and picked 2 quarts of berries. I found 3 cukes, a pepper and some beans that were ready to pick. Before I got the pic taken I gave my friend a cuke to bring home. I also gave her one of my red toms that were ready to be picked. 
Tomatoes are starting to turn faster...these plants are in pots in my driveway. 
My glads have started to bloom. 
It was a fabulous but warm weekend here. I hope everyone has enjoyed their weekends with your friends and family as well. This blog entry has been viewed 394 times
Lots growing though no pictures today
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:16 pm I hope everyone had a great day. It was sunny and warm here. We took a group of summer school kids to the beach today. Tomorrow will be the last day that we drive for the program. I will have the rest of the summer off. Logan and I ate our lunch at the beach and he played in the water in the sand for about an hour. Tomorrow it is expected to rain and be horrible. But we can always hope that the storms will miss us. The batteries in the camera are drained..so there are no pictures from the past 2 days...but I have found a lot of little things growing in the garden...My husband and I counted over 17 cucumbers! All about the same size and probably ready early next week. I have to go out and get myself some canning jars and vinegar so that I can make some pickles! Logan and I have ate 3 cukes in the past 2 days. They are so much better right out of the garden. Logan has picked and ate 3 cherry tomatoes this week. They don't make it to the house. He asks first and then in they go! Tomatoes are coming along, no critters or bugs ...yet. And I hope to keep it that way. The kentucky wonder string beans are doing very well but I have to spray them with the tabasco suace mixture and see if the beetles will go away. Though the beetles only seem to like the leaves, but they do look awful all chewed up. The peppers are all looking good and there are well over 20 on just 6 plants. the Jalapeno plants are doing well too. All 9 of my plants have at least 2 or 3. This weekend I hope to make a trellis system for the watermelons. I have some slated pieces that I think I can place on cinder blocks and then lay the vines on them. I think i need to get them off the ground and closer to the sun. It is a bit shady where the melons are right now. We picked a large bowl of blueberries tonight. They will go in the freezer as well. I think I may make some blueberry muffins on Friday. Yummy with lots of butter.... I need to get batteries tomorrow ...my glads are about to burst open. Some of them are peaking out and are bright red. Everyone have a great night! Bye for now. This blog entry has been viewed 359 times
Things are growing..and others dying...
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:32 pm The family spent sometime in the garden last night. I pulled weeds from around the watermelons and peppers while my hubby and Logan picked blueberries. This weekend i am going to try and create a way to get the watermelon off the ground. They are shadowed down there and may not be getting enough sun. I pulled out the cantaloupe vines. They had tons of flowers but not a single melon. The growing season isn't long enough to keep them growing, so I pulled them. I cut back the leaves on the zucchini and pumpkin fines. The pumpkins are taking over everything! I have pulled a few of the pumpkin vines as well, they were growing everywhere. I also cut some back so they will not grow any longer. 
Tomatoes getting bigger: 
Here are some pics of the garden as of last night. We started walking around the perennial garden and found that the honey bees are having a ball rolling around the bee balm. At one point it seemed that every bloom has a bee on. There was close to a hundred honey bees doing their job. 
I found a nice surprise in the perennial garden. My dahlias have started to bloom. 
The latrias are blooming: 
MOrning Glory Blossom 
Hydrangea bloom, I only have 1. Since the first summer when it was full of blooms. I either get none or 1. 
Blueberry picking: 
Blackberries starting to turn: 
Of course I had to eat the berry just after I snapped this pic! The potato leaves are gone but will find out tonight if any spuds survived: 
Last edited: Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:38 pm This blog entry has been viewed 420 times
A weekend of parties and fun...oh a veggies of course
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:31 pm What a busy weekend...well I have been so busy since last Friday. This past weekend we had company. My little garden helper is turning 5 and we planned a weekend of fun with family. On Friday we did all of our food shopping and then picked up my husband at noon. We got home and had lunch and just when we finished my aunt from Ct arrived. Shortly after that my mom arrived. We all toured the yard and garden. My husband and I planned that Friday night would be date night. We left Logan with my mom and aunt and we went to dinner and a movie. We saw the " Dark Knight". Pretty good flick, just a little long. we were home by 10:30pm. On Saturday morning I had a lot of packing up to do. The first part of the party was happening at the local state park and beach. It is a nice small lake. My Aunt, Mom and Logan went to the beach before hand to get a picnic area with a grill and my hubby and I waited until my brother and his family arrived at out house. We all got to the beach around 11. The kids all played while I set up the lunch and cooked the corn, hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill. Everyone had a great lunch and then played in the water and sand for the rest of the afternoon. We did have several uninvited guests at the party...there are a lot of female ducks wandering around the beach looking for food and 3 stayed around our party all day. 
We of course fed the cute little ducks. My brother picked one up and fed it as well. Very tame ducks. They look like a duck I had when I was a young child. Here are some pics of the the day at the beach. 
We got back to our house at about 4pm, set up our tents in the back yard for camping out and had a fabulous meal. I made rolled venetian pizzas and pasta. On of the pizzas had pepperoni and cheese and the other had proscutto, cheese and spinach. After dinner we cake. Logan loves Thomas the Tank Engine and he picked out a Thomas Cupcake cake. 
At around 7 logan started opening his pressies. He got a few Thomas trains, clothes and a little range rover that pulls a horse trailer. 
You may be asking yourselves...Did they get to camp out? Well no...no S'mores, no tenting. While Logan was opening his pressies the thunder, lightening, rain and wind started. We decided it was just safer to sleep inside. So in the air mattress came and my brother's family tented in our living room. For breakfast on Sunday I made home made Belgian Waffles with all the fruit toppings, whipped cream and ch. chips. We also had sausage and bacon. It was a great breakfast. My mom left in the morning and my brothers family by 10:30am. My aunt planned to stay until monday morning. Sunday was a very hot and humid day and I didn't get a lot done outside but I did get in the garden to see what was growing. The cucumbers are doing very well. I picked one of Saturday night and another on sunday. There are several more growing and many more to come. The love this humid, wet weather. 
The tomato plants are doing very well. On Friday I gave them all haircuts. I took about a wheel barrow full of leaves off of the plants. Most of the plants have several little tomatoes on them! And many have quiet a few! 
Here is a huge pumpkin leaf. the pumpkins are taking over and i need to thin them out before it is too late. 
I was taking pictures of the string beans. they are so full and look so nice. there are flowers all over the vines. 
and then I spotted these... 
Doing a little gig..I going to have string beans this week!!! Yippie!!! Here are just some various pictures of sunflowers that have grown since the last blog. 
My husband spent Sunday afternoon clearing out under the in law apartments porch and putting up lattice to prevent the skunk known as Mr. Stinky from getting under again. Mr. Stinky sprayed 3 times last winter. we think we was able to get under the porch but when we got a lot of snow he was not able to get out and well he would get mad and ...STINK! We always though that skunks hibernated all winter. That is what Flower did in Bambi..but NO...they sleeps for days and maybe a week at a time but come out and look for food...Hopefully the lattice will stop him from getting under again. 
Someday we will make something nicer. In the next few summers we will be replacing the porch with something new. Well that is the weekend. It was hot and humid but we all had a great time with the family. I hope that everyone had a great weekend! This blog entry has been viewed 403 times
Peppers, cukes, zucchinis oh MY!
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:58 pm Even though the sky was gray and the moisture just hang in the air, my husband and I walked through out the garden last night. Our little helper was too hot and needed a rest so he was sleeping on the couch. My hubby and I started in the perennial garden. To our surprise and delight the garden was full of honey bees. They were flying from the bee balm to the roses to the latrias and into the hosta flowers. I was very excited to see that several of my glads have finally gotten the flower shoot and I will have gorgeous glads soon! 
Phlox is blooming 
another yellow rose 
Lots of bee balm 
Once we got in the garden it was determined that I will be thinning out the pumpkin vines this weekend. They are taking over the smaller garden space this year and it is getting a bit overwhelming. they are starting to climb up some of the tomato plants. I found lots of baby veg today... Peppers 
Zucchini 
Yellow Pear Tomatoes 
Grape Tomatoes 
New Cucumber 
I counted over 17 sweet peppers growing! Just a few more weeks and they should be big enough! These will probably be that last picks of the garden we will have for a few days...the rains are coming and the next 2 days are supposed to be very rainy. Last edited: Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:59 pm This blog entry has been viewed 490 times
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