May 20, 2013 - Granny Junior

Before I pack up the laptop for tomorrow's trip, I must show you the new guardian of the garden.  The sparrows were taking their toll on the greens this morning, so something had to be done!  One broomstick, a nail and a piece of 1"x2", an old shirt, my sweat pants, a panty hose head with Mr. Granny's cap...................Granny Junior!

Can you see her standing out there?

Otto and Annie went crazy when they saw her!  Otto was pretty brave, but Annie did her barking from the protection of the patio.  Otto wouldn't stop barking at her, but see how fast that tail is wagging, LOL!  I can only hope the birds are as scared of her as Annie is.

The new car (it has 14 miles on the odometer already) is packed and ready to go.  The alarm is set for 5:00 a.m.  Granddaughter Alicia is coming over to dog sit with "the kids".  I'm taking the laptop, so if I get bored with all the down time I can always blog, or at least keep up with reading your blogs.  I'm ready for some fun!

May 20, 2013 - Fallen Flowers, Harvest Monday and Goodbye

5/19 - Fallen Flowers:

We got hit with yet another windstorm yesterday, and it knocked down some of my lilies.  Just as they were in full bloom.  I went out and put a couple of screw eyes in the fence, then tied them up as much as I could.  Not an easy job with all the flowers and plants around them, plus I could have used a few more hands.  Luckily the entire clump was already tied up, or they would have all fallen flat.

Fallen lilies, before & after tying.

This morning I was giving myself a permanent when I noticed the fallen lilies, so I grabbed the camera and went out to get a photo while the sun was hitting them.  As I came back in, Mr. Granny said "You didn't go out looking like that, did you?"  "Of course", I replied.  "OMG!" says he.

Big deal.  So I had my hair up in perm curlers, with a plastic grocery bag over the top of my head.  And I was wearing tennis shoes, socks and a shortie bathrobe.  What's wrong with that?

5/20 - Harvest Monday: Visit Daphne's Dandelions to see what others have harvested!

I've finally been picking something besides lettuce and spinach....strawberries!  They're awfully small, but plentiful, and a whole month earlier than usual.  Mr. Granny and I have enjoyed fresh strawberries with whipped cream (for him), and yogurt (for me), as well as our first strawberry shortcake of the season.

Salads have been plentiful.  I've been eating two large salads a day, a total of 8-9 ounces of lettuce. I barely get caught up with what's in the refrigerator, then it's time to pick again.  so what did I do? I planted more lettuce, of course!  I'm really going to work at keeping it coming through the summer months.

Keeping up with the spinach is no problem at all, since we like it cooked as well as in the salads.  If I find myself with a glut, I just steam it, and it cooks down to nearly nothing.

 5/16 - 9.1 ounces (Not shown, a first picking of 2.8 ounces)

5/18 - 1 pound 4 ounces

The spinach and secondary lettuce bed needs to be harvested.

19.4 ounces of spinach.......

....into the pot.

Reduces to just enough for two meals.

 Some of the lettuces are almost too pretty to pick, but pick I must.

Into the basket with the green lettuces.  All together there were 27.4 ounces, way too much for us to eat right away, so I gave it the "big batch lettuce" treatment!  I washed it well, then put the wet leaves into a clean pillowcase.  I handed Mr. Granny the camera, and I headed for the back yard. 

 Swing that lettuce, round and round, up and down!!!

Then wrap it up in the now damp pillowcase, and store it in the fridge.  It should be nice and crisp when I'm ready to use it at the end of the week.

This week's harvest:
Lettuce: 27.4 ounces
Radishes: so few, I didn't even weigh them
Spinach:  19.4 ounces
Strawberries: 31.9 ounces

Total this week:  78.7 ounces ( 4.9 pounds)
Total to date:  12.09 pounds

5/20 - Goodbye (but I'll be baaaaack):

Tomorrow morning, before sunrise, I'm going to jump into my new car and head for this....

Once I arrive, I'm going to spend a lot of time relaxing here....

And when I'm not relaxing, I'll be eating here....

One of the best hotel buffets ever, dieting not allowed  :-)

See ya next weekend.

May 17, 2013 - Guess What.....

.....we bought today.

The dealer didn't have this color in stock, but he located one nearby so we take delivery on Monday.  There's only one problem.  Mr. Granny isn't going to let me haul manure in it.

We had been talking new car for some time.  Mainly due to Consumer Reports, we had narrowed our choices down to a Subaru Impreza Premium, Hyundai Elantra GLS, Mazda3 i Touring or a Chevrolet Cruz Eco.  We haven't been extremely happy with our present Chevy Malibu, and the Cruz had a so-so rating for fuel economy, so we scratched it off the list and headed for the Subaru/Mazda dealer.  We wandered around the lot, looking at the various new cars, while two salesmen watched us out the window but never made a move to come out to help us, so we decided to head for the Hyundai dealer's instead.  We ended up buying the Hyundai Elantra GLS on the spot, so Subaru/Mazda may have lost a sale today.

What was so funny, and made me lean toward the Hyundai, besides the best warranty of the bunch, happened as I was loading my groceries into the trunk at the store yesterday.  A lady parked next to me in her 2013 Hyundai, the Indigo Night color sparkling in the sunshine.  As she got out of her car, I approached her and asked how she liked it.  She loves her Elantra!  From the way it rides, to the way it drives, to the heated seats......she just couldn't have been happier with her automobile!

I had originally wanted, actually had my heart set on, red.  Unfortunately, red only comes with tan upholstery (it's more camel colored than tan), and we didn't care for it at all.  We much preferred the black or gray interior.  Indigo Night comes with dark gray, so blue won out over red.

Anyway, we will pick up our new car at the dealer's on Monday, and we're heading out of town on a short vacation on Tuesday, so it will get a good highway tryout.

May 16, 2013 - Two Weeks......

Two weeks makes a big difference in the garden.

 May 2..........................................................May 16

May 2..........................................................May 16

 May 2..........................................................May 16

May 2..........................................................May 16

May 13, 2013 - Harvest Monday

My apologies to Daphne, the hostess for Harvest Monday.  Due to circumstances beyond my control, my harvest post is a bit late today.

Mammogram Harvest Monday

Now....on to the harvest!

 5/8 - 9 ounces of beautiful spinach, which was steamed and eaten at dinner.

5/9 - 11.7 ounces of mixed lettuce.

 5/9 - 2.6 ounces of radishes for Mr. Granny's salads.  

 5/9 - 10.3 ounces of rhubarb, which was immediately baked in a pie.

5/10 - 2.2 ounces green onions.

5/13 - Earlier in the week I picked only from the small lettuce patch in the kennel garden, and gave this bed a good rest.

The lettuces grew lovely, and were ready for a picking the outer leaves this morning.  The red lettuces were not very red, due to our recent heat wave!

 First I picked a basket of Red Sails.

Then I picked a colander of green lettuces, Paris Island Cos, Buttercrunch and Anuenue.

 Last of all, I picked a basket of Yugoslavian Red Butterhead.

I also picked the spinach from the kennel garden, and got a kitchen sink full!  This will be steamed spinach tonight, and there should be more than enough left for a wilted spinach salad later in the week.

I've also picked and used chives, parsley and basil this week, but I'm not growing enough herbs to bother weighing them.  I used the parsley in a recipe for a delicious, refreshing Tsipora Carrot Salad that I found over at The Novice Gardener.  Thanks, Mrs. R!

Lettuce: 39.7 ounces 

Onions: 2.2 ounces

Radishes: 2.6 ounce

Rhubarb: 10.3 ounces

Spinach: 27.6 ounces 

Total this week: 82.4 ounces (5.15 pounds)

Total to date: 7.18 pounds

A couple or three things happened this week.........  

First, our temperatures soared up into the high 90s this past week (a good 20 degrees above normal), and the high winds that were supposed to hit us today haven't yet happened, although the warning is in effect until 11 tonight.  Today it's cool, and temperatures are supposed to be back to the normal 70s by tomorrow.

Second, The Gastronomic Gardener sent me a handy little notebook that I can keep in my purse and use for my grocery lists.  Thank you, David!  Of course, I always write my lists with the pens I got from Jacqui, over at Little Acres Cottage  :-)  If you want to buy a pen to help her cause, the link is at the top of my side bar.  It's a wonderful thing she does with and for abandoned animals.

Last, but not least, the contractor who did such a lousy job of repairing our house siding won $1 million in a state lottery.

May 12, 2013 - Well, Blow Me Down!

Here we go again!

Local Radar Map
Updated May 12, 2013, 7:30pm PDT

... WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM TO 11 PM PDT MONDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PENDLETON HAS ISSUED A WIND ADVISORY... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM TO 11 PM PDT MONDAY.

* TIMING: THE WINDS WILL INCREASE MONDAY AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE INTO MONDAY EVENING.

* WINDS: WEST WINDS 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS NEARING 50 MPH.

Really?  Really?  Don't you think we've had enough?  I can't remember ever having so many severe wind storms as we've had in the past 6 months.  I've been out tying exposed tomato plants to bamboo stakes, and ran some twine around the snap peas to hold them close to the fence.  I hope the high wind gusts don't snap off my peppers!  I'll move the potted plants up close to the house.  And I'll prepare myself to deal with the pine tree mess in the front yard.....again!

Blossoms

Raspberry blossoms at dusk

Bee on raspberry blossom

Potato blossoms

Tomato blossoms

 Jalapeno pepper blossoms

Bell pepper blossom and baby pepper

Sweet Williams

Rhododendrons

Chive blossoms

Happy birthday to our son, Scott!

May 11, 2013 - If, at First, You Don't Succeed....

Plant, plant again.

Early Sunglow corn had great germination.

Honey Select corn not so much.  You can see how much I had to reseed, and both beds were like this.

Although the sugar snap peas are doing great (even with the 97F heat of yesterday)...

 The shelling peas were a bust and, unfortunately, it's too late for reseeding.   One pea plant from a double 12' row, an entire large packet of Burpee Garden Sweet seeds, is nothing to blog home about. 

 A small packet of Thomas Laxton peas from Mike the Gardener fared a tiny bit better, giving me three shoots.  Thankfully Costco sells frozen organic sweet peas for a decent price.

The Gonzales cabbages, although looking a bit chewed, are all surviving.  The Golden Acre cabbages are keeling over and dying, one right after the other.

Only two broccoli plants survived a possible cutworm attack, so 3 tiny seedlings have been planted in another area of the garden, along with 2 Golden Acre cabbage seedlings (I know you can't see them, but they are there).  Fingers are crossed, but I do have a few backups.

I did have quite a nice showing of parsnips, a 6' double row, but it looks like they have come under bird attack.  I had already seeded the open areas, and those seeds have not yet germinated, so now I have no idea  where to fill in the missing plants.  I guess I'll just have to leave this bed alone.  Since the radishes in this bed have been chewed by wireworms, I suppose the surviving parsnips will also get attacked.

These carrots, in the kennel garden, are growing fine.  Too bad all I planted was one small square.  I've already complained enough about the entire missing carrot bed, so I'll say no more about that.

It doesn't look like it's going to be a real great gardening year by the way it has begun.  The sweet onions are not nearly as nice as in past years, the bean seedlings are being decapitated, and the rasperrries are about a month late.  I picked two of the first three ripe strawberries last night, but the pill bugs got the third.  On the bright side, the lettuce and spinach plants have been thriving, as are the pepper and tomato plants.  The potatoes are looking like the best ever, some are even beginning to blossom!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the critters stay away from the tiny squash, cucumber and melon seedlings.  

Is your garden doing better or worse this year?  Am I alone in my bitching misery?

Love,

Debbie Downer