May 9, 2013 - Mr. Granny, My Hero! (2nd post for the day)

*The man finally did something right!

He walked in the house and handed me some metal tubes.  At first I thought they were rolls of quarters, and wondered where on earth he got them.  Then he led me out to the front porch and showed me.........

These outdoor rocking chairs were seldom used.  They are comfortable enough, but the front part of the rockers stuck out about 8" and they were ankle breakers!  One couldn't walk by them without getting gouged by a rocker.  I think I've spent the last four, maybe five years complaining about them.  Well, today Mr. Granny cut them off!  Did a darned good job, too.  I immediately moved them to the patio, and hid the old folding chairs in the garage.  Now I have a comfortable place to sit.  If I ever find the time!

*He's actually done a few things right in the 50-plus years we've been together, otherwise I'd have given him away a long time ago  ;-)

I had to start hilling the potatoes today.  With the wide rows, I could only bring up the soil from the paths on each side of the bed, so I began filling up the center with semi-composted leaves.  I've never used leaves like that as a mulch, so it remains to be seen how well it works.  I have used the leaves layered with soil in previous potato beds (leaves underneath, soil over the top), and that worked great.  It made the soil nice and loose for stealing those baby potatoes without harming the plants.  I have that big bin of decomposing leaves, so I might as well use them wherever I can.

I checked the carrot bed where the carrot seedlings have been disappearing, and there isn't a single seedling left to be seen in that entire 3'x6' bed.  I guess I'll be planting beans.

I saw 3 ripening strawberries tonight, but pill bugs were already devouring one of them.  I'm quite sure that's what took out my carrots and a couple of cabbages.  It looks like earwigs will also be a big problem in the garden this year.  My celery is full of baby earwigs.  Wire worms are eating the radishes, and they are in the same bed as the parsnips.  That doesn't bode well for the parsnips.  I think the bugs will be eating better than we do this year.  That's the way it goes when one wants to grow organic.  I'd rather share with the critters than consume poison.

We're breaking records for heat now, so soon after breaking records for cold.  It's supposed to hit 97F in the next few days before settling back down into the "normal" 70s.

PS: The rhubarb pie was good, but a little dry.  I think that was because I substituted Splenda for part of the sugar.  The next time I make it, I'll omit the flour in the filling and use a streusel topping in place of the top pastry crust.  That will cut the calories and fat a bit, but it will still be only an occasional treat.  I gave my second slice to Granddaughter, which saved me from eating another 511 calories.

May 9, 2013 - Rhubarb Time

Mr. Granny and I have been trying to eat lighter and healthier meals these past few months, but that doesn't mean we will be giving up all those finer things (for us) in life.....like rhubarb pies in the spring!  We are mainly practicing portion control, which means I weigh and/or measure nearly everything and stick quite strictly to the amount per serving.  Last week I replaced my usual 9" pie plate with a 6", which gives us four slices of pie rather than 8.  That way we don't rush to eat an entire large pie while it's still fresh.  (Since last November, I've lost nearly 30 pounds, 2 more than the 28 I was aiming for.  Mr. Granny has lost just over 30 pounds, and has just 5 to go!).

I picked what I thought would equal two cups of sliced rhubarb, but the 7.1 ounces was a bit short so I added two more stalks.  That was 10.3 ounces total, a bit more than I really needed, but I made a really full pie.  I think 9 ounces would have been perfect.

I used my regular Rhubarb Custard Pie recipe, but made a single crust pastry recipe and cut the other ingredients in half (I beat the egg and measured out 2 Tbsp.).  To lighten it up a bit, I used two parts regular sugar to one part Splenda.  I also left off the cinnamon sugar topping, which made a rather pale pie.  I think the next one will have the cinnamon sugar added. 

A nice little 6", 4-serving pie for tonight's (and tomorrow night's) dinner!  I'll let you all know how it tastes.

**YIKES!  I just entered this recipe in my nutrition program.  This is for 1/4 (one serving) of the mini-pie.  I won't be eating rhubarb pie often! (PDA is my Personal Daily Allowance).

May 8, 2013 - High Expectations

I'm expecting great things from the sweet pepper patch this year, so I built a 30" high fence/trellis/thingy to keep them from falling over when they get huge.  Think big!

Remember the neighbor who had his tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cucumbers all planted back in early April?  Well, he lost everything except two pepper plants to a hard frost.  He bought more plants and replanted before I could offer him some of my extras, and then he lost those to the next frost!  I saw him out working his garden yesterday (planting a third round of warm weather plants....the local nursery must love him), so I went over to visit and invited him to come over for a tour of my garden.  He followed me across the street and we had a nice stroll around the property.  He loved my garden (was surprised it was as large as it is), and really liked my "barn" (the garden shed).  But best of all, he left with all of my leftover tomato and pepper plants!  I followed him back to his garden and helped him plant them.  

 Here he is, across the street, watering in his new plants.  Two of the cherry tomatoes, Sungold and Black Cherry, went into the containers on the other side of the fence where he is standing.  The others were planted on the garden side, where he plans on letting them grow against the chain link fencing.  It's nice to see green over there again.  Last week it was all withered and brown, except for the sunflowers along the front and the two surviving peppers.

May 7, 2013 - The Garden in Early May

It's beginning to look like spring!

 L to R: Determinate tomatoes with carrots and lettuce sowed around them; Walla Walla sweet onions with a row of lettuce seedlings just emerging along one side; Red Norland potatoes.  In the background the lilies are in full bud, and some of the Sweet Williams are blooming (I didn't cut the tall ones back, so they are earlier but they aren't very pretty this year).  There are some tomatoes against the fence, with a couple of hot pepper plants, parsley, cosmos and marigolds interplanted.

Four of the determinate tomato plants.

 L to R: My two remaining broccoli plants with 6 Gonzales cabbages; Yukon Gold potatoes; Golden Acre cabbages (only 3 left, another is dying from I know not what).  I had some garlic that was sprouting, so I planted a few at the end of the cabbage row.  At the far right is a double trench of leeks that I just began backfilling with soil. In the background are hollyhocks and the strawberry bed, which is loaded with berries this year.

More broccoli and cabbages to (hopefully) take the place of those I lost.

 L to R: A pot of cantaloupe (not yet emerging), in front of the raspberry bed.  I have always had blossoms on the raspberries by April, but they are just now budding out.  They didn't grow as full as in the past, so I hope I have a decent crop.  In the foreground, surrounded by grass clippings, I have three hills of butternut squash (not yet germinating).

 L to R:  More grass clippings with one hill each of zucchini and yellow crookneck squash; sugar snap peas in the background, bush cucumbers growing in the barrel.

Cucumber seedlings.

  L to R: A newly planted bed of carrots (it was crawling with sow bugs, so I'll probably lose the seedlings as they emerge); a triple row of Western Giant onions (they sure are itsy-bitsy teeny-tiny giants!); the wide bed of carrots that have disappeared; a double row of bush beans (spotty germination, so I seeded the gaps yesterday).   In the background my 36 sweet pepper plants are on the right, with three beds of sweet corn on the left.  The neighbor went out and pulled the weeds on her side of the fence this morning!  Hooray, maybe I won't have milkweed seeds blowing all over my garden this year.

Next to the kennel garden are cosmos, 9 more sweet pepper plants (with a newly seeded row of carrots), another tomato, nasturtiums, radishes, parsnips and parsley.

Inside the kennel garden there is lettuce, spinach, beets and some lovely little non-disappearing carrots.  I just planted a row of pole beans on the right side, but they may be too shaded to grow well.  I will be planting more after the snap peas are pulled from the sunny side of this garden.  I also have a cherry tomato (I think it's Una Hartsock) planted at the front corner.

The first snap pea blossom!

The over-picked bed of lettuce behind the shed, with garlic in the background. 

Leftover seed potatoes went into the grow bag.

Several of the cherry tomatoes have blossoms now.

May 6, 2013 - Harvest Monday

I could just put last week's photos here, the harvest was almost a duplicate this week.

The lettuce and spinach are just barely keeping up with our daily salads, but it sure is nice to have fresh garden greens instead of store bought.

 Lots of varieties here, including Anuenue, Red Sails, Buttercrunch, Paris Island Cos, Little Gem, Yugoslavian Red Butterhead and Wild Garden Mix.

The spinach is sweet and delicious, but I wish there were more of it!

I did get a few radishes, but something ate most of them before we could (I suspect wire worms), just enough celery for a few salads, and fresh basil for last night's Chicken Mozzarella.

Basil: not weighed
Celery: 1.7 ounces
Lettuce: 9.9 ounces
Radishes: .8 ounce
Spinach: 3.7 ounces

Total this week: 16.1 ounces
Total to date: 2.38 pounds

May 5, 2013 - Wind, Bugs and a Busy Day

I don't know which has been worse this spring, the wind or the bugs.  Even the late frost wasn't as damaging, as the only thing that suffered were the potatoes and they snapped right out of it and started growing like crazy.  Many of my marigolds and a couple of parsley seedlings were chewed to the ground, then of course there was the cutworm damage to a couple of the cabbages and half my broccoli plants.  Now half of my bed of carrots has disappeared.  The parsnip bed is also looking a bit sparse, and there are some big empty spaces in the beets, but I think that is due to poor germination.  So....today I replant!  That is, if the wind calms down enough to allow me to plant without blowing the seeds and seed mats away.

Carrot seed mats and tapes are made and ready to go.

The weather, although extremely windy, was beautiful yesterday, so I got a lot accomplished.

I did some adjustments on the height of the shelves to allow for plant growth, and put the hot peppers and a Patio tomato there for the summer.  I had one geranium left over after planting nine of them in the front yard planters, so I potted it up for a bit of color on the patio table.

I used the leaf blower to give the entire patio a good cleaning, and a damp rag to wipe down the railings.

I cleaned the winter crud off of the barbecue, set the baker's rack up to form a bit of a divider between the potted cherry tomato and the patio, and planted two pots of marigold seeds to set on the shelves.  I gave the barbecue a good cleaning, and watered the remaining (leftover) tomato and pepper plants.  These orphans have no home, and I can't bear to toss them!

I had decided to move the hot pepper pots to the patio, so I pushed some bamboo poles into their spaces and planted Fortex Pole beans there instead.  I've grown pole beans in this spot before, and they provided some nice edible shade as they clung to the lattice patio screen.  The 3 Patio tomatoes will remain here.

I weeded and cleaned up every single flower (I should say flowerless) bed in the back yard.

Including this one, which required much pruning of lilac suckers.

And I mowed the entire back yard with the push mower, which is the only mower we have with a bagger.  Usually Mr. Granny uses the riding mower and leaves the mulched clippings on the lawn, but I needed grass clippings to put around some of my garden plants.  I'm just glad I don't have to do that every week, but it was certainly good exercise!

The shade garden got weeded, and pine tree mess was raked from the path.

Once all that was done, I moved on to the front yard.  Wind, wind and more wind had left another mess of pine boughs, pine cones and pine needles all over the porch, lawn, flower beds and driveway.  I had to hand pick it all off of the mulch, then sweep everything else up and dispose of it.  Then I planted 9 zonal geraniums into the three planters by the front porch.  

They certainly provide a needed punch of color, and I think they will be quite beautiful when they are larger and have some blue lobelia tumbling down over the sides of the planters.  I think I should move the rockers to the back patio.  It's beginning to look like an old folk's home with so many chairs lined up on the front porch!

May 2, 2013 - This Week in the Garden

 I planted 36 sweet peppers along the fence today.  The corn is all planted in three beds on the right, and a few volunteer potato plants were moved to the front edge of the corn garden.

Nine more sweet pepper plants, a tomato and some basil were planted at the back of the north garden.  The sugar snap peas are growing vigorously, but the big packet of shelling peas I bought from Burpee (on line) for $3.99 gave me just 1 (that's one) pea vine.  That's one expensive pea plant, and Granny is not happy about it.  You can't really see them yet, but the bush beans in the foreground popped up in today's warm (finally!) weather.  Three hills of butternut squash were planted up front yesterday, and a bed has been prepped for a hill each of zucchini and yellow crookneck squash.  It's going to be really crowded in the squash bed, so I'm hoping I can train most of the butternuts up the fence.

The Red Norland potatoes that were black and frozen a couple of weeks ago are now green and growing well.  No loss from the freeze!

 The Yukon Gold potatoes are now emerging as well.

 Four of 12 main crop determinate tomatoes were planted next to the shed.  Three more are planted  next to the west fence, and the other five are all against the north fence. I had all of my tomatoes planted too close together last year, so I really cut back and gave them more space.  No buckets this year!  There was too much expense with home improvements (windows, doors, siding, paint, rain gutters, sewer connection, concrete work, etc.) I didn't feel like spending a bunch more $$ on potting mix.  I did have to buy a several bags to redo the front yard planters, so the tomatoes are all in ground, except for the four Patio tomatoes and 4 cherry tomatoes that are in 2 gallon pots.  Another cherry tomato is planted next to the kennel garden.

.

Now that the seedlings are finally planted, I'll have to make some shelf adjustments to allow these potted plants some room to grow.  I still have a few smaller pots to fill, probably with a few flowers for color.  

And, speaking of color......

These beauties, zonal geraniums, will be planted in the front yard planters tomorrow.  Costco had them priced at 10 for $18.99.  I need to get some blue lobelia to mix in with them.  I spent most of the morning installing drip lines in the three planters, so hopefully the watering will stay under control this year.  I had bubblers there before, and they were drowning the plants.  

May 1, 2013 - One Last Time!

Every night they come in the house.  We've had temperatures below 30F the past few nights, but I'm going to trust the weatherman when he says we'll be in the 40s by tomorrow night.  There isn't a freeze warning for tonight, but it's close enough that I'm not taking a chance, so I brought the plants in one last time!  Tomorrow they will all get planted in the garden (except for those in containers).  Ten tomato plants and 11 peppers were already planted last week, and they survived the low temperatures just fine with minimal cover.   *Update, the local TV station is just now forecasting 29F for tonight.