Twiggybet1's Blog

Rainy weather lately
Oct 2, 2007 | 10:00 PM PST
Tags: tomatoes , zucchini , beets , peppers

Well, It's been a week since my last blog.  I have been one busy bee, I managed to can my beets, bake a couple batches of zucchini bread, make my salsa, empty the compost pile, keep up with the vegetables and run all my errands that had to be done.  Whew!  And dinner with the in-laws was very nice.  I sent home some zucchini with them, and they brought me some fresh apples. 

It has been rainy the last couple of days, so I haven't been able to spend as much time in the garden as I would have liked lately.  But all that rain seems to have extended the life of my tomato plants - can you believe they are putting out still more blossoms?!? The rain seems to have revived some of my green bean plants, too.  I still have quite a few hot peppers and the zucchini shows no signs of giving up any time soon. 

I am getting anxious to get the winter squash.  It is such a long wait for those to ripen, and it looks like I will have enough to last me until next year.  I also can't hardly wait to dig the sweet potatoes, but the vines are still growing like crazy.  You can't tell with those how much you'll get until you dig them.  The suspense is driving me up a wall!

We are supposed to have nice, warm weather this coming weekend, so I hope to spend a lot of time out there. 

Tidying up the yard
Sep 21, 2007 | 2:44 PM PST
Tags: tomatoes , green beans , canning

Well, I've spent the last two days doing what I like to call "a million little things" in the garden.  There isn't much ripening right now, the tomatoes and green beans have slowed way down, and I have to wait a while longer for the winter squash and sweet potatoes.  I caught up on weeding the flower beds, pruning a few things and watering some pots and things that usually get a bit neglected.  I also tackled emptying the compost pile.  Well, I alsmost tackled it.  I was nearly finished when I had a cousin drop by.  I plan to finish the compost pile tomorrow. 

It looks like I'll be working out there by myself this weekend, hubby is on overtime.  I hope I can make a dent in the "to do" list on my own.  I have a lot of things on that list that I'd like to get done before the leaves start to fall and create more work for me that way. 

It seems like my canning season is over for the year.  There just isn't enough tomatoes or green beans coming in to worry about canning them.  I didn't get nearly as much put up this year as usual.  Right in the middle of the season, my canner had to poop out on me.  The seal wore out, and I had a devil of a time getting a replacement.  I went from store to store searching, but apparently most stores no longer carry replacement parts for canning equipment.  There must not be enough demand for them to justify stocking them.  I finally thought to check online (duh) and ordered what I needed from the manufacturer's website.  I had been hoping to avoid having to wait for it be shipped to me.  So while my canner was out of commision, I was giving the stuff away as fast as it was growing so it wouldn't go to waste.  Not that we don't usually give a lot away anyway, because we do.  But our family and friends got an extra amout this year.  Oh, well.  My daughter claims she's sick of green beans anyway.