mudpies's Blog

The fruits of our labours
Aug 27, 2009 | 7:10 AM PST
Tags: ripe tomatoes , wax beans , cucumber , cucumber beetles , bacterial wilt , onions , potatoes , buttercup squash , pumpkin , gourds , crown of thorns , harvest apples , Sunflowers , shasta daisies , Echinacea purpurea , gladiolus , asters , Zinnia , cosmos , Cleome

C has been gorging himself with tomatoes for the past week.  I wish I liked them.  They look very good, but I can't stand the texture.  I do like them when they've been cooked.  I'm going to have to make juice, sauce and salsa in order to keep up with them.  I'm distributing beans all over town.  It's hard to stay ahead of them.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for our cucumbers.  They've succumbed to bacterial wilt for the third year in a row.  I didn't see a single darned cucumber beetle, but the cukes got infected, nevertheless.  I'm going to have to buy a bushel for pickling.

C pulled the onions yesterday and has left them  to dry.  We'll need to harvest our potatoes soon and store them for winter.  The buttercup squash is forming nicely, but I don't think my pumpkins will mature before we get a killing frost.  The mini pumpkins are plentiful as usual, but the crown of thorns gourd are just beginning to form.  I'm sure they'll be ready for sale before Hallowe'en, though.

One of C's customers traded half a bushel of harvest apples for a couple of bales of hay.  I intended to make them up into pies for the freezer.  I made an apple crisp and found that, although tasty, they're not firm enough for pies, so I made applesauce instead.  I found a new recipe on the net.  It calls for it to be cooked with strips of lemon rind and cinnamon sticks.  Yummy!  The lemon adds a little zing to it.  I put six pints into the freezer and made one jar to enter in the fall fair.

My sunflowers, daisies, echinacea, glads, asters, zinnias, cosmos and cleome are all in bloom in my cutting bed.  I hope some of them will still be blooming in a month for entry in the fair.

I'm just waiting for a parts delivery before heading to the farm to weed for the rest of the day.

Fresh produce
Jul 25, 2009 | 8:32 AM PST
Tags: fingerling potatoes , peas , carrots , onions , dill

C has done a great job of keeping such a large veggie bed weed-free in my absence.  While I regard weeding (especially hand-weeding) as a necessary evil, C calls it his relaxation.  He gets down on his hands and knees with a little L-shaped hand tool and winkles those nasty weeds out from between the plants.  He even worked away at my cutting bed despite his assertion that he won't tend any plants that can't be eaten.  I shouldn't cut him up so much.  Thank goodness he finds his carelessness as amusing as I do, but perhaps not as annoying.

Early this week, I dug three hills of fingerling potatoes - enough for a meal for us, one for the old gentleman who mows our lawn ( Before any of you think I'm taking advantage of him, he does it with a ride-on mower to keep hiself active. In return, besides paying him, I bake sweets for him.) and one for the friends who introduced the species to us. They were yummy.  Next week, I'm going to make 'Spring Stew' which is simply small new potatoes, fresh peas, baby carrots and small onions in a basic cream sauce.  I add fresh dill to the sauce sometimes, but it can be left unflavoured or any other herb can be subsituted for the dill.  I'm a dill freak and there's way more in my garden than I can use.  The recipe works only with veggies fresh from the garden.  I've tried using purchased produce in the past and produced a dismal failure.  I don't understand why.  That's just the way it is.

Today, C and I are off to watch one of our granddaughters compete in a horse show.  According to her mom, and judging by the number of ribbons on display in her bedroom, she's a very accomplished rider at 9 years of age.  We are supposed to get thunder storms this afternoon.  I hope not.  I really want to see her ride in competition.

Take care, everyone, an happy gardening.

Daughters' Gardens, Fishing Weekend
May 27, 2009 | 7:57 AM PST
Tags: daughters , fishing , potatoes , tomatoes , onions , peas , beets , beans , Swiss Chard , parsnips , Sunflowers , gourds , pumpkin , cucumbers

Now that you've had a peek at Melissa's Secret Garden, I'll have to post photos of Jacquie's.  (I have to photograph it first, though.)  Hers are very different from mine and Melissa's, but lovely, just the same.  My eldest daughter, Dawn, studied landscape design and had beautiful beds when she lived in Ontario.  She hasn't adjusted to the growing conditions in Georgia yet, but I'm confident she'll eventually create something terrific down there.

 It's raining here today, so I won't be outside, which is probably a good thing because C is preparing to go fishing for pickerel (walleye) with several of his buddies this weekend. 

We got all 40 lbs of seed potatoes (Banana Fingers, Yukon Golds, Cal Whites and Chieftains) in the soil, finally.  That makes ten 40' rows.  I may have bought too many, don't you think?  We will share with family and friends, but I think I'll cut back to 30 lbs next year.  I'm just not sure which variety to eliminate.

My teenaged tomato plants (21 of 'em - the rest were shared with family and friends) are nestled all snug in their beds surrounded by eggshells and makeshift cloches.

Our onions, peas and beets are up, and I put a row of Swiss chard and one of parsnips in yesterday after I transplanted more volunteer sunflowers and seeded my shade bed with amaranth.  I still need to plant three varieties of beans, cucumbers, pumpkins and several different gourds.  We sell the gourds at a roadside stand.  I found a new variety of gourds yesterday.  They resemble apples in shape.  Had to buy a packet of seeds to try them out.  Tri-coloured pears used to be our best seller, but last year crown of thorns took over.  I also purchased a new, expensive hand trowel.  It seems to me that I break the cheaper ones on a regular basis.  I broke one of mine and bent one of Melissa's during our All Girls' Weekend.

I'm looking forward to having this weekend to myself.  No meals to prepare!  No interruptions!  No working on someone else's agenda!  I want to concentrate my efforts on edging up my shade bed and getting the last of the seed into my cutting bed, then weeding and mulching the beds at home.  That is, if I survive the preparation for C's fishing weekend.  I need to make several dozen of his favourite chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  That's the easy part.  C tends to leave a lot of his preparations till the last minute then gets hyper about getting everything packed and ready to go.  I'll likely have to help him search for some of his stuff and undoubtedly have to assist with putting new line on his reels, etc.  He's just gone to town for some new swivels because he can't find the packet he bought last fall.  Ah well, it's a small price to pay for three days of peace and quiet in my flower beds and, hopefully, fresh pickerel for dinner Monday evening.

Second time around typing this entry
May 4, 2009 | 6:58 PM PST
Tags: onions , Asparagus , tiller , daffodil , day lilies , iris , hydrangea , holding bed , bluebells , dianthus , stonecrop , forsythia , sprirea , heritage roses , peonies , tomato cages , foundation plantings , Berm , lasagna garden , lady's
Well, my friends, the soil was dry enough to plant onions this afternoon.  Hubby raked, set out the lines, and made the furrows while I tucked the sets into the earth, covered them and tamped the soil down.  It’s amazing how much satisfaction can be gained by seeing one small area (four 15’ rows smack dab in the middle of our garden) all smoothed out like a bed spread.  We plant the garden in three sections with paths between so that the harvest is easily accessible.

We didn’t get to eat asparagus, though.  Being the greedy person I am, I decided to wait one more day so we could have more of the delicious stuff.

After we got the onions in, my husband (hereinafter referred to as ‘C’ since he wishes to remain anonymous following yesterday’s rant) tried long and hard to start his tiller.  Didn't happen.  God is good!  No plants were harmed through C’s over-enthusiastic use of said machine.

Meanwhile, I went back to cleaning up my holding bed.  Virtually every plant over-wintered successfully:  daffodils, day lilies, irises, perennial geraniums, hydrangeas, bluebells, dianthus, stonecrop, chives, forsythia, spirea, and even some heritage rose bushes.  I’ve never been successful with roses.  The person who gave them to me said she had actually tried unsuccessfully to kill them off.  There has to be a lesson in that.

I was especially excited to see two peonies popping through the ground, discards from another friend’s bed.  I adore the outrageously gaudy appearance of peonies, but there’s no room to accommodate them in my flower beds here at home.  I once planted a pair of them on either side of a ‘telephone tower’ (those ugly brown aluminum things that are scattered throughout urban areas) at the edge of my lawn, but someone cut a cable and the linemen trampled all over them when they came to make repairs.  (No, that time it wasn’t my dear husband.)  I’ll have to protect them from the wind (and the tiller) with tomato cages later.

When we build our new home at the farm, I’ll have plenty of plant material to start my foundation plantings and the berm I’ve been designing (and revising) in my head for the past couple of years.

My attempt at making a ‘lasagna bed’ has met with mixed results.  The only shady area on our farm is a curved row of spruce trees that border the lane between the barn and our vegetable garden.  Winter before last I came across an article about creating a new bed using the ‘lasagna method’.  “Aha!” thought I, “the perfect solution to making a shade bed at the farm!”  I spent all summer long digging out the most persistent weeds – burdocks and dandelions – then section by section between the trees, laying down several thicknesses of newspaper that had been soaked thoroughly to prevent it from flying away and to accelerate its eventual decomposition.  I covered the newspapers with a generous layer of compost, then a layer of spoiled straw, then a layer of pony and goat manure (It’s a good thing I value their droppings, because neither creature is good for much else.), and finally another layer of straw.  Then, like Rumplestiltskin,  I waited for Mother Nature to work her magic, turning straw not into gold, but into soil.  Dreams of my beautiful shade bed made our long, dreary winter more bearable.

Well, Ma N did a fine job at the top end of the bed.  But as she worked her way towards the bottom, she was prevented from accomplishing the desired result by an over-enthusiastic top layer of straw.  I managed to circumvent the decomposition process by piling it on too deep.  So I spent much of the afternoon turning the stuff over, bringing the wonderful rotten stuff to the top in preparation for another application of compost and pony poop.  Hopefully, it’ll be ready to plant by fall, but if not, I’ll have another winter to design that end of the bed in my head.  I must remember to take my camera with me so I can display my new, if far from complete) shade bed to all and sundry.

I’ve been splitting the perennials in my shade bed at home and moving them down to the farm.  After years of struggling to grow in sticky clay, they’re luxuriating (along with a bumper crop of earthworms) in the new soil Ma N created at the top of my new bed.  Thus far, I’ve planted five hostas, some wild violets, a couple of astilbes, several small bleeding hearts, a couple of clumps of lady’s mantle, and four clumps of silver mound that miraculously made it through the winter virtually bare-rooted in a pot above the ground.  The silver mound nagged at my guilty conscience all winter long.  A friend gave it to me late in the fall and I just never got around to planting it.  How ungrateful!  Early this spring, I moved the broken old plastic pot to my garage door intending to throw it on the compost heap at the farm.  When I was about to put it into the back of my van, I noticed some new growth at the base.  Lo and behold, I split it up into four sections and planted it in my new bed where it has thrived ever since.

Well, my friends, I hope I haven’t bored you with this long entry.  Having typed it out twice, I’m definitely bored.  Happy gardening to all, and to all a good night.

OMG - How embarrassing!
May 3, 2009 | 8:15 PM PST
Tags: rain , tractor , cultivator , stinging nettle , holding bed , visitors , onions , Asparagus

Took a couple of days off from gardening due to the weather.  We are getting an inordinate amount of rain this spring.

Got up this morning, raring to go!  Just a smidgen of rain yesterday; and today promised to be sunny and warm.  I wanted to get my onions planted at the farm.  My husband was eager to get started at it, too, so I gathered my sets up and headed out.  I hadn't showered this morning and I had dressed in my ratty old gardening clothes.  No one would see me down there.

When we arrived at the farm, I was dubious about planting.  The soil appeared too wet.  It was really windy and my hubby thought that if he tilled, it might dry sufficiently to get the onions in.  He got our little tiller going, but it was difficult to operate in the damp soil, so he decided to borrow a friend's tractor (The friend had already put his cultivator on.) and do the entire garden quickly.

While he went off to get the tractor (I knew it would take a long time because friend and hubby love to discuss the weather, the state of the economy, the price of wheat, beans and hay, any new equipment a neighbour may have acquired, the prospects for a prosperous harvest, the declining behaviour of teens these days, etc., etc., etc.  You get my drift.), I cleaned up my holding bed.  There was a lot of stinging nettle, so I used latex surgical gloves.  That was a successful experiment.  I'm not good with most gloves, but these worked well.  Most of my plants over-wintered well.  I worked away digging out old sunflower roots and lugging them to the compost pile, getting dirtier by the minute.

Back came hubby with the big tractor and cultivator.  First he ripped up an old strawberry bed from which I had intended transplanting some of the healthy runners.  Oh, well!  Next, he came booting over near my holding bed (which isn't a bed unto itself, but rather the upper corner of our vegetable garden).  Before I could place myself strategically  to protect my perennials, he had managed to rip two of them out.  That man is a disaster with any piece of machinery powered by gasoline!

Eventually, hubby finished cultivating with no further mishaps.  I continued weeding and getting rid of the sunflower roots.  I had taken my gloves off to open a soft drink and forgot to put them back on.  Ouch!  I hate stinging nettle with a passion.  Brushed hair off my face with my filthy hands and managed to get soil well distributed throughout.  Soil is definitely not an appropriate hair care ingredient!

 I was just thinking longingly about a nice hot shower when I heard a vehicle come up our laneway.  Customers often stop by to purchase hay, so I simply went about my business behind a large shed, assuming hubby would attend to the matter, an no one would see this unkempt, filthy old lady.  Wrong!!  My cousin and her husband were passing and decided to stop by when they saw our truck.  Not only did I look awful, I'm sure I didn't smell very nice, either, not having showered then slugging away for most of the day.  I'm sure our visitors left wondering if I was short of soap and water.

I didn't get any onions planted so will have to try to get them in tomorrow.  (The forecast is for rain Wednesday through Saturday.)

The bright spot in my day was finding asparagus almost ready for harvest.  Can hardly wait to enjoy it tomorrow with Hollandaise sauce.  Mmmm!  Mmmm!

A little achy
Apr 29, 2009 | 7:14 PM PST
Tags: hostas , dividing perennials , potatoes , onions
Divided a couple more hostas today and took them down to my new bed at the farm.  When I was transplanting, I decided to turn a bit more soil and do some weeding.  I guess I overdid it a bit.  I'm tired and a little achy just now.  Stopped in at our local Farm Co-op and bought 40 lbs of seed potatoes, Spanish onion sets, Dutch onion sets, red onion sets and multipliers.  It's a little early to plant the potatoes, but if I don't buy them early, I don't get as much choice.  I bought Yukon golds, Chieftains, California whites and a new variety of fingerlings.