mudpies's Blog

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.

Mixed weather
May 8, 2009 | 8:39 PM PST
Tags: weather , thunder , tiller , peas , beets , Lily-of-the-Valley , wide rows , weeding
The past couple of days have been rainy off and on, so I haven’t got much done in the garden.  The up-side to this, of course, is that I have given my house some much needed attention.

This morning dawned sunny and warm.  My favourite weather forecaster, Frank Ferragine on Breakfast Television, warned of the possibility of pop-up thunder storms, but that seemed highly unlikely.   So after getting the morning’s chores out of the way and feeding my dear hubby, I grabbed my treasure trove of seeds and headed to the farm.

Ever since I acquired Dick Raymond’s book, ‘The Joy of Gardening’ several years ago, I’ve wanted to try his ‘wide row’ method of planting.  C has steadfastly resisted, preferring to stick to tried and true methods, but I finally convinced him to try it as an experiment.

The dreaded tiller has been in the repair shop since my last mention of it.  When the repairman called to say it was ready, I asked what was wrong with it.  “Water in the gas,” he responded, being a man of few words (unlike yours truly, who tends to ramble on.)  Who wudda thunk – just because it sat outside all winter?  C intended to put it into the shed, but never got around to doing it.

Now, C absolutely hates putting seed into the ground without going at the soil one more time.  That, and the fact I had virtually bullied him into trying the ‘wide row’ method, caused him to be a little grumpy.  Well, actually, a LOT grumpy, but he helped me prepare the 15’ row with a minimum of grumbling.  I planted half the row in peas and the other half in beets, scattering the seed randomly but fairly uniformly.  I’ll share photos when the plants emerge from the soil.  Hopefully, the block planting will be beneficial to the peas, making them better able to withstand the wind.

That was enough experimentation for C.  He prepared two conventional rows for me and I planted them with yellow beets.  We’ve neither grown nor eaten yellow beets, so I didn’t tell C about this new variety.  I’ll report on his reaction after we’ve eaten some.

By this time, his good humour restored, C went to weed the strawberry patch while I turned my attention to cleaning up my holding bed yet again.  Those darned weeds just keep a-comin’.  After I got that bed weeded, I decided to attack the weeds in my new lasagna shade bed.  They’re few and far between, but I’m a fanatic about getting my flower beds weed-free in the spring.  I firmly believe that it saves a lot of work later.  I planted some lily-of-the-valley (I hope I don’t end up regretting that.) and finished edging the first ‘link’ (the area between each of the spruce trees).   Yahoo!  Only five more to go!

C went to harvest some more asparagus.  I was leaning on my shovel, admiring my handiwork, when the skies darkened, the wind picked up considerably, and I felt the first large drops of rain on my shoulders.  “Oh, well,” thought I.  “I’m not made of sugar nor salt, so a little rain won’t hurt me.  I’ll just pull a few more weeds before heading home.”  The thought had barely passed through my brain when a tremendous thunder boomer sent me scurrying out from under those tall spruce trees.  (‘Scurrying’ is probably not the appropriate word to describe the way a chubby old lady runs for cover, but I really like that word.) 

C had considerably more foresight than I.  He hates to get wet, and had headed to our truck when he felt the first drop. He had the good sense not to laugh, although I noticed him struggling to suppress a grin at my hasty retreat.  I should have given more credence to Frank’s forecast.

So much for gardening for a while!  The soil will likely be too damp for a day or two.  Maybe I’ll actually get around to cleaning my stove and fridge.