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.

A warm day, at last!
Jun 14, 2009 | 7:10 PM PST
Tags: potatoes , carrots , beets , Cleome , asters , zinnias , celosia , bearded iris , poppies , peonies

Today was one of those gorgeous days that make me feel happy just to exist on this planet - sunny and warm with billowing cumulus clouds overhead.  I need to remember to start wearing a hat and/or sunscreen.

It's a good thing the weather put me in a good mood, because C is pushing his luck again.  I spent the morning tidying my house while he headed for the farm.  By the time I got there, he had gotten too close to my sunflowers with the tiller and planted four more rows of  potatoes from some of the small ones we had remaining from last year's crop.  That makes eighteen 40' rows of potatoes, folks!  What in heck are two old people going to do with that many potatoes??  I'm going to have to sneak pails full of them into the back seats of my friends' vehicles when they're not looking!  There are still five 5-gallon pails full in my cold cellar.  I had asked C to bury them under the compost heap.

As well, he decided that we don't have enough carrots and beets in the ground.  I still have seed for both, but had decided that two rows of beets and three of carrots were sufficient.  Oh no!  He secretly bought more seed and in went another row of beets and two more of carrots.  At harvest time, C expects me to distribute them all over town - particularly to the widows of some of his deceased friends.  That's a pleasant pastime because I get to visit, but it's also the time when I need to be in my kitchen canning and freezing produce for our own consumption.  It's a good thing I love the man, or I'd compost HIM! 

I planted cleome, asters, zinnias, and celosia in my cutting bed.  I know it's late, but the soil has been cold and damp up till now.  I've never planted annuals from seed before, so this is a learning process.  Wish me luck.

I spent some time edging more of my shade bed, but forgot to take my camera with me.  Will try to remember tomorrow.  I also planned on taking a photo of some of my favourite imperial irises.  I also have violet ones, pale yellow ones and a Japanese variety, but nothing can hold a candle to imperials in my books.  My oriental poppies are getting ready to bloom.  I hope I can find a nice day to photograph them when they do.  I consider poppies and peonies to be the tarts of my garden - a little over the top - like Dolly Parton - absolutely gorgeous despite their short shelf-life.

Enough gardening talk.  Back to mundane chores.  I need to start a load of laundry.  Take care, everyone, and happy gardening.

Catching up
Jun 13, 2009 | 8:36 PM PST
Tags: gladiolus , Cucmbers , gourds , squash , potatoes , Growing Tomatoes , Sunflowers , carrots , radishes

Now that I'm back on line, I'd better try to record what's been happening in my absence.  I hope to use my blog as a guide next year.  Hopefully, it'll remind me of successes and failures so that I can repeat the good stuff and avoid the problems.

First of all, I got my gladiolus bulblets planted a week ago yesterday.  I haven't seen any sign of them sprouting yet, although several of the parent bulbs planted the previous day are already through the ground.  I'm anxious to put my new bulbs in, but I'd better wait till later this week in the hope that they'll be ready for our fall fair.

I didn't go to the farm for a week.  Last weekend was really nice, but we went to visit with C's family.  His son-in-law's children from a previous marriage hosted a barbecue to celebrate their dad's 50th birthday.  It was a lot of fun and I got to see my mother-in-law for the first time in a couple of months.  She's a wonderful woman.  I'm so fortunate to have her in my life.  After that, we got rain, rain and more rain.

Today was warmer than it's been for a while, albeit overcast.  C tilled up the bottom of our garden without incident, (No plants damaged because he was far away from those that are beginning to show.) and I planted cucumbers, gourds and squash.  That's it for seeding this year.  Now comes the weeding and freezing and canning.

Our potatoes are coming up nicely.  No bugs yet, thank goodness.  C says, 'No more wide row planting!'  He finds it too difficult to distinguish weeds from veggies, but I spent some time cleaning the peas and beets up and he feels a little better about it now.  The tomatoes I started at home are amazing - tall and strong - some in blossom already.  I'll have to remove the home-made cloches this week and replace them with cages, but I want to mulch heavily with straw first.  Those that I bought at the nursery are coming along more slowly, but I'm sure they'll catch up soon.  There's no sign of my carrots yet.  I'm annoyed with myself, because I generally plant a few radishes in the carrot rows so I can see where they'll be and keep them free of weeds, but I forgot to do that this year.  I almost forgot to plant radishes with my cukes, too, but fortunately C reminded me.

One row of sunflowers I planted a week ago are already an inch or so high.  The volunteers I transplanted are almost a foot high.

After I finished with the veggie garden, I spent some time weeding my new shade bed.  I'm delighted with its progress.  Will try to take and post some photos tomorrow.

I want to plant some cleome and other annuals in my cutting bed tomorrow.  I wish I'd gotten them in earlier, but the rain and cool weather has kept me away more than I'd like.  Hopefully, they'll come along quickly.

Take care, everyone, and 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.

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.