Early Spring 2016 Garden Update

Spring is beginning to, um, spring. And here are some of the exciting signs of that from the garden...still early days, though and still officially Winter...but the silver lining to global warming is that we got an early Spring and the plants are stoked (for now!).

Onions, garlic and favas in early February...they really sprouted up in the last few weeks, though! I really power-planted favas this year *Ariel Pink song reference

Sugar Snap peas...got 2 sixpacks of starts in the ground early this year and rigged up this string contraption which they seem to be taking to. We need some order in the growing process with our snap peas...last year it was like one big snap pea dreadlock and hard to access.

The veggie garden on the first day of March.

After years of discussion, a gate is actually going up to potentially keep deer out...thank you Colin Cigarran for your efforts!

The Camelia started blooming very early. Pretty and also messy.

I totally forgot I planted these bulbs last October. What a pleasant surprise...they are now surrounding the apple tree in the front yard!

I have had to replant much of the succulent garden...that large bare spot is where Missy likes to "guard" the house. She has created pattern baldness in my succulent garden...thanks a lot, Missy. Missy lives with us again which has it's pluses and minuses when it comes to the garden. Pretty sure the mailman isn't too happy about it, however.

Thank you neighbor, Ben, for gifting me with this Lilac tree start...I have big  plans for it and so far it seems to like it's spot in the front yard. 

Is there any smell more heavenly than Daphne? That's correct! There is not.

It brings me great joy to not have to replant the herb garden basically at all this year (except for dill). All that is pictured here just came right back from last year with no additional support from me; chives, parsley, thyme, sage oregano (there is rosemary too if you want sing Scarborough Faire**) and the giant fennel.

Peat pods are already showing signs of life. I planted my peppers and tomatoes earlier than you are "supposed to" but when did I ever follow the rules?!

* Not Enough Violence is a song not about veggie gardening...but it COULD BE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOoYKI3WpBI

**Scarborough Faire is a song by Simon & Garfunkel that references herbs heavily.
https://youtu.be/-Jj4s9I-53g

Jane's Top 20ish Fave Songs of 2015

It's the last day of November, way too soon to be posting a BEST OF list for music...but I have a spare moment and want to "lay a base" from which to edit/adjudicate as the end of 2015 looms ever closer. Without further adieu...

IN ORDER BY FAVORITE COLOR:

Selsun Blue- Lil'Wayne  

Automatic- Zhu & Aluna George  

King- GRADES  

Ad Astra- Deerhunter  

Tearing Me Up- Bob Moses  

There's a girl in the corner- Robert Smith (A Twilight Sad)  **Not doing a NW show on their giant tour. The Cure are dead to me. Love this cover of their opening bands song SO much anyway.

One More- Ne-yo ft. T.I.   

Afterthought- Disclosure  **Anton fave

Right Hand- Drake **everyone covered Hotline Bling instead but this is the one.

Friends of Mine- Ben Browning  **the guy from "Girls" is in this video!

Affairs- Skylar Spence  **Anton LOVES this one.

Heavy- Majical Cloudz  **clearly Canadian. 

Found- cln  **lovely simplicity 

Phoenix- John Monkman & Pete Tong

Cry No More- Vaults 

High By the Beach- Lana Del Rey  **finally getting the whole Lana Del Rey thing and think haters should sit down.

Yes, I'm Changing- Tame Impala  **ALBUM OF THE YEAR! if i had to pick just one...

Lonely Town- Brandon Flowers  **Haters are going to hate. I love pop music.

Drop That Kitty- Ty Dolla $ign ft. Charlie XCX & Tinashe  

Planez- Jeremih ft. J. Cole

Selsun Blue- Lil' Wayne

Late Summer/Early Fall 2015

I admit that I'm a basic b*tch and totally love Fall...no it's not the pumpkin spiced world that we enter, it's the way the season changes...in the garden there are all kinds of exciting bounty and at the same time we get to start downsizing and chilling out. NO WATERING!! This weekend I started to "disassemble" the summer garden. I pulled all of the zucchini and summer squash as well as the peppers (of which there still tons). I am leaving tomatoes for now but with the rains starting to come back it's only a matter of time until they go too. And that is fine because we got more than we can handle, y'all. Thankfully though, because my tomatoes this year were pretty small and unassuming, they aren't splitting too much. Yay for boring tomatoes! I have a freezer full of sauces, crushed and sliced ones and am pretty much over seeing, touching tasting tomatoes at this point. I know I'll be really excited about them in a couple of months, though. The big question was what to do with all of these excess peppers???!!! I made homemade pickled pepperoncinis which were very yummy and worked well in a greek quinoa salad but I feel would have been more popular with the dudes in my house if I dyed them bright yellow like the ones from the store. Well not this year...but see below for my adventures in fresh peppers and food dye!

We had some really delicious early apples from our espalier tree that has never given fruit before...hope it keeps on going next year? NOTE TO SELF: I need to pay more attention to this tree. We also have many squash that look exactly like this one...they are good for grilling but how many squash can a person grill? I don't need to plant this squash next year.

This is where the peppers and squash lived at one time. Making way for favas, leeks and onions.

Romaine lettuce and leaks are intermixing with the soon to be phased out tomatoes.

 

 

 

 

 

Pink beans!

Colin's commitment to buying lots of unneeded used things at garage sales has finally paid off with this Scoot n' Do rolling gardening seat. I am doing a lot of scooting and doing in the weeding department thanks to this contraption and my lower back thanks me for using it.

Anton and I had fun picking all of these unpickled peppers off of the pepper bushes. At least 6 cups worth. And what do make with them?

How about some PEPPER JELLY courtesy of *gasp* Paula Deen! Seriously folks, she's the only one who has a recipe for pepper jelly online that I could find, and I also kind of trust her on recipes likes this. 6 cups of sugar? Yes please! No, I'm not trying to use the low sugar pectin, we are doing this old school. Spread it on your holiday pork roast! You may get one of these for the holidays if you live nearby, get excited!! They are actually quite tasty.

 

Mid-Summer Garden Update

Some shots over the last few weeks from our mid-summer harvest. Not pictured: a HUGE amount of plums this year which I'll document if I ever get around to making jam with them. Plums, grapes, garlic, kale, lettuce, shallots, peas all doing great this year...tomatoes, cukes, peppers and zucchini you have some catching up to do.

Shallot harvest

This is our sick plant recovery center located by the puppy door. Currently in rehab are that sad little sun damaged blueberry bush and an evergreen that didn't like it's spot. We have one more sick bed currently available.

Zinnia goodness on the back patio and a gorgeous pot, courtesy of my mother in law, Anne. I love it!

Dahlias are standing tall this year...the rebar stakes worked! (so far)

little green tomatoes on most plants but only the little sungolds are ripe yet...let's get this party started, kids.

The beginnings of the greenbeans. Never have grown these before, but so far so good, they seem to like this trellis.

Since this picture was taken the fennel has not only crested the room but then started curling in on itself. It's about 5 feet taller now. #monsterfennel

Baby apples on the espalier tree, finally!

Shallots, onions and garlic curing in the sun. The patio smelled like an Italian restaurant for weeks and there's more on the way...these are just the ones that volunteers, the elephant garlic is still in the ground.

I never pick my artichokes...they are too pretty when they flower.

grapes are on the way!

Echinacea, yarrow and moss in the front yard.

My wish for Love in the Mist has finally come true, they finally sprouted from seeds planted in early spring! I love this flower because it's gorgeous when it blooms but also when it dies. Oh how poetic and twee, yay.

Early Summer Garden Update 5/17/15

It may not officially yet be summer but given the early Spring that we had I feel like plant growth-wise we're in to June already. The impetus for this particular blog was the removal of the fava beans...a rite of passage each year, and always fun. Lots of beans to harvest and then planting the waiting tomatoes and peppers. This year I did them all from seed EXCEPT for one, small golden something or others. My hunch is that these will produce earlier with big yields but I may be wrong...or I may be half riiiight. ("Reel Around the Fountain" is on while I type this).

The sky is bright at 5:30am, it's summer, folks. Get out and enjoy it as much as I plan to!

CHALLENGE: For this photos series try to spot the Elizabethan Missy Misdemeanor lingering in the front yard.

Veggie garden, favas removed, tomatoes and peppers (and a zucchini) planted.

A "Jerusalem" flower of some sort...it spoke to me so I made an impulse buy. We'll see what happens. 

I think my "Love In A Mist" seeds might finally have bloomed...i wasn't sure this would happen and I'm THRILLED!!!!

It's not all sunshine and moonbeans around here....something was eating my clematis and my kale...slugs. Sluggo purchased...lighting a candle for you darn slugs, you just picked the wrong bush to eff with. 

Well the lacinto and lollipop kale is looking lots better since I killed all of those damn slugs. 

early Summer in the front yard...i like that it keeps changing.

raspberries, mint and blueberries

Just about to see our first Lupine of the year.

Peas, pweese!

I like black plants #goth

Missy approved fence. Great job, honey!

Going to try rebar for my dahlia stabilizers this year. If this doesn't work I really just don't know what.

Mid-Spring Garden Update 2015

Just a quick update before we go full throttle in to summer. Between now and the end of May things get busy in the garden. Right now, the main thing to do is weed and prepare new growth. I have to go run a half marathon in about 30min so without further ado...here's the latest!

Papa finally convinced Mommy that he could cut down the old apple tree to make way for a fire pit. 

The apple tree is no more. Anyone interested in some apple wood? We've got enough for you to applewood smoke every meal for the rest of your life!

the backyard...my poodle tree is doing well except for the one branch Mackie relieves himself on every morning. Also note the "puppy path". A trail made by the puppies that circles the entire backyard.

The Front yard as seen through the trellised blooming apple tree!

Here is a shot of the veggie garden. Peas in the foreground right. Garlic, leaks, shallots followed by fava beans on the left. The grape vines are starting to bloom as well and I started a few rows of lettuce and swiss chard just for heck of it. 

These hostas in our front yard popped up a week after I planted the bulbs. They must like their home...yippee!

In less exciting news the kale is not reaching it's full potential yet. I am taking some measures (snail repellant, fertilizer) to try to get these kids back on track. We'll see.

The lavendar is blooming!

Lillies on the side yard. These appear every year stronger than the last...not sure how they even got there, could just be nature saying, here you go, your welcome!

I forget what this type of green is called but I adore it! I may just fill the whole front yard with it and all it a day. The leaves are so intricate.

The raspberry/blueberry patch and Anton making an extended rude face. This is what now happens every time he sees a camera.