Dusting Off The Cobwebs

Lately I've had the urge to blog again. I logged onto my blog and took a trip down memory lane. It was then that I decided that I'd dust off the cobwebs and restart this machine. I'm not sure if I will have a blogging schedule or if I will write when the mood hits.

I still have an Etsy shop. I celebrated my 12th year in January. 12 years! Where has the time gone? Etsy is the perfect fit for me. I work when I want to and take off when I need to.

I'm still gardening and preserving our harvest. Seeds are started and beginning to sprout. I'm looking forward to another year of working the dirt.

Althea lost her battle with hyperthyroidism. We miss her dearly. More than words can say. Not a day goes by that I don't think about her. We decided that we would get another cat a few months later. The silence around here was deafening. We searched the web for shelter cats and found two. Both long haired white cats. Both females. They are young and into everything! We adopted Magnolia from a shelter in Alabama. Mae came from Kentucky.

Well, I have orders to ship and jewelry to make.

Until next time.....

November Garden

I love fall gardening. The weather is perfect and the greens grow like crazy. While putting most of the garden to bed for the winter, some parts are still alive and kicking.
From top to bottom:
Two of the beds ready to be turned and seeded with a cover crop
Parsley
Garlic bed, with Pak Choi to the left
Pak Choi
Cilantro
Turnips
Spinach
Nandinas. Very important part of holiday decorating!

This week is going to be a busy one.
Until next time.

Late Summer

The morning landscape is thick with spiderwebs. I have always loved looking at them. I found this one this morning while feeding the birds. I think they're one of my favorites. I love the way they hover in the trees. They remind me of flying saucers.
  

 Look at the detail! If you look closely, it looks like a screen. Amazingly beautiful!

 And the scalloped edge! All of this woven in one night.

 Yesterday afternoon, I looked out the window and saw a critter in the back garden. I went to get a closer look and saw that it was a groundhog, sitting in the Dixie Speckled Butter Peas (above), getting ready to eat. A groundhog can do some serious damage. And fast. Trying to decide how to deal with my unwanted guest, I opted for the Have a Heart trap. I searched the Internet to see what was the best thing to put in the trap to attract them. There is a healthy helping of fresh vegetables waiting for the bandit, if it decides to return. (it will). But I'm worried that it will walk right by the trap and just enjoy the fresh vegetables IN the garden.

So today when I go to town, I'm going to pick up a ripe cantaloupe. I read that groundhogs can't resist them. We'll see how this goes. Hopefully I won't be sorry that I chose the catch and release method.
Until next time.....

Shifting Winds

 

We woke up this morning to the sound of the wind. Rain was in the forecast for today which pleased us. We haven't had rain in a week and the garden needed a drink. I stepped outside. The wind wasn't a hot, muggy July wind. It was more like end of summer, Autumn's calling kinda wind. I grabbed the camera right before the rain came and snapped a few photos to remember this end of July day.

1. Watching the rain fall from the back deck.
2. Crepe Myrtle in full bloom towering over the tomato plants in the garage garden.
3. The corn blowing in the wind.
4. Black Eyed Susans in full bloom behind the tomatillo bed.
5. New squash bed, freshly mulched with grass clippings.
6. Thai Basil in bloom. I'm letting one of the plants flower for the bees. I've never grown this variety of basil before.
7. And finally..........tomato harvest! We have to pick them a little sooner than we'd like because the mockingbirds like to 'taste' them.

It's going to be a busy week ahead.
Until next time.....

Strange Days Indeed

The weather continues to be all over the map. We're still getting rain, although it's more of a pop up shower in the afternoon and it's not enough to flood the gardens. I've done a plant body count and things aren't as bad as it looked at first (or so I keep telling myself).
We lost 21 out of the 29 pepper plants that we started. We were growing six varieties of hot and sweet peppers. Although this is a MAJOR loss for us, peppers are something that we can buy locally and won't cost a lot of money.
We lost 10 out of the 43 regular tomato plants and 4 of the 43 Roma tomato plants. At first more plants were shriveling up, but it looks like they're coming back. Fingers crossed.
This year, I decided to divide our tomato crop and plant it in different sections of the main garden. I also planted some in the bed behind the garage and in the bed next to the compost. I've never done this before and am so glad that I did.
The peppers are planted in a fairly new bed that obviously needs to be raised, since it's the one that flooded the worst. I'm in the process of building it up with compost and grass clippings. Lesson learned.

This week's round up:
1. Corn with Dixie Speckled Butter Peas in the foreground. Okra in between.
2. Vitex in bloom with happy bees and butterflies.
3. Tomatillo. Can you say Salsa Verde?
4. Cypress Vine and Morning Glory. Hummingbirds will be happy!
5. Cucumbers continue to shine.
6. Wave Petunias. I usually don't plant anything in pots in the summertime because it usually is too hot here. No matter how much I water, the plants rarely flourish. Not this year.
7. Corn tassels! Can't wait to eat my first ear of corn; fresh picked and raw.

Here's to a wonderful week all around.
Until next time.....

Cukes

Our cucumbers were spared any harm from the July flood. They continue to grow like crazy. I've put up enough pickles to last a couple of years. That makes me happy.
I begin my day by munching on a few fresh picked ones. We've been eating a lot of fresh sliced cukes in a vinegar/water mix with salt and fresh dill added. The vinegar can be any kind that your heart desires. Sometimes I add sliced onions. I make this in the morning and put it in the frig until it's time to eat. Cool and crunchy!
Until next time.....

Wordless Wednesday

The Wa-a-ting Is The Hardest Part

After all was said and done, we had a total of 5 7/10" of rain fall in 5 days. The sun finally came out on Sunday and the temps returned to normal. The gardens don't look so good. I knew in the back of my mind that all this rain wasn't good for them and they were in danger of rotting. Right now our pepper bed is supersaturated and the plants are wilting. Half of the tomatoes are wilting too. So far everything else looks OK. This isn't the first time this has happened and it won't be the last, but it sure as hell doesn't get any easier. I'm going to pass on posting any garden pictures today. You really don't want to see what I see. Until next time.....

Cucumber Season

This year's 4th of July was one for the record books. Literally. We broke a record in middle TN. Out here, south of town the high for the day was 66 degrees! It was fabulous. It rained ALL day. We had the windows open and it was almost chilly. Needless to say, the sound of the rain was heavenly. Our dinner plans changed from chicken on the grill to pizza indoors, which was fine with me. The rain did stop in time for the fireworks display in Nashville. I heard it was a wonderful show.

The gardens are loving all of this rain. Cucumber season has officially begun. We've had 3 bad summers previous to this one with record breaking triple digits temps and drought. Our cukes didn't do well and we didn't have enough at one time to put up pickles. But this year is totally different. The cukes are coming in like crazy. I put my first batch of dill pickles up last week. Today, I'll be making them again.
Breakfast consisted of a cucumber placed inside a hotdog bun brushed with mayo and topped with sea salt. Happiness~

Above we have:
Our pickling cukes. I'm harvesting them in two sizes. The smaller ones to put up whole and the larger ones will be sliced and used on sandwiches.
A new slicing cuke that I'm trying this year. It's Suyo Long. They grow to 15". I picked the first one this morning, so I have no idea how they taste. Stay tuned.
Pickling cuke vines.
Slicing cuke vines.
John Mac's Super Chilly Dills. Our recipe can be found here.
Until next time.....

Welcome July

I'm sitting here this morning wearing flip flops, shorts and a LONG sleeve shirt. It is almost cool outside and I love it. The weather has been incredible lately. Mid 80's, low humidity, afternoon showers. The windows are open. The gardens look fabulous. The perfect southern summer.

I haven't seen the chicken snake since the day I removed it from the bluebird house, but I did see a garter snake in the corn patch yesterday. And this morning I saw another chicken snake in the squash bed.

I thought I'd welcome July in with flowers.
Daylily.
Echinacea.
Daylily.
A double Rose of Sharon.
Purple morning glory.
Vitex with sleeping bumble bee.

We have a busy week ahead. Our pickling cukes are coming in, so I'll begin making batches of dill pickles. The garlic needs to be braided. The beets are ready to be dug, steamed and frozen. The last of the sugar snap peas need to be put up. The squash plants are producing like crazy. We've been eating a lot of squash for dinner. Grilled zukes are my current favorite. I need to head outside and dig potatoes and
I want to till and prepare a new bed for potatoes and onions. Best get a move on.
Until next time.....

Garden Notes ~ Late June

Wait. What? Late June? Already? Please slow down there summer!
It's been a busy week in the garden. I finished mulching everything, then spread wood ashes and manure. Now all we need is an afternoon thunderstorm.

The garlic is harvested. We put it under a tree atop wooden pallets to dry. I've got one eye on the sky because if it starts to rain, I have to get them into the garage.
Rattlesnake pole beans are starting to climb.
Tomatillos, resembling paper lanterns, are floating throughout the plants.
Cucumber blossoms. I'm eagerly awaiting my first cucumber sandwich. I live on those in the summer.
A section of the Roma tomato bed; staked, suckered, mulched and fed.
Dixie speckled butter peas. Excellent shelling peas.

I need to spend the afternoon in the studio, packing orders that are scheduled to ship tomorrow. Guess I better head that way.
Until next time.....