Gather ye hoses while ye may

How many feet of garden hose is enough?  This pile is just for the backyard.  I bought a new hose for the front yard, one that can reach around both sides of the house.  Buried in that pile above is a wand for sprinkling, also a new purchase this year.  I liked it so much, I bought a second one for the front yard.  Too lazy to make both sides of the house share one wand.

Ordinarily, I don't water the meadow, but there are pumpkins and squash planted there this year.  I have been hand-delivering water to them, but with the bee balm and milkweed in bloom, venturing in there takes an intrepid soul.

"They" say that using sprinklers is the least efficient way to water, but my observation is that watering the soil at the base of the plant works but the plants really appreciate a good shower from above.  It cleans off the dust and clears the pores.  I know just how they feel.

Yesterday it finally rained, one-half inch.  That is the first measurable rain my yard has received since June 20.  Needless to say, no mowing has been going on.  And it has been HOT.  Saturday my SO and I spread two pickup truckloads of mulch around the shrubs.  That just about KILLED us.  The next two days are supposed to be reasonable - high 70's and low 80's - then it is back around 90-ish for the weekend.  Ugh.

I don't know much about insects but I'll go out on a limb and say this is a small white butterfly.  These are also known as cabbage butterflies, as their larvae are responsible for the ruination of many a cabbage patch.

The following two pics are of a hummingbird moth.  At least, that is my story and I'm sticking to it.  I did not expect the photos to turn out at all because this little bugger (ha) would not sit still.  It flitted around each blossom, checking for nectar.

And if a blossom was particularly deficient in nectar, it flitted even faster.  The page I linked to says it feeds on the foliage of the honeysuckle family, but it doesn't say if that is honeysuckle bush (a non-native invasive that I HATE) or the honeysuckle vine.  I haven't noticed any damage on either in my yard.

When I wasn't chasing bugs with my camera today, I was digging holes.  I purchased two more crocosmia because the one I have is not visible enough from the West Wing.  I love the red blossoms, so much so I did not realize I planted one of them in front of the Rose of Sharon, which is just starting to put out its pink blossoms.  I also decided to move the 'Blue' hosta across the yard, to a shadier spot.  When I dug it up, it looked very divisible, so now their are FIVE hostas under the viburnums.

The Early Girl tomatoes STILL are not ripe, which is just about killing me.  And I learned today that "everbearing" strawberries are not really EVER bearing; instead, they produce two bursts of fruit, one in the spring and one in the fall.  I also learned today that those Meyer lemons will take 3-4 months to ripen.  I think I will have to maul the potato plants soon, in search of new potatoes.  So much garden and nothing edible right now.  Besides scallions and ready-to-bolt lettuce.  Which I better go water before I forget.

Wake up!

I've been sleep walking lately. A Way to Garden woke me up the other day with the post about garlic. They say to harvest garlic when the bottom half is dry and the top half still green. I looked at my garlic and realized that the bottom half was still green but the tops were dry, a sure sign of not enough water. Not only that, but one variety, the Broadleaf Czech, was completely dry, at least the plants that were not missing entirely. I think only about half even came up, but since I was not paying close attention, I can't be sure.

Bad garlic gardener!

I harvested the seven bulbs that were discernible, and they are not the best examples I've seen, some small and misshapen and one separating, which I think means it was ready to grow into new plants.  I just might plant the cloves from that one, and enjoy "green garlic" later this season.

Today I broke down and bought sprinklers. That is not my favorite way to water, but I just can't face another summer standing in the yard, hose in hand. Several years ago, I purchased some irrigation equipment which I never set up. While I'm figuring out that, the garden will get showered.

On a happier note, I took a closer look at the Meyer's lemon.

Look!  See!  TWO fruits and a new blossom!

A week or two ago, I stumbled upon a gardening show that had a short segment on a Meyer's lemon. The one in the show was 3-4 feet tall, and the host discussed removing suckers to maintain the single trunk. He also snipped each tip to encourage branching. I'll have to remember that when mine gets a little bigger.

I've been trying to photograph the meadow, to show you its splendor - yarrow, bee balm, milkweed, sunflowers, crocosmia, coneflower, daisies, etc. - but I'm not able to capture its essence.  Here are a couple of up close and personal shots, though.

Volunteer from under the bird feeder

LOTS of bees in the meadow

Finny Knits recently provided a video tour of her garden.  I may steal that idea in the future, but right now I would be too embarrassed to show you all the weeds.  It looks quite wild out there.

Free mint water

Do you pay upwards towards $1.69 for a bottle of mint water?  If you have mint growing in your backyard, you can make it for free.  I don't recall where I saw this recipe, but just pick 1-2 cups mint leaves (I use spearmint), bruise them a bit, then add them to a gallon of water.  Store in the refrigerator and a couple of hours later, you have mint water.  Very refreshing!

Say cheese!

Against your better judgment, I decided to give the raw milk a try.  I am now the owner of one herd share from Pasture's Delights.  I'll write more about this topic at another time, as this move on my part has generated a lot of internal debate and philosophising, and I'm still hashing some of that out.
My one share entitles me to approximately a gallon of milk a week.  I like milk, but living alone, I am finding that to be a lot of milk to deal with.  So I decided to try making some cheese.

First up, because it was easiest, was mascarpone, made from the cream I skimmed off one of the gallons.  I used this recipe and it turned out fine, at least as far as I know.  I think the only mascarpone I have had has been in Italian desserts, and at that time I did not know what I was eating.

I think this is only the second time I have used this double boiler in 20 years.

Most of this was mixed with honey and eaten on rhubarb muffins.  And it was good!

I don't know why this photo is so yellow - the cheese is actually white.

I also used some to make The Most Voluptuous Cauliflower, from New York Times Cookbook.  (I tried adding the Amazon link to that book, but either Blogger or Amazon is not playing nicely today.)  Also good.

Today I decided to try my hand at ricotta made from whole milk, using a recipe that came with Ricki's Cheesemaking Kit for Mozzarella and Ricotta (ordered from here).

Looks like cheese to me!

I did not get the yield I expected.  And the curds are dry.  There are a lot of things I have learned from books, but I'm thinking I could really benefit from attending a cheesemaking workshop.  Also, there is a lot of leftover whey which, unless one is fattening a hog or has time to go on a baking binge, is kind of useless.  I'm going to try watering my strawberries with it - since I used citric acid to make the cheese, they should love it.

Surprise!

Those little lemon blossoms?  One of them has turned into a baby Meyer's lemon!

The "tree" itself is only 12" tall, but is showing some new growth.  Yippee!

Too bad my green thumb doesn't extend to the Patio Princess tomato.  Don't know what's wrong with it, but it sure looks sickly.  The pepper plants don't look real perky, either, so I dosed them with fish emulsion (and the dog chewed up the watering can afterwards).  We need rain, real bad.  I did some watering last night, but I hope this does not turn into another dry summer here.

Have a fun and safe Independence Day!

Soon

Early Girl

The goal: no mulch here

My SO brought over a copy of Envisioning the Garden.  The gardens being envisioned in this book are quite large in scale, making my third of an acre feel like a postage stamp.  One thing I noticed, and have noticed in other books on landscaping, is the beds are not mulched.  Instead, they are brimming with plants.

Around these parts, mulch is a primary landscaping tool, the rule rather than the exception.  Mulch is available in a variety of colors and textures.  It can be bought by the bag at big box stores and filling stations, hauled from the county biosolids site for free or for a couple of hundred dollars a dump truckload can be delivered to one's doorstep.

In my poorer days, I mulched my flowers and shrubs with grass clippings.  They served the purpose of discouraging weeds while retaining moisture.  Then I graduated to bags of mulch, then an annual dump truckload, and now have backed off to a couple of pickup truckloads a year from the biosolids site.  My goal is to be virtually mulch free, though, just like in those fancy landscaping books.

Some of my beds have achieved this state of grace, most famously the hosta bed on the north side of the garage.

Hostas as far as the eye can see.

This bed is FULL.  So full that I have had to rescue a coral bells that was disappearing, and will soon relocate the 'Love Pat' hosta that is too young to compete.

Help!  Save me!  I'm drowning!

Where hostas have not been planted, volunteer columbine, coneflower, rudbekia, and violets have filled in the gaps.

The front of the house is also filling in nicely, mostly with a selection of tall and low growing sedums.

The other beds around the foundation of the house are similarly packed.  I won't say these beds are weed free, but they are relatively easy to keep that way.  My yard and its planting may not look "normal" but it suits me just fine.

(Deja vu!  I feel like I have covered this topic before, but I can't find a similar posting.  Oh, well!)

Doh! and No!

The past couple of years I have grown Amish snap peas.  While they have done okay, I did not think they were as prolific as the variety I grew many (20?!?) years ago.  Then I recently read somewhere that peas are to be planted in bands, not rows.  Doh!  I KNEW that, but had forgotten it.  No wonder the harvests seemed a bit sparse.  Next time I will do bands.  Assuming I remember.

Yesterday my SO came over to weed and found a dead rabbit outside the back fence.  While examining it last night, I found a dead robin nearby as well.  Remembering a CO2 cartridge I found in the garden a month or so ago, I put two and two together and came up with someone using my backyard habitat for target practice.  Grrr!  Of course, I have my suspicions but no proof, so I emailed all my adjacent neighbors, asking if they had noticed anyone in my yard.  One responded that while she had not seen anyone in my yard, she had found a dead rabbit in their yard.  The plot thickens.

Today the weather is not very summerlike - gray, breezy, cool - almost like fall.  Hope my sweet potatoes don't get discouraged.

Not according to plan

The goal was to create a spot in the meadow for the butterflies to "mud" - consume moisture and minerals without getting drowned.

The result was the robins taking a shine to said spot.

Maybe the robins need their own ground level spa.

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to plant spearmint

There are a few things I will not plant in the garden proper ever again.  Anything in the mint family is now forever banned.  However, that does not mean I won't grow mint.  I'll simply relegate it to a container.  Spearmint and catnip are keeping company with oregano and lemon balm in the white recycled utility sink below.

Beside the sink is a "salad bowl".  I got this idea from another blog (but of course now cannot figure out which one - here is a link to the video though).  Simply put, you find yourself a container, fill it with potting soil, and populate it with leaf lettuce plants.  You harvest the outer leaves of the lettuce while the lettuce continues to put out new leaves from the center of the plant.  Voila!  Salad!

Behind the sink is my garlic bed.  Three out of the four varieties planted there are "hard neck" so they put out scapes. 

The scapes, if left alone, turn into blossoms I think, but "everyone" says to snip them off and cook them.  I tried that last week, sauteing some scapes with snap peas and chicken, but part of the scape is kind of tough for chewing.  That won't stop me from trying again, though.

Not in the picture above is my patio eggplant.  Last week it put out one lonely blossom.  You can tell that it is related to potatoes.

Sadly, today I spotted a baby bunny in the backyard.  I don't think he was the one I saw a while back - that one would be bigger by now - and I'm not sure how he got in.  But when I was mowing last night, I noticed that the pavers by one gate were a bit askew.  I straightened them out, but possibly not before he snuck in.  No damage so far, so maybe he hasn't been here long.

More sadly, a young robin learned about picture windows the hard way.  I was hoping he was only stunned, but he succumbed to his injuries quickly.  There are other baby birds in the yard right now besides young robins:  the wren babies send up a chirping chorus whenever a parent arrives with food, and below is a daddy cowbird with a youngster.

Mourning doves are another fixture at the bird bath.  The colors of their plumage are so subtle and soft.

Besides bunnies and birds, other critters have been spotted (heh).

It has been ages since I have seen a real ladybug.  Usually all I see are those Japanese ones which are more orange and bite.  I'm taking this ladybug's appearance in the meadow as a sign that my backyard habitat is working.

Speaking of the meadow, it looks pretty much like a weed patch right now, but a few bloomers belie that rumor:  yarrow, keys of heaven, daisy, catmint.  The vegetable garden is all planted for now, and I have been harvesting snap peas.  My SO and I continue to battle the weeds that are everywhere.  A weed is any plant that is growing where you don't want it, so that includes the mint mentioned at the start of this post.  I'm also edging the viburnum/arborvita beds, to reclaim them from the encroaching lawn.

Despite (or because of) the hard work, I enjoy the hours spent in the yard.  Some of the time, I am thinking of new things to try, already planning what I want to do next year.  Mostly I am just having a good time.  My ancestors include farmers and nurserymen, so I guess I come by it naturally.

First hummingbird of the season

Can you see the hummingbird?  It's the blur near the center.  Those things are fast.

Work (boo) and rain (yay) have interrupted the gardening, but tomorrow promises to be a delightful day.  Meanwhile, here are some pics from around the yard.

The climbing roses are a bit past their prime, but still gorgeous.

I'm not a geranium person, but I do like red.

This is the best display of 'Betty Corning' I have ever had.  It probably helps that I have not moved them recently.

The promise of potatoes.  Hope it's not an empty promise.

'Early Girl' tomato is the first to bloom, which I why I planted one. 

Scallions among the sweet potatoes.

Snap peas will be ready in a day or two.

This is the Wenk's that I overwintered inside, so naturally is is ahead of pepper schedule.

The purple-leafed growers in my front yard.

From the left:  smoke bush at the corner of the house, Crimson King maple in front, Japanese maple in the back, sand cherry bush, and barberry on the right.

Bathing beauty

I've been almost too busy to bother with the camera, but I did manage to catch a few of my backyard denizens doing their thing in my backyard.

Maybe once things calm down, I will be able to capture some better up-close-and-personal shots, but these will have to do for now.

This is the third year for my tulip tree, and it is looking better - leafier and maybe taller.

And it is a decent year for the climbing rose as well.

More bloomers coming on:  Keys of Heaven, yarrow, viburnum, Jethro Tull.

I have started to enjoy the strawberries (Oh. My. God.  Nothing beats a fresh strawberry still warm from the sun) and soon we will have snap peas.  The first planting of green beans are up and the pototoes are starting to blossom. 

Re the latter, a few days ago I mulched the potatoes with straw.  The next day Betsy Beagle acted as though there were something in that there straw.  I poked around but could not scare up anything.  I hope-hope-hope it is not field mice, poised to ruin the crop.

All transplants are in the ground except for the calendula.  The pumpkins and squash and cukes have been planted as well.  For hills, I dug a hole for each, filled the holes with composted manure and blood meal, then covered with the dug up soil.  I have not had very good results with cukes and zukes the past few years, so maybe this will help.

While I was at Lowe's buying composted manure and straw, it occurred to me that urban gardening is a lot more expensive than rural gardening.  When I lived in the country, I kept chickens and we mowed a couple of acres around the house, so I never needed to buy fertilizer or mulch.  I bought seeds at the local Ace Hardware, where they were available in bulk, which is an odd way of saying you could get a teeny tiny scoop of whatever instead of having to guess whether a packet was enough/too much.  We had outdoor cats, so no need to protect the garden from rodents; the dog discouraged the deer.  The chickens helped with insect pests, too.  I miss that feeling of interdependence.

One more bird observation before I go:  finches and/or sparrows have been dining on thyme seeds from the herb pot on the patio.  I've never seen that before.

Progress

I was out of town for most of the holiday weekend.  Fortunately, it did not rain more, so when I returned, things were dry enough that I could actually accomplish something yesterday.  The last two tomatoes are in their MiracleGro bags (I did that before I left), the peppers are in the ground along with some of the marigolds, and the first of the green beans are planted.  There are still the herbs and flower plants I started indoors to get planted, plus some direct-seeded veggies and flowers, all of which I hope to do this week.  Then it will be time to weed, weed, weed.

My SO came over yesterday and started weeding the meadow.  He does not always know what's what plantwise, but he knows what Canada thistle, garlic mustard, and dandelions look like, so I figured if he targeted those three, the rest of the plants would be safe.  It was his first foray into my yard this year, and he pooped out kind of quickly, but made a good start.  This Fiskars weeder was great help with thistle embedded in clumps of yarrow and bee balm.

While we were taking a break, we witnessed a bluebird trying to check out the bluebird house.  The resident sparrows were not willing to give it up, though.  I have a second bluebird house, so will put that up in the front yard, where it is more open, which the bluebirds favor and hopefully the sparrows will not.

Currently blooming are the iris, peonies, spring phlox, columbine, clematis, and honeysuckle vine.  The latter is not looking very healthy this year.  I have never pruned it, so maybe that would help.

Current edibles from the garden are rhubarb, chives, scallions, greens, and radishes.  Salad, anyone?

Lake front property

According to my rain gauge, 2.25" fell this afternoon, too much for the storm sewer at the end of the driveway.  The water came almost into the garage.  Thank goodness it has stopped raining.  For now.

Some gardening has occurred between rain showers.  Most of the tomatoes are planted - 8 Amish Paste, 2 German Pinks, and 2 Hungarian Heart all fit into the 4'x20' bed in the garden, and a Patio Princess is in a pot.  I am going to try something different with the two remaining - an Early Girl and a Fresh Salsa Hybrid - and plant them directly into bags of Miracle Grow potting soil.  I've seen this somewhere and thought I would give it a try.

The onions are looking good:

The yellow flags mark where the natural gas line crosses my yard.

Another experiment is growing sweet potatoes - my first time - in containers:  6 grow bags, 4 plastic pots, and two recycling bins the city no longer uses (we have single bin recycling now).

The white pot is for the Patio Princess.

 I tried mixing peat with my own compost, adding bone meal and blood meal, but ran out, so I hope to finish filling these with more Miracle Grow potting soil.  For the record, I prefer growing my garden in the ground, but my soil is heavy clay and not very amenable to root crops.  Until it shapes up, I will have to resort to some above ground solutions.

So far, the patio strawberry tower is looking good:

I expect the robins will be trying to steal berries off this.

 And, inside, the Meyer lemon is not only thriving, but blooming.

The smell is so sweet!

 I don't know if these will produce fruit without being outside where pollinators can get to them, but the plant looks too tiny to support lemons.

And that's all for now!

Raw deal

When I was a kid, I was quite the milk drinker.  I had milk at every meal, would even trade my lunch (except the cookies) for other kids' milk, and saw nothing wrong with washing down dill pickles with milk.  I loved milk.

When we lived in Ohio, the milk was delivered to our door by the dairyman.  When we moved to Illinois, we purchased our milk at the grocery store, but it still came from local dairies.  Into adulthood, I continued my milk drinking habit, even when teased about picking milk as my beverage of choice with pizza.

Then milk, especially whole milk, began to get a bad rap.  We switched to 2%, sometimes 1%, but rarely skim because it looked blue.  The funny thing is, even though we are consuming less milk fat, we keep getting fatter.

And milk no longer tastes good.  My theory is that, since milk is no longer produced just for local markets, the milk from multiple dairies is mixed together and trucked long distances to be processed, getting bruised along the way.  Then, it is not only pasteurized but ultra-pasteurized.  That sounds like a good thing until you consider the fact that ultra-pasteurized milk cannot be used to make cheese because the process alters the protein molecules.  Is it even milk anymore?

Some people resolve this issue by trying to purchase raw milk from local sources.  In many states - including mine - selling raw milk is illegal.  One local dairy is attempting to circumnavigate the legalities by selling "herd shares" and accepting "boarding fees" in exchange for raw milk.  It's an intriguing business model.

I don't know what to make of the health benefits touted by those who promote raw milk.  I doubt any scientific studies have been done.  I grow my own vegetables because I believe they are more nutritious than trucked-in-from-far-away, store-bought ones, and I KNOW they taste better.  So I may try raw milk for the taste, and choose to believe that it is better for me.

Anyone out there have any experience with raw milk?

Water, water everywhere...

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we really received that predefined one-inch-per-week of rain throughout the growing season instead of getting too much in May, not enough in August?  Fortunately, the weather forecast changes daily, this time from day-after-day of predicted rain to a break in the clouds tomorrow.  One problem with mowing high is the lawn looks long a couple of days after cutting, and the almost-constant showers are not helping any.

(Another problem with mowing high is finding dog poop - it is well hidden - so I patrol both before mowing and after, to find what I have missed.)

Yesterday, before the storms hit, I managed to stroll the nabe with Baby N, stopping to chat with one of the few neighbors who gardens.  Their vegetable patch (and yard and house) always look perfect; I have to remind myself not to compare their property with mine because they are both retired.  Anyway, the conversation naturally turned to rain and gardening.  They practice what I think of as "traditional" gardening - rototill in the spring, plant in rows.  Consequently, they have not been able to get the early veggies planted yet.  My unmolested raised beds, on the other hand, have onions, potatoes, peas, and lettuces going strong.  While my garden is not as pretty, it is productive.

The tomato plants I ordered from Seed Savers arrived last Wednesday, so Thursday I dug up the bed where I plan to plant the Amish Paste.  However, this time I marked the bed with string before I dug.  Since my raised beds are not planked in, they tend to bleed into the paths, making them appear smaller than they really are.  So, not only is there room for the Amish Paste, but for the Hungarian Heart and German Pink as well.  (My tomato patch sounds so international!)

I recently read in some gardening forum one man's solution to Canada thistle: smother crops.  He plants buckwheat in the summer and winter rye in the fall, and their dense growth chokes out the thistle.  Now that all the tomatoes will fit into one bed, I have a free bed to try this on.  There is also an area I am prepping for raspberries, so I can do the same there.  Each time I use RoundUP or WeedBGon, I suffer the guilts.

If it weren't so rainy out, I would provide you with a few pics of what is blooming right now.  You will just have to take my word about the bleeding heart, columbine, creeping phlox, lily of the valley, lilac, and spring phlox.  Or take a look at my May blog entries from years past.

That's too bad, but SCORE!

Our local Borders is closing.  Even though they fell out of favor with me a while ago, I am still sorry to see them go.  BUT the remaining stock has been progressively on sale, and a couple of days ago I purchased three hardcover cookbooks for 50-60% off:  The Complete Tassajara Cookbook by Edward Espe Brown, The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones, and The Essential New York Times Cook Book by Amanda Hesser.

The latter has received most of my attention so far.  I'm anxious to try these rhubarb recipes first:  Rhubarb Bellini, Rhubarb-Strawberry Mousse, and Straight-Up Rhubarb Pie.  Most recipes have some commentary, but what can one say about Swedish Ginger Cookies made with BACON FAT?!?  And the Club Sandwich is as follows:  "Go to the club.  Drink six toasts.  Eat a slice of meat.  Drink six more toasts."  All I need is a club.

After I purchased the above books, I was perusing my own shelf of cookbooks and was surprised at some of them, as I don't recall buying them or ever cooking from them.  Must remedy that, but I am not sure how, without giving up my day job.

What's next?

My business trip this past week was bracketed by mowing.  Although I was gone only a few days, I expected things to look different upon my return.  While the rhododendrun and the forsythia are fading and the redbud and flowering crab are coming on strong, not much else changed.  Temps were cool, there wasn't much rain, so stasis prevailed.

The plants I started indoors are ready to be transplanted.  I could have started them a week or two later than I did, and it is obvious that using old seed frequently results in poor germination, but in general, I am satisfied.  I purchased some plants online and they have not arrived yet.  Just as well, as the tomatoes and peppers don't do well when the temp dips below 50 at night.  My transplants are being hardened off on the patio, where they were also watered thoroughly by yesterday's rain.  Today should be drier, but I have grandma-duty, so won't get out into the yard until late in the day.  Hopefully, it will be a good time to spray the thistle some more.

Besides attacking thistle with RoundUp, my one other non-organic weed control this year is using WeedBGon on the dandelions, which are running rampant.  I am also mowing at the highest setting on my Toro, which is supposed to help discourage lawn weeds.  I plan to test the soil in the front yard, to see if there are any amendments I could add that would also discourage weeds.  And I am leaving the mulched clippings on the lawn this year, for added nutrients.  I don't have much lawn left, but I would like it to look reasonably nice.  I don't try to wipe out al the dandelions, as song birds like the White-Throated Sparrow eat the seeds.  I saw some of these birds just yesterday.  Too bad they don't eat all the dandelion seeds.