Monday, August 27, 2012

Monday Harvest, Rain Gauge & First Day of School


Here it is Monday already!  How did the week go so fast?  Last Monday I was able to find a few greens, some green beans and 2 or 3 cucumbers.


Tuesday was a nice little variety!


Just green beans and a few raspberrys on Wed. and a couple carrots shown in the next picture.


I am so proud of my carrots this year!  The best I have ever been able to grow carrots!  Hoping this happens again next year!


Thursday harvest was my sad tomatoes and a few green beans again.


On Friday the pickings were more plentiful.  Cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, yellow squash and a few greens.  We seem to have plenty to eat from our little garden and a little to freeze!  Thankful for the bounty!


There was plenty to pick again on Saturday!  Really will miss all this fresh produce come winter!


I went out to pick a couple green beans and didn't expect to get all this on Sunday!  Wonderful!



I went to Green Days this past week and the little water gauge was a freebie!  Isn't it cute!  I need to go out and see how much rain we have gotten!


Now I cannot resist showing off our two littlest granddaughters first day of school.  This is Gracie and she just lives a little ways from us.  We enjoy seeing her often.



This is Abigail's first day and she is a grown up first grader now!  I wish they lived closer so that I would get to see her more often.  Her Daddy is a Master Chief in the Navy and they now live in MD.  We are proud of him also!  Thanks for visiting once again!  










Monday, August 20, 2012

Monday Harvest Report and Birthday Celebration


Here is my harvest from my little garden for Tuesday.  I missed the cucumber and it got a little larger than what we like them.


On Wednesday I had quite a variety.  Note the deformed patty pan squash!  It looked like three growing together!  Never had that happen before!


The yellow squash really produced on this day.  I have started freezing it.  Read a new way to use it so will try that.  If I don't like it then Coco will be glad to eat it up for me!  "Wonderful Gardener" does not like squash.  He doesn't know what is good!



Friday was another nice little harvest.  One cucumber was a little plump for our liking again!  Nice variety this week to keep us supplied except tomatoes are terrible right now and flopped on growing green peppers this year.



Here is a picture of my first batch of dried parsley ready to go into the jar!  I hope I have developed more patience through doing this!  It is nice and green and I am really pleased with the results.  I have more drying now!



I cut up and froze the green peppers that were given to me.  They will be used in sautees, soups or pizzas this winter. 


Melissa's birthday is Tuesday and we celebrated last night.  Mike makes her cake every year.  Of course the "Littles" were so excited and had to help her blow out the candles!  This is all the pictures for this Monday!  Thanks for visiting and I hope that you will come again to visit!



Friday, August 17, 2012

Flowers, Jungle, Comfey, Parsley & Sugar Peas


We have had some rain and the flowers have started to bloom again!  Lots of color in the rose circle now.


Some more color around the fountain again.  Guess winter is not here yet!


The squash and cucumbers have turned into a jungle now.  Hard for hubby to mow!


My Comfrey plant has split the pot and is huge.  I had planned to make Comrey Tea to fertilize my veggies but due to health problems I did not get it done.  I don't have the heart to ask my "wonderful gardener" to do it when he doesn't even like to garden!  Oh, well, next year!!  I think "next year" is a favorite saying of us gardeners!  Does anyone else make Comfrey Tea for their veggies?????


Some more color back into the raspberry/flower bed too!  I guess if things bloomed all winter I would not appreciate their beauty as much as I do for the season.


I guess I must be out of my mind as I picked more parsley today to dry.  It tries my patience taking it off the stems!


The Sugar Peas are starting to grow up the lattice.  I sure hope I get some mature ones to eat before we get our first frost!  Hoping, hoping, hoping..........







Monday, August 13, 2012

Harvest Week and Garden Stones


I think the garden is winding down!  We did get some rain and things have really perked up with God watering instead of city water so will see what happens!  On Monday the "grands" had picked.  What fun they had.  Nana's little mini-farm!  Of course, Nana and Papa really enjoyed seeing them do it.  This is what I picked on Tuesday.  


I think this is what I picked on Wednesday!  This past week was a lot of fun but I got a little disorganized! lol  On Thursday the "grands" had fun picking again.  I didn't take a picture of that.



On Friday I picked a small patty pan squash as wanted to show the "grands" what one looked like.  They are just starting to produce.


The blackberries are about done.  We usually get a smaller second crop of the raspberries but only have had a few so far.  Still hoping.



On Sunday this small amount was harvested.  The little bit of produce from the garden seems to keep us in vegetables quite a bit of the time.  My onions did well so it has been fun giving them away.  I plan to try to store some for the first time and see how I do.


Aren't these nice!!!!  Too bad I couldn't claim I grew them!  A friend gifted me with these from their garden.  My green peppers were a complete flop this year!  Oh, well, better luck next year!



The "grands" from VA gifted me with garden stones that they had made.  This is Mac and the one he made.  I have them outside now and they look so nice!


This is Emily Grace and the one that she made for me!


This is Ashley and the one she made for me.  I love homemade and I love garden art so was thrilled to receive them!  They look so cheery out there!








Monday, August 6, 2012

Harvest Monday and Family Time


The following are some of the things I harvested this week.  This was picked on on one of the first days of the week.


Dug a hill or two of potatoes and and fixed them for our evening meal one night.  Had a few lettuce leaves and a couple spinach leaves, two cucumbers and four tomatoes.



More picked another day!


On Friday I even harvested a zuchini!


Saturday's pickings included a yellow squash!


Family from VA is in town for the week!  Grandson Mac, Myself,  Granddaughter Emily Grace and hubby, Bob and behind us is Granddaughter Ashley!  We are having lots of fun and laughter with them and the two other families living near us.  We are missing our family from MD and wish they could have come too!


Granddaughter Gracie and daughter Sue participating in the bag games!


Our oldest Grandson, Ryan, who is Sue's son and our son Scott won the championship of the bag games!  They thought they should have t-shirts that say "Big and Sexy!"


We ended the day at the beach and watched a beautiful sunset!  The end to a perfect day!!



The kids came over today and thought it was pretty neat to harvest all these things from the garden!   Mac dug up the potatoes for us.


After harvesting the crops we baked chocolate chip cookies together.  Nana is losing it!  We forgot to put the salt and soda in the cookies!  They tasted good anyway! lol


Gracie is teaching Nana how to hula hoop!  I didn't do too bad for an old lady!









Thursday, August 2, 2012

Rose Bush, Hibiscus, Dianne, Dehydrator, New Plant, Granola, Books & Coco


Only one rose bush blooming so far for the second round of blooms!


We are really enjoying seeing the new hibiscus plant blooming this year!


My good friend, Dianne, came for tea and cookies.  She will be moving a little farther away and I will miss having her nearby!


I was really missing my dried apples so got the dehydrator going last night.  It has five trays but some of the apples were dried already.


I had some free Chuck Bucks from our local nursery that needed to be used so I put them toward this plant today.  It is a Meadow Phlox.  I love the lavender and white flowers and thought they looked so delicate.  Now to decide where to plant it!!!



It was time to make more granola so that got crossed off the list today!


My Organic Gardening magazine is on the bottom but this is my stack of books from the library!  There is a gardening one among them!  Never enough time or energy!



Coco is standing by the refrigerator wishing I would feed her!  She got groomed today and a new collar.  It is hard work trying to be beautiful!  She is my extravagance.  I spend more money on her hair than mine!  Ridiculous, don't ya think!








Progress in the Courtyard!

  It was so nice to look out my bedroom window this morning and see the Clematis blooming instead of a pile of snow.  It is a rainy day agai...