Back on the Blog Wagon

At least I hope so. I've been brutally busy lately and at the end of the day all I want to do is plop on the couch and stare at the TV. This is not like me at all really and I think it's been the weather. I hate the muggy August weather and it drives my allergies to insane levels and I think it effects my sleep. Today it was warm, dry and lovely out and last night it was quite cool and I slept like a rock. Today I worked in the garden, made veggie lasagna from scratch and even threw together a peach caramel sauce for the ice cream we had for dessert.

So what have I been doing to be so busy? Mostly saving the garden from the ravages of the June and July weather. My sworn enemy is fungus. I'm finally on top of it now and now that it's almost gone the garden is back on track.

Even the hot peppers have managed to pull through and are growing like crazy. I hope they have enough time to fruit before the frost kills them. I may try bringing them inside if they're close come fall. While the grow lamp I keep for seed starting aren't anywhere near sunlight they might be enough to ripen up peppers that are close.

The CSA has been crazy the past couple weeks. I've given up on trying to photograph the whole share, it's far too much. So sis has been taking her half home and I've been managing to fit my half within the frame. The fruit shares have started and for two weeks it's been peaches and blueberries YUM.

Week 5

Week 6

I've also decided that a good place for my camera is in the basket where I keep my weeding tools. I've gotten a few really neat photos in the past week. That's all I can think of for now, hopefully I won't go so long between posts.

I haven't blogged because...

Yep almost two weeks and not a peep. Well, it's because stuff keeps pissing me off. Frankly, some of these people should suck moose balls, they deserve it for being one or more of the following ... stupid, liars, selfish, famewhores, deluded, vile, evil, and generally asshats.

Jessie and Ronnie from BB11. Totally turned me off my one guilty pleasure of reality TV. It's the rat turd review. Where do they find these people? I want to know where not to be, EVER. Don't try an tell me any of these idiots aren't like this in real life, if they were that good at acting they'd be getting academy awards not squatting on a set all summer for pennies.

President Obama. Seriously, blindly backing your buds is for frat boys and organized criminals not high elected officials. That shit belongs back in Chicago, you're in DC now, try to find your A game, you look like an idiot. Also, just like when you were 5 "I'm sorry" really does fix most things. Try it.

The weather. Specifically the god damned non-stop rain. I'm sick of battling the fungus and slugs now. My hosta leaves look like they're made out of lace and I swear I can hear "help me" from the zucchini at night.

My sister. She can't seem to drag her ass out of bed and be less than 2 hours late dropping of the baby. I got my ass up you an certainly manage to haul yours out of be before noon. Grow the hell up already.

People who proselytize door to door. Don't come in my yard means DON'T COME IN MY YARD! I got all the crazy I need already. Seriously, if you're religion was any fun you wouldn't need to sell it door to door. Last time I checked God was not a crappy vacuum cleaner.

People protesting outside women's health centers. Go the hell home! No one wants to f*ck you anyway so you really have zero to worry about. Before you go let me know when and where your next prostate exam is so I can show up and scream like a lunatic with a sandwich board. Don't act all offended when I give you the one fingered salute out the car window, have you seen the picture on that sign you're carrying?

There's more but I'd drone on forever if I kept going. It's not fun when all you run into for weeks is sucky people, making sucky decisions, imposing on my already sucky day. Blah.

Look Up It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No, It's

THE SUN!

It's still shining, has been for a week with only a couple showers at night. I'm amazed!

The plants are really starting to catch up now, lots of flowers and little tomatoes on the plants. The cucumbers have taken off like crazy and even the hot peppers are looking like they might pull through.

I picked a couple zucchini and a summer squash for dinner last night. Yummy.

We've had blueberries for over a week, at least a handful a day.

Finally it's week three for the CSA and it was a nice haul. There was kousa squash, zucchini, 2 kinds of lettuce, basil, shelling peas, a salad cucumber, scallions, a Chinese cabbage and a bunch of diakon.

CSA Week 2 and New Garden Photos

It's week 2 of the CSA and we got all kinds of goodies. There was hakurei turnips, radishes, lettuce, peas(shelling), scallions, zucchini, kousa squash, cilantro, cucumbers, chard, and purslane. The rain isn't messing up things too badly which is good.We had a couple sunny days in a row here, I know I couldn't believe it either, so I managed to get some new photos of the garden. The summer squash, zucchini and cukes all seem to be loving the weather the hot peppers not so much. Most of them seemed to perk up and bud some new leaves in the sunshine but now it's raining again so I'm not sure what will make it long enough to give us any fruit.
The blueberries are ripening and we've gotten about a handful a day for about a week now. Once they're gone I can take the bird netting off and let them be shrubs until the fall feeding. They're pretty low maintenance and I'm happy with the number of berries considering we just planted them this spring, of course next year they'll be more berries as long as I keep them happy this fall and winter.

The CSA started today!!!

FINALLY!!!!! We got zucchini, green leaf lettuce, chard, spinach, a salad cuke, radishes, cilantro, pea pods and garlic scapes.

We grilled up one of the zucchini and sauteed some of the radishes to go with the grilled chicken tonight. I also put a couple of the scapes in the food processor with a little salt and olive oil to mix into some plain rice. It was a very yummy dinner. Hubby and I both missed the CSA all winter.

Rain, Rain, Rain

There's less but still too much and no where near enough sun. We did get a little over the weekend and it was enough to perk up the plants. This morning when I went out to the garden there was a ton of male flowers on the squash plants so I decided to pick a few and make some brunch. A little leftover rice, herbs and ricotta cheese stuffed into the blossoms before they're dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried and ...... bingo! You have a nice little meal.

Name That Plant!!!

We have a mystery bush / tree folks. It's by the driveway and we were going to remove it and then bam, it fruited. It never did that before. So now I want to know what it is before I decide to rip it out. Is it edible, poisonous, invasive (OK I KNOW it's kind of invasive), worth taking some cuttings for another part of the yard?

All I know is that it's hardy to zone 5/6a, has berries, and some branches are almost 10 feet tall.

Guesses?

Worms Have No Shame

So it's raining...AGAIN and the plants are starting to look a little worse for wear. We need a week of dry weather soon so everything can dry out.

The rain does bring out one thing in the garden that's pretty cool, the worms. Hubby hadn't seen the little garden helpers out in the night rain before so I grabbed a flashlight and brought him out to the garden to see the worms. Well the worms were out got sure but ummmm not like last time.

I proudly shine my flashlight into the garden to show hubby and we see mating worms. That's right all the wormies are getting busy tonight and making little worms. ALL of them. There are right now at least 2 dozen humping worms in the garden bold as brass.

There will be no pictures this evening.

Tomatoes in Bondage

Yay! The trellis is up and the tomatoes are tied. The trellis is about 7 feet tall and all 14 plants fit nicely along it. It did take 3 people to get the top on but I think we figured out how we can do it with 2 next year.

The blueberries are starting to turn blue so it's time to put some netting over the bushes. What a pain in the neck this stuff is. It's hard to see, it sticks to itself and it's very floppy and annoying. It does keep the birds from eating all the blueberries, they don't seem to like to share.

Now, it if would stop raining long enough to get some weeding done I'll be all set.

Happy Tomato Plants Growing and Growing

So you may have wondered how much can a tomato plant grow in a week in Massachusetts, OK maybe not. I have an answer anyway. They can double in size! Pretty neat huh? I really need to get the trellis up tomorrow.

I also managed to get three of the evergreen shrubs planted, bedded and mulched. I set them a little off because the variegated one is going to mostly grow sideways. The one in the back will get tall and the one on the left will be round and medium sized. I think they'll make a great little feature when they start to fill in and I can sculpt them a bit.

Here's the plants on the deck, they pretty much take up the whole bench now which I kind of like.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm beets. Nuff said.

Now, a problem. My mother decided to show up with six strawberry plants today for the baby. I really don't want to have to clear a strawberry patch area so I'm thinking of containers. Anyone done strawberries in containers before? Can you winter them over in pots or plant them in the Fall to winter over? Should I bite the bullet and try and find a spot for them?

Sarah Palin Get Off My TV!

Seriously STFU. I was sick of you before the election was over.

There's no point complaining about comedians making mistakes about which kid they were talking about everyone knows already. You know, you're just looking for an excuse to get free face time on TV.

Fact is no one would ever say flat out what the real deal is. Your kid got knocked up because she's an idiot who couldn't figure out keep your legs closed or use birth control just like every other teen mother who's moms don't happen to have the attention of news outlets. That whole crock cooked up over the election about her getting married because they were really in love? No one bought it then and wow, reality check, it didn't happen. How's that abstinence only sex ed working for you now? Same way it works for everyone else, not at all. Your family is not part of the teen pregnancy solution it's part of the problem.

Trotting the kid out on the morning shows to talk about how she wishes she had waited blah, blah, blah makes her a public figure and fair game. Next time THINK about consequences before you do something... and while you're at it you might want to teach that teen mother kid of yours the same thing. Fact is in the old days your kid would have been labeled a whore and the baby a bastard and no one would have come to their defense in the press or anywhere else. Using this whole situation to get free press sure gives hints as to your real priorities, perhaps those priorities contributed to the whole mess to begin with?? Maybe?? Just a tad??

So STFU and stop taking valuable news time with your stupid ranting. Make better use of it and teach the rest of your brood about rubbers before we all have to hear and see about this whole mess repeating itself. Frankly, you should be glad it's just late night jokes because I for one would be more than happy to bring back shunning.

OK enough on that, more about the garden over the weekend.

The Worms Come Out at Night

The worms come out at ni-hi-ight.

The worms come out at night.

The worms come out at night.

OK enough weird retro music references. I was out in the garden looking for what's been munching my radish leaves. Alas, the critter still eludes me. I did however find something kind of cool, dozens and dozens of worms out in the light rain. They're fast buggers too, as soon as the flashlight hits them they zip back into the ground like greased pigs. I decided to use stealth and the flash on my camera to capture them in their wormy glory. I suspect they may be one of the reasons for the great growth I'm getting in the garden even though it's new.

Happy Garden Dance!

I see summer squash! It's itty, it's bitty and I had to squish an aphid that was trying to suck on it but it's the first one in the new garden and I think it's very cool.

I also noticed the jalapeno plant blooming today. The flower is prettier than I thought, I like the little purple around the edge of the petals.

I still haven't gotten the shrubs in but I've been busy doing a rain dance. All last week the rain scooted North, it scooted South but it never rained here not a drop. It's really odd since 5 miles in any direction they got at least a little rain. I have high hopes for tomorrow.

The squirrel learned a new trapeze act today. He hung by his hind legs over the suet feeder and then dropped down free fall onto the swinging feeder. I've decided he's either determined or nuckin futs .... perhaps both. Either way he earned a treat and since playing with the feeders keeps him out of the garden I'm cool with the 1.50 a week for new suet blocks. Although when I have enough trays saved from the store bought ones I'll be making my own. I do have 20 pounds of home rendered suet tallow in the basement after all.

The End is Near!

Seriously, the end, the end of the crazy amounts of work getting this garden put together. Today the blueberry bushes went in. I made them a nice bed framed with red brick and tucked them in with some pine bark mulch. They also got a nice dose of fertilizer that should keep them happy until the fall. They look really cool from down the path between the two large veggie beds.

I decided to get some friends for the boxwood that my niece got at the beginning of the week. Rather than have them solo I picked out some friends for them. I'm not a fan of multiple plants all the same all bunched together, hedges give me the heebee-jeebees. I do however like different specimens of the same kind of plants in small groups. Since I had boxwood I decided to get 4 different evergreen shrubs and make two groups of three plants. Each group will have a low, medium and tall shrub and they all have different colors and textures. I'll be planting them tomorrow and over the week and they'll be getting the same red brick as the blueberry bushes.

I love how the garden looks from the deck. I can stand back and see how close it is to being done. I also noticed some little buds on one of the tomato plants on the deck. Buds mean flowers and flowers mean tomatoes.... SOON!!!

Never Take a Toddler to the Garden Center

Seriously. At least not if it's my niece. Kid's weird.

My sis and I went to the Home Depot the other day to pick up some odds and ends and my niece decided to put a couple 6 dollar plants on the cart. We thought "how cute!"

She’s 3 and since they were pretty cheap we let her have them. All I noticed on the tag was perennial and sun or part shade so I figured we could find a place to put them easy enough.

When we got home I read the tags more carefully ….. Boxwood … 3 - 10 FEET! Of course they're also two different varieties. What kind of three year old picks shrubbery over all the pretty flowers in the garden center?! Kid's weird I tell you, weird.... and cute.


After much thought I decided to put the smaller one next to the compost bin. It's a Green Velvet Boxwood so it'll be about 3 feet and on the round side. I might toss in a couple annual flowers in a semicircle to give it a border. For sure I need more mulch to finish the section, and maybe a couple of interesting perennials. I started out wanting a veggie garden and somehow I've ended up also putting in a fairly formal garden with boxwood and blueberries.



I took some new photos of the garden this afternoon. The summer squash is flowering like crazy.

The tomato plants are really going now, and the trellis is mostly built and just needs to be installed.


The dwarf sunflowers the little monkey planted are looking happy.


The Armenian Cukes are coming along, those should be interesting since they're supposed to max out at 3 feet long.


I hope to get a lot done this weekend, at least the blueberry bushes planted, bedded and mulched. If I have enough time I'll clear and clean a spot for the other boxwood.

Pretty Cool Day

Something weird and interesting happened to me today. If you've ever shopped for teas online at Adagio.com, and if you haven't you should, you might have seen their Adagio TeaV video reviews of people's individual tea blends. Today one of mine got picked for a funny video review. It's my OMG I can't get to sleep and I have to be somewhere in the morning herbal blend. I called it A Book st Bedtime and you can see the review here. Buy some! Kidding. Maybe. Anyway it was kind of entertaining to show it to the hubby.

On the garden front I got a bit of work done today. I thinned the lettuces out a bit and I'm pretty much finished planting into the cinder block holes. All that's left is to put up the tomato trellis and finish mulching between the beds. Cool new garden picks below.

Moving Right Along

OK, first off I have poison ivy again. I must have leaned against or sat on something that had poison ivy on it when it was still damp from the rain. I have it on the back of my thighs and my rear end. It sucks .... and itches.....and people look at you funny when you scratch your ass at the Home Depot.



I started on the tomato trellis today. It's made from 1 1/2" pvc and is going to be 8 feet high and 20 feet long with 3 support posts in the middle. I decided PVC was ugly so I grabbed a can of that spray paint for plastic, red of course. It has to cure overnight and I wanted to see how it works so I just did the elbows and t's today and the long pipes will go tomorrow. I think it'll be pretty neat looking when it's all done.



I managed to track down a few herbs today that I hadn't been able to find. I got rosemary, bee balm, lemon balm, greek oregano and some lavender. Being the cheapskate I am I split and took cuttings from all the plants. That way I have more than enough to space out among the cinder block holes, share with my sister and pot up.



I finally found a use for the tray with no pot my mom brought over out of Nana's basement. It's an uber tray for the pots with no trays. A few stones and hey it looks pretty cool. The vast majority of what we used to get the garden going was out of Nana's basement. Papa is too old for a large garden and Nana had started reducing her amounts of stuff long before she got sick and passed away. I'm amazed how much I remember from being a kid and helping in Nana's garden, it came back like I had learned it all yesterday. I think she'd be proud of the garden and happy all the stuff got put to good use.