The Greenhouse and Garden 2017

I was going to wait until I had planted something, but I can write again later...
For Christmas, we were given a greenhouse. It has taken until now to reach agreement on where to set it up--but it is up!

I found a spot for it near the garden.  I need to get a thermometer for inside so I can figure out how warm it gets and stays in there so I can decide what to plant out there (vs inside in the little greenhouse).  I recently read a post-apocalyptic book in which the survivors grew kale because it did ok in cooler, darker temps, so I may try kale in the next couple weeks and see what happens--it depends on when I get organized I suppose!  We had some snow this week and it held up well, so I have high hopes for my little greenhouse!

What's for dinner?

As you may recall, we had three lovely (small) butternut squash from the garden this year.  Unfortunately, Alice the Cat decided she likes to attack the butternut squash, so storing them long term seemed like a bad choice.  Luckily, today was cold and rainy, a perfect day for squash soup.  Here's the recipe I started with with notes of the changes we made...

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/235965/sunset-soup/?prop24=etaf:  Sunset Soup

And here is what I actually did:

Last night I baked the butternut squash, cut in half, in a little water for about an hour at 350 degrees, until soft, scooped out of shell and refrigerated.

Cut up, added a tiny bit of water, cooked in microwave for about 5 minutes, until all soft:

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

4 little turnips (from CSA basket), peeled and chopped

2 small gala apples that were bruised and the children refused to eat, peeled and chopped
4 little onions from the garden, chopped

While the other veggies were cooking, put squash and a can of beef broth in the blender and blend until smooth.  Transfer to pot.

Put other veggies in blender with another can of beef broth, add to pot.

Season with cumin, curry, chilli pwd,  and paprika.  

It had the seal of approval from the whole family...so yay!

Good bye 2015 garden....

Between the month of rain, the Japanese Beetle invasion, an apparent bunny infestation, and the 90+ temps in September...the garden was pretty disappointing this year.  My organic pest control worked when I did it well--insecticidal soap and cayenne pepper are just a couple of my methods--but I wasn't very good at keeping up.  I'm a lousy homesteader, what can I say.  We had a few tomatoes, some beans and peas (not enough for a meal), a few cucumbers (not enough to pickle, just enough for eating) and some peppers--oh and two okra.  We may still have a few more tomatoes and peppers, but it looks like everything else is done (as evidenced by the dying vines and plants).  Here's the final "big" harvest.

Notice that the oddly shaped carrots are as big as the butternut squash.  Sigh.  There are a few more carrots out there, too, I'm leaving them for now. There are a few onions and two sad little tomatoes there...  Mr. IM posted a slightly different view of the carrot on Facebook with a slightly obscene label.  Men.  The good news for the carrots and onions was that they became part of the yummy veggie gravy that went with our pot roast on Sunday.  (Now that's a recipe I should share--it is one of the Mister's specialties!)

Now here is the success story of the summer, ironically.  You may remember the previous "potatoes in a bucket" projects.  (See here, here,  and here).  Partially due to the rain, I didn't start the potatoes when I should have.  Sometime in June, I cleaned the refrigerator---like take out all the drawers and shelves and scrub every surface cleaned--and found...wait for it...two little potatoes growing legs.  So I chopped them up, threw them in a plate of water overnight and threw them in some dirt.  I did add more dirt a couple times., but nothing else. Over the weekend I realized all the potato stems were dead, so I dumped them out, expecting, well, nothing, like the past two years...but...surprise--from my two pieces of potato I harvested 4-6 reasonably sized potatoes and a bunch of little ones.  Hmm.  This is an idea for next summer perhaps.

The Garden, 2015 verson

Don't worry, we haven't been neglecting the garden (well, no more than usual), just neglecting writing about it.  It has been a bit of a traumatic early season--between raining the entire month of May, followed by a brief respite, then a few more days of pounding rain (literally drowning my first round of cucumber plants)...But I think we are in a good place now...Here is a photo tour of what's happening in the back yard at least...the front yard is making slow progress--the gnomes are out and about and most of the plants have finally started sprouting...here we go..

We moved the palm tree, affectionately known as "Salad" (by Alice The Cat) to the patio..hopefully prolonging its life.  If it doesn't get hit by hail.  But at least Alice isn't eating it.  Some of the roses finally bloomed.  Here's a sign of how wet it is..we have mosquitos! The tanish canister is actually a citronella candle.

Not real flowers.  But pretty!  You can see how crazy the shrubbery is though

This is a little worrisome--our sweet little sequoia trees seem to have brown patches on their branches.  We're hoping they are making pine cones, not dying :(

Another view of the our of control shrubbery..

I think my birdbath has a leak--earlier this summer it seemed to be holding water again, but the water was gross, so I cleaned it...and now it doesn't hold water again...d'oh.

Roses and grass.  The catnip didn't come back yet--Alice and Tigger are very sad.

Patio, with both tables and umbrellas...we moved the fire pit to the other patio, thinking this way we'll have more shade?  So far it means that every time the wind whips up I dash outside and put the umbrellas down...but it has been cooler in the kitchen and on the patio with both umbrellas.

Another out-of-control plant...we still don't know what it is...We think it could be some kind of tree...any guesses?

Before you start thinking we're too awesome...here's the side yard..still a work in progress...Can't you picture it terraced a bit, with a walking path and plants (not weeds)?  Someday...

Ladybug on my overgrown chives.

Yes, I gave in and planted potatoes in a bucket...year three was a late start and used only one sad starter potato that was rotting in the fridge.  We'll see.  I'm not hopeful on this one.

Lots of peppers and tomatoes in pots instead of in the garden.  There are a few tiny green tomatoes and we've had a couple Anaheim peppers.

The actual garden--lots of spinach, sunflowers are growing nicely, chives are out of control. Some garlic, some onions.  The peas and beans did nothing--they grew, but no veggies :(  Cucumbers are coming along nicely, we had a couple off a plant in a pot, which promptly died as soon as we had our two cucumbers picked.  Grr.  The stepping stones are new, made from kits we've had for years and rocks gathered at Hoeft State Park last summer.

The heart in the background marks where the Tiger Lily bulb from mother's day was planted.  As you can see, the mint and chrythmums came back.  The buckets are Mr. IM's project--some Japanese lettuce and Ung Choy, perhaps?  I'm sure he'll correct me :)

The apple tree has leaves, but isn't looking great (better than the cherry tree though--we're pretty sure it is dead...no leave).  We'll see what happens, but I'm not expecting apples this year.

Last fall we bought two yucca plants on clearance.  We were pretty sure we'd lost both of them, but this one seems to be growing and even has little friends joining it in the pot...so some research to see when/if we can transplant one of these little guys seems to be in order.

Another view of the veggie garden, with the dying cucumber plant front and center..

And finally, the "flower" garden--the ducks are happy that the lavender is growing--the hostas have taken off around the corner and the peach tree at least has lots of leaves (no peaches, but at least its not dead...)


There you have it....an update on our slow start garden!

Potatoes in a Bucket...the conclusion

So after our really lame harvest of the potatoes in a bucket , I had high hopes for the potatoes in a trash can.  Looks, promising, right?

 So after dumping out the dirt, onto a tarp, in small batches, picking through it, and then putting the dirt in the garden...

(Oooh, it looks so pretty)

Here is our harvest of potatoes from the trashcan:

Huh.  Well.  That was weird. Maybe we'll try one more time next year.  Or not.  They were tasty little potatoes though--I made them into homemade potato salad--yum!

Tiny corns

Earlier I reported that we had one ear of corn...I was slightly wrong...there were a few more...tiny...corn..

 They don't look so bad, in with the cucumbers...I mean, those are big cucumbers, right?

 And big cherry tomatoes, right?

Well, no...but they were tasty.

The garden is starting to wind down--a few more cucumber blossoms, some kale, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and peppers still to harvest.  There are a couple more apples--no peaches or cherries this year, but we've picked about five apples of various kinds.  And it looks like the asparagus will be great next summer.  I need to take a look and see if we have more onions and garlic and start getting everything tucked in for the winter.  Today I bought a butternut squash at the grocery strode...I felt a little guilt that I wasn't going to the Farmer's Market, but it was quicker to just get it there...hopefully one night this week we'll have butternut  squash soup...yum!

Yardwork, the garden and other fun

Although the garden is coming along nicely...

 the front yard was looking a little rough.

 While the Boy played catch with himself, Mr. Ranch and I did a little work on the front yard--it was looking better (at least before the surprise snowstorm!)

 We even got the boy to help clean up a little.

 Of course this was the view on Mother's day...

 Luckily, I was able to pick enough baby greens for each of us to have a baby greens salad on Saturday night--the kids were not impressed, but the Mr and I enjoyed them very much.  Stay tuned for more produce...we'll see what survives the snowstorm!!