"No gracias, yo quiero jalapeños, nada mas"

Due to a busy weekend with the River Roots Festival and the Quad City Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, we didn't get a whole lot done over the weekend, so I took yesterday off work to do some gardening and canning.

While I was waiting for the jars to wash, I put in our fall crop of beets and watered everything outside.  That should be the last of the planting for this year.

Then I got busy making salsa!  After harvesting a couple of our celery plants and some more peppers, I started skinning tomatoes and playing some flamenco music.  A few hours later, we had a glorious pot of chunky, hot salsa ready for canning.

Then, once the kids got home, we took a trip over to my parents', where we threw the kids in the pool and picked a bucket of green beans (Nicole suggested that we might want to try a batch of "dilly beans"), a couple bags of still-ripening pears, some inadvertent tomatoes, and swiped a couple more bags of peaches for a cold fruit soup for our gaming session this weekend.  I cannot wait to make that.  It should be very yummy.

Peaches and Cream

We looked at the calendar this weekend and saw that the kids are heading back to school this week, all our summer shows were over, and we are already almost late in planting some fall crops, so Sunday, we got busy outside.  We put in four rows of peas and three rows of round carrots.  We planted a row of spinach, then broadcast other salad greens and a small patch of basil.  Nicole weeded and trimmed down some of the more exuberant perennials.  I want to get some new beets in the circle bed, and then we should be set for fall!

This weekend, I went out to mom & dad's and got some peaches.  They are delicious this year, but we don't really need to process any more -- we have plenty of canned peaches, peach preserves, peach pie filling, and fruit cocktail.  I'm going to try to can some peach rum sauce.  We are running low on that, and enjoy it on ice cream.

We also got some of the last of the fresh sweet corn.  It was also fantastic this year.  We discovered a new way to prepare it that we really like: coat in olive oil, salt and pepper, on the grill for 2 minutes per side.  Delicious.

"Leaning on a Lamppost"

Last night, we had two happy little volunteer helpers (ok, two cajoled, arm-twisted, and finally outright-threatened helpers) who assisted with weed removal.  We got almost the entire front bed weeded, and I ran the tiller around the lamppost.  We mixed in peat moss and planted the three small blueberries (variety: peach sorbet).  We still need to amend the soil behind the post, so that we can plant the large blueberry.  Maybe later this week; tonight is a busy evening for us all.

Our helpers also planted the last of our impatiens in the back bed, and weeded some there, too.  We trimmed up some of the plants in the side bed, weeded some of the alyssum, and picked more peas.  Hopefully, tonight, we will still have enough time to blanche and begin to freeze them -- we should have several pints by now.  Last night, we also harvested our first banana pepper of the season and some more salad greens.

Nicole brought home another couple of clematis (one to replace ours that died, one for the mailbox area) and an echinacea she insists is pretty.

The weather looks like rain tomorrow and Thursday, but the weekend should be back to beautiful.  Let's hope we can finish up the last of our spring planting (I know, I know -- it's July now) and get the rest of our plots weeded.

"So, plant a cabbage, get a cabbage, not a sauerkraut!"

It has been raining in abundance this month.  The weather kept us out of the gardens part of the time, and Cabaret performances kept us out the rest!  It was wonderful to get outside to play in the dirt a little bit today.  It rained pretty good yesterday, so it was a little less-than-ideal soil conditions, but we still weeded most of the new retaining wall bed and finished it off with green and purple cabbages, a new Chinese 5-color pepper (courtesy of Grahm & Gayle!), some lobelia and petunias, a lemon thyme, a wormwood, some pretty red geraniums, more chard, and more nasturtiums.

The weeds have really gotten away from us.  My plan this week and weekend is to get everything weeded and healthy again.  Most urgent: the front bed and the garage bed.  The vegetable gardens also need weeded, but they're not in quite as bad of a situation.  Also, in the photo above, you can see the area by the lamppost is not finished yet.  I also want to get in there, amend that soil, and get our acid bed started, so we can plant our rhododendron and blueberries.

 

Also this weekend, we shelled our first large harvest of peas, sauteed some of the dwarf curly kale (thicker and chewier than the Red Russian), picked another few beets, and sent some friends home with salad greens.  I want to get out to the pea patch again before we do freezing to make sure we got all the available pods.

"Just because it's June, June, June!"

After last week's multiple days of rain, it was nice to spend Sunday outdoors, finally getting back into the garden to do some work.  Britt had come to visit from Indiana, and by the time she left to get back on the road it was after noon, although it was still pleasantly cool for working outside.  There were TONS of gnats and bugs from all that wetness, though.

We noticed that our marigolds in the garden were in very sad shape.  I don't know what we did to kill them, but they were not just stressed from the heat -- they were dead!  We found some volunteer marigolds and replanted them in areas where our bought plants had died back.

The rabbits had gotten another of our bell pepper plants, but fortunately, mom & dad dropped by with a couple of orange bells for us, so that was a quick and easy replacement.

Tasks accomplished:

• Replaced some marigolds
• Replaced bell pepper plant
• Planted cherry tomato seedlings in the obelisk in the garage garden
• Planted replacement nasturtium along the front retaining wall
• Planted muskmelon seeds
• Moved and planted short zinnias around the tiered garden and the raised beds
• Anna planted sunflowers in her garden, and trimmed up the lamb's ear
• Pulled back grass and laid down cocoa mulch and straw around raised beds
• Prepared potato box and planted some potatoes, then put hosta around it
• Put in pea sticks for the garden peas and sugar snap peas to climb
• Burned all the branches and sticks from last week's crazy storms
• Trimmed back some of the wildly-growing perennial flowers
• Weeded (mostly) the garage garden again

Needless to say, I'm moving a little slowly today.  That was a busy Sunday!  Now we're into a week of Cabaret rehearsals, but I'm hoping to take some time off work tomorrow afternoon to finish cleaning up the garage garden and put in the green beans, brussel sprouts, herb plants, and whatever other miscellaneous plantings we need to take care of!

"The rains came down, and the floods came up..."

This weekend was very wet.  The forecast on Saturday was for seven inches of rain in the next seven days!  There's more flash flooding and wet basements around the area -- Nicole is worried that the rivers will flood and cause her work to get very busy again.

Alex went on a Boy Scout trip that was cut short by the rain, but while they were out there, they discovered a treasure trove of morel mushrooms.  We fried those up and ate them last night, and they were delicious.

Yesterday, during a break in the weather, we made some progress on the garden.  Our marigolds looked a little stressed (not sure what's going on there -- we watered regularly), but Anna planted them around the tiered garden, Alex did a great job of knocking back the weeds in the garage bed, and we put up trellises and cages around our tomatoes and peppers (and replanted the cayenne and orange bell peppers that had gotten eaten).  Additionally, we laid out straw in the circle bed, and did some general clean-up of the garden and flower bed areas.  We're heading back into lots more rain this week, but looking forward to a visit from Nicole's sister Britt this weekend!

Our salad days

We got some crazy wind and thunderstorms over the past few days.  It knocked down half of our remaining ornamental pear tree in the back yard, so yesterday, we had Bobby's Tree Service come and take the rest of it down, clean it up, and haul it away.  They did a good job -- there's just a low stump left, for which he's sending out his contractor to clean up later.

For dinner, we harvested the first of our greens.  Mixed with some chives (and store-bought cherry tomatoes), it was delicious and quick.  Yum.

First harvest

So, last night, we made the first harvest of the season: about two cups of chopped rhubarb.  We took the leaves and made an insecticide out of them (for Nicole's roses), then took the rhubarb and mixed it with some store-bought strawberries to make a compote.  It was delicious over ice cream!

We mostly took a break last night, but most of our plants all seem to be doing very well.  Most of the sweet potatoes we planted on Sunday are drooping a little bit, but we think they'll be fine.  We did lose one celery plant, and our purple cayenne (we'll try replacing that once the rain clears up).  All of our beans are now up (except the black beans), the cucumbers have sprouted, and the broccoli is beginning to come up (although we will need to weed that portion of the bed).  All of our herb pots are coming up, and the allysum around the cherry trees are sprouting, as well.  We weeded a million little tomato sprouts out of the raised beds, but the peas and greens are also doing wonderfully.

It's fairly nice today, so I anticipate some more work outside this evening.  Hooray for spring!

Breaking Ground

Today, I am exhausted.  We may have overdone things a little bit this weekend.  But we got so much done!  Saturday, we ran into Rock Island to rent a sod cutter, then stopped by mom & dad's on the way home and dropped off some tomato and pepper plants to them.  We had to make another quick trip into Davenport to drop the kids off at a wedding, but then, we headed home and removed all the grass from the newly-reshaped front garden and retaining wall, moving the grass to the hole in the west lawn, where those trees were removed and the grass has never come back yet.

That evening, mom & dad stopped by with a birthday present for Nicole and I... our very own gas-powered mini-cultivator!  The timing couldn't have been any more perfect -- we were not looking forward to trying to break through all that clay soil manually, but with this tool, we started Sunday morning after going out for some bags of compost, and by Sunday evening, the entire bed was cultivated; we had compost mixed in; sweet potatoes, nasturtium, and dwarf blue kale had been planted; and the veggies were covered in cocoa mulch.  Absolutely amazing.  But, hence our sore muscles today.  Whew!

Our hope is that the sweet potatoes will cascade down the retaining wall, along with the ornamental purple sweet potato vines and nasturtium.  Then we'll have some short kale with taller kale and chard behind it for an interesting background. On the other side of the bed, we'll acidify the soil and plant blueberries and an azalea. Nicole asked last night about putting in a few ornamental raspberries, too.

We finished everything up just in time, as when the sun was going down, a thunderstorm moved through and gave us quite a bit of heavy rain.  Fortunately, the mulch held fast, and we had put in a "dam" of paving stones to keep water from rushing down the hill and washing everything away until it can establish itself.

"Wouldn't you like to be a pepper, too?"

I took some more time off yesterday afternoon to get some more plants in the ground, hoping for rain tonight.  All of our eggplants (Pingtung Long), hot peppers (Jalmundo, Conquistador, Purple Cayenne, and Sweet Banana), and bell peppers (King Arthur, King of the North, Orange Bell, and Golden California Wonder) are now planted in the gardens.  I also put in a row of black-eyed peas and arugula.  It appears, though, that I accidentally grabbed an extra package of last year's generic arugula instead of the wild arugula I bought for this year.  Oh, bother.

It's been dry for a week now, so we've been diligently watering our fresh-planted seedlings, until they can put down some real roots.  Our potted basils are starting to sprout, as is the kale and chard I have in the greenhouse.

Nicole and I went to a community hosta sale after work yesterday and picked up several new hosta, including "Wolverine," "Battle Star," "First Frost," "Fire Island," and "Andrew."  Then, to kill time before my rehearsal, I stopped by Teske's and picked up a French Tarragon plant and some more Alyssum seeds for around the garage garden.

Happy Mother's Day!

This Mother's Day weekend, as has become tradition in the Manasco household, we hit up several area plant sales and subjugated the children to forced slave labor in the flower beds. It was a surprisingly chilly day (we actually moved several of our tender plants into the garage Friday and Saturday nights), so we donned some warm apparel and set off in search of unique plants at bargain prices. We went to the Port Byron library, the Silvis greenhouse, Our Lady of Guadalupe, the RI County Fairgrounds, Black Hawk Park, and the RI Botanical Center. We procured:

• Several huge potted grasses for the front yard
• A couple of coleus for Anna's bed
• Three sweet potato vines for the retaining wall
• Two dwarf blue kale for the retaining wall
• Three short cosmos for the vegetable garden
• A couple of tall cosmos for the raised beds

Our last stop of the day was at True Value in Moline, where they were having their annual Mother's Day bedding plant sale. We got four full flats of annuals -- lots of impatiens, vincas, marigolds, and some random flowers for hanging baskets.

Anna and Alex were of huge help: they planted almost 100 vinca and impatiens around the back patio garden. We also planted our new grasses and about 20 caladium around the front of the house and got the (slicing) cucumbers in the ground, along with the zucchini, butternut squash, and pumpkins.  Oh, and on Sunday, we attended an Arts Festival in Davenport, where Nicole picked out a couple of cute copper animal garden ornaments.

Then on Monday, I took the day off of work and spent the entire day preparing for or working in the garden. It was glorious. First thing, I went into town and purchased a couple of straw bales and some final seeds, then planted some kale and chard in the greenhouse, waiting for the weather to warm up. Around lunchtime, I got outside and planted thyme along our back patio walkway, some alyssum around the cherry bushes, and put in all of our tomato plants in the vegetable garden. I also turned over the area for the black beans and peppers, although I didn't quite have enough time to finish them. This week looks to be pretty busy, and then things get wet again for a while, but the next time we have some time and its not raining, I'd like to finish the peppers, black beans, green beans, and plant the last of our herbs (dill, basil, and savory). We are also going to need to get some pea sticks set up, along with another trellis for the black-eyed peas.

Making our garden grow

The forecast calls for rain tonight, so after picking Alex up from swim practice and while Nicole took Anna to bass lessons, I hurried to get a few more things planted this evening.  We now have broccoli (regular and Romanesco) planted down by our rhubarb patch, pinto beans planted by the side of the shed, and yin yang beans near the top of the top garden plot.  Additionally, I begain clearing away the weeds and burn-off residue from the garden, and labeled those plantings that had not yet been labeled.

I did notice that something had nibbled several leaves off of our freshly-planted celery plants.  We'll have to keep an eye on that.  I want to get the nightshades planted this weekend, build two new trellises (one for the top garden plot, one for the raised beds), and finish clearing out and weeding the lower garden plots and the garage garden.

In terms of growing progress, both sets of peas are now up, along with the radishes, mesclun/lettuce, and beets.  The crabapple trees are in full bloom (see picture on left above), and the front yard smells very strongly of flowering cherry.  We can start harvesting rhubarb, chives, and loveage at any time, and the strawberries are in bloom.  It's a good time of year.

Busy bees

Too busy for full entry.  Must sum up:

This weekend, we stopped by Wallaces.  Fun was had.  Came home with three blueberry bushes, two roses, some herbs, a grass with a purple flower, some wormwood, and lemon thyme.  Trenched celery in the garden; rue and lemon verbena in herb pots.  Pulled weeds.  Planted roses and re-arranged flower beds.  Edged front beds.  Got mildly sunburned.

Monday, we planted carrots in the garden; basil (sweet, purple, and thai), cilantro, chamomile in pots, spread weed & feed, laid out new shapes for front and side beds.  Noticed peas, lettuce, and radishes poking through the top of the ground.  Watered for good measure.  Remembered to wear head covering this time.

"It's May! It's May! The lusty month of May..."

Boom!  Just like that, it's now 80 degrees.

We got quite a bit done over the weekend.  We repotted our peppers and eggplant, and started putting some herbs in pots.  We planted four rows of peas, four rows of sugar snap peas, mesclun, lettuce, spinach, beets, and a few radishes.  We completely ringed the circle garden in onions from mom & dad, and replanted any garlic that didn't make it through the winter.  We have asparagus, loveage, and rhubarb up, and even some leftover raddichio that must not have come up properly last year.

In landscaping news, our daffodils are beginning to wane, but the grape hyacinth is going strong, and all of the tulips are popping.  Our cherry tree in the front yard exploded into blossom yesterday (with our first 80+ degree day of the season), and Nicole moved around several hosta and organized that back bed.  We want to put in another Julia Childs rose and move the peony over to the west, but otherwise, that flower bed is looking really good.  In the front yard, we plan to reshape the flower bed, and put in some annuals.  Nicole also wants to straighten out the tulips in some of the footprint beds, now that we know what we have.

We stopped by a few plant nurseries, too, and picked up a variety of flowers for Nicole, and two four-packs of celery for me.  They wilted like crazy in yesterday's heat, but I gave them a good drink of water last night, so hopefully, they will perk up.