Buds on "Apricot Delight" Achillea
Gayfeather
Blooms on the "Chocolate Chip" Ajuga
The starting blooms of the "Golden Jubilee" Hyssop
Tickseed and Gayfeather with Achillea in the background
Tickseed Sunday, July 27, 2008
Perennial Photos
Buds on "Apricot Delight" Achillea Gayfeather Blooms on the "Chocolate Chip" Ajuga The starting blooms of the "Golden Jubilee" Hyssop Tickseed and Gayfeather with Achillea in the background Tickseed 
How are we going to eat all this?
On Friday I harvested 5 summer squash, each about 6"-8" in length. There are more on the vine that will probably be ready in a day or so.
He's been laying eggs on our collards and broccoli. And the evil little larvae have been munching holes in the leaves. So I sprayed the plants down with some insecticidal soap. I'm generally tolerant of garden "pests" but not ones that ruin my crop.
Today I picked some more beans. There are about 4 peppers that could be picked. And maybe as many jalapenos. Our onions are also doing very well - we've picked a couple for salads.
But the plants that make me worry the most?
But the plants that make me worry the most?
Those are our tomato and tomatillo plants. Keep in mind, Eric's 6'5" and he's standing on the raised bed. Those buggers are HUGE. And, oh, full of tomatos
In other news, we have an infestation of cabbage worms. See this guy?
He's been laying eggs on our collards and broccoli. And the evil little larvae have been munching holes in the leaves. So I sprayed the plants down with some insecticidal soap. I'm generally tolerant of garden "pests" but not ones that ruin my crop.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Added link to food blog
I added a link of the side to my food/cooking blog, What Recipe?, since it's starting to feature more and more recipes using our home-grown produce. Bon Appetite!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Weekend Projects
So on Saturday, Cathy joined her sisters at 7:15 am for a trip to Madison for the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) Art Fair on the Square. Having woken up early with Cathy to be a nice guy and have the coffee ready for when she left, I was ready for the day's activities at about 7:30 am, but I had no idea what they were. So, after coming back from a run and sitting on the deck looking into the yard, I noticed that the rows between the garden beds were a bit embarrassing.
Planting and maintaining the garden is easy and enjoyable; the rows between, not so much. Cathy and I had tossed some ideas around as to what to do in between the beds like laying possibly stone of some kind or maybe some mulch. We definitely wanted to put down some kind of weed blocking material so that removing the weeds from in between wouldn't be too much trouble, or if lucky, won't ever have to do it again. Last year, it took us about 2 hours to remove all of the weeds from the two rows. Well, since Cathy was gone and since I had the whole day to myself, I figured that it would make for a nice surprise to have the rows all taken care of when she returned.
Before I started de-weeding, I ran over to Stein's to pick up some mulch. I decided to go with mulch instead of stones figuring that if the lawn mower was to kick out mulch, it wouldn't hurt as much compared to if it kicked out a stone. Plus, I figured that the mulch would do a better job of choking out any weeds. I picked up a dozen bags of the 2 cubic feet Red Cedar mulch.
Back at home, with the dog supervising, I started on the first row. It took me about 2 hours to remove all of the weeds. It was interesting seeing all of the different insects when I was removing the weeds. Cathy would have hated it this year as I had come across a number of spiders and even some carrying some egg sacs. Although garden spiders help very much in controlling pests in gardens and the weeds were probably providing a nice habitat, the weeds had to go.
As a weed blocker, Cathy had suggested that we could use up our shredded paper as the weed blocker and then put the mulch on top. The idea is that the paper will block out the sun but allow the water through (see "Use Newspaper for Mulch"). Little by little, I added some of our shredded paper (about 1-2 inches deep), wet it down so it wouldn't blow away, and then add a layer (2-3 inches deep) of the mulch on top. All of our shredded paper (3 paper bags full) covered about 3/4 of the row and I used newspaper for the rest. I went through about 5.5 bags of mulch. It took about a half an hour to complete lay down the paper and mulch. So in total, it took about 2.5 hours to finish the first row.
After a quick bite to eat, I started up on the second row. Again, it took about 2 hours to remove all of the weeds. I had a little bit of news paper left but it didn't get that far down the row. So, I cut up our paper bags from the grocery store for the rest of the row; I just made it to the end of the row with the last paper bag bits. I used about the same amount of mulch on the second row as I did on the first. And, as I was spreading out the last bit of mulch at the end of the second row, Cathy returned from her trip.
A surprise it was indeed. Below is a before and after picture of the garden beds (and rows). I had forgotten to take a picture before starting the work, so the "before" picture is a week old. Notice how much the garden has grown in that one week? Now imagine the weeds growing additionally that much.
Having completed all of that work on Saturday on my own, I wasn't planning on doing anything on Sunday except for relaxing and enjoying the day. Hmm...that garage exit has always been bugging me and since Cathy was busy making bread and blanching the harvested brocolli, spinach, and collard greens, maybe I should fix it today.
I wish I took a before picture so you could see what it was like, but I forgot to yet again. Let's just say there was a concrete cinder block just below the doorway as well as some bricks stacked up next to it. Any time I want to take something out or into the garage like the lawn mower or wheel barrel, it was always a pain having to navigate the blocks.
So, I ran over to Home Depot and picked up a crushed limestone, sand, weed blocking material, a rubber mallet, and a tamper. I was basically working off of the instructions provided by About.com landscape site. The pattern itself was to match the pattern for our main patio--completely random order. After about a whole afternoon of work, including the head scratching to have the bricks fit in a random pattern, I was very happy with the final result. I even had the chance to test it out when I put the wheel barrel away in the garage--it worked wonderfully.
Well, now that the projects for the weekend are done, I can finally relax for the rest of the weekend ;-)
Planting and maintaining the garden is easy and enjoyable; the rows between, not so much. Cathy and I had tossed some ideas around as to what to do in between the beds like laying possibly stone of some kind or maybe some mulch. We definitely wanted to put down some kind of weed blocking material so that removing the weeds from in between wouldn't be too much trouble, or if lucky, won't ever have to do it again. Last year, it took us about 2 hours to remove all of the weeds from the two rows. Well, since Cathy was gone and since I had the whole day to myself, I figured that it would make for a nice surprise to have the rows all taken care of when she returned.
Before I started de-weeding, I ran over to Stein's to pick up some mulch. I decided to go with mulch instead of stones figuring that if the lawn mower was to kick out mulch, it wouldn't hurt as much compared to if it kicked out a stone. Plus, I figured that the mulch would do a better job of choking out any weeds. I picked up a dozen bags of the 2 cubic feet Red Cedar mulch.
Back at home, with the dog supervising, I started on the first row. It took me about 2 hours to remove all of the weeds. It was interesting seeing all of the different insects when I was removing the weeds. Cathy would have hated it this year as I had come across a number of spiders and even some carrying some egg sacs. Although garden spiders help very much in controlling pests in gardens and the weeds were probably providing a nice habitat, the weeds had to go.
As a weed blocker, Cathy had suggested that we could use up our shredded paper as the weed blocker and then put the mulch on top. The idea is that the paper will block out the sun but allow the water through (see "Use Newspaper for Mulch"). Little by little, I added some of our shredded paper (about 1-2 inches deep), wet it down so it wouldn't blow away, and then add a layer (2-3 inches deep) of the mulch on top. All of our shredded paper (3 paper bags full) covered about 3/4 of the row and I used newspaper for the rest. I went through about 5.5 bags of mulch. It took about a half an hour to complete lay down the paper and mulch. So in total, it took about 2.5 hours to finish the first row.
After a quick bite to eat, I started up on the second row. Again, it took about 2 hours to remove all of the weeds. I had a little bit of news paper left but it didn't get that far down the row. So, I cut up our paper bags from the grocery store for the rest of the row; I just made it to the end of the row with the last paper bag bits. I used about the same amount of mulch on the second row as I did on the first. And, as I was spreading out the last bit of mulch at the end of the second row, Cathy returned from her trip.
A surprise it was indeed. Below is a before and after picture of the garden beds (and rows). I had forgotten to take a picture before starting the work, so the "before" picture is a week old. Notice how much the garden has grown in that one week? Now imagine the weeds growing additionally that much.
Having completed all of that work on Saturday on my own, I wasn't planning on doing anything on Sunday except for relaxing and enjoying the day. Hmm...that garage exit has always been bugging me and since Cathy was busy making bread and blanching the harvested brocolli, spinach, and collard greens, maybe I should fix it today.
I wish I took a before picture so you could see what it was like, but I forgot to yet again. Let's just say there was a concrete cinder block just below the doorway as well as some bricks stacked up next to it. Any time I want to take something out or into the garage like the lawn mower or wheel barrel, it was always a pain having to navigate the blocks.
So, I ran over to Home Depot and picked up a crushed limestone, sand, weed blocking material, a rubber mallet, and a tamper. I was basically working off of the instructions provided by About.com landscape site. The pattern itself was to match the pattern for our main patio--completely random order. After about a whole afternoon of work, including the head scratching to have the bricks fit in a random pattern, I was very happy with the final result. I even had the chance to test it out when I put the wheel barrel away in the garage--it worked wonderfully.
Well, now that the projects for the weekend are done, I can finally relax for the rest of the weekend ;-)
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Garden Update
Our vegetable garden is off the hook!
Our tomatoes look amazing. Better than anyone else's. And we've been eating the romaine, lettuce, kale, collard greens and swiss chard for about a month now.
By all indications, we should have a fabulous harvest.
Our tomatoes look amazing. Better than anyone else's. And we've been eating the romaine, lettuce, kale, collard greens and swiss chard for about a month now.
We had a few fatalities. Two of the collard greens have pretty much kicked it. We also lost two bean plants. And one of the tomato plants is not doing well. But! We have broccoli and beans already appearing.
By all indications, we should have a fabulous harvest.
He dug up all my hollyhocks!
AUGH!
We have a small bed along the back of the garage. It tends to be ignored in favor of other aspects of the yard. So, this year, with everything that was going on, we didn't look at it until it was completely overgrown.
So Eric decided to attack the bed and get rid of all the weeds and unwanted items (we had some wild rhubarb growing, which is highly toxic to dogs). He went out there with a pitch fork, shovel and a large trash bin.
About an hour later I followed him out to see what he was up to. And started shrieking in rage. He had completely denuded half the bed - including all the hollyhocks! We had a ton of beautiful hollyhocks that helped cover that dull wall. Gone!
At each end is a set of siberian irises. I'm not sure what the small plant is in the middle of the pic. For whatever reason, he ripped out all the real flowers and left that one. I think it's a weed. All that's left of the dozen or so hollyhocks that we had are those 3 toward the right.
I told him he's not allowed to weed any other beds without consulting me first. Next thing you know he'll dig up all my black eyed susans.
We have a small bed along the back of the garage. It tends to be ignored in favor of other aspects of the yard. So, this year, with everything that was going on, we didn't look at it until it was completely overgrown.
So Eric decided to attack the bed and get rid of all the weeds and unwanted items (we had some wild rhubarb growing, which is highly toxic to dogs). He went out there with a pitch fork, shovel and a large trash bin.
About an hour later I followed him out to see what he was up to. And started shrieking in rage. He had completely denuded half the bed - including all the hollyhocks! We had a ton of beautiful hollyhocks that helped cover that dull wall. Gone!
At each end is a set of siberian irises. I'm not sure what the small plant is in the middle of the pic. For whatever reason, he ripped out all the real flowers and left that one. I think it's a weed. All that's left of the dozen or so hollyhocks that we had are those 3 toward the right.
I told him he's not allowed to weed any other beds without consulting me first. Next thing you know he'll dig up all my black eyed susans.
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