Nearly wordless Sunday

A lovely little marigold...


Cosmo


Brown-eyed susan vine


Green bean blooms


My Calla Lillies finally bloomed again for the first time in three years!!


A lovely bit of something blue I can't remember the name of...


Day lilly


Another one I can't remember


Bee balm complete with bee! (surprising because despite the name these usually attract moths and humming birds that can reach deeper in the flowers then the bees)


Broccoli I picked that we had for dinner tonight - it was the last till this fall but oh so good! I steamed it and tossed it with a garlic lemon infused olive oil. Mmmm...


Last but not least a lovely little hydrangea I got in a pot a couple years ago for mother's day and on a whim planted in the garden. Guess I picked a good spot because it's doing well there.

The squirrel has been named...

I am pleased to introduce to you Sir Frodo McNutkin the Third.

It's official

It's official, my laptop is completely dead, gone and buried. ::cries::
Hope I'll still get a chance or two to post here but it won't be with the frequency it once was unless something changes. (Like a bag of money falls out of the sky to buy a new one!) Well, more time to spend in the garden, right? Speaking of...

So one of the funny things we found when digging around in the pile of dirt that was our yard improvement project was this guy:
I think he should have a name... any ideas?

Our peas are also coming in - yay! They are so sweet, I just love garden fresh peas and feel very sorry for anyone who's yet to try a vegetable that's this delish. I could literally stand next to the vines waiting for them to ripen and just graze. Mmmm peas.


My potatoes are also going bonkers. I really wish I could've put them in a growing bin but DH was burned out on the yard construction projects. Drat! Maybe next year. As it is, I've had to prop them up because they were shading the cilantro which I didn't notice under the foliage actually got really leggy. Yikes. I hope I can pinch it back enough but it might already be too far gone.


The green beans are also about 10' tall at this point! There are little white flowers just starting to bloom on them so I'm looking forward to getting to eat and pickle them. I love pickled green beans!


The artichokes are also finally starting to look more like plants then overgrown dandelions. I got such a late start on these I'm not sure we'll actually get any chokes this year. I'm going to try to overwinter them under a hoop frame - we'll see how that goes in a few months.


The first little Marigold bloom peeked it's head into the world today too. That was a nice thing to find.


Oh and my sweetheart tom has little tiny tomatoes on it - all green but there. I'm quite pleased. =)

Oh sweet potato bloom!

I've "stolen" DH's laptop for a quick check in!

I've decided I'm in love with the cloyingly sweet smell of potato blossoms. I was watering this afternoon and found the aroma quite heady, when I went in for a closer whiff I noticed something rather horrific. There were ants on one of the potato plants (Yukon Gold) and the were all crowded around the stub where a leaf should've been branching out. It'd been chewed clean off! I noticed other areas of the same plant that were covered in swarms of ants. Does anyone know if the ants were doing this damage or just cleaning up at some other insect gnawed away at it first? I'm so not happy about this! Anyone have any ideas of what to do?

I also happily harvested a small ton of parsley this evening. I think I might have over-planted this a bit. Erps. Heh. So I put it in the food processor and swirled it around for a few seconds with a bit of oil to make frozen herb-cubes that I can use later for cooking. I also picked a bit of mint but tried a coarser chop with a knife and put them in another set of ice cube trays but this time with water. I'll make tea out of them this winter or even better - Mojitos in the fall when the mint is no longer at its best.

Just so this post isn't totally pictureless we were able to pick up our patio furniture from our friends who've been storing it (okay, using it) for over two years now! I felt bad taking it back, but I think they felt bad they had it for so long. =) Anyway it's been used an awful lot since it came home - the evenings out in the yard are just lovely. DH was pleased that he now had someplace to sit and watch the corn grow. ;^)


I'm just happy that we were able to get so far before my in-laws come to visit us in a few weeks. They helped kick off this whole project last summer when they were here by helping me weed the big messy area where the blueberry bushes are now. It's really like a whole new yard! I'm super excited for them to see it. =)

Oh, I also pulled all the little runty spinach plants. I never did get any this year. ::pouts:: I'm also already thinking about the fall garden and started some cabbage about a week ago indoors. I've got 4 sq/ft to plant in where the spinach never manifested. I'll also be pulling up most of the lettuce here very soon as they're thinking about bolting.... one or two are making the attempt. We need to eat more salad apparently! Gave a couple heads to my sis and she just loved them so that made me feel good. Think I'll bring some down to the neighbors too before it's too late. Wish I could somehow store lettuce but alas, no.

Just some notes on my various lettuce varieties:

Salad Bowl - I won't be planting this again. The bugs LOVED it. It was a lot of work to keep this lettuce bug free. It's a bright green loose leaf variety that's quite ruffled . It's a very sweet lettuce. The taste of it is lovely but keeping it bug free and making sure when I make salad that they are no bugs on it is difficult. I don't want to bite into an unexpected surprise!

Mascara - bugs hated it. Even the slugs wouldn't touch it. Ha! It was a little more bitter compared to the Salad Bowl but only at its earliest stages. Once mature the leaves were just as sweet. Also it wasn't quite as ruffled so it was easier to see if there were bugs to pick off. Plus the leaves have lovely reddish tips.

Four Seasons - I only started a few of these but they're quite nice. Simple flatish loose leaves, easy to clean, perfect for sandwiches (just the right size!) and also pretty and pretty bug free.

Butterhead - I think I planted these a bit too late as they're starting to bolt already! (Even though they're shaded by tall broccoli and potato plants). I'll plant again just to see how they do another year in another spot.

Patio area is nearly done!

Sorry to be MIA - my computer is toast! I'm on hubby's laptop right now and I'm hoping by the end of the week mine will be fixed but that remains to be seen. Sorry if I haven't stopped by to read your blogs - I will probably as soon as I get to log some serious laptop time. =) ...so just don't grow anything without me! Heehee

Really quickly: We've been super busy working on the back yard and finally got the patio laid down and I built the last raised bed. Sweet! Still need to fill the bed with compost and get our patio furniture from our friends (who've been borrowing it for two years! Oh my!) Then will come the fun part of adding in the plants! But that's a whole 'nother post. ;^)

BEFORE:


AFTER:

My poor laptop took a coffee bath the other day thanks indirectly to the kiddlet. All the keys started to stick and wouldn't type! It wasn't pretty. However, now it's been pulled apart, cleaned and is drying. I'm using a hacked together computer (external keyboard and mouse attached to the laptop sans it's original keyboard) to type this up. At least it still works - whew~ aren't computers fun? But enough of that, how about a few garden shots? =)

Here's the latest harvest for a salad ...


Little tiny yellow crook neck squash are starting to come in - yay!


I love the color of the All Blue Potato flower, so pretty.


My hot pepper is starting to bloom too


...and the spinach that wouldn't. This is the biggest of the big of all my spinach and it's only about 5" tall and the saddest thing I've ever seen. I'm gonna have to work on this next year.


Overall the garden is lookin' pretty good though. The compost tea I think had some beneficial results. I had a daliah that was struggling with a fungal problem which now seems to have cleared up. I also had a salvia that would just wilt in the afternoon no matter how much water, fertilizer, compost or what-have-you. It's slowly recovering. (Amazing since this has been going on for a few years). I think it'll be 100% with another application or two. Nice! Otherwise everything else just looks healthy and thriving.

The digging continues

We had a crazy weekend working out at the green gym (the back yard makeover continues*)... too bad there was less green and more dirt-work then we would've liked. DH shoveled out FIVE TONS of dirt just to get the area level. That's five extra-full truckloads of dirt that not only were not only shoveled out of our yard and UP into the truck, but then we helped people shovel them out of the truck and to various garden beds, tarps and laws, etc. Poor hubby moved ten tons of dirt manually. He had spaghetti arms on Monday, lol.

I helped but mostly someone had to watch our kiddlet. For a while were were able to put her on the WRARP (Worm Rescue And Relocation Project). Still there's only so much interest that a 3yo can give worms... she did like the screaming part though. (She was moving the worms from the dirt into the cooler parts of the compost pile). We also found some sort of milky white 1/8" bug eggs in the soil that she had fun popping with her fingers. Okay, EW. Why would she scream at worms but feel perfectly comfortable squishing bug eggs with her bare hands?

This is where we started (adding this photo in again for the new kids)



This is where we finished up last night - look I even found my banana plant (see potted bit in the front) which I thought had been completely choked out by the weeds or killed by the hard winter, but no - it lives! Sweet! I've got to find a place for it in the new garden bed. *Squee*! Also there are some of the plants from the abandoned blocks area in the raised bed to the left - one of the ferns couldn't handle the transplant on top of the crazy head winds we had with that thunder storm the other day and all its fronds fell over. It'll live though, it's sending up new fronds. Once the new ones come up I'll cut back the old half broken ones.


Does anyone know what the flowers are? I knicked them from the front of one of the houses and don't know what they are... sure are pretty though.


This is where we were two weeks ago


Dirt all gone! Mud puddles abound! Kiddlet had a great time playing in the mud. It was the least I could do for her since she had to put up with a mostly boring day of watching us dig.


Less exciting for most I do have a compost fan here who wanted to see my pile... Here ya go!


Much more lovely to look at, my first nasturtium about to bloom


*Have I mentioned how much I love my husband's family? Besides the fact they're really nice and fun their impending presence always kicks him in the @ss to work on house projects! l love it! His Mom will be here in a few weeks to go through Grandpa's house but she will be staying with us. We started this make over last year when she was here and it would be really nice to have it finished before she comes back. That and we want to have a little party. I just want to have a place to sit and really enjoy all the work we've done.

Cause it's neat lookin'

Some of the "stored" houses in the abandoned blocks area...

Tea but not with lunch

My compost tea finished brewing this afternoon and I was able to go out and spray and water everything. Looking forward to seeing if it makes a difference. I'm still planning on running trials.

I was also able to harvest broccoli and snap peas yesterday!!



I made a yummy, yummy stir fry out of them. Delish! It really made all the work totally worth it. The taste was amazing. It looked like broccoli but it was so fresh it was like eating a whole different vegetable. I could never stomach raw broccoli before - I always thought it tasted bitter and terrible. I couldn't stop eating my garden broccoli raw. It was so fresh and almost sweet! I am SO planting more broccoli next year. Sadly I have only one left to harvest. =( Can you tell this is the first time I've ever grown broccoli? (I'mAdork!)

It was all good cooked too. Mmmm...

Texas Tea Brewer's Black Gold

After reading Teaming with Microbes A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web the idea of using compost tea has become quite appealing. Without understanding the science behind the use of compost tea it has always seemed a bit gimmicy to me. Why would you use tea when you can just use compost? Well you can - but understanding a bit of the compelling reasons why microbes are so important to plant health and nutrient uptake and how they can be multiplied in the tea, my question now is, why not?

There are two things working against me putting down more compost in my beds just now giving me a reason or two to look at teas. One, getting an order of compost delivered from the certified organic compost place is going to cost me near $150 which I just don't have to spend on "dirt" at the moment. Two, I have some very small starts in my beds that would just get buried under the weight of the compost and other leafy veggies that I'd have a hard time getting compost under. So, what to do?

Use tea of course! The nice thing about using the tea is I'll still get all the benefits of using a good compost without all the bulk. I have bulk - I need microbes! Also with water as a conveyer the microbes can get to the root zone of the plants much quicker then compost laid on the ground surface.

So, where to start? There are anaerobic teas (without oxygen) and aerobic teas (oxygenated). The most beneficial microbes in our soil need oxygen to function so it makes since that just steeping a bag of compost in a bucket of water will drown most bacteria and fungi that need air to breathe. This gives way to allowing bacteria and fungi that can survive in anaerobic conditions a chance to flourish and multiply. The bad news is often times (though not always!) these are the same microbes that can cause damage to plants through disease. At the surface of a mostly anaerobic tub of tea some of the aerobic microbes will survive. I just prefer a whole bucket of 'em so am going the aerobic route. ;^)

As with anything you can spend lot of money on a brewer or a little, $500 to $140 for a five to 10 gallon brewer. I guess this is good if you don't want to mess with trying to put together something yourself. On the other hand some one will gather all the parts together for you to assemble yourself and still charge you $130. Which seems crazy to me and since my motto has always been, How hard could it be? I opted for what I thought was the best option, Deuley's Own Little Texas Tea Brewer*. The instructions are FREE and he's right, if you shop at Walmart ::cringe:: it only costs about $20 to make. Thanks Deuley!

I will have to say it was by far one of the easiest projects I've undertaken in a long while. It took all of 10 minutes to assemble. (Buying the parts took longer!) Mostly it's just aquarium parts and a five-gallon bucket with a few holes drilled into it. Here you can see the tubing, T-connectors and air diffusers (bubblers). I took a picture with just water so you could see how it looks with out all the compost and bits getting in the way.


The two bits that look like earphone buds are just smaller bubblers and actually sit inside the bag of compost or worm castings (what I used this round) or whatever you might be using.


I set the bag in the water and tied a string around it to suspend it and keep it well aerated and off the bottom of the bucket or bottom set of bubblers. The pencil helps hold it up.


The pump actually sits outside of the bucket and you can see the two tubes that run to each of the sets of bubblers coming off it. I also gave the microbes a shot of molasses to feed the bacteria as well as a shot of liquid seaweed to feed the fungus. This should be a balanced brew.


While I haven't always been so kind in my feelings toward mushroom compost I'm wondering if it wouldn't actually be good as 1/2 a starter scoop of compost for tea if I wanted to brew a fungally dominate batch. I guess it would depend on the efficiency of the second pasteurization. I guess I'd have to hope they botched it - ha!

This will be my first batch - I'm excited to see how it effects my plants. I'm also thinking of running some trials on some seedlings that I'll be planting for my fall garden coming up here soon. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

*BTW this brewer is also endorsed by Dr. Elaine Ingham, Ph.D. who tested it and proved that it would make a healthy batch of microbially active tea.

A Great Adventure

We live around the corner from a nearly 100 year old university that was built in the middle of pasture lands and had a neighborhood grow up around it. Nearly 30 years ago the administration had the foresight to recognize that they were running out of room in the space they already occupied. So, focusing on three full city blocks they began to buy the houses there one by one as they came up for sale. Once in ownership of the University those houses were used for student housing of married couples while attending school. They were rented at a greatly reduced rate ($300 a month or so) so the majority of their finances could allow them to attend school. It's finally come around to the point where all of the houses and property are now owned by the school. The plan is to turn those blocks into the schools new sports complex. But what of the houses? The structures themselves were sold for $1 each. A whole house for $1?! Yup! The catch is, they have to be moved, which is spendy. Yet, more good news, they were all sold to a single home moving company that has arranged to move them to another part of town where they are in the process of building a community for low income families. The idea being that they build community and home ownership.

What does this mean for all the plants that will be left behind? Well, they're free for the taking!! Oh YES. Three full city blocks of free plants. The mind boggles. How did I find all this out? I'm extra friendly with total strangers. ;^) I went for an evening stroll the other night and took a route though the abandoned blocks (which are eerily quite and creepy). Emerging on the other side I noticed that the yards were so much better maintained then from where I'd come. I noticed an arbor on the side of one house that I quite admired and thought I could do something similar in our yard and wanted to take a picture. I would be creeped out if someone just came by and took a picture of my house so I had a small internal debate about whether or not to just take the picture and go but in the end decided against it.

MID POST ALERT!!

A severe thunderstorm watch is in effect for the Portland area and the Willamette Valley until late Thursday night. In all, seven counties in Oregon are affected by the thunderstorm watch, which was issued by the National Weather Service at about 2 p.m. The National Weather Service also issued a warning of flooding in urban areas. The watch is in effect until 9 p.m. FOX 12 meteorologist Drew Jackson said large hail and damaging winds from the thunderstorms are possible.

We are having crazy weather right now. The power is flickering and we're getting 60+ mile an hour wind gusts. We're also about to get deluged and there maybe flooding. Oh goody. At least I was able to harvest the broccoli and snow peas this afternoon. ::crosses fingers for the rest of the garden::

AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED POST
I knocked on the door. It was opened by the most delightfully friendly woman. I think she was thrilled that I was so admiring of their yard - it really was lovely. Turns out her and her husband both work at the University and he's the facilities coordinator. He knows ALL. =) They suggested that I take any and all plants that I wanted from any of the houses on those blocks (with his blessing and permission). The houses will be moved soon and the yards around them turned under and the earth moved and leveled to make a playing field.

Oh how I wish I could save all those old trees! As it is I don't have a ton of room for more plants but I do have that new small area of the new bed that needed some shade plants. Of course the trouble is most of the houses have been vacated since last November and I guess I'm late to discover the whole "free plant" thing. I did take a stroll though all the blocks and even poked around in the back yards. It was fun! It was also kinda creepy and stupid as I was alone and anyone could've been hiding in any of those houses waiting for an opportunity like me to come along. The other trouble is a lot of plants need steady water and attention so I'm sure many of them died. Many others were dug up already as evidenced by the steady amount of "pot holes" I found in the yards once I started looking for them. I was able to secure several very nice ferns, some bleeding heart and a pretty little flowering plant I don't know the name of. It's a start. I kept my eye out for a hellabore but didn't see any. Most of the yards are quite over grown with weeds at this point. I might go back - maybe I missed something?

I'm also going to cut this post short. I want to conserve some battery power on the laptop while we have this storm passing through - just in case. It's gonna be a good one - batten down the hatches!!

Compost Tea!

My first batch of compost tea is brewing - yay! I took pictures but have to run out the door now to an appointment. I'll try to post more details this afternoon when I get back.

RECIPE:
4 gallons stored rain water (maybe a little more)
1 lb worm castings
1 cap full liquid seaweed
1.5 oz molasses

June Garden Geek Out

So I got out and took some pictures of the garden on June first - I can't believe how much every thing's grown in just a short month's time! I guess when you see it every day it doesn't seem to go so fast until you look back...



The beats, spinach and cilantro never really took off. ::sigh:: So I put tiny little starts of extra peppers and basil I had laying around, plus a sunflower for a bit of color later on and some marigolds to repel garden pests. I just hate seeing all that dirt in June! The potatoes behind the dirt patch however are doing wonderfully now. I think the broccoli is getting near harvesting time too.




The spinach that would not grow.


Green beans are starting to come up!


I bought chives to put in the perennial bed since I can't seem to get celery to grow to save my life. What you can't really see is the asparagus which is nearly a foot high now! Of course being only one year old crowns they're only putting up one stalk, so they look a bit spindly. This was also not a good place for the walla walla, they're too crowded (not enough air circulation) stay too damp and have been hit with a fungal disease. Pah. Note to self for next year, eh.


The shelling peas (on the left) really shot up in the past few days and the snap peas on the right are ready to harvest, so is the broccoli - I'm thinking I'm having stir fry tomorrow for lunch. The radishes are doing a great job protecting the squash plants. This is really a great companion planting. The radish leaves are full of holes and the squash aren't. Perfect! (These radish were planted with the idea that they'd never be eaten by us, so I'm fine with them looking like swiss cheese).


Pretty sugar snap peas.


Big 'ol radish and pretty flowering holess squash. Perfect.



The mint went nuts but that's to be expected. It's mint after all. The sage is very pretty, I'm so glad I got it. You can also see the daliahs starting to poke up behind the sage now too. Not all of them came up which is disappointing. I wonder if they just don't get quite enough sun? It was something I was a little worried about and now it seems rightly so. Bummer. I'll have to find some other flower to put there - well at least it'll be year round interest.


Here too are the blueberries and strawberries. I didn't remember to take a picture at the beginning of May of this bed which is too bad as the bushes were full of pretty white blooms.


Strawberries to be!


My folks are also moving and have an old church pew they've been using as a garden bench. They decided they didn't want to move it so it's come to live with us. I'm pretty happy about this as I wanted a bench to put in the new (soon to be) patio area but didn't know how I was going to pay for it. This solves all that! Ha! I might paint it a different color though. Tomato red just doesn't jive with me currently. Maybe pumpkin? What color would you paint it?


Speaking of tomatoes I've been reading a lot about soil microbes lately and picked up this interesting piece of advice I'm calling "The Tomato Christmas Wreath". You'll see what I'm talking about in a second. So tomatoes like consistently moist soil and they do well with mulches. While a plastic mulch would be good for warming up the soil, it's not so good for the environment and it does nothing for the microbes. Besides I planted the roots in a shallow trench to get the closer to the surface and keep them warmer so that should help with that issue. (Fingers crossed). Anyway I was reading that when the plants get about a foot high they should be fed with good slow release fertilizer scratched in around the base. Then a mulch of shredded newspaper should be laid down and everything watered.


Lastly over the newspaper a bit of grass clippings, making it look like a Christmas wreath to me!


The newspaper attracts beneficial fungus, the grass attract beneficial bacteria and the fertilizer feeds both and allows the plant to take up trace minerals and nutrients more efficiently all while maintaining soil moisture and keeping weeds at bay. Here's hoping it works (the "experts" say it does), I don't think it can hurt!

More to come soon on the mysterious comments of free plants, compost tea brewers and soil blockers...