Are we there yet?: Side Yard

Did you ever have one of those projects that seemed to never end?  Our furthest side yard has been a never ending project.  I remember, 12 years ago when I first met Tim, it was a combination of scrubby woods and lawn carved in between trees.  There have been at least four stages of tree cutting that I have been around for.  I remember one day, way before these photos begin, when I was picking up sticks in the spring, and I had ventured into this brushy, wet, rough, hilly, crappy piece of land and was rounding up the larger limbs and such, one of the neighbors slowed down and called out the window "are you going to keep going until you can mow it?"... the answer was ...

Yes.

From the road in the Beginning seven years ago

From the lawn in the beginning

The biggest change came when Tim cut over 120 trees out to clear an acre of land for his big three bay garage.  Stumps were pulled, gravel was brought in, and half of the area became a driveway.  There was a strip of lawn, and he added a split rail fence along the property line which we landscaped in with neighbors Mike and Shelly. 

 

 

From the garden two years ago

 There were a dozen or so scrubby, top heavy ash and poplar which we landscaped around but slowly, one by one, removed completely.

From the garden two years ago

 What had been a wet and uneven strip became lush green lawn.  Near the road, there was still an area of large oak trees on Mike and Shelly's side of the line.  The changes in use and grade of the surrounding land was causing water to pool, and the oaks were slowly dying.

 

This past January we had a tree service come in and remove them.  This gigantic mess was worked on for months.

Logs were hauled to the mill to be salvaged as lumber.  Stumps were ground.  Loads of gravel and top dirt were brought in as well as new trees, a second section of fencing and grass seed.




The Finished Product from the Lawn

Towards the end of summer, Mike's new lawn near the road had thickened up, and it was time for the final addition, two large Crimson King Maples which he and Tim planted this past Saturday.



The Finished Product from the Road

The final transformation, which began the end of January is now complete.  The final count is 9 Blue Spruce, 4 London Plain Sycamores and 2 Crimson King Maples.

 

We are done picking up sticks, and now that it is mowable, we can quit.

Spillin' the Beans

 

The harvest is on.  Overall it's been a good year, and the storage crops are beginning to come in.  This is my first year for Black Beans.  One of my "signature" dishes that I bring to gatherings is a fresh salsa and one of the ingredients is black beans.  Up until now, I have been able to make the entire thing from my garden with the exception of this crop.  I also enjoy making black beans and rice as a side dish.  My first year with this crop was a success.  I planted one bed (save the space for two pole bean tee pees) and the yield was good.

Now that the pods have dried on the vine, I've spent several evenings shelling them. This is easy as the dried husks are splitting open on their own.  Now and then a bean gets a little wild and sails off into the yard.  I retrieve as many as I can sorting through the grass on my hands and knees. About half way through the second bowl, sitting under the shade tree drinking wine, I thought "it would be really unfortunate right now to spill the beans". 

 

 

 

I leave them in the bowl and set them in the sun for a few more hours before putting them in jars.  It's very satisfying to see the volume grow... and none of that pesky canning or even blanching.  I have a cup of them soaking tonight and I'm going to cook them tomorrow and see how it turns out.  Tim is perplexed over the fact that the dried beans are being soaked.  Often the "logic" of gardening fails to impress him.

 

I also made out pretty well with the potatoes and onions.  I ended up with two of these half bushel baskets full of taters in the basement, as well as what we've been eating and the baby potatoes I have at ready reach in the kitchen.  Baby potatoes do not store well so must be used first.  My total crop was 50.5 pounds which is 9 pounds more than last year.  And that even with one row of Kennebecs failing miserably.  I still have one pot growing. 

 

The potato plants had died back on their own and I left the spuds in the ground for several weeks since it has been nice and dry here.  I dug them last weekend.  Tim set up a lawn chair on the side walk and sat with a drink watching me crawl on my hands and knees along the potato hills digging by hand so I wouldn't damage any with a tool.  Every 5 or 10 minutes he would ask me if I was having fun yet, which I was because I love digging potatoes.  He then announced that he could drive down to Troyer Farms and buy a 50 pound bag for $10 and he didn't think my system was all that efficient for producing the same amount.  I'll have to admit he's right but at least I know these potatoes haven't been absorbing pesticides and weird chemical fertilizers all season and won't be treated to prevent them sprouting in the store.

 

The onions are much larger this year.  I don't keep track of the poundage since it isn't a crop we really depend on, but this year the basket is full, and last year it was not.

 

My Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomato plant is beginning to produce.  It is generally late for me, and this year I planted the seeds the first weekend of May so it's still playing catch up.  The plant is very impressive and appears intent on giving the Paul Robeson a run for his money for the "Most Productive" prize.  This variety has been a bit sluggish for me in years past, so this time I put it on the South end of the row where it would get the most sun and it sure seems to appreciate it.  There are loads of large, perfectly shaped slicers and I think no catfacing (knarly deformity and overall ugliness on the blossom end).  The plant is very healthy and has lost the fewest number of lower leaves of all the varieties I have this year.  It's still a beautiful plant.  

 

Eight big "two fisted" tomatoes on the vine, and time to add a few more ladder supports!

 

 

Above is the first one picked, and it's gone way past "yellow" to a deep orange reminiscent of the Kellogg's Breakfast variety.  I stopped growing those because they were a bit too sweet for me and were he-Uge beefsteak size (I even won third place in the 2008 IDigmygarden forum online Biggest Tomato Contest with a KB).  Dr. Wyche is a really nice, thrifty, yellow/orange slicer and I'm very pleased with them.

So that's what's going on in the garden.  There is more to tell, but I won't blow it all on one long entry.  Tim has been working on a building project, and I have composting system reports (oh the anticipation LOL!)

Too Many: Paul Robeson

I've often thought that if I could only plant one tomato plant, and I wanted that plant to keep me in slicing tomatoes for the whole season, the variety I would choose was Celebrity.  Now I know, if I could only plant one tomato plant, and I wanted that plant to keep me in slicing tomatoes for the whole season, but I wanted that plant to be an heirloom, and not a hybrid, the variety I would choose would be Paul Robeson.

I purchased this plant from my friend Mickey because I've been looking for a "black" variety that would do well in my garden.  I enjoyed the Black Krims.  The Black Cherry left me disappointed.  The Cherokee Purple was a disaster.  Black from Tula was on my list to try, but Paul Robeson came along before I got there.

Like most "black" tomatoes, Paul Robeson isn't truly black, but a very very deep dark red with a good deal of green shading.  In real life, the color can best be described as glazed terracotta, deep and earthy and well oiled like old leather.

The fruit are shapely, compact, sandwich sized, and... well... there are a lot of them.  This one plant has kept me in slicing tomatoes, BLTs and fried green tomatoes since it began producing.  I seriously do not need any other plants this year.  I'm giving away the Brandywines!

 Similar to the Krims, they have a complex, almost smokey taste which is a natural pairing for bacon in a BLT.  The skin is resilient.  You aren't getting through this tomato with an unserrated knife, it will, honestly, deflect it.  The upside to this is that while there can be a considerable amount of shoulder cracking, this variety has not split in the rain as many more delicate, thin skinned varieties do.

The interior structure is similar to a Brandywine but it does have a core.  Not a coarse woody core like a "Pineapple" but a deep, crimson core which is unlike any I've ever seen.  So, who was it's namesake?

Like many heirloom varieties, the story is part of the intrigue.  Paul Robeson was a renaissance man.  Athlete, singer, political activist.  He was the first black All-American (1917-1918).  He graduated from Columbia Law School while playing in the NFL.  A celebrated actor in both America and England, he became a political activist and traveled the world acting and speaking.  He spent a great deal of time in the Soviet Union and was so beloved there that the tomato was named for him there before it was imported to, and gained popularity here in the states.

Twenty Pounds of Taters

Time has come to dig the first row of potatoes planted on March 15th.  They had died back so a couple of weeks ago I cut back the foliage and let them sit in the ground to harden.  This apparently makes them store better.  Because of the damage done by potato forks, I dig them mostly by hand.  I love coming to a cluster of them, and when I sift through the loose soil above, I turn up little surprises, bright red like strawberries.

Some of them were quite large, and worm damage was minimal.  I only found two which had wire worm holes in them.  This harvest was much better quality overall than last years.

To avoid damaging the skin, and prolong their storage life, you should remove as little dirt as possible from them.  I place them in the hod and give them a quick shower to remove most of the dirt and bring less into the house!

Then I place them in a shady spot to dry.  This past weekend was not too hot, and we had a nice brisk breeze which dried them quickly.

These Kennebec's were frozen back several times to the soil line because they were too eager, but it doesn't seem to have hurt their production too much.

Not bad for a knarly, sprouty batch of rejects!  They survived many frosts and one significant snowfall and pulled through with a wonderful crop.  I turned this basket into one row and two pots which yielded...

This

And this times 2

And a twenty pound hod of taters.  About 23 pounds total.

In other news, its bean time.  This bed has a several varieties.  On the poles to the left is the tri-color assortment from Renee's Seeds.   And on the right are Kentucky Blue, a cross between the old fashioned (and tough stringy...) Kentucky Wonder and my favorite Blue Lake Bush beans.  The vines aren't very vigorous, but my hope is that they will continue through the season.  The beans themselves are superior to the ones on the other pole.  Those aren't bad, but the yellows are a rather coarse wax bean which is no where near as tasty as the phenomenal  Gold Mine Bush beans I normally grow.  No worries though, those will be ready soon.  The bush beans at the foot of the poles are Midnight Black Turtle Soup beans for drying.  That will be a first for me.

Happy Gardening!

Out of Control

My father and Stepmother are on vacation for a week.  Dad asked me to check on his garden.  He said the rest of the kids had been invited to come and get zucchini.  Since I already have my own zucchini control problem, I told him I would check for out of control squash and feed them to Mom's chickens.

His squash plants are gorgeous.   But there sure are a lot of them...eight maybe?  For two people?  That's a lot of squash.  There were three good sized squash tossed just outside the fence waiting for me.  I approached the jungle with trepidation.

Now I know my father has gardening discipline.  Just look how well trained, pruned and staked his tomatoes are.  Mine generally look like a jungle (I take after my mother) but his are the most well tended plants I've ever seen.  And there is not a weed in sight.

I peered under the leaves. There was a nice sized squash right there, still shiny and fresh. It would be good for a day or two, so I passed it up just in case one of the stepbrothers thought they might make zucchini bread this weekend. Nearby was an overgrown one. Good, I thought, a treat for the chickens.  At least I would have something to surprise Mom with.  The next plant had two more.  Hmmmmm....

 

 As I picked, I heaved them over the fence into the lawn and began making plans for getting them out of here. The heavy canopy of leaves, and the darkness of this variety made it hard to distinguish them.  I continued to poke and prod.  And I realised, with a sinking feeling, that they were getting bigger.  Some of them required two hands to twist off and made a sickening hollow thud as they hit the ground.  What kind of nut, plants 8 zucchini plants, then takes a summer vacation?

Reaching the end of the zucchini patch, I straightened up and looked around.  Uh Oh.  There, at the end of a pepper row was another lone zucchini plant.  This one wasn't as large, but what it lacked in size, it made up for in production.  And right next to it was a tidy hill of cucumber plants.  I could see right away I had a problem here too.  Since leaving mature fruit on the vine will discourage a plant from producing more, I felt obligated to remove them.  The cucumbers were bloated by the rain, and there were a lot of them.  I picked about a dozen of the worst ones, and flung them to the end of the garden too.

Now I had about two bushels of squash and cukes to deal with. And for that, I was a bit unprepared. With a sigh, I hiked back up the hill to my car for a tarp and a canvas bag. I rounded up all the zukes and stacked them in the tarp like cord wood. The cukes I wiped off and filled a canvas market bag. Then I bundled it all up, and headed around the corner for the farm. I backed my car down the driveway, popped the trunk, and called to my mother "bring your little red wagon". I proudly lifted the trunk lid and showed her my little surprise. Then I posed the question to her: "What kind of nut plants 8 zucchini plants (for two people) then takes a summer vacation?" She actually knew the answer to this question. "The son of a southern farmer. We need a pig."    Ah, so that is the complete answer to the question:  The son of a southern hog farmer.  Makes total sense now. 

It didn't take long for the pet chickens, who free range all the time, to notice there was a visitor and assume there was something in it for them.  Within minutes, Peanut, Grandma and "white hen" had arrived to examine the harvest.

Although they began pecking at them right away, Mom broke open one squash to give them easy access to their favorite part.  The seeds.  "Just think" I said to Mom, "you're going to have green chicken poo on your porch for a week."

But, for those of you who do not have a flock of chickens or a pig to devour your excess crops.  There is always zucchini bread.  I have my first batch in the freezer, and I finally got to use last year's Christmas present from Mom and Richard.

Mom's Zucchini bread recipe:

3 eggs

2 cups of sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups of shredded zucchini (about 2 medium sized)

1 cup crushed pineapple ~ drained

3 cups of flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg

1 cup raisins

1 cup nuts (pecan or walnut) crushed

You can use less of the raisins and nuts, in fact if you are not a huge fan of fruit cake, I recommend using less.

Beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla.  Sift together dry ingredients.

Add the zucchini and pineapple to the egg mixture, then slowly add the dry ingredients. 

Grease and flour bread pans and leave about a third of the pan as head room because this is more of a cake batter than actual bread.  I used 4 small loaf pans and a mid-sized pan.  I think it would fit into two large loaf pans.

Bake at 350* for about an hour.  Since I use many smaller pans, I baked for 55 minutes.

Enjoy.  This is the only way Tim will eat zucchini ;)

Brandywine... not a whine

It's a record!  The first tomato of the season is the Brandywine.  We beat 2011's Anannas Noir by 7 days, and 2010's Barlow Jap by 5 days.  Because its 93* out.

I've been nibbling on Sun Gold cherry tomatoes for almost two weeks.

The Good The Bad and the Ugly

It is mid July, and it has become apparent what is and isn't working this year.  The new lushness of June has worn off, and things that are going to look haggard are beginning to look... haggard.  Last June was the wettest on record.  We got a lot of growth, and not a lot of production.  This year we are teetering on the brink of drought.

Things are still colorful and growing, and we have had a lot of successes so far.

The peas turned out well, but only because I planted half of them a month early.  The ones planted with normal timing were a bit lackluster.  But they still produced.  I have a record amount frozen for winter, and I haven't decided whether to plant a fall crop or not.  We'll see if I lose heart.

Carrots are doing fine.  I planted those early as well, and we are bginning to enjoy them.

The root crops have been just great.  The onions are doing quite well and are still upright and growing with very little fussing or manual watering.

The garlic did well also, and I now have more garlic than I will use, and have given some away.  And of course, my potato pots were a success.  I will begin digging the first row of potatoes next weekend.

The spring lettuce was outstanding and is sadly over and done.  The romaine I planted under the pole beans didn't take to the idea.  I yanked them up and transplanted them to a couple of pots which I've placed in the shade.  They have survived their intial shock and outrage and have decided to make a go of it.

I even left a few cut off stalks in the lettuce patch which are shaded by the squash and have bought into the "cut and come again" theory of salad production.

My first row of cucumber which are nursery transplants are the first disappointment.  When I pulled the peas away from this row they were by no means as robust as the vines given the same treatment last year.  I am suspicious that they were mislabeled somewhere along the line because this looks a heck of a lot more like a pickling variety than a Marketmore.  The few cukes have been short and stubby, but good enough.  My second planting from Sweet Success seeds are much more true to form and producing well.

 But some of the vines appear to have Anthracnose.  And although I am used to seeing a cucumber beetle here and there each year, I have seen more than a dozen this year and have begun to squish them.  They are now on to me and becoming shy of humans.

This is the first year I have tried the red plastic tomato mulch.  Among other things, it is supposed to reduce soil born foliar diseases.  Fail. 

The Flea Beetles have been exceptionally hard on the eggplants this year. The diatomaceous earth had no visible effect on the numbers, so I began spraying them with a mixture of water, rubbing alcohol, and peppermint castille soap.  That really sent them running.  But they would be back the next day.  I got too enthusiastic with my spray and burnt some of the new growth.  **Sigh** If it's not one thing, it's another.

Some of the bell peppers appear to have picked up anthracnose too.  It seems concentrated on one plant, and I suppose I ought to just pull it out and be done with it before it spreads.

But all is not lost.  My first Brandywine tomato will be ripe soon, and the plant is healthy and producing well.  I also bought a Paul Robeson which has over a dozen good sized green tomatoes on it and I am excited to see how they turn out.  In addition to the few plants I bought, I had sudden "heirloom grower's remorse" over having not started any of my favorite varieties myself.  I just wasn't keen on dealing with a month of having my dining room turned into a grow-op.  Around May 9th, the remorse struck, and I started 4 varieties outside in the cold frame.  The beauty of this is that the hardening off went like a breeze! 

Granted, on the day the purchased Brandywine and Robeson looked like this...

The Jap, Absynthe, Annannas Noir and Dr. Wyche plants looked like this...

But they are now over half the size of their neighbors and setting fruit.  Sure, they will be behind, but for ease of growing I'd say that was a big Win!

Despite their miserable appearance, the eggplants are soldiering on.  They can be such beautiful plants when they are healthy, so their condition is distressing, but I'll still get to eat eggplant.

And the pepper plants not infected with anthracnose are healthy and producing well.

The pole beans, although sluggish from lack of rain

Are flowering and setting beans.  Since I still have some freezer beans from last year, waiting is not quite so difficult.

And the geraniums in the front landscaping... Wow!  They are gorgeous.  Careful planting with compost, initial watering and fertilizing started them off well and they are providing so much color.  Some plants have as many as a dozen blooms on them at a time.  I will definitely be repeating this next year!