Milquetoast Boys

My grandmother told me her mother always warned her "beware those milquetoast boys". My husband makes poached eggs in milk and then serves me the eggs over toast and himself the leftover milk over a stack of toast. It was several years before it dawned on me that I had gone and married myself a "milk toast boy".  

But its a nice warm breakfast for a cool autumn day when the best thing to do is to stay inside and cook something.  I have a spicy scented candle burning and I'm sipping apple cider while I give the house a good deep cleaning right to the walls in preparation for holiday decorating.  Once I mark that off my list I am free to putter along with my creative projects as the mood strikes me knowing I can put them in place without discovering a layer of crud on a shelf.

Autumn is in full swing here.  We are enjoying a few days of steady moderate rain which we have not had in months.  We've had over cast days and the occasional deluge, but no quiet rainy days to rest inside the house.  We have been at peak color with absolutely beautiful clear days but the rain is finally bringing the leaves down in droves.  

Every 5 days or so we do a leaf cleanup which involves blowing leaves with the big gas powered leaf blower, and then mulching them into the lawn with the lawn mower.  We blow them out of corners, and out from under shrubs and out of the ground cover (as best we can) so that in the spring when we mulch all the landscape beds we don't have bushels of sodden, moldy leaves to deal with.   It takes one person four hours, or two people less than two hours.

And the next day it looks like this.

But I have to admit it is a little bit fun.  Except for the garden because you have to blow them out of the gate, and the gate is not on a corner.  Tim has even considered adding a leaf exit door to a corner panel for just this purpose.  Alternatively, you can blow all the leaves in a corner and then change to the leave sucker/chopper and vacuum them all up and make chopped leaf mulch out of them.  If you coordinate your efforts between the blower and the mower, you can move a lot of leaves in a big hurry.

Chopped leaf mulch is a wonderful thing to put onto your beds in the fall. Just remember to follow up with a light layer of compost so your leaves don't blow away.  In the spring, they leaves will be almost completely broken down and you will find scores of plump, happy earthworms in your garden.

Daffodil Day

Today I planted 150 bulbs in about 40 holes.  With fertilizer.

We did 120 of Breck's early to mid-season mix  and 30 of the late mix.  The bulbs were big and beautiful this year and there were a lot of them!  I sorted them out on the kitchen counter and it looked like a big job.  Two hours later when I still had bulbs in my pail, I knew I was right.  It WAS a big job,

Each hole got three to five bulbs and there were a few singles tucked here and there.  You know we have a neighbor who is an engineer - once he was planting a whole bed full of tulip bulbs and he asked me:  "how do you keep track of where you planted the last bulb?"  Well, there are two approaches to that problem.  Either you can set out all your bulbs where you want them and then dig a hole under each one or:  duhn duhn duhhhnnn.... wait to cover them up............  

.......Duh? 

Before I went out I browsed through a couple years of spring photos familiarizing myself with  the location of bulbs already planted, which areas needed a better balance of color, and which areas only had early of late color.

And while I was perusing the photos I kept noticing photos of...

Beautiful fluffy mulch and sharp edges!

Planting beds full of Spring promise.

Color!

Fresh veggies.

Today was a beautiful day but everything is looking like old age.  Mulch is thread bare and dried out.  Dried leaves are strewn everywhere.  What foliage is left uncut is a little brown and frost burnt.  It would be wonderful to be in March with a whole planting season ahead.

I have finished all my fall potting.  My office window is full of huge, hip high spikes from the combination pots.  The cold frame is full of vinca vine.  We have such a bad deer problem here that the only way to enjoy tulips is to pot them in containers and keep them out of harms way.  Last year I planted them in big planters in the vegetable garden but I wasn't ready to commit to that again this year so I potted up a tray full of gallon pots which are in the garden now but will be taken in either to the chicken coop or the cold frame to keep them from freezing too solid,

Ungardening

Summer is over and the time has come.  

Last weekend we pulled and cut and put away and buttoned up.

Now comes a lot of leaf blowing,

There were plenty of green tomatoes

and jalapenos for stuffing and chopping

I still have a batch of bush beans going strong.

Bush beans will keep going until frost takes them out.

This morning I cut a week's worth of lettuce before the rain came.

This summer I bought this lettuce keeper which I really like. 

It's nice to have a dedicated container that has a set place in the fridge so

I don't have to free up the right container or use plastic bags.

And this is what is left to grow on.

The romaine in particular is big and beautiful.

Here are the last of the zucchini.  There is one plant left and it

is no longer putting out male flowers so this is it.

The strawberries rebounded from their severe hair cut.

I am almost half way through unplanting my combination pots saving the spikes and vines for next year.  These are going in the warm south facing window wall at my office and the vinca vines do fine in the cold frame.

We are enjoying the fall mums.  We have a pair of these at the doorway and I like the tri-color so well I'm going to try to winter them over for next year.  They are hardy so they should be OK in the cold frame too. 

And for next weekend's project - a hundred and fifty daffodil bulbs to plant.

THINK SPRING!

Cutting Back

Recently I've read several gardening blogs where the gardener is just gardened out.  It happens to all of us.  It usually happens to me in August but I don't start to complain about it until September.  I always look forward to autumn.  Spring is my favorite season because everything is fresh and growing but by Labor Day I am always wondering - "What was I thinking?"  Then I begin to count the days we have left until I can pull it all out or cut it back.

This year I took the easy route.  I cut back.  My husband doesn't see that I've cut back but I feel it.  In fact I sort of feel lazy not growing all of my stored food when I know that I can.  To make me feel better let's make a list of everything I can grow that I chose not to grow this year.  What I felt most was the spring gardening - peas, carrots, onions etc because skipping them meant my gardening started in May not March.

Garlic - When you grow garlic you start your garden a whole winter before.  That's really dragging it out.  I admit I love to see the green shoots come up first thing in March.  Then there's nothing to do but watch them.  They're very low maintenance.  And when you're done you get to make a neat braid.

Onions - I've grown a lot of onions of all colors over the years but I just don't use that many.  So I end up having to make the effort to store them properly and then end up composting half of them.  I like to buy the Long Day Sampler from Dixondale Farms.  The plants come in little bundles when your planting season arrives and you get to spend an hour on a sunny spring day poking holes in the soil with a pencil which is just the right size for the little guys.

Peas (like onions) get you out early in the spring.  They are also labor intensive with all the picking and shelling.  At first I really enjoy some leisurely pea shelling.  They are one of the best garden snacks to munch on when you're out working.  But then about the middle of your late planting harvest you walk by the pea patch and realize "crap there are more peas that need picking".  I consciously enjoyed not having to do that this year.  Luckily I froze enough to last two years.  Maybe I should buy a pea sheller?  I'll have to put that on my wish list.  Heaven knows I love my apple peeler.  Sometimes gadgets actually work.  I wonder if anyone is working on a garden sized pea picker.

Carrots -  I love pulling baby carrots.  I hate pulling, scrubbing, storing and using big ole ugly carrots that have to be pried out of the ground with a fork and I tire of baby carrots before they all get away from me and turn into big ole ugly carrots.  My favorite carrots are the finger sized new carrots with their stems trimmed to show just a splash of bright green on your plate, steamed and sprinkled with some brown sugar.  My least favorite carrots are the ones hanging out in the hydrator demanding to be chopped up and put into soup.  I hate demanding vegetables.

Radishes - I like them because they remind me of Easter Eggs. I love to grow a selection of colors. But I never ate them.  The only purpose they served was giving me early, colorful, gardening satisfaction.  Plus you can mix them in with your carrot seeds and when you are pulling radishes you are also thinning carrots.  Therefore I suppose that radishes add structure discipline to a spring garden.

Black Beans - Talk about labor intensive.  Plant them, pick them, shell them, dry them, soak them, cook them.  Sure, it's fun to cook up a batch of black bean soup with all your own beans, onions, garlic and peppers, but how often do I actually do that? Twice a year?  I wonder if the pea sheller would work on them too.

Sweet Potatoes on the left Norland Red potatoes on the right.

Sweet Potatoes - I've grown these for awhile with moderate results.  By far the best year I had was when I grew them in containers.  But most of them were quite small and a hassle to cut up. Turns out you can buy better frozen sweet potato fries than I can ever make from scratch anyway.

Silver Queen sweet corn 2007

Sweet Corn - The guy down at the farm stand does an excellent job and I get to choose which days I eat corn instead of the corn choosing for me.  I do miss not having dried corn stalks to decorate with in the fall.  And I miss the super sweet Gotta Have It variety.   I promise you there is no sweeter sweet corn. It can be fussy to grow because it needs really warm soil to germinate so you may or may not get the corn harvest of your dreams.  

Pumpkins -Now pumpkins are fun.  But they take up too much space.  And no matter how much space you have allotted them they will jump the fence.  They cannot be contained.  That must be why they were called Connecticut Field Pumpkins.  And I don't have a field.  I remember the day Tim came in and asked "why have you diapered the pumpkins?" That's not a diaper folks, that's a hammock.  Lazy pumpkins.

Acorn Squash - a pain to store. Butternut Squash - ditto

Artichokes - a lot of work for something I'd rather look at than eat

Broccoli - Worms.  Need I say more?

.

Cabbage - I don't actually remember growing cabbage.
But there it is.  I wonder what I did with it?

Okra - I would grow Okra just for its ornamental value.  However, it only blooms while I'm at work so this year I finally gave up.  Okra is a hot weather, long season crop, but I've had excellent results with Baby Bubba.  This variety is compact enough to grow in containers so you could start it early.

Chard - I ended up just looking at this too

Parsnips - Now that's not a very pretty picture of Parsnips, but that's what I think of when I think Parsnips. Cold - Mud.   By the time these are ready to eat, I'm totally over the whole garden thing.  Ditto Brussels Sprouts

These Scarlet Runner Beans looked like a living Christmas Tree complete with decorations

Pole beans - too tough and stringy - although easier to pick than the bush kind.  One year I planted both purple and yellow pole beans thinking they would be the ultimate in easy picking - shoulder height and visible against the green.  And they were, but they were nowhere near as good eatin' as my favorite bush varieties.  I usually grow the Purple Queen "bush variety" which climbs about 3-4 feet.  Maybe I'll try them on poles.  Short ones.

Of course, this year I still grew too many tomatoes because - well.... that's just what I do.  What I did not do with tomatoes this year:  canning, tomato sauce, Bloody Mary Mix.  Yep, I've been lazy.  Do I feel guilty about buying my black beans in a can?  A little.  How about the fake baby carrots or the worm free broccoli?  Not a bit.  Pumpkins?  I miss growing pumpkins particularly when I'm at the farm stand trying to choose one or two.  It's worse than choosing a Christmas tree.  When you grow your own you love each of them despite their faults.

One thing I kept noticing as I went back through the years of pictures is Bell Peppers.  Peppers everywhere.  Green ones, red ones, golden ones on beautiful compact plants.  What the hell happened?  Where did I go wrong?  This pepper thing is bothering me.  I want nice peppers.

A perfect, pristine garden path in the days before the raised beds.

Another thing that struck me as I was paging through years of garden photos:  I've had some really nice gardens.  I thought 2015 was the perfect spring and that my garden had never looked better, but 2007 and 2010 were looking pretty good too.  I wonder how many pounds of weeds I've pulled over the years?

I'm down to two tomatoes in the house and half a dozen on the vine.  My Pike County yellow tomato plant recently put out a whole second crop of new tomatoes which are just now ripening.  Just for that it has earned itself a place in next year's list.  Everyone else is done.  Even the Sungold.   There are only half a dozen cherry tomatoes each day not quarts.  But that's a relief because for the past month I've been struggling under an avalanche of tomatoes.  And somewhere in the middle of that I realized that I'd honestly be just as happy with a bacon only sandwich for the most part.  See, this is the sort of crazy talk you get when you eat too many tomatoes.

After this little stroll down memory lane I feel a bit more like a productive gardener.  Just think of the pounds of produce I've dealt with over the years,   It was interesting seeing how I had laid things out and remembering varieties I don't grow anymore.  I had sort of forgotten that there were years when odd things like Collards and Fennel kept me busy experimenting.  I am glad I didn't feel I had to can anything (I did 2 quarts of refrigerator pickles).  I have just enough potatoes to get us through the winter.  I don't have storage issues in the cellar or the freezer.  Life is simple.

Just Do It

Whenever I'm hemming and hawing over something I can't decide on I take a page out of the Nike playbook and tell myself "Just Do It".  It has to be done, so let's get it over with.  And with that, the gorgeous mega-zucchini which produced dozens of squash came out to make way for the winter lettuce.

There is a wheel barrow under there somewhere

Last year, thanks to a mild winter, we were eating our own lettuce on Dec 21st. It never froze, it just stopped growing and we ate it down to the nub.

So winter lettuce is an important part of my gardening year.  Important enough to make me pull a mega-zucchini.  But not to worry, I still have zucchini plants of lesser merit still producing so it is not the end of the zucchini.

The winter lettuce bed is right next to the garden shed, almost within reach of the patio light.  This is a strategic spot because in Nov/Dec I will be picking lettuce in the dark, in the rain, in wind that will blow the lettuce leaves right out of my bowl, while holding a flash light.

The little hoop house gets a 26* frost cover.  Things I've learned about growing winter lettuce under a frost cover

1. Don't bother planting where you can't reach.  I did put some extra plants out of the pots and an earlier planting in the back where it will be hard to reach.  Those are for days when I really want lettuce and it's not dark and raining and blowing.
2. Put your favorite variety in the center because the ones on the edge will be the first to go

Probably some of you are asking why I don't use my cold frame for winter lettuce.  Well, the cold frame sits on patio blocks not soil so I would have to plant into planters.  The lid is a big PITA to manage in the wind and usually the cold frame is full of over wintering plants like vinca, potted mints and stray perennials.

2015 the lettuce babies tucked into their little greenhouse

 The weather is cooperating this week and after babying them through yesterday watering every few hours, today was overcast and rainy and I came out this morning to 18 perky transplants

Sept 20 2014
The Strawberry bed takes a break for lettuce

Odds are we will be eating fresh lettuce through November if not December.  This will be the 6th year in a row we have had winter lettuce.

2011 "Iceberg" lettuce

Lettuce can actually take quite cold temperatures.  It will continue to grow in  40*-50* temperatures and will even take a little snow.  We do have a few lettuce plants from August plantings to supplement our salads but we are looking forward to unlimited salads.

As for the zucchini, I have half a dozen here waiting to be cooked, and one stuffed with Italian sausage waiting to go in the oven for supper.  The mega-zucchini is on the compost pile and still not wilted.  Un-gardening has begun.