Posted on 06/01/2024 6:22:03 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Good Morning! :-)
Weekly Round Up from ‘Abandon All Hope’ Farm:
This morning Beau took our three best ‘swimmers’ to a Water Race. They hold them in the spring to start getting the dogs in shape for hunting season - raccoon and black bear. Shasta, Fremont, Paiute and Bella Coola made the cut. All are Plott Hounds. Of course, it’s RAINING, but it’s still going to be in the 70’s, so tolerable.
Tomatoes are in, and I’ve been adding flowers here and there. Started some Dill yesterday as I want to can Dilly Beans later this season. We have been cool and wet, and I KNOW it’s the first of June, but my beans aren’t in, yet. Peppers, either. But, it’s just a few hours’ work to get that done, so we’ll be fine. :)
Puppies are growing fast and are starting to explore their little world - with Mama Taylor at their side most of the time. We give her a break from them every day. They are confined to the Puppy Pen, so they can’t get out and no other dogs can get in. Looks like the Baby Daddy owner may be taking one or two, so that’ll be less work for me this summer. Yay! :)
We have been enjoying really good salad greens from the garden, but not much else, yet. The floodgates will open come July. ;)
Peonies have been spectacular this season - gonna brave the rain and cut a big bouquet for the Kitchen this morning. ‘Festiva Maxima’ and ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ (White and Shell Pink in color).
Not much else to report - other than Beau bought me some gravel screenings so I can do some fixing up in the pathways around my greenhouse that have become trip hazards. Gravel settles; you add more. :)
“In” early. We are getting soaked. No work outside today except to check to see how bad the yard is flooding...
A tale of 2 monarda .....
#1 - bought at Lowe's, can't find the tag, but it is blooming nicely. I will transplant in the fall to the new house, probably a large pot on the patio. Butterflies just love it.
#2 - bought from a nursery, "native" plant supposed to bloom light purple. No blooms yet & it's VERY tall (3-4 ft)! Will probably transplant in the fall to an herb bed at new house.
Although my 4 parsnip seeds that germinated have now gone into some bizarre type of “suspended animation”, everything else seems to be going “great guns”. Even some tomato seeds that I had just tossed into the herb/vegetable bed to see what they’d do, are growing fast. The whole experimental row of Sugar Baby watermelons is thriving too. If things keep up at this rate, my family will soon no longer have any reason to make fun of me for having “black thumbs”.
The blueberry bushes are getting some nice foliage, but the 3 berries on them (one on each bush) haven’t increased in size and are still as hard as BBs. That’s OK though; I’ve heard that the very first berries can do that, so I’m OK with waiting until next spring for a real harvest.
Back to the parsnkps, I’m thinking of putting a few seeds on the north side of the house. True, OK is in Zone 7 but my north side is protected from direct sun, and the difference in temperature there, vs. the other 3 sides of the house, is remarkable.
Apricot Bellini
Uses garden fresh apricots in a summery version of the classic Italian cocktail.
Ingredients 4 ripe apricots, pitted a dash vanilla extract chilled prosecco
STEPS Blender rough-chopped apricots to smooth purée. Stir in vanilla. (More than needed but keeps in fridge a few days.) Spoon 1-2 tbsp purée into chilled flute. Top w/ prosecco, stir/pour.
Tried a different ‘link’ on the postimages for the monarda pics. One regular click (not a ‘right’ click) on them & they will open in a larger format. The smaller pictures on the actual thread seem to be in better focus.
It has been GORGEOUS here the last two days - mostly blue skies, sunshine galore, low humidity, temps in the 70’s. The farmers at the mountain place are all cutting grass and making round bales. Here in the flatlands, I have gotten the entire place mowed (brother mowed 1 field & the old riding ring, which helped). No mowing to do today .... what to do, what to do?!
I have decided, since it’s still low humidity & not all that hot, to try to dig out at least one metal raised bed today. I will be saving the dirt (will have to pull the weeds out first - all the beds except the herb beds are overgrown). The other project is to see if I can get 3 huge slate slabs on the trailer and I might try getting my double wash tub planter on there, too. It’s rusty & needs painting, but I can paint it under cover at the lean-to attached to the barn. It’s ‘open air’ so paint fumes won’t be an issue. Very ambitious ‘things to do’ - I have had these on my lists for about 2 months & other things (like the new mower) have taken up trailer space. PS - I need to take the live trap this trip - the groundhog has 3 holes going in the pole shed ... just disgusting. If I don’t catch it pretty quick, I will be buying a snare, which is supposed to work pretty well.
My niece gave me a 3’ x 9’ metal raised bed. It’s in a box about 2-3 ft long & there is a bag (literally) of bolts to go with it. Initially, I thought I would use it, but I just cannot make myself put the thing together - I stress out just thinking about it & ‘stress’ is the last thing I need right now. My 3’ x 6’ metal beds only needed corners attached at initial assembly & I think I’ll stick with them for metal - the hope is I won’t have to take them apart to move them. My youngest brother gave me some tips on making reasonably cheap wooden beds (easier than what dad & I did for my original wooden beds) so if I add beds, I am going to make wooden ones, using his method.
Plant happenings other than monarda ... that Super Blue lavender plant is outstanding right now - loaded with blooms. The bumble bees have found it and I’ve counted up to 10 at one time on it ... it’s the “happening place” in our garden. The other “happening” is that the deer found mom’s hostas in the back yard and ate 7 almost down to the ground. That’s about half of her variegated hostas in that particular bed. I haven’t told her yet - it’s going to be “war” around here when she realizes the deer are once more visiting her gourmet salad bar.
Spectacular Lilies:
Irises:
Geraniums and Hibiscus :
Roses: Cinco de Mayo and Our Lady of Guadalupe:
And plenty of volunteer nasturtiums
Also lots of figs, grapes, pomegranates and berries setting on. Should be a bountiful summer and fall (unlike last year).
Happy Gardening!
My tomato plants are doing tremendous. All except one - maybe a little nitrogen burn - oops. It’s the time of year for growth and the insects haven’t started attacking, yet. Squash and peppers look great as well. I’m excited. All raised from seeds - about 40 tomato plants. Hopefully no helicopters checking me out like last year. Next time I will motion him down to land and show him they are T o m a t o plants.
I got most of the remaining flowers potted or planted this week. There’s a little more to do, but each season I change what I purchase depending on what looks healthy and where I have bare spots. I like it to feel like you’re at a botanical garden when you walk up to my house, either the front or the back. Our house is a Victorian style home so I try to keep it a little bit on the “English” side.
My bachelor buttons are so large that I need to divide them again next year. I didn’t get to it in time this year. So I will be deadheading them soon so they rebloom. Usually I dead head two or three times, and they bloom from April to November.
A neighbor gave me several milkweed plants to transplant, which I did right away last week. I think about half of them (10) made it through the transplant process. They lost many of their leaves except at the very top. I doubt there will be any blossoms this year, but maybe I will get lucky with one or two.
I got the old antique garden cart near our firepit planted a few days ago. I added Irish Spring “slices” around the perimeter and red pepper flakes all over in hopes of deterring the deer and bunnies from nibbling, and from squirrels to keep out from burying nuts in there. Fingers crossed.
We are supposed to get rain today, and I hope that will happen. We’re on the road for the day, but will be back this evening or tomorrow at the latest.
Melon Sorbet /4-6 servings
French culinary school technique.
ING ¼ cup water, ¼ cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 tbl plus 2 teaspoons corn syrup, 1½ pounds peeled diced ripe cantaloupe, honeydew or similar melons (1 medium melon), tbl lime juice, pinch salt.
Steps--- BTB water/sugar; simmer to dissolve sugar. Cool offheat. Blender purée melon, sugar/water, rest ing. Chill 2-24 hrs.
Blend chilled mixture 30 sec w/ immersion blender, then freeze in an ice cream maker as per mfg. Transfer to chilled container; freezer 2 hours. Soften in fridge 15-30 min; serve.
TIP--will keep couple of weeks in freezer, but best when freshly made.
Thanks for the Ping and the new thread!
Every one of my Scarlet runner beans that I collected Last Summer have sprouted. They’re about 5 in tall now. Only two of the blue lake beans that I bought have sprouted. I don’t know if they are more susceptible to lower temperatures.
I’m not going to buy anymore, I just put some Romano seeds in their place. I harvested them last year also. I really don’t like the Romano green beans any way but canned, so I thought I would try something different. Maybe it’ll work out next year lol
...and the new heavy duty pump that's supposed to shunt the worst of that to the ditch has carped out. Was running earlier and still has power. DRAT!!
I didn’t work for a few years when we bought this hunk of woods and I was busy carving us out a spot, building things etc. I had no idea what day of the week/month it was. It’s kinda nice and something I look forward to when I retire.
Rain on and off today. Gonna head to Ace and get some more seed starting mix here shortly. Going to start a tray of bok choy, these new seeds, plus some to succeed what I have going. That and some more Tatsoi. Just a few of each out of 200 per packet which I love. Talk about cost effective food. All an experiment to see what can deal with the warmer weather. Also going to plant the rest of the Salanova lettuce seeds in hopes of having ripe tomatoes and lettuce at the same time.
I’m bound and determined to have a salad with half a dozen ingredients, including tomatoes, picked fresh that morning, from the outdoors. Collard and mustard will be in it. Probably some peppers too. (mushrooms and onions next year)
Meanwhile, I do have some bok choy to harvest from the outside stalks and finally, some Tatsoi to do the same. One of them was especially good picked and eaten while in the garden mid day. Ought to be really good picked in the am and even better grown this fall/winter. Chijimisai is a keeper. Flee beetles seem to be gone or eased up which is nice.
Decided I’m going to grab another one of those actuators and install one on that window.
My son’s good about opening it but he does visit momma sometimes while I’m at work. That and with the recorded data, I have seen days when he opened it up a bit late by seeing the temp had gone up to the mid 80s, and then dropped when he opened the window. Seemed weird having that data on my son. Not sure how some people get off on that whole personal data collection thing.
I’ll just disconnect the crank and attach the actuator to the arm that the crank attaches to.
If it hits 75, open half way. If it hits 75 again or is still 75+ an hour later, open full.
If it’s raining and the wind is 35+ mph from the South, close half way so the rain doesn’t blow in.
When it drops below 63, close half way. Still below 63 an hour later or drops below 63 again, close it all the way.
Translating observations that are instinctual to us into computer logic is a brain itching exercise, many “ifs ands or buts” about it. Don’t want things adjusting constantly but don’t want it to be too sluggish. Will be good to get a start up here and have some kind of idea what to start out with when installed in the tunnel.
That stinks!
That looks so yummy. Too bad I can’t have any melons during grass season. It’s a different type of food allergy.
You could use other fruit.....maybe peaches?
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