The Rock Salad Garden

With the fabulous weather we've been having, 

Big E and I have been spending spare time doing things in the yard.

The latest task we tackled was cleaning up 

a garden area on the side of the garage.

It's been neglected for a while now,

and I think it is a good spot for a new garden 

for lettuces and kale.

It'll save on the grocery bill for tortoise food.

Not only was it full of weeds and nasty Bermuda grass, 

it also had 5 invasive tree species growing in it.

Apparently, this used to be a rock garden.

Or cement garden.

This is one of 2 piles of cement block that was dug up

and hauled out of the garden.

Once section actually had large pieces of flagstone in it

and resembled a chicken.

Big E wouldn't let me keep it.

 In the end, we got it all dug out, 

and it looks great. 

Again, hard to imagine that there was so much cement

in such a small area.

Not sure if I'm going to make a raised bed, 

or just use it as is.

Either way, I'm glad the area looks better, 

and I'm anxious to get the salad growing

for me and the tortoise.

(Though now we have to clean up the piles of crap we took out of it)

What's Going On

Things have been busy.

I say that, and part of me doesn't even know what I've been doing to feel so busy.

All I know is, one minute it was May, 

 and then suddenly it's the middle of July and my summer is nearly gone.

Things have been so busy that our garden has been neglected.

It looked more like "The Garden of Weedin"

than anything that might actually produce edible vegetables.

It might surprise you to know that this photo was taken only a few days after Big E 

and I weeded the left half of the garden.

It took 2 days and a total of about 6 hours,

but we finally got the thing weeded!

I also found my nemesis: squash bugs on some plants.

This year my plan of attack is to use diatomaceous earth combined with

using duct tape sticky side out to pull eggs and bugs off plants.

It's best to try to do that every other day.

Yesterday I found Squash bugs, cucumber beetles and squash beetles on the squash, cucumbers and

whatever volunteers we have growing in various places 

(possibly pumpkin, watermelon and cantaloupe, it'll be a surprise).

Hopefully I can get a handle on things so they don't get out of control.

You'd think these chickens would like to eat some plump, juicy bugs out of my garden.

But all they want to do is dig up my beets so they can roll in the dirt

and eat the leaves off things.

I'm not ashamed to say that I take pleasure it squirting them with the hose while I'm watering.

This little guy was the first ever baby chick hatched the old fashioned way at the homestead.

Unfortunately, he didn't live longer than a couple of days.  

I had a total of 3 chicks emerge from eggs and none survived.

I'm hoping I get to the bottom of that problem 

as I would like to add to the flock when needed

by letting my hens do the work 

and not having to bring babies into the house in the brooder.

If anyone has any advice, that would be great.

We also now have a bunny.

This is Harvey.

He's named after the 6 foot tall invisible rabbit in the old James Stewart movie.

James Stewart played a man who talked to the invisible rabbit.

He was thought to be insane.

Draw your own conclusions.

Harvey's only job is to amuse me.

He also likes to torment my 2 year old grandson 

by chewing on and stealing toys.

Here he is resting amongst his spoils of war.

I haven't been able to take photos of the bathroom.

That's next on my list-

really, I've resorted to lists of things I need to update on the blog.

Problem with the bathroom is that there is no longer light in there now that the old window opening has been boarded up. 

But, we do have the wires run for the outlets and lights

(and I just thought I might ask the hubby to add and outlet along a wall I don't think I told him I wanted before he ran the wires.... ooops).

So hopefully in the next day or two, 

I'll share the bathroom updates that have happened.

Making Hay

I haven't actually been making hay,

but the saying "make hay while the sun is shining" refers 

to getting stuff done- in my case literally when the sun is shining.

In May I think it rain about 85% of the time

making outside work impossible.

Big E and I installed a new sturdier, taller chicken run in the rain.

l to r: Royal Farms, Louise and Vader the Roo

The girls (and the roo) aren't very happy about confinement of any sort

even if it's a very large grassy area.

I guess it's one of those

"The manure is better on the other side of the fence" deals for them.

We wanted to do something to allow them some freedom and space 

without offering them up as a fox buffet during kit season.

So far (knock wood) it seems to be working.

Nutsy enjoying some watermelon

I try to keep them happy with special treats

like watermelon rinds.

Still, the minute the treat is devoured,

they're back to demanding release from the prison yard.

In the nicer weather, 

Big E and I have finally been able to get the veggie garden tilled.

Because we are also busy at the house, we are keeping this year's garden smaller.

I have beets, radishes, cukes, beans, peppers, squash and tomatoes.

There is room for something else but I'm not sure yet what I'll add,

possibly just some additional tomatoes or peppers.

We also managed to finish digging out the new garden beds at our house.

Now I just need to get some stuff planted in them.

A local new-to-me nursery was having a BOGO sale on plants,

so my mom and I headed out and loaded up the car.

They're still sitting by the garage at the moment,

because I have so much that needs getting done I haven't gotten to them yet.

I'm hoping that I can find time to get that done,

so I can share the progress on the gardens.

I'm happy to report that I was able to get the rest of the milkweed that I needed,

and I can start the Monarch Waystation Certification process.

In other news, 

the bathroom is nearly completely gutted.

I haven't managed to get any photos of that process since it has mostly happened

during the day while I'm at work.  

Thanks to my dad. 

Now THAT'S a Carrot!

I went out to the garden to grab a couple of carrots for a salad I was making

I grabbed what I thought was a bunch of carrot tops and pulled

and out popped this monster.

After making sure that it didn't taste weird (it didn't)

I used about a third in my salad and chopped the rest up for horse treats.

I promise I grew this with nothing but horse poop-

no nuclear radiation involved.

Garden in Progrress

The Cabbage, Broccoli an Cauliflower are doing well

now that their fenced in and protected from the chickens.

The beans have sprouted around the bean trellis

and I got the cucumbers planted along the cucumber trellis

that the husband built for me over the weekend.

All the peppers are planted, 

beets are sprouting,

peas are popping up 

and tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe and squash have been planted.

I just need to plant the pumpkin seed, add a little more watermelon seed

and possibly plant potatoes.

Hopefully all those wheelbarrows full of composted maure

will give us a plentiful yield this summer!

Access Denied

I used to let the hens wander in the veggie garden thinking

they'd help with the bug population.

However, I learned pretty quick

that all they seem to do is eat my cabbage and kale

and scratch up newly planted seeds.

So this past Tuesday evening,

I put up a fence.

They weren't happy. 

But perhaps this year I'll be able to try out 

my homemade sauerkraut recipe.

And in other news, 

I now have 2 chickens who think sitting on me is fun to do.

Henny Penny (on the left) and Royal Farms (named by the 8 year old)

both came over to visit.  

RF learned that getting a scratch under the chin is pretty nice.

They enjoyed sitting on my arm.

Since they're the closest thing I'll ever have to a hawk,

I'm thinking I should get a couple of those falconry hoods for them to wear.

(a quick chicken update: Penny was pecked pretty severely yesterday evening and is once again in the house in the old brooder.  It's a little touch and go but she made it through the night and was up eating and drinking)

Prepping the Garden

The husband was hard at work Sunday and Monday

getting the veggie garden ready for planting.

This past fall we dumped quite a bit of composted manure

onto the garden- something we neglected to do the year before

and we paid for it in lack of production.

So Big E went to work tilling in the compost.

He also went to work making the edges perfectly straight.

Finally, he limed the garden good.

We have one more bag of lime we need to finish up one corner

but for the most part, it's done.

 I spent my evening making a to scale drawing of the garden

so I could get an idea of where I wanted things to go.

We wanted to make sure we rotated the various veggies

in the hopes that it would help with squash bug issues

and that rotation and added compost would boost our crops.

I paid special attention to companion planting 

and spacing (something I never really paid much attention to).

I ended up having a little extra room for a small herb garden-

on paper at least.

We'll see how well I planned once it's time to get the seeds and plants in the ground.

 

Black Gold

 Recently, Big E and I managed to get the garden weeded 

and tilled and ready for the winter.

We have a large pile of straw mulch and weeds that need to be burned 

(to hopefully kill off some of those squash bugs that lived among them)

but other than that, it's all good to go.

 We also began carting wheelbarrows full of composted manure

up the hill from the barn to the garden.

(and after pushing a few wheelbarrows full I realize we have a crap ton lot of work to do to get in shape for the 40 for my 40th)

It's black gold.

We're hoping this helps with some of the issues the garden was having this past growing season.

We had a great year the year before, but this year was less than stellar.

I blamed our lack of fertilizing.

(Not to mention we had that little thing called a wedding to plan)

There's about 3/4 of the garden left to fill with all that warm composted fertilizer

and once that's done,

we plan on covering it with black plastic.

I've been told the black plastic will heat up and kill off bugs and weed seeds.

At the very least it will help the soil warm up in the spring 

so perhaps I'll have quick germination for those spring veggies.

Now we just have to wait out the winter...

Carrots

 

 One of our best crops this year

was carrots.

Because of our rocky soil (as evidenced in the above photo)

we never tried carrots after our first attempt

produced very small and extremely deformed carrots.

But when the 8 year old showed an interest in growing some

(I thought he might eat them, silly me, he just wanted them for his rabbit)

I figured what the heck.

The results were so good

we have plans to plant more next year.

 I used 2 different ways to can them but they both start with washing the carrots

  

 Peeling the carrots.

  

and cut the carrots.

 

To can regular carrots

(That is to say just carrots and water no fancy recipe)

boil a pot of water.

Add cut and washed carrots to the water.

Bring back to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Fill your jars with the carrots leaving 1" of headspace.

Use the water the carrots were cooked in to fill the jars.

Make sure you have that 1" of headspace.

You can add salt now- 1tsp for quarts 1/2 tsp pints.

I choose not to use salt.

Remove bubbles, wipe the rim

and process at 10 pounds of pressure for 25 min for pints, 30 for quarts. 

 I also canned some glazed carrots.

You will need:

 

6 1/2 -7 lbs of carrots
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups water
1 cup orange juice

Cut and wash your carrots per usual.

Combine brown sugar, water and orange juice in a pot. 

Cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. 

Keep syrup hot and pack carrots tightly into hot jars, leaving 1" headspace. 

Ladle hot syrup over carrots
(make sure you  leave 1" headspace). 

Remove air bubbles and wipe rims. 

Add hot lids and rings. 

Process pints and quarts for 30 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure for weighted gauge 
and 11lbs for dial gauge.

Makes 6 pints or 3 quarts.

I'm looking forward to eating some carrots this winter!

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

 Okay, so maybe it wasn't killer tomatoes

and nothing was attacking, 

but there were a lot of freaking tomatoes we needed to harvest.

So I managed to get 4 one gallon freezer bags filled with peeled tomatoes.

I freeze them until I have the time 

to work on cooking and canning pasta sauce.

And Big E made a large batch of salsa.

I'm sure we'll be making more of this 

and freezing and canning it.

Read how to Peel Tomatoes easily.

Last Haul

We finally found time to pay attention to our struggling garden.

This year, it just doesn't seem to be doing very well at all.

Last year we had produce all over the place- 

so much I couldn't keep up with preserving it all.

Not this year.

I blame the late spring start,

the cooler than normal temps

and lack of fertilization.

So our next step is to fertilize the heck out of the garden.

While we were hacking down the jungle growth weeding

I came across this fat Eastern American Toad

hiding in the soil beneath what was supposed to be my cabbage plants.

(they were plants, they just never gave me cabbage)

He was pretty fat.

Big E yelled at me to stop playing with the toad and start 

wielding my machete helping him weed.

The squash bugs are one of the few things that are growing well.

The ground was moving with them. 

So we ripped out most of the squash and zucchini and pumpkins

and I sprayed the area with Neem oil hoping to kill them off.

 

This probably the last large haul from the garden this year.

Carrots and beets did well.

I'll be canning those this week.

The tomatoes are doing ok,

hopefully I'll continue to get some so I have enough for pasta sauce.

What's For Dinner?

Last night I decided to make something different for dinner.

Spying the ginormous 1foot + zucchini on the counter, 

I opted to try out a baked stuffed zucchini redcipe I spied on Pinterest

(if you don't Pinterest you really should, 

I've used many many many ideas from there from recipes

to wedding ideas to crafting to gardening...)

Unfortunately, because this was spur of the moment, 

I didn't take step by step photos like I normally would.

But because I had so many requests for the recipe, 

I figured I'd blog it without the usual photos.

Fresh out of the oven

Ingredients

Zucchini- I used one giant one,

the original recipe called for 3 small/medium zucchinis

1 medium onion chopped fine (or half, depending on your preference)

2 cloves garlic minced/pressed

2Tbsp sour cream 

1 Roma (paste) tomato seeded and chopped

freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 Tbsp butter

meat of your choice- I wanted to use Italian sausage but had to use ground pork.

Original recipe calls for bacon but really anything could work here.

seasonings- I used Caribbean Jerk seasoning I made myself and salt and pepper

(as with the meat, anything goes here, salt and pepper, thyme, Italian seasonings...)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°

cut your zucchini in half lengthwise

using a spoon, scoop out the insides of the zucchini leaving a small edge around the sides

Place scoopings in a bowl for later.

Cook your meat, drain off the grease

In a skillet, cook onion and garlic in the butter until translucent

 add meat and seasonings to the onions and cook together a couple of minutes

chop up the scooped out zucchini into small pieces

mix sour cream into the chopped up zucchini

add meat and onion mixture and tomatoes to the zucchini

mix well

(I also added some cheese to the mix)

stuff the hollowed out zucchini halves with your mix

top with the grated cheese

bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes

I sprinkled more grated cheese on top after removing it from the oven

Enjoy!

 

This recipe can be altered and changed to suit your personal preferences.

I have plans to use Italian sausage and mozzarella next time for an Italian themed stuffed zucchini.

I also would like to try the bacon. 

Got any ideas? Let me know!

Garden of Weedin

We finally had some time to work in the garden this weekend.

It's no longer the "Garden of Weedin'"

Our corn is growing- sort of.

Some didn't come up at all.

We staggered the plantings-

2 rows, then planted 2 more rows 2 weeks later, etc.

Hoping this allows us to use what we harvest rather than

having 50+ ears to deal with all at once.

The pumpkins are growing like crazy.

Unfortunately, I discovered some squash bugs in the garden.

These things are my nemesis.

They single handedly killed the pumpkins and most of the zucchini and squash last year.
I have a plan though.

Here is one of our 3 potato plants.

I don't recommending deciding to order potatoes

and wanting to make a potato tower 2 weeks before your wedding.

We just planted them in the ground, so I don't have too much hope of potatoes this year.

The beans love the trellis.

I have green beans and black beans growing here.

The cucumbers needed a little help with the trellis.

For the future, I plan to use strips of wood to make more climbing area

for the vines.

The peas are doing well. 

We harvested a bagful.

And I ate several pods.

The zucchini has been producing for a couple of weeks now.

It's delicious.

The squash bugs think so too,

unfortunately.

We pulled beets, zucchini, squash and peas.

This photo doesn't show the huge bucket full

of squash and zucchini.

There was one tomato, but those mother cluckers got to it before I did.

 

Bertha was checking out the produce being offered.

She and Martha Stewart got to the one ripening tomato before I could.

 I have tons of green tomatoes.

I'm thinking of trying to fry some up- something I've never cooked or eaten.

First Haul

Picked these snazzy zucchinis and a couple of Pony Express Paste tomatoes last night.

There's tons more nearly ready for harvesting.

If only we could get a little rain.

Are You Chitting Me?

On a whim I ordered some seed potatoes from Annie's Heirlooms.

I planned on building a potato tower 

out of wire fencing, straw and compost,

but planning on large garden projects 2 weeks before your wedding isn't the best idea.

So, we stuck them in the ground.

We'll see what happens.

Wordless Wednesday

Early morning drink for the tomatoes before the 80+ degree temps

Koi Pond in the morning with the new papyrus plant