The Garden is IN!!!

And the Angels rejoice and soooo do I!

Finally, after one set back after another, we now have a garden.
I'm sorry I haven't posted pictures and updates sooner, but I have been working my butt off trying to get not only the garden done, but get my house painted as well.

We finally did the last tilling of the garden last weekend and I have spent the week planting and transplanting from a nursery bed that I started most of the plants in.

We successfully transplanted all of those yesterday and today, and we also got the watermelons and beans in the ground too!

While we were waiting for the ground to dry out enough to till last week, we installed a gate around the garden to keep kid, kritters, and karacters out.
My daughter painted a sign expressing our wishes, and it seems to rather effective. As foot traffic has decreased substantially.

Donna, I hope we did everything right. I can't wait to eat some beans! We planted the limas and both types of green beans and the kidneys.

Tomorrow, or Tuesday I am hoping that my baby Bell Pepper plants are big enough to go out into the big garden so I can have the pepper bed filled.

Thanks to all who have participated in tilling, hoeing, listening, and advising. I couldn't have done it with out you!

Let's pray for a healthy garden this summer, and a wonderful bounty to can for the winter.

It's Raining, It's Pouring and Still Not Finished Tilling

Himself went fishing yesterday in the warm sunny weather, and told me that he would be available today to till the garden....

Beggars can't be choosers.

I did get some seeds planted in the nursery bed, and I did get some work done on the fence. I don't want to finish the fence until I get the bed tilled so that Himself can have room to turn around with the tiller.

Donna has been so kind as to reassure me that 'late' is better than never, and I can spend this untilled time adding to the soil to enrich it more.

I have have bag of horse poo from last year that I added water to under the instruction of my Grandfather who calls it 'Stinky Juice'. I found it yesterday behind a bush where I had tucked it last year to fester, and promtly forgot about.

This should be a wonderful addition to the soil! I also emptied all of my pots from last years annuals into the garden soil.
Donna, has stated that she uses straw, which adds loft to the dirt. I am going to ask my equestrian friends if I can come clean the stables one day and get some.

In the mean time I will relax and know that the garden will be tilled in good time, and I will find something else to obsess about.

Tilling Concrete

Yes, that is what it felt like Himself and I were doing on Saturday afternoon.
I knew the area had never been tilled, but what I failed to remember was for years the man who used to own the house had parked his cars, trucks and boats in the same area, and it was packed as hard as concrete.
Himself took four passes across it just to cut the sod off of the top.
He then asked if I had a 'pick ax'. I have 3. So to work we went.
We busted up each end of the garden with the pick axes, then he started the tiller again, this time since the tiller was already deep in the dirt it was easier for it to continue cutting into the dirt at the deeper level.
Every time he stopped to rest I handed him a beer (which the next day he informed me that during those breaks he would happilly accept a gatorade) so he wouldn't get dehydrated.
I also wanted to keep him happy cause I knew this wasn't turning out to be a whole lotta fun.
A job that I thought would take anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes ended up taking 6 hours!
We ran the tiller out of gas 3 times and on the last time we were done.
But there is still more to do.
I am particulary happy that it is raining as it is going places that it hasn't been in a long time and thus softening the dirt.
The dirt that feels like concrete, is once tilled, beautiful rich dark almost black dirt, and I am excited for the next clear day that Himself will come till it the final time.
I currently have plants waiting in nursery beds to be placed in the big plot, and I just can't wait.
Thank you to good neighbors with cool toys, that can be used to create so much.
I found out that Himselfs favorite vegetable is peppers....all kinds, and you better believe this man will have peppers coming out of his ears this summer.

Pickle Rescue

Thanks to my neighbor who knows how to grow cucumbers, I will be able to make my Grandmothers Sweet Lime Pickles this summer. After much lesson learning on how not to grow a cucumber, and Hubby throwing the Death Blow to my last remaining plant, I had nearly given up. But I was rescued yesterday when my neighbor met me in Southern Maryland with a case of cuc's that he successfully grew.

I'm going to get the lime today and start the pickles tomorrow.
Thanks Neighbor!
Here's Gran's recipe, it super simple and simply delicious...Enjoy!

Gran's Sweet Lime Pickles Recipe

2 c. hydrated lime
2 gallons water
7 lb. sliced cucumbers, 1/4 inch thick
4 1/2 lb. sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. salt
1 1/2 qt. cider vinegar
2-3 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp. whole cloves
1 tsp. pickling spice

Mix and stir lime in water. Add cucumbers and let soak for 24 hours. Stir often. Drain. Wash well in clear cold water. Soak 3 hours in clear water and drain.

Make syrup with sugar, salt, vinegar, cinnamon, cloves, and pickling spice. (Take bay leaves and red peppers out of pickling spice.) Add green food coloring (1 drop). Put cucumbers in syrup and let stand overnight. The next morning, put on stove and bring to a boil for 40 minutes. Put in hot jars and seal.

The Dog Days of Summer

Seems like just yesterday we were eagerly anticipating the coming summer. We were getting our seeds started on our window sills, and we just couldn't wait to get outside and feel the warm sunshine.
Not anymore!
The last few days have been stiflingly hot. With the humidity at 100% it's impossible to stay dry and functional unless your inside in the air conditioning.
I know, I know, quit complaining, but it's really hot.
I have plans of taking the decimated corn patch and transplanting the pathetic pepper plants into the area as it has more sun than where they are presently, but the heat is taking away my enthusiasm.
Heat makes me cranky too.
The other night one of my sunflowers was listing and I had been propping it up with a broken shovel, but I wasn't able to get the shovel deep enough into the ground so the plant wasn't pushing the shovel over too. I asked Hubby for some help, and he sweetly said that he would.
He took the shovel out of my hands and dug it deep into the ground, I was sooo happy. However, the bottom of the shovel was not visible to me through the leaves of the sunflower. I lifted them up to see how deep it was then I discovered that not only had he propped my sunflower but he had also severed the main stem of my ONLY producing cucumber! I snapped!
I had 4 cukes on the vine now the vine is dead.
Cukes have been the hardest thing that I have had to deal with this growing season. I started some from seed in the garden and just as they were coming up we had day after day of rain and they washed away. I did this twice. Then the fellow gardeners bought some that were in cups which I transplanted and they died ( they hate to be transplanted). Then a neighbor gave me another two cups of the cuke plants. I placed these in a little nursery bed right next to the back porch and it was here that one of them was thriving. One little plant that was going to town making cucumbers. Maybe I'm taking this far to seriously...but you know a lot of time goes into this stuff.
Anyway, my part time neighbor stopped by after I was done screaming at poor hubby and he heard my tale.
He sent me an email when he got back to his full time home, and said that he was overrun with cukes and that he would meet me at the auction we are having this weekend on the other side of the Bay and give them to me. He knew I really wanted to make some pickles so he took pity on my circumstances. Thanks Neighbor!

The Harvest is Coming In!

After being busy with the bees last week I wasn't paying as much attention to the garden that I had in previous days. When my neighbor arrived home he said "Steph, your not watching your tomatoes the way I am" (He has been watching very closely waiting for a ripe tomatoe to sink his teeth into since his garden drowned in early spring). I grabbed my old wash pan and went out into the garden to check it out.
To my amazement not only did I have tomatoes, but also eggplant, onions and ton's of basil!
I planted two different varieties of eggplant a Chinese white, and a regular purple both of which have turned out beautifully.

I'm so excited with the harvest thus far with the small kitchen garden. The garden in the back however isn't making me so proud. My corn is only about chest high with tiny cobs, my cucs and zuc's have tons of blooms but no veggies yet. Then the peppers! Oh, I'm beside myself with my peppers. All of the hot peppers are going great, yet I have not had one single sweet pepper. I do as of this afternoon have a tiny little sweet pepper about as big as a marble on one plant, so it doesn't look like were going to have many stuffed peppers to eat.

Anyway, I will be grateful for what has come to fruition, and thought I would share the pictures of the garden and the harvest with you.

I can't wait to see the results of the artichoke plants!

The Most Beautiful Roses I've Had...

Every year for the last ten years it seems that when the Peonies are blooming we have a storm that tears them up.
The house across the street from me has the most beautiful Peonies bed, and each year it gets wiped out.
For two years the house was empty, and during those years I would harvest a couple vases to make a fragrant arrangement. When the house was purchased a few years back I told my new neighbors about the plight of the Peonies, and that I had been harvesting them so that they would be appreciated for years. I asked if I could continue to save them from their springtime peril if they weren't going to be home, and they said yes.

So yesterday the wind as the winds are whipping and the rain is pelting I looked at my husband and said "I bet the Peonies are blooming".
Sure enough I look across the street and many of them were in full bloom, so as usual in the rain I made my way across the street to cut wet Peonies in the whipping rain.
This year my darling husband followed.
As I am cutting he is taking pictures of me, and singing the tune 'Singing in the Rain', except he changed the words to 'She's Stealing in the Rain Stealing Flowers in the Rain'. You gotta love a smart ass.
So after my bountiful harvest we made our way back home and as I approached my arbor entrance to my front walk Billy told me to turn around so he could get a picture of me with the Peonies under the arbor that has more Roses on it this year than it has ever had.
I am so glad he took the picture, because at midnight I get a call from my son who said his friend had just driven by our house and saw the arbor laying in the street!
Billy went out and tried to put it back up but the wind was blowing so hard, as he was putting it up it blew down the other way. He decided it would probably be better to wait to put it back up tomorrow when the storm is over. He gave it a valiant effort, but it may need a little more work than just re-setting it. Fortunately, the Rose bush didn't break but because the ground was sooo saturated that it just came up out of the ground in a clump.
Thank you for the Peonies D & B they are beautiful, the purple ones haven't started blooming yet, so hopefully you will get to enjoy those.

Stinky Juice

Today Grayson wanted to go to Toy's R Us and use his birthday money, a gift card plus a coupon to purchase a skate board and helmet to use at the new skate park.
We had to pick up a few things as well, and as high as gas is we try to get done everything we can whenever we go anywhere especially in the Conastoga Wagon of the New Millenium which we drive.
Anyway, while we were in the Bury, our friend Joe called and said he heard I needed horse manure. He has a couple of the beasts that produce such stuff and told us to come on over and pick some up.
We did. Thankfully, Billy and Joe sealed it in bags and taped them shut, but when I got home and opened them they were hot and stinkin.
My grandfather told me to soak it and let turn into Stinky Juice and then put it on my plants.
So with one bag I spread over the ground and with the other, I did as my Grandfather suggested and filled it with water to let it set for a few days and make some Stinky Juice.
We'll experiement and see which one works best.
Thanks Joe! I'll let you know how it goes!

We Have Sprouts!

We have bean sprouts, we have broccoli sprouts, we have beet sprouts, we have cabbage sprouts, and we have lettuce sprouts! We have Sprooouuuttttsss!!!!!! Yippee!!!!!

All of the baby plants are doing well and look to have taken hold and are actually starting to grow.
I'm so excited!!

What a Day!

Today was a day that I accomplished much. It was one of those days that I can be proud of and I am. I was feeling so awful in the morning it took me a while to get started, but before I knew it, I was fully committed to my tasks.
I had wanted to get the yard cut, kill the weeds and put honey supers on the bee hives.
When I came downstairs the kitchen was a mess so I cleaned that first.
Afterward, I went out side and got the lawnmower from the garden shed. I checked the gas and the oil and both were fine, and after priming I pulled the rope to crank it. It started right away but then it stopped. I pulled again, it started then stopped. I went through this several times when I realized I was getting no where. So I resigned myself to be being a woman and not knowing what to do with it, and being a woman who doesn't know what to do, does know to push it to the people who do.
Himself and the Rocket Scientist had it started again and running 10 minutes. We talked for a bit and I invited everyone to dinner, and left with my quest to finish my internal list.
It was wonderful the guys totally fixed it and I was able to get the grass cut rather quickly.
Billy decided it would be a good day to clean an area of the garage that he wants to use so he wasn't bothering me. Life was good.
Then I got my bottle of roundup and went around the property spraying along the walk and driveway it. In the process my neighbor and I found a huge bunch of poison ivy so I pulled out my handy dandy Brush Killer and took care of that.
It was after this chore that I walked past the beehive and decided I was going to deal with the girls. I was really calm, my chi was good so I put on my bonnet and lit the smoker. I pulled the tops off of the hive and it was really full the Queen had laid a lot of brood up in the honey boxes. I scraped off the wild comb, and inspected the hive to see if there were any sub-queen sacs that the girls may be raising and sure enough there were. So I took out the frames with the sub- queen sacs on them, and put them in my other hive box . I also took out a few frames of workers from the old hive and added them to the new to help build the colony. I really don't have anything to lose, since I lost last years colony from 'Colony Collapse Syndrome' so its worth a try and if she doesn't emerge with in a few day they will all go back to the old hive.
I added four empty honey boxes to the old hive. The two brood boxes and the one honey box were absolutely stuffed, and the colony was completely out of room.
To encourage them fill in the new comb. I placed the full honey box on the top and the empty honey boxes between them and my brood boxes.
It will be interesting to see how they do.
I am very optimistic regarding this years harvest as the bees looked so great. I did find mites on them so I will make up some sugar and crisco patties for them and see what happens... this is the only thing I can do for them at this point as if I put chemicals on them now the honey from the fourth of July flow wont be right as I don't want any chemicals in my honey. The instructions say that you can, I prefer to use the chemicals if I have to, during the winter so that we don't ingest the chemical that we are giving them.
Say a few prayers for the bees this year... they need our help to save them and if we don't we won't be here to notice.
Remember...every third bite that you eat comes from something that a bee pollenated.

Today is Farmer Girl Day....What Are We Gonna Get Into?

Today is Farmer Girl Day. This is the day the girls and I get together and do something practical, like learn a new craft, play in the garden, share a meal, drink some wine, and share what is going on in each of our lives.
Today we are meeting at my house. The girls will be coming over to inspect the new garden, that went in last week, and I have a bunch of perennials I need to split, so I will pass them around.
Our Farmer Girl Group is open to any ladies who feel that inner 'Farmer Girl' wanting to get out. So if you want to come play on a Thursday afternoon, let me know.

We Did It!!!

Finally, after all of the breakdowns, time delays and life...the Garden is IN!!! Well most of it.
This weekend turned into one of the craziest in a while!

It was my youngest son's birthday (this is not the age that you can delay a party because they can't read a calender). One of the cats that I had trapped last week, apparently gave birth under the neighbors house and Saturday morning three kittens came out looking for their mother. My son and his friends immediately fell in love and have been taking turns nursing them.


So between a Full Moon, PMS, a Birthday Party, and baby Kittens we had a grand time and eventually got most of the Garden in.

The rain is supposed to come tonight, but I watered just in case it didn't.
The way this weekend went, I wouldn't be surprised if it rained everywhere else on the shore, except Pocomoke.