End of the Summer Garden

The garden is winding down and it's just about time to plant garlic again, after the first light frost, which should be here shortly. One of the great things about gardening is that we get to try again in a few months and the mistakes or lack of knowledge we experienced this year will help us for the next.

This morning I picked radishes, butternut squash and Spanish Melon. This is the first winter squash type we've picked. I'm going to attempt to cut into it and bake it. It certainly has a hard stem and outer coat, guess I'll try the electric knife. I just learned to enjoy radishes this year. The key is to pick them as quickly as possible before they get bitter. Radishes are ready to eat in a short time - 23 to 30 days compared to 80 - 100 days for melons.

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Busy Summer

Wow what a busy summer. Don't ask me what I've been doing to stay so busy. I wouldn't be able to come up with an impromptu answer. It recently struck me though that I could stay busy in the kitchen all day.  I like to cook and try new recipes and I have a keen knack for using every bowl, pan and utensil within reach, which means a lot of quality time spent with my kitchen. Ha Ha.  

Like many in the Midwest, we're having somewhat of a drought so the garden is not as productive as usual. We are so thankful for what we have harvested.

I have rain barrels at the downspout of one of the garages. They fill up if we get even a half inch of rain. I mostly use the rain barrels for a little flower bed that's down hill from the barrels by connecting a garden hose that will gravity drain right into the bed. I have said in the past that I prefer manual productive labor instead of exercising, but when it comes to carrying water - good manual labor that it is - I try to avoid it.

We have had a nice quantity of cabbage from the garden. Here's a recipe I have made several times.

Cabbage Soup

3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 quarts water
4 teaspoons chicken bouillon
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 head of cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped
1 (14.5 ounce) stewed tomatoes
A dash of Italian seasoning

In a large stockpot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic. cook until onion is transparent, about 5 minutes.
Stir in water, boullion, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then stir in cabbage. Simmer until cabbage wilts, about 10 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes. Return to a boil,then simmer 15 to 30 minutes, stirring often.

May Has Finally Arrived

Spinach has grown really well in the hoophouse

My new very sturdy garden cart

Spinach in the garden waiting patiently for sunny weather

I'm so happy to see Spring arrive if only by the calendar. We, as well as many others, are having a turbulent change of seasons. It's still wet and cool in our garden but the hoop house is doing very well. With this being our first season for the hoop house, we keep making mental notes of what to do differently next year. Cool season plants - spinach, lettuce, radishes, green onions, etc. have done so well we're thinking we'd like to have another bigger greenhouse for next year. It would be so fun to grow most of our vegetables.  


I have made some mistakes with the planting and learned some things. Now I know how important it is to label seeds as you plant. Similar to baby people, seedlings don't look alot like their grownup selves. I thought the kohlrabi was broccoli until the bulbous parts started growing. Since we are transplanting nearly everything, they start out in little mini-blocks. After the seed germinates and gets true leaves then they are moved to a bigger block and then out to the greenhouse until it can go in the ground. They get moved around quite a bit and in that moving some have temporarily lost their identity. I'm now using markers, which I think will help. 
 

My dear husband made this beautiful garden cart (in the picture) for me. He got the plans from this website. http://whizbangbooks.blogspot.com/2007/12/wb15.html  This is a very well-thought out cart. It's easy to push and heavy duty enough that I can ride in it which means it can handle quite a few pounds. Ha Ha

 

Have a good day,

Salad from the Greenhouse

We've enjoyed a couple of salads from the greenhouse. When we get the planting schedule figured out and get to know the cool season and winter crops, we should always have home grown salad, but this being one of the first, it was pretty exciting.

This salad has green leaf lettuce and red leaf lettuce, arugula, Baby Bak Choy, Radish, Onion, Tokyo Bakana, Mazuna, Spinach and onion. We read about the Asian greens from market grower, Eliot Coleman's books. He farms in Maine and grows salad vegetables all winter. He describes his greenhouses as cool and cold. He keeps one house just above freezing and the others have no supplemental heat. The idea is to plant vegetables that like to grow in winter temperatures. Tomatoes and melons and green beans will benefit from growing in high tunnels (also called hoop houses and plastic covered greenhouses) in the spring, summer and fall, but not during winter. I am really enjoying learning about and trying lots of new vegetables.  One of my favorites has been a red leaf lettuce called, "Amaze".  I'll have to get a picture of it.

Design Wall

My mom explained how to make this quilt years ago. She used newspaper for the foundation. I'm using muslin so I don't have to tear it off. It's a scrap quilt, but I have bought a couple of remnants since starting it. My color choices are iffy. Sometimes I like them and then other times, I wish I would have put other colors together.

I saw the preview for a training DVD (on Knitting Daily) about putting colors together. I'm going to research that and consider purchasing. Maybe you get better with practice, but a little self-help / training couldn't hurt.

Check out Judy L's blog to see what other quilters are working on   here.

Greenhouse

Here's our little (10' x 30') greenhouse that my husband designed and built. Pictures of wind collapsed greenhouses prompted us to put ours here behind the shop for some wind protection. 

There are three beds on one side and benches along the other side. The structure is made from top rail (the pipe used for chain link fence). You bend the top rail using a pipe bender. We got our pipe bender and greenhouse plastic from these folks in Texas. Lost Creek
We presently have one layer of 6 mil greenhouse plastic covering the frame, but plan to add a second plastic layer with an air space between the two for next winter. That white fluffy stuff in the picture is the cover that is pulled over the beds at night if it's below freezing. The fan at the end is thermostatically controlled to open the vents at the other end when the temperature reaches the set temperature (76). This winter when it was sunny but below freezing outside it would be over 80 inside. 

There are many hardy greens that will grow right through the winter. We had some this year and hope to have the greenhouse full next year.  Spinach, lettuce, radishes, green onions, arugula, mache (corn salad) are a few that will grow in the greenhouse with no additional heat. 
 

Design Wall Monday

I recently enjoyed my first quilt class.  It was so much fun. Sue, from my daughter's church taught a room full of mothers and daughters and granddaughters how to make the Log Cabin block using Eleanor Burns, Quilt in a Day book. I needed a lot of help to get started, but by the end of the class I was able to see the progression of putting the pieces together to make the block. Granddaughter, Elyse, who's 11,  got some practice sewing and 9 year old granddaughter, Abigail sewed for a minute, but was lured away from the sewing machine by the other children. 

The next step is to finish the blocks. Then I'll decide how to finish the project. I'm thinking it will be big enough for a recliner throw. I use those frequently; a snugly throw and the recliner. Ha Ha.  

To see more Design Wall Monday inspiration visit Judy L's, Patchwork Times. here's a link