Some Things Growing

Here are some of the things growing in my garden.

Japanese Snowball Bush

 Isn't this spectacular? I've had it for about 4 years and it just gets more beautiful every year.This blooms in early spring. The show is over now.

Weeping Holly

 I've had this about 10 years, now. It has really grown a lot. In the spring, I trim out as much dead branches and stalks as I can. This gets little white flowers on them which the bees really love. Then those flowers turn to berries which feed the birds in the winter. You can see some of the berries still on there.

Strawberries!

Our strawberry garden did well for the first bearing. We shared a lot with the squirrels, rabbits, birds and slugs. (grumble, grumble) We are looking forward to the next bearing in June. The second bearing always gives really nice berries on stems that do not lay on the ground.

Take care.

It's Been A Long While

It's been a long while since I posted last. What has kept us so busy is that we plant gardens in the Spring. This year, it seems they occupied our time more than usual. The problem is weeds. Lots and lots of weeds. Here in SC, we can have no weeds one day and the next day they start shooting up. I come home from work and pull some. Hubby, who is retired, pulls some during the day when he's not doing a chore or two. It's constant and unforgiving work. However, the upside is that we get veggies and fruit. Yeah!

First, let me say that we had a really wet Spring. We got a late start on planting and we didn't do too bad considering we couldn't plant when we wanted to. Some of the veggies couldn't recoup from the water and some died. That was our luck this year.

Here are some pics of what we started with this past Spring. I have a cage that I made for sweet potatoes. I didn't plant any this year, but I put my daikon seeds and a couple of potatoes that were sprouting in the house. I got only one daikon. The heat came and the rest bolted quickly. No potatoes. They died.

Daikon and Lonely Potato

 My hubby called this the "Indian Burial Ground". The teepees in the foreground are for pole beans. The teepees in the background are for cucumbers. The story here is our weather was really weird this year. We go rain and the cukes drowned, except for two plants. Those two plants gave us a few really nice cukes this summer. The pole beans, green beans and carrots were mowed down by rabbits in one night. They were only about 6" high and they were gone. Them pesky wabbits!

Indian Burial Ground

 Some of the best tools I own! Hubby had a broken rake that he was going to throw away. I asked if he would make me a 4-prong rake on a stick so I can get between plants. One day, he cut and welded and made these two. Boy can they yank weeds out of the ground with little effort!!!

Hubby's Hand Rakes

 Radishes and more radishes. I didn't think I'd get any because we have moles. The moles must not like radishes. We were grateful for these.

Radishes

 Here is one of our strawberry patches. We did really well this year with them. We had some slugs, rabbits, squirrels and birds getting to them. We managed to get about a pint to a quart every night when they started bearing. They bore clear into July. These are Ozark Beauty everbearers. Love them!

Ozark Beauty Strawberries

 My herb patch / nursery. Foreground large green patch is oregano. I harvested, dried and froze a lot for this Winter. Garlic chives looks like hair. This stays pretty much just like this all year 'round down here. Back right corner is thyme. I didn't get anything much from this this year. I don't use much thyme.

Herb Garden

More Radishes

We planted tomatoes, lettuce, yellow squash and mild banana peppers. The tomatoes are being scorched by the heat and the stinkbugs are mating and sucking the juice from them. Yuck! That really ruins the tomatoes. We got very little lettuce because of the heat scorching the leaves. The squash did well. The peppers are still bearing.

That was our Spring and Summer in our food garden.

Take care.

One of the Last Strawberries

Ok. You're going to think I'm goofy. Well...

Heart Strawberry

Here's one of the last strawberries we got from our strawberry patch this year. I thought it was cute. I've never seen such a pretty heart-shaped strawberry.

I hope this put a smile on your face today.

Take care.

Tomatoes

Hubby and I took a walk back to gather strawberries when we stopped to check out our tomato garden, which is on the way. Last week I tied up the tomato plants and this week they need tied up again. They have grown so much with last week's rain! We also have some tomatoes on the vines. We counted about a dozen in various sizes. Some of them are bigger than golf balls right now. Whee! We're gonna have tomatoes soon! I can hardly wait to taste a bit of sunshine. Everything tastes so much better when we grow it ourselves. I hope some of the Black Krim tomatoes give fruit. They are a dark blackish tomato with a green halo around the stem part of the tomato. They are pretty but it's a little weird to think of eating a blackish tomato. Well, they're more like a purplish black.

Back to the strawberries...we got about a pint tonight. The second production has the nicest berries. They are hanging above the plant and aren't eaten so much by slugs. Now, the squirrels pick them and leave them laying around. It's annoying because they get the ripest ones and munch on them. At least they munch more than the birds do. Birds take a bite or two and go onto the next one. We lose less to the squirrels. The birds waste more.

We are supposed to get a bit more rain tonight and tomorrow. Just what we need...NOT. We need a bit of a break from rain. I'm sure we'll be begging for rain this summer during a drought.

By the way, the thermometer registered 99 degrees F when I got home tonight. It is hot and a bit humid. Sometimes a little breeze wafts through.

Take care.

Rainy Days and Reading

More rain. Lots of rain. What more can I say on this subject? Hubby said he went to the strawberry patch and felt like he was in a rice paddy because there was so much water between the rows. He brought back about a quart of really large berries. They are about quarter-sized and bigger. Yes. Bigger! The second round grows above the ground on raised stems. There is no rotting and no slugs eating them. Yay! They are really really nice looking strawberries.

I just finished reading a book called 'Alaska' by Tracie Peterson. It is Christian fiction. I enjoyed it very much. It was 4 short stories spanning a family's life in Alaska from late 1800's to sometime close to the present. It was pretty good. I'll be reading more from her.

Now, I'm reading a book from Leslie Gould called 'Courting Cate'. I call it a 'calgon' novel. It takes me away... Anyhow, it's Christian fiction about Amish families. This author writes a little differently than the rest I've read. I like her style. I've been reading a whole slew of these Amish novels because they remind me of where I grew up. I used to take long rides to New Wilmington, PA on my days off. It was a college town in an Amish community. It was interesting to ride the countryside and watch the Amish play and do chores. Of course, it's not polite to stop and gawk, so I viewed on the fly. There were also communities all around where I lived. Another was in Enon Valley. Now, when we go for a visit to my stepson's place in DuBois, there is an Amish community there, too.

I also checked out 3 novels by Suzanne Woods Fisher. A few more Amish novels in her Stoney Ridge Seasons series. Actually they're books 1, 2 and 3. I've never read anything by her, but I think I will be. Her story lines are a bit different from the others.

I hope you have something you enjoy that would be your 'calgon'.

Take care.

Berries

Blueberries will be in season pretty soon. A lady at work asked me if I wanted some she had frozen from last year before she puts them up from this year. Of course I wouldn't be turning this down. So I took them home on Friday. Today I made a blueberry coffeecake. It is really easy, nice to look at and yummy. We added some strawberries to it and whipped cream. It made for a nice snack this evening. The recipe is from Ina Garten at foodnetwork.com. It is her Blueberry Crumb Cake. It is now one of my favorites. My other favorite from Ina Garten is Blueberry Coffeecake Muffins. I've made these as is and I also like to make them with a streusel topping. These always get rave reviews when I make them and decide to share. I should say, IF I decide to share.

I love anything to do with fruit. Give me fruit pies, cobblers, coffeecakes, etc. I love chicken with lemons and oranges. I'll try mostly anything as long as there's fruit in it. Glazed ham with apricot, pineapple, cherry sauce. Raisin sauce, too. Yummy!

Down the road a bit, there's a blueberry farm. It is only about a mile away. I am so psyched to go picking this year. I've never been there, but I pass it all the time. Next year, I hope to have some of my own bushes. Actually I have a wild bush growing out back. It looks like it'll be good for about 2 cups of berries this year. This is the most I've seen on it. Luckily Hubby hasn't chopped it down. It is located in a really weird place and we've considered cutting it down before. It never produced like it is doing this year. Being it's doing well where it is, I'll be planting a couple of other bushes near it.

Also, out back we planted some elderberry seeds. They are going to flower this year. There are two flower heads growing and that is a start. This is the second year for the plants. Next year we should see an abundance of them. I've been keeping an eye on the bushes at the roadside. They are flowering really well. Some are even starting to fruit. I'll be gathering and making some jelly this year. My brother-in-law, who visited last week, likes elderberry jelly. So I'll be making extra to take to him.

Strawberries are giving the second round of berries right now. They are almost all at least as big as a quarter and larger. Hubby is getting excited. So am I, to tell the truth. You'd think we'd get tired of eating them. NOPE! Ain't going to happen.

Wish us luck with our plants.

Take care.

All is Well and Gardening

All worked out well at work re: yesterday's post. Hooray!

We've been picking a lot of strawberries lately. Today was about 1 quart. Yesterday about a pint or two. Same for the day before that. All in all, we've been having loads of strawberries to eat. More is on the way. AND the next round is coming on. The plants are growing large leaves which stand really tall. Some of them have thrown up flower stalks already. This is a good sign! I will also have enough to either freeze or make more jam. Hmmmm. Not bad either way.

Today I also picked a handful of leaf lettuce and the last few radishes to mix with our salad this evening. 

This weekend we'll be picking more peas. There are a lot of full pods out there. I should pick tomorrow when I pick berries.

I made a really yummy chicken pot pie with some of the peas. You know, it feels pretty good when you can cook with food you grow yourself. It also tastes a whole lot better, too.

I hope your garden is prosperous this year.

Take care.

Blessings from Our Garden

Here are some pics of what we've been getting from our garden for the past several days.

Monday's Picks

Here we have Ozark Beauty strawberries...about a pint, a few leaves of Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, and the last bit of radishes worth anything.

This year, the strawberries are abundant, but they are malformed. I think it's because we had warm weather and cold weather and back and forth for a couple of months. The plants would bloom then freeze. This happened several times and I had to remove the flowers every time. Some of the berries are really nice. Some are small. Anyhow, they all taste the same and I'm not out to impress anyone with my berries. We pick them a little yellow, as you see. This is because the birds will get to them if they are really red. Right now, slugs are the enemy. We'll eat these on Monday after they ripen overnight.

Tuesday's Pick

We have about a pint and a half of nice strawberries here. These will be eaten on Tuesday. Sunday, I made a vanilla pound cake from a very old recipe book that I have. It makes the most wonderful shortcake for berries! Yummy!

Today's Picks

There is about a half-pint of strawberries here. This is the first picking of peas. There is a gardening show on TV called Making It Grow. It is on on Tuesday nights at 7pm. I learned when to plant the peas from listening to the experts saying when they plant. Here in SC, you actually plant them in February! It worked. The plants are healthy, large and are filled with flowers and ripening pods. I had only about a cup of peas from this shelling. I put them into the freezer so I can get enough either for a meal or two, or use them in minestrone soup that I make. Next year, we're putting in a lot more peas. We're also going to plant them on a higher fencing as they are about 1-1/2 feet above the fence we have them on. Right now they're on a 2-foot fence.

I hope you enjoyed the pics that I finally got to take. I hope YOUR garden is doing well if you live in the Southern regions like we do.

Take care.

Stuff Around The House

Today was an eclectic day for us on our little homestead. First thing, we went to Tractor Supply for chicken feed and such. Next, we went to WalMart for some plastic containers. Then, we went to Lowe's for a valve. Then, we went to the flea market to buy veggies and fruits. Then, we stopped for a lottery ticket (can't hurt once in a while). Then, we went home.Woo Hoo! Home!

After lunch, we went outside to feed the chickens. They were pretty hungry by now. And we built a worm farm. Yes! I did it! A worm farm. That's what the plastic containers were for. We put a valve on the bottom one for the wee wee to come out of. We drilled holes in the bottom of another which fits inside the bottom one. Then we drilled some holes in the top for ventilation. Then, we built a stand and put it out of the way in a cool dry place. Now, we have to go worm shopping! They say Red Wigglers are a good variety to buy. The ones from the ground are not. Otherwise, we could use the ones in the compost heap. That should be fun to explain to people. Mr. Store Owner: Why do you need so many worms? Are you going to throw them in the lake and wait for the fish to come up so you can scoop them out? Har! Har!  Me: Well. If you must know...(pregnant pause)...I'm going to farm worms for compost and fertilizer. This way I won't have to come back to your fine establishment for fertilizer and fishing worms. Ha! Ha! (ka-ching!...saving money)

I fixed some soup with potatoes, ham, cabbage and dumplings for dinner tonight. It turned out pretty good considering I've never had anything like it before. Yes. I like to make up dinners. I also baked a pound cake from scratch. It goes well with the next item.

We went outside and picked about a pint of strawberries. I had some left over from last night's picking. We pick them just as they've turned red and they ripen over night. I sliced last night's up and put some sweetener to them. It's just about time for STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!

Then, we went outside to pick off some rats. Missed them tonight. I guess I'm not that good today.

I hope you had a great day.

Take care.

Another 'Not Much' Kind of Day

After our Sunday morning HGTV and DIY shows and our morning cuppa, we made our plans for the day.
"Agenda", as Hubby calls it. He was cutting and splitting firewood from the trees he cut down yesterday.

I did 'grenade brigade' and chucked that into the clean side of the compost bin. Then I raked up around the bin and tossed those leaves and twigs into the bin. Then I raked up pinestraw and put that on our dogs' graves. Then I turned the compost heap and limed it. Then I sifted compost from our black compost barrel. That was only about a 5 gallon bucket full.

Then we picked a handful of strawberries. We got two eggs.

THEN I told Hubby to get the pellet gun and get the rat in the chicken yard. He brought my BB gun and stung its little butt a couple of times before he ran off. I went across the ditch into the neighbor's yard to see where he went. He was alive and running in the pinestraw. Then he jumped and continued running. Hmmm. Stupid thing! Why did he jump? Hmmmm. Snake! There was a rat snake in his path and he didn't want to get eaten. Smart rat, eh?! THEN I got the brush axe and tried to chop Mr. Snake. Too much pinestraw and peat moss between the trees to do any damage. Oh, well. Maybe I got him. Maybe I didn't. Mr. Snake sunk under all of the pinestraw and never came back out.

Then I went to the neighbor's house to tell her what I did and to watch out if she goes into her flower gardens. She is deathly afraid of snakes, so I don't expect her to go out tomorrow. If she does, she'll be packin' heat. I need to get a small cap gun in case of a rattler. I wonder if Hubby would agree?

I guess I did a bit more than I thought I did. However, the house is not tidy, but some laundry got done.

Take care.

Cleaning Up Outside

We started our day by going to the Ladson Flea Market to get fresh fruits and vegetables. There is a particular stand that is very clean and tidy which has fresh produce at really reasonable prices. I spend usually no more than $20 when I buy from them. Hubby loves their apples and makes it a point to take me every week. It only takes about 15 minutes from the time we park to the time we return. Everything is well organized and there are a lot of people stocking the shelves. For $20, we eat a lot of fresh produce every week. This week I bought 2 heads of romaine, 1 head of iceberg, 20# of russet potatoes, 3 cucumbers, 12 roma tomatoes and 8 gala apples. In the regular grocery store, I'd be paying about $30 for this amount. It is totally worth it. They also have Hispanic foods and spices, which I buy when I need them. Also, really nice clover honey.

When we came home, I fixed lunch and we went to a car show. It was really disappointing. There were 5 cars there. Not much of a show, if you ask me. We didn't stay.

When we came home again, I painted the doors to our pump house, a post that holds the garden hose and the compost bin pickets. Then I cut down dead branches from some of my shrubs. We collected about 5 strawberries and watered the garden.

Hubby mixed up a couple of batches of fish emulsion and sprayed the whole yard. Our whole yard smells like dead fish. This will last only for about 2 hours. Fish emulsion is the best fertilizer we've found. It's great for indoor plants and outdoor plants. Love it!

Right now, I'm waiting for the BBQ'd ribs to come out of the oven. We'll have vinegar and oil potato salad and a green salad with it.

I hope you had a great day today!

Take care.

Yet, Another Rainy Day

Today we had a little bit of rain. It was a heavy mist-type rain which the plants and grass love. I love it too because everything gets a drink and grows beautifully. Sadly to say, even the weeds like the rain.

Yesterday, Hubby brought in our first little handful of strawberries from our large patch out back. Sorry no pics. They don't last long.

Today, Hubby stayed inside because of the rain. His sinuses are acting up and causing him grief. If anyone can give me advice on natural treatments to help alleviate his sinus infection, I'd be grateful. He's been taking stuff the pharmacist suggested for him. This was OTC. I have to be very careful what I give him because he has a couple of other disorders. So, tried and true remedies that will not spike blood sugar or cause issues with heart medications will be helpful.

Thanks.

Take care.

First Harvest of 2013

Guess what! We've had our first harvest of 2013! Take a peek.

French Breakfast Radishes and One Cherry Belle

I know...it's not REALLY a harvest. But to us, it is. These went into a salad for this evening's dinner. This is a start. We see some more that will be ready in a few days.

Good Friday is coming and it is tradition to plant your garden on that day. It means a good harvest. So, my seedlings, which are quite large, will soon be planted in the great outdoors. I still have a ways to go with hardening them to the sun, but they are coming along. I had to bring the seedlings in last night because of the cold. They'll be in tonight, too. I may take them back out in the morning since it is supposed to be a decent temperature, but it's supposed to rain.

We'll see how things turn out this year. We have summer squash, radishes, peas, 2 lettuces, onions, carrots, green, red, yellow and long peppers (for stuffing). Oh yes. Did I mention strawberries? They are looking good right now. They should be bearing in a couple of weeks.

Take care.

Baby Strawberry Plants

A few posts ago, I showed you a picture of our large strawberry patch. We also have one for baby plants the I just couldn't turn under for compost.

Strawberry Nursery

Here they are. They are so tiny! I think these are the ones which came up from the seeds on the sides of rotten strawberries that I threw on the ground last year. The reason I think this, is that the plants are so tiny and they do not have a runner attached to them. There are about 135 plants here. This year they shouldn't bear fruit. They will grow and propagate themselves into another massive plot of plants. Next year, they will have fruit. I make a nursery like this in case something goes terribly wrong with the main berry patch. Then we'll have backups for planting next year. I do this with a lot of things. If you look up to the very top of this photo, you'll see another raised bed. This is my other nursery for herbs, onions and flowers that were too small to do anything with last year. I've already moved a lot of the small plants out of there and into their new home. In a little while, my herbs will take off. I have some onions planted in there, too. That is the green color you see.

So long for now. Until tomorrow!

Lazy Me!!!

Yes. I've been a lazy poster. It's not because I haven't been busy. It's because I've been lazy.

I promised pics of a craft I was working on. I'm still working on it. Lazy me!

I've been meaning to post on the goings-on about our small acreage. Lazy me!

I've been meaning to tell all of you what I've been cooking for the holidays. Lazy me!

Well...I have to get back into the swing of things. I enjoy reading everyone else's blog and seeing what they've been up to in small farmville. Just maybe someone wants to keep up with us?

For some reason, I cannot download pics today. Every once in a while this happens. Sorry.

I can now upload photos. Much thanks to the computer guru at work! Go Bob!

So...in November, for Thanksgiving, we had some company come up from Florida. It was hubby's brother and his daughter and family. It was great to spend some time with them. I especially enjoyed it since I really didn't know them that well. One thing my niece and I had in common was SHOPPING! If you don't know someone that well, go shopping. It's a great conversation starter and an all-around fun olympic sport. ; ) We spent a day bargain shopping! No guys, just us girls. I treated them to some homemade pizza when we returned. I made dough in the morning and we had two very large pizzas in the evening. YUM!

For Thanksgiving dinner we had loads of food. My brother-in-law wanted to treat us to a dinner. So he had his daughter cook. What he didn't know was that when the rest of the family came over, there was more food coming in. I did my usual desserts and breads. Everyone else brought sides. It was great!

Pumpkin Pie, Cornbread, Rolls

Biscuits, Cookies, Banana Cream Pie, Lemon Cranberry Bundt Cake, Honey Butter

 Then in December, I still had flowers blooming in my garden. My lantana was busting out with flowers because it was still warm. The butterflies were everywhere! There were some yellow flowers growing up into my weeping holly bush. They were really outstanding with the red berries from the holly bush. Crimson and yellow together were really pretty for fall.

Lantana

Unknown Pretty Flower

 Then, we were invited to go to my Florida brother-in-law's place for Christmas. It is a pretty short trip and we had great weather. Sunshine all of the way down. : )  We spent a day at BIL's house then went to his daughter's house in Palm Harbor, clear on the other side of Florida. It only took about 1-1/2 hours to drive. It was a really nice drive. We had great weather the whole time we were there and stayed in Palm Harbor until the day after Christmas. Then it was home again.

In January, we started planning for our spring garden. This meant getting seeds germinated and a strawberry patch ready. Last week, I finally transplanted the last of the strawberry plants that I was going to plant. In the large patch, we have 1110 plants transplanted. In the nursery patch, we have 135 plants planted. Were we busy? You bet! We're experimenting with a watering system this year since we have such a large patch. Wish us luck with that! But we still have somewhere between 200 and 400 plants left to get out of our other garden before we can plant tomatoes, beans, peppers and such. All of those left over strawberry plants will be lifted and I'll take them to work for the guys there.

Hopefully, I'll be able to insert photos again by the next post.

I wish you all well.

Michelle

More Strawberries

Here I go with the sugars, again. I can't help it. I love strawberry season. Uh, huh.

Homemade strawberry shortcake with a dollop of canned whipped cream and milk. Yum!

I said I love strawberry season!

Now that they are coming on quickly, I'll be making my strawberry jam for the year. I'll probably post about that later.

Strawberries Now

Here are the strawberries now.

Late Night Snack

Oh, yeah! Late night snack the other night. It sure is great to eat homegrown foods. They always taste so much better than storebought. I say they 'taste like sunshine'. ; )

I've been using rice milk and almond milk in place of cow's milk in order to keep down the cholesterol. I just read that sugars and carbs contribute a lot to the placque buildup in the arteries. Rice milk and almond milk are high in sugars. Ok. I'm not getting fats or animal protein, which is supposed to contribute to building placque. And sugars are also a culprit. I'm a sugar junkie like most everyone else. Does that mean I'll have to give up my cereal? I hope not. I love grains and fruits and milk. Maybe I'll try to modify my cereal snack a bit.

Strawberries!!!

In February, we were busy transplanting our strawberries into new soil. We should have done this last December and we had a lot of babies to transplant.

About 250 Plants

This is our old garden. We planted a couple of rows last year to see how they would do in this area. They did really well so we decided to plant the strawberries here.

About 90 More

Well...we had leftovers. This is where I usually plant the strawberries. There are still 50-100 plants in the box you can barely see in the top left of this photo. I didn't get to amend the soil and transplant them. They are doing really well anyway.

Yum! Shortcake!

We've been picking strawberries from our garden for about a month, now.

Here's how we get rid of them...Yummy!

I hull the strawberries, slice them and add sugar to them. I use about 1-2 tablespoons of sugar. I cover and let them sit for a while in the fridge. This give the sugar time to melt and some of the strawberry juices to come out.

I make a 'Lazy Daisy Sponge Cake' recipe from an old Pillsbury Family Cookbook from 1963.

Lazy Daisy Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup milk, scalded

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, well beaten

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grease a 9-inch layer pan. I used an 8" x 8" square glass dish so I can split the cake, if I want.

After milk is scalded, remove from heat and add the butter to it until the butter melts.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl.

Put eggs, sugar and vanilla in another bowl and beat until lemon colored.

At low speed, add dry ingredients.

Then mix in the milk and butter mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees F until a silver knife comes out clean. This will be about 30 minutes. Cool a bit and make your strawberry shortcake!

It takes me about 15 minutes to put together the cake and 20-30 minutes to bake it. The taste and texture is so much better than the rubbery little dessert cups you get at the store.

We ate 2 of these cakes one right after the other. I cut them into 9-pieces each. We had 18 shortcakes!

This is one of my favorite desserts ever! I also use blackberries on this cake and peaches, too! Use your imagination and enjoy this simple cake. You won't be sorry!