How the Garden Grows...

We're in a lull between hay cuttings, so I thought I'd do a post on something non farm related that's growing here.  Warning...it's a little picture heavy, but I just love seeing things grow, so I won't be offended if you breeze through quickly!  :)

I seem to be having another good tomato year.  Those plants in the middle have taken off after a poor start, surviving ten days straight of rain.  There are green tomatoes galore.  The cucumbers in the foreground are doing the same!  I put them in a cage so that they can climb up instead of sprawling out, and as a result I get straight cucumbers, rather than curly ones...

Can you find the cucumber?  It's well camouflaged.  I plant Burpless #26.  The cucumbers are long, thin and straight, and have few seeds...

I haven't grown patty pan squash for a couple of years.  This plant survived the wet weather and being nibbled on by a ground hog early on...

Sweet Heat peppers are a new addition this year.  I'll use them in my salsa.  They came in a 4-pack, so if anyone local wants some, let me know!!

Sweet Baby Girl...my favorite cherry tomato ever!  It's almost as tall as my head!

 So far so good with the zucchini, too.  I know that one morning I'll go out and it will be totally wilted, but for now we're enjoying the bounty...

I had several extra railroad ties when I lined the garden a year or so ago, so I made a small area where I like to plant sunflowers.  I have a lot of volunteers in the garden, but this patch was planted from a variety pack. I'm curious to see what all colors I have?  There's a good variety of sizes...

Speaking of volunteers...a bunch of dill came up along the south edge of the garden, so I left it grow.  I had to pick some caterpillars off of it early on, and now it's enjoying life...

Last but not least, there's a row of zinnias for picking along the edge as well.  Such cheery little flowers they are!

How does your garden grow?

More Gardening...

Yesterday afternoon my Mom and I went on a local garden tour.  It was a beautiful afternoon, although by the time we were finished, it was quite hot, and we were both ready for a nap!  I only took photos at this one place...and this was only the area directly behind the house and around the pool!  We didn't even venture further into the back yard here, as we had just done a lot of walking at the last place...

We both liked the flowers in the bird bath...

And I love the vibrant colors of the yarrow and day lilies by the garage...

So...today I was inspired to get to work in my own gardens.  I pulled weeds, sprayed weeds, and trimmed with the weed eater where I hadn't had time on Saturday after mowing.

I was a bit a lot appalled at how bad the weeds had begun creeping into the row of shrubs by my garden.  I knew that I wanted to mulch with bark chips rather than regular mulch here, since the chips last so much longer.  And...the golf course across the road has been chipping up tree limbs, fence posts, and all matter of wood scraps over the past few weeks, so...

I drove down and asked if they would be willing to let me come and get some scoops with the skid loader for my shrubs.

I offered to pay, but the guy in charge said that I could have all I wanted for free, and here's the kicker...he offered to deliver as much as I wanted this afternoon!!  Yes!

He brought me three truck loads of wood chips, which was about the equivalent of twelve skid loader scoops, and put them on a pile behind the barn...

Jim offered to help by running the skid loader...

...and in about forty five minutes we were finished!  He dumped, and I spread the wood chips out thickly with my sturdy metal rake.  There are still a couple of scoops left, so as it settles, I can fill in the low spots.

My butterfly bush is a little straggly looking here...it barely survived the winter for some reason...

Now all I have to do is tidy up my edges (tomorrow??) and it will be another project complete!

Oh...and did I mention that it was another fabulous, gorgeous, almost perfect weather kind of day today?!  Icing on the cake!

And Then It Rained...Again...

I'm sure there are many of you who are desperately in need of rain, and would be thrilled for a thunderstorm to roll through...but we are totally saturated here, and need some warm sunshine to dry out the fields!

Several weeks ago we had ten or eleven days straight of rain, and this weekend we just had another 4".

Some things are quite happy about it...

The grapes are flourishing...

The basil is quite happy, while the rosemary is tolerant but not thrilled...

The gerbera daisies have mixed feelings.  I have five pots sitting on this bench, and this one isn't very happy.  Too much water in the crown has caused the leaves to rot and fall off.  This one bloom, however, is persevering and trying desperately to open despite it's less than ideal circumstances...

The corn is struggling.  A lot of the corn came up nice, although it was pretty hesitant to poke through during that first week of rain.  Several areas were replanted, and that corn popped up quickly last week, just in time to lay underwater again.  This is mild.  Driving around in the area, some fields look like ponds.  There will be some permanent damage from too much moisture, and it will be interesting to see what kind of yields Lancaster County has this year.  Unlikely a repeat of last year's bumper crop!

The beans that were planted on Monday are starting to pop up...

Down to the garden...

The tomatoes seem really happy after a slow start.  So does the barley that sprouted from the straw I mulched with.  As soon as I can walk in there without sinking in, I'll have to do some weeding.

And...the verdict is in on the four-year-old seeds.

These are the green beans...

...and the limas are trying.  Really trying.  It could be the age of the seeds or all the rain, I'm not sure, but they're trying.

I sure wish I could send some of our moisture to those of you who need it!

Hoping for some sun!

**In regards to the question I asked on this post last week...that's a soybean planter in the pictures.  It's all folded up for transporting on the road, so it's a guess, really, for most people to know what was being planted!

Garden 2018...the Beginning...

My garden is planted about as late as it's ever been, this year!  A long week of rain and other "more important things" are my excuses!

Last evening I rototilled, and tonight I planted.

I planted a row of zinnias, a bed of sunflowers, and found two packs of seeds in my garden shed from 2014.  This is the year of experimentation...will they germinate or not?

This is my lima bean row, guarded fiercely by my two helpers.

One of these helpers is about to cause trouble.  Can you guess which one?

First, she tried to eat the lima beans as fast as I dropped them into the rows...

Then she found a piece of wood and decided to play keep away with her mother...

You can imagine the state of the garden when they were finished!

I found several volunteer dill plants growing along the edge of the garden, so I left them to grow...

My tomatoes have actually been planted for a couple of weeks.  I have blight in my soil, so each year I mulch heavily with straw, to keep the soil from splashing up onto the leaves when it rains.  I also spray them with liquid copper.  I hope they do ok this year, because I planted them, mulched them and then it began to rain, before I got them sprayed!

My cucumbers, Burpless #26, don't look too happy.  They didn't appreciate all the rain either, and turned a little yellow and sickly looking.  But now that we've had several days of sunshine, I see a blossom!  Fingers crossed!  My pickle shelf is getting empty...

And last but not least...

Totally unrelated, but located  next to my garden, are our two new additions...

Kari and Whitney are leghorn pullets, given to me by Kari's daughter Avalea.  She and her fellow classmates at our local CTC hatched them and raised them to eight weeks of age before finding them new homes.   Last evening I went inside to check on them and I found them huddled together in the nesting boxes.  Aren't they sweet?

They're still extremely shy, and they're not allowed out of the shed yet.  I want to protect them from hawks and other dangers as much as possible until they're bigger.  I've also reinforced the fence to keep out foxes and other predators.

Hopefully they'll be joined before too long by some other hens, to keep them company.  (and to keep us in eggs!!)

Freshening Up the Chicken Pen...

It's a dirty, dusty job, but it's got to be done...and it's got numerous benefits!

It's been a while since I've cleaned out the chickens' shed, but I'm down to seven six chickens now (Phoebe was a very bad dog last week!) so right now they don't make a very big mess.  After I rototilled the garden, it took me only about fifteen minutes to clean out the chicken litter and toss it around.  (benefit #1)

My helper and I loaded up the wagon with straw and the rest of a bag of chicken feed...

(I told her that we were going to the chickens, and she took off like she was shot out of a cannon!  Can you see her?)

...and in about five minutes, the chickens had fresh bedding. (benefit #2)  They don't use the nesting boxes right now, but prefer to lay their eggs in a nest on the floor, so I spread out most of the straw in the back of the shed...

They scratched around, looking for treasures food...

...while Phoebe wished desperately to get into the pen...

Sorry Phebes...no chicken for your dinner tonight!

Garden Bounty...

Last year's cucumber plants died.  All of them...and before I got to make any pickles!

So this year, being almost completely out of pickles on my canning shelves, I planted four cucumber plants.  Here is today's bounty...

Last week I made a batch of Bread and Butter pickles, and today I made a canner full (seven jars) of Banana Pickles.  These are a favorite of ours.  I first tasted them at a birthday party for my friend Sue several years ago. Her Mom served them, and I soon asked for the recipe.  They're super easy to make, and are a good way to use up any over grown cucumbers that you may have!

First you peel them and scoop out the seeds.  I just use a spoon...

Then you slice them lengthwise...

Next, you fill the jars, packing them as tightly as possible, and fill them with syrup, leaving 1/2" - 1" head space...

Boil them in a hot water bath for ten minutes, and you have delicious pickles!  (recipe for syrup is below)

Last but not least, you feed the peels and seeds to the chickens, and they go crazy...

Here's the syrup...

To fill three quarts...mix together 1 cup water, 1 cup vinegar, 3 cups sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp celery seed, 1 tsp mustard seed and 1 tsp turmeric.  Bring to a boil and pour over cucumbers in jars.

Enjoy!

Friday...

To wrap up this week, I'm joining Friday's Hunt, hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills, and also joining Random Five Friday, which after a long hiatus, has been resurrected by Nancy at A Rural Journal.  It's a nice way to do a wrap up of the week.

1.  Starts with "N"...kind of.  Her name is Snickers, but often I call her Nicky for short.  She's our ten year old Yellow Lab, and mother to Murphy, who got her mug shot on here last week.  She's a rather shy, sweet dog who is beginning to show her age.  Both in her actions, and by the white hair on her face.  Even though she's aging, she can still be just as naughty when she puts her mind to it!  She digs a mean hole, and tears strawbales and hay bales apart to make a soft nest to sleep in...

2.  Week's Favorite...Three years ago, my neighbor gave me a tiny start of an old fashioned, dark purple lilac.  This morning I saw this...

...flower buds!  For the first time, and I'm quite excited to see them bloom.  I hope next week's forecasted freezing temps don't hurt them!

3. Vintage...I'm fortunate to have some vintage things to decorate with on my porch.  We have two old milk cans, one from my parents' farm, and one from Jim's parents farm (where we now live).  I enjoy being able to use them year round...

4. To finish out my Random Five...the hutch halves are thrilled to be able to get outside of their hutches and see what's going on in the world.  They are so curious and content...

5.  I found some used railroad ties on craigslist.  They turned out to be only a few miles away, and had been used by the Strasburg Rairoad.  (Thomas the Tank Engine rolled over these ties many times, I'm sure!)  We've used them to make a defining line between my shrubs and my garden.  It will help to keep the weeds from the garden from creeping up under the shrubs, and I like the lines.  I have some ideas about how I want it to look, and it's slowly coming together...

Click on the links to see more posts for both Friday's Hunt and Random Five Friday...