Sauce Time!

I've gotten two batches of sauce so far this year.
Tried a new way of cooking the mess - roasting in the oven.
Much, much easier than stove top and a lot tastier!

Chopped and ready for the oven:


All roasted (425 for 1 hour, then 400 for another 3 to 4):


After being run through the food mill (You can just stick it in the blender, but the pickies at my house hate any skin or seed at ALL in their sauce):


Is really yummy. Or so the family says - I hate tomato sauce, so I wouldn't know! lol.

There isn't much left in the garden to harvest or get in the freezer.
I froze 6 cabbages and some more beans, including pole.
Blue Moon pumpkins are still going along well. I'll have a few of those to freeze for pies and bread.
Still waiting on the Ruby Queen sweet corn, brussel sprouts and popcorn.
Oh! The potatoes are fantastic this year. Woohoo!

The flowers have pretty much exhausted themselves, but there are still a few going strong. And i definitely have to save some seed from our "Christmas Tree Sunflower". How weirdly beautiful is this:



Random last of the flowers pics:



















Happy growing! (what's left of the season, anyway)

Bats And Balloons

Nothing special going on in the garden, except that we still haven't gotten late blight. Fingers crossed!
It has now hit every county in NY, spread across almost all of the north east and wiped out a lot of fields in the south.
Hopefully I'll get to make lots of sauce to freeze again this year. Tomatoes and potatoes are going to be like gold in the US this year.

This is what came directly over our house and scared the crap out of me! lol. I couldn't figure out what the sound was, and by the time my brain caught up that I KNEW what that noise was, it had already passed over the roof. I still got some pretty good pictures as it landed in the field across the road though:









They had to pull it away from the trees it ran in to before they could deflate it (ouch).



The one in the back tried landing three times in the same field before they gave up and made an emergency landing farther down the hill. They had it on the nightly news - apparently, around here, we don't have anything more important to report on. lol.






A friend in the city had a bat invasion the other night. Since he managed to catch one, he brought it up to us to be released. City bat became a country bat! :)
We didn't get very good pictures since we didn't want to stress him out any more than he already was. The girls were oooing and awwwwing that he was so cute . . . until he showed his teeth.





So, that's what has been going on around here.
Hope everyone's gardens are doing well.
Happy growing!

The Tiniest Things

Sometimes, the tiniest things in the garden, the small stuff that is easily overlooked, are the coolest of all.

Peppers And Lipstick

The peppers are really starting to come in! I can't wait until the purples and reds bulk up. Definitely growing the whites (Diamond) again - that plant is absolutely loaded with little peppers yet to come. It seems to have put up with this year's wacky weather the best of all 144 plants.



What is the deal with my Lipstick plant?! This is suppose to be one of the easiest to grow, and I can't seem to make it happy. Tried high humidity, low humidity, more water, less water, more sun, less sun . . . UGH! This thing is making me crazy. I've had it for three years. The first two years it was wonderful - loaded with blooms and leaves. There weren't any sudden changes. So, why all of a sudden does it look as if it's at death's door? Poor thing. I just can't figure out how to make it happy when I was doing so well with it!

August

Wow! The carrots did fab this year.
Everyone loved the flavor of Purple Haze. I will definitely be growing these again next year. They had nice size and color. With a mix of those and Contender, we ended up with 5 gallons, all processed and in the freezer for winter use. :) I think I'll plant some more for a early winter harvest.



This is the most interesting coreopsis I've ever had from crossed seed! The colors in these are awesome. I'll really have to remember to save seed from these this year and see what happens with them next year.



I'm excited I finally got nicotiana to do something. (ok, maybe I should chalk this one up to doing well because of/in spite of the weather) This is one of those flowers that is suppose to be so easy to grow, and one that I seem to have the most trouble with.



The flowers are huge. (and I just love this pic. lol)



The old standby alien nigella. I really adore these planted in masses. Although they're not showy, I would really miss these if I ever forgot to plant them.



I decided to try growing some birdhouse gourds this year so I could do something with them for Christmas gifts for next year, but with the crazy weather, I don't think I'll end up with any fruit. The flowers are really pretty though. I guess I'll just have to give them another try next year and hope for some better weather.



This is one of the spirea cuttings I started over the winter of 2008. It's on its second bloom this year.



And, finally, the poinsettias. This is just one pot of many. They're the ones I got on sale back in 2007 for 50 cents a pot (3 in a pot). They still flower faithfully every year for me. This spring I got braver when I repotted and cut them back much more (I was scared to go chopping at them). I think it made a big difference for the better. I wonder how many years I can keep these going? It seems so sad that people throw them out every year when they really aren't all that hard to keep going and make a nice bushy houseplant when they aren't flowering.



Our maples started turning back in the beginning of July! Will someone please tell them it's not time yet . . .

Redundant

Yup, it seems I'm posting about the same things constantly, but I really need to start keeping track of what's going on in the yard like I'd promised myself way back in this post. But, after this, unless it's something exceptional, I'll start keeping the posts to every other week or so.

What with the horrible weather we've had all growing season in the New England states, it seems a little mean to be posting about everything doing so well now that the heat has turned itself up here and the rain has dwindled to every other day instead of daily. Sorry.

The flowerbeds aren't looking half bad now that the plants are getting some sun. I had to prune out a lot of the flopping gloriosa daisies, but it looks a little neater now.



The Hosta have exploded into bloom.



The area around the lower pond isn't as full and lush as last year, but considering the weather it doesn't look half bad.



I've never had cucumber plants this loaded with blooms. The cucumbers are delicious!



Even though we haven't had a ripe tom yet, I'm considering the 'hay bale' experiment a smashing success.



Finally, a couple shots of the veg garden (so I'll remember what was where).





Happy growing!

Lightning And Other Stuff

We got hit last Friday. URGH!
It would have been nice if it could have stayed farther away from me than 5 feet -
It hurt! It felt like every muscle in my body had contracted as hard as it could. The muscles around my rib cage still hurt - they feel like they've shrunk 2 sizes. The tingle wasn't too cool either. You know how it feels when you stick your tongue on a brand new 9 volt battery? Times that by about a thousand and add your whole body. I was on the floor for a few minutes deciding if I was still alive. lol. The top of my scalp and my neck still feel weird, but not painful.
The concussion from the crack! when it hit the ground was so loud that it took out my oldest son's hearing for a little while.

This is the hole it left in the ground outside the window where I was sitting (it looks small compared to what it looks like in real life) Sorry it's a little blurry, but I was still shaking when I took the pic:



It blew the iris right out of the ground and pulverized the rocks that ring the tree (threw the rubble all over). There's a huge hole in the pathway and the plastic underneath is gone. There is a long scar mark that shows the path the lightning took up the tree. It swirled around it like a snake right to the top and blew of big chunks of bark. Harumph - the first thing anyone asked was, "Are the fish OK?" What, forget the humans, are the fish all right? lol.

My husband and I lost both our computers, the router, both tv's, the cable box, the modem, S's monitor, D's motherboard got zapped, the phone (I can't remember what else, but it was anything connected to cable or phone lines). It disintegrated the switch on the surge protector. Yeah, that didn't do much good.

Bro-in-law and sis-in-law gave me their old comp. Yay! D is going to use youngest daughter's with messed up motherboard as it can still work for basic stuff and she's getting youngest son's old one since he found a cheap one for himself on Craig's List.

Note to God: D lost his job, we lost Ronnie Tuesday and now the lightning. That's three. Are we done now??!! Please?!

Happier things -

I saw some turkey vultures sunning themselves. They're beautiful birds as long as they stay away from me. (Oh, Lordy, maybe it's another sign. ~sigh~)





I thought this swarm of ants on our front step was cool, but it kind of grossed me out at the same time.



A fabulous cauliflower we pulled out of the garden this year (that's a quarter next to it for size comparison).





OK, I guess that's it for the moment.
If you don't hear from me for a while, well, something else bad has happened and I don't want to think about it!
:(

Ronnieta Update

We've been searching for 23 years for my sister-in-law, Ronnieta. I'd plastered her info all over the net, anywhere I could find, any missing persons forum available, Hawaii bulletin boards, Washington missing persons FBI database. You name it and I probably posted on it - I had a friend physically searching in Hawaii and I did a post about her in 2007.

Unfortunately, we got word from Hawaii on Tuesday, July 21st that she'd passed away unexpectedly at age 40.

No one could understand how sad we are that this is the way she was finally found. Honestly, even a week later, we're still in shock. I'm really feeling guilty over the thought that maybe I could have done more - somehow. Maybe I missed some info somewhere, or could have posted more, found more boards, or I skipped over something that I thought wasn't important at the time that might have changed everything.

Information keeps dribbling in about what she's been up to all these years and about her daughter. Her close friends have been in contact (Thank you Dale, Sandy and Jeannie!). We still have a few to get ahold of yet, but we can't afford to continue calling just now.

Her friends have set up a memorial near where she was staying. I don't know about anyone else, but that makes me feel better.

Personal papers and pictures are on the way to us from some wonderful people out there, but for now we're in limbo.

There are lots of inklings we'd had of what went on in her early life that are being confirmed, and lots of new mysteries presenting themselves. It's hard to move forward with everything when you haven't gotten all of the needed information yet. (and you don't want do disclose what you know for fear of that info being told to people that have no need to know it - ever!) Unfortunatley, mouths run whether you'd like them to or not, so for now we're in silence mode. What we know stays with us. Period.

Now it's waiting, piecing bits and parts together, waiting on more info from her close friends and making small decisions. It's a little hard to get everything thought out when one person thinks they're in charge of all the decision making for the other siblings when they don't have all the facts. The 'we' of 3 seems to have dribbled to 'we' of 1. NOT cool!

Hopefully someone will come to their senses and it will all work itself out. As it stands now, D and I are just very sad and really miffed.

It turned out to be such a sad, sad ending that I can't seem to rap my brain around the fact that there is one.
Rest in peace, Ronnie, and know that many people loved you. Very, very much.

Mid July Update

Wow, what a difference two whole days of heat, sun and no rain can make. The ground actually looks dry - I'd forgotten what dry soil looks like!

For those of you in the upper eastern states - hang in there, it's on its way. I'm outside blowing the good weather in your direction. Man, my lips are tired! :(

An update on how well the tomato bale experiment is doing: Fantastic!



Thank God I haven't seen hide nor hair of the blight. ~fingers crossed~ Pays a bit to start your own seed in this instance. I think I only have one close neighbor that gardens and he grows his own also.
:)
Bonnie Plants first said they accepted that they were to blame, now this:

Dennis Thomas, Bonnie Plants general manager, insists there never was any evidence of blight at any of the company's 61 growing stations nationwide and that his company did not ship out any infected plants. "None whatsoever," he said. "The last inspections we've had in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and in West Virginia today, showed negative."

One of those things that makes you go, hmmmm...

On to happier stuff.

I only got one plant from the strawberry petunia seed (stupid weather!) but what a bloom it is!


Things that are finally taking off:

Popcorn


Potato (don't mind the weeds. potato is a DH thing, not a me thing, so unless he weeds them...)


Peppers (looking better!)


Onions are looking good.


Carrots have gone bonkers!


Yellow and green bush beans are finally flowering. Interesting how you can easily tell which row are which.


We had the first cabbage salad of the year yesterday. Yum! Was fabulous. I honestly should have let it go a few more days, but well, you know...
The cauliflower is almost ready and huge.
Half a gallon of peas in the freezer so far.

I guess that's it for the veg, so on to what few flowers I have that the freaking slugs didn't eat.

The view from my living room last week.


The honey bees are swarming the borage now that the sun has returned.


The bee balm is finally open for the hummers. They've been cleaning out the feeders in a day!





I lurve gloriosa daisies.


The lavender is looking beautiful.


Lilies are so fab they almost glow.


and last but not least, the coolest visitors of all to my flower beds-


Hope everyone's gardens are growing like gangbusters!
Happy gardening.
:)

(wow, I actually titled the post as June instead of July - talk about a Freudian slip - I'm still subconsciously waiting on some nice june weather! lol)

Herbs Of The Year 1995-2015

.......

I thought it might be nice to plant the herb of the year every year (ok, except for 1998 - been there, done that, never doing it again!), but I already have 90% of that list planted. Horseradish? Not doin' that one either. lol.

Herbs of the Year:

1995 Fennel
1996 Monarda
1997 Thyme
1998 Mint
1999 Lavender
2000 Rosemary
2001 Sage
2002 Echinacea
2003 Basil
2004 Garlic
2005 Oregano & Marjoram
2006 Scented Geraniums
2007 Lemon Balm
2008 Calendula
2009 Bay Laurel
2010 Dill
2011 Horseradish
2012 Rose
2013 Elderberry
2014 Artemisias
2015 Savory