Work Day in Photos...

Sometime last night the dewpoint dropped from 72 to 40!  We woke up to 64 degrees, breezy and beautiful - time for work!

Victim of the heat...

Think it's time to pull the lettuces?  

And maybe the peas?  Pretty pathetic.

New friend on a grape leaf...

the grapes on the fence are loving the heat -

Anyone recognize this?  I haven't had time to surf the web yet, but it looks like some kind of scab on my grape leaf, we only found one leaf like this.

It goes right through to the back side of the leaf...

A harvest today!

Below is the almost the last of the lettuces for now, only some Mizuna and Mesclun remain out there.

Planted some clumps of corn and Sugar Pie pumpkins in the makeshift fence bed, hubby put up bird netting and bamboo stakes all over to keep dogs and birds out for the next few weeks until it gets bigger.  Notice how dead the yard is - we are now officially designated as a "Severe" drought area.  I didn't notice until this week, but apparently we have been way below average rainfall every month since January.

The new Lettuce House! 

 Hubby built it out of some old gazebo supports we had kept around and some old bamboo fencing.  I can just roll the fencing out of the way to get in.  I sowed some more greens, hoping to get some summer lettuces, it's normally too hot but I keep trying new things to get that summer salad.

I pretty much only worked in the center fenced garden today.  Below, I trimmed up all the Amish Paste tomatoes so none of the branches touch the soil and sprayed a few aphids in there.  This should make it much easier to water without getting any on the leaves.

And much easier to see all those paste tomatoes!

The remaining bed of snap peas were pulled and in its place I sowed Edamame and another succession planting of Dragon's Tongue and Golden Wax beans.  Also transplanted some peanut and sunflower seedlings into the "extra" space I was talking about a couple of weeks ago.  It will be the "snack" bed, I guess!  I put bird netting over those for the time being since they always go in and dig up the seedlings when they are young.

We could have kept on working but really wanted to enjoy the evening, this was definitely a day to remember weather-wise, we might not see temps this cool again this summer.

Off to dinner!

Lettuce House Builder Guy deserved a brew.

Chesapeake Bay yummies...

Tomorrow is supposed to be more in the 80's but with low humidity again I think, so I will be moving on to the side garden, where most of the tomatoes are and get back to work!  Hubby is working for "Clean the Bay Day" so I'll be on my own, but hopefully I won't need any special strange things built tomorrow :)

Perennials and a sale tip!

I've had to take a couple of days off from the garden in order to tend to other things on "the list", namely housecleaning, grocery shopping, and ordering Subaru parts, yes- exciting stuff.  Until I can have some veggie progress to report on, these will have to do ...

Here's what's going on with the perennials -

Columbine

Hardy Geranium (pink), Walkers Low Catmint

 Yarrow

Salvia

Dianthus

Clematis

Nearly everything in the garden is now actively blooming, but I better save some of the others for my lazy picture days :)

Weekend agenda:  Plant squashes, tie tomatoes, obsessively check my cukes, beans and melons for germination, check for early bugs, mow lawn, watch hubby put new catalytic converter and harmonic balancer on the Forester (good times), and fit a walk/bike ride with the family & dogs in somewhere!  What big plans do you have this weekend?

**almost forgot!  I received an email last night stating that Sustainable Seed Co. is having a sale - 35% off for Mother's Day!  I really like this small company, I ordered a lot from them last year, and had great customer service and germination, check them out if you are in need - they also have a clearance section (I got all my beans there for about 45 cents a pack last year!)

My energy's back, with pics to prove it!

The weekend started off with hosting a spur of the moment sleepover for Loch and his friend from school.  I wish I could they could donate some of their energy to us grownups, I was exhausted just watching them!

After dinner we lit a fire for roasting marshmallows.  Finn and his buddy T were included too, of course!

Just what they need, sugar...

We spent most of the evening watching them run around with swords, water guns, jumping off the fort with boxing gloves on and other dangerous boy activities.  As much as we really needed cocktails by then, we held off in case we needed to make a trip to the E.R.!

Hubby then set up the tent for them... this didn't last long however, they were telling scary stories and ended up inside.

Saturday morning we took a trip out to my favorite nursery way out in the sticks, but the drive is so worth it, they have thousands of native plants and hard to find stuff.  Both the kids were a little whiny from their late night, but they made it through.

Finn holding one of my new hollyhocks!

  

Hollyhocks are something I've always wanted to grow, but never wanted to wait, kind of like asparagus & rhubarb LOL - but I saw these and had to have them.

Loch's looking a little sleepover-hungover this morning, don't you think?

Oh, and I hired a gardener...

Ha ha, just kidding!  That's hubby finally getting after the hugely overgrown prostrate rosemary hedge.  Loads of dead stuff was cut away from underneath, I can't wait to burn it in the fire pit, it always smells so good.  I was also able to plant all 120 little flowers & herbs that had been started in flats outdoors, not sure if they will all make it through the dog/kid traffic, that's why I started so many.

The harvest this weekend was more lettuces - 

and TWO little spears of Piricicaba broccoli!  We may not get any more than this since it's getting ready to bolt in the heat already.  Broccoli does much better in the fall here than spring it seems.

While the kids ate pizza (store bought, yuk!) for sleepover night, we had salad!

I never get sick of salad the way I do squash, zucchini and the like.  I could eat salad with every meal and be happy.

This morning I looked for a tank top to garden in and maybe get a little sun to no avail, apparently I ruined them all last year, so I had to get a little redneck again - yep I just cut the sleeves off a t-shirt!  I've never done this before but it felt kind of liberating!

Brace yourself for what's coming next...I'm a murderer!

Above are my blackberries, below are my raspberries.  They are on either side of my split-rail fence garden.

And now they are....GONE!

I know this might seem crazy to some of you, but here's the deal... we have got to start getting away from so much high maintenance looking things and start integrating a lot more "pretty" into the garden since we are hoping to sell in a few years when the market bounces (hopefully) back.  In the unfortunate event that we would have to do a military transfer, not be able to sell and have to rent our place out, can you imagine what would happen if things like raspberry canes were left to the charge of the average non-gardener?  I shudder to think what the yard and garden would look like.  So on each side will now be my hollyhocks!  Hubby also built a few trellises for me today and I transplanted some of my pot-bound clematis to climb on the teepees we placed there.  I'm hoping it will look a little more like a cottage garden and a little less like a "garden at all costs" garden LOL, you probably know what I mean, space is a premium - you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes!

Please forgive me for ripping out perfectly good berries - it's for my future sanity!


All that's left tonight is to make dinner, 3 more loads of laundry, get the kids into bed and collapse.  I hate admitting that I'm addicted to a tv show, but I am - and will be watching Army Wives tonight after everything settles down, I can't wait! Hope you all had productive weekends or at least the sun is shining and finally warming up your northern gardens - you all know who you are :)

Finally!

SALAD!

It's about d@mn time!  I've been picking a few spinach leaves here and there, just enough for a pizza occasionally, but feared taking too much too soon!  I have one bed with several varieties now and they are big enough for 3-4 of these salads a week now.  I just have to remember to get out there next week and plant more so we can continue to have enough.

I picked Mizuna, Olympia Spinach, Deer Tongue, Mache, and some random spring greens and lettuce mixes, as well as some leeks and scallions.

Of course now we are anxiously awaiting some real tomatoes, peppers, broccoli & peas to top the lettuce instead of relying on cheese and "fake" hothouse tomatoes (ever notice how those store bought "hothouse" heirlooms have lots of color and absolutely NO flavor?!)

Yesterday Finn surprised me by announcing that he wanted to have dirty hands that day.  I took him outside and he helped me plant all the peppers and eggplants.  Here he is putting a "dog catcher" around one of the eggplants.

I didn't get much of anything done outside today.  I admit I have been feeling a bit down lately, not sure why, maybe just overwhelmed.  I would feel bad if it didn't look like at least something happened while hubby was off working hard, so I decided to make my first loaf of bread the real way.  I'm ready to use the bread machine for bb gun practice in the backyard, I hate that thing!  It takes 3 hours to mix a dough and then it's only halfway mixed LOL.

I followed instructions from the book "BREAD" (go figure)

Here's me the first time mixing by hand... I don't even watch hubby when he makes pizza dough so it's all new to me at this point.

I won't show the kneading process since I got so messy and glue-y that I didn't dare start walking around looking for the camera at that point.  I think I added a couple of tbsp too much water since it didn't rise like I had hoped.  The good news is that although it was kind of flat, it tasted good and I finally got that chewy crust I like.  I used the spray bottle of water on the oven walls method.

Here's Finn smelling it... he must have sat there for an hour picking at the hot loaf burning his fingers, waiting impatiently for dinner :)

Below you can see what I mean about the loaf coming out "flat".  But it was much easier that I expected and I think I can fix it for next time and bonus:  no stupid bread machine or kitchen aid to clean up!

Off to go have 'Family Reading Time' and then lounge the rest of the night away, hoping my energy and attitude improves very soon.

Oh! - I also made my first sourdough starter today which promptly overflowed it's container all over a wood cabinet hubby built... ooops!

working through the pain

Haven't posted in a few days, to say I'm sick would be an understatement!  Apparently I injured my back last Thursday lifting 50 lb bales of soil conditioner because I woke up Friday barely able to get up or turn to either side.  This is a tough one for me since I'm one of those cynics that doesn't "believe" in unexplained back pain, allergies (we'll get to that in a minute), or any of the other mystery pains many people complain about LOL.  Serves me right I guess, huh?  Funny thing is that I lift heavy stuff all the time, always lift properly, and don't recall any sudden injury or pain that day but it showed up 12 hours later just the same.  Saturday was so-so and yesterday I managed to get a teeny-tiny bit of work done, mostly supervising hubby :) but by the time I finished making dinner I was completely done and could barely stand up.  Then last night the allergies hit me, complete with fever and chills, and when that broke I was left with the classic symptoms of a foggy head, eyes, etc, and a good 5 days or so before my allergy meds kick in and start working.  I don't believe in those either, but every year since I have lived in one of the top states for pollen allergies it has been getting progressively worse.  I have never been bothered by them until I was about 35, guess I was lucky.  It was 75ºin the house last night but I was on the couch under 2 down blankets and a heating pad on my back, pretty pathetic.  Hubby said heat waves were emanating from me but I would have sworn it was 32 in the house!

Today, back was a little better this morning, but after sewing this afternoon, I'm back to wanting the heating pad on it tonight.  This is the first time I have ever had any lower back pain and I don't like it, matter of fact I don't even believe in it!  I guess I'm getting old :)

Even though I was hobbling around pretty badly, I managed to carry a camera and get some shots of spring chores being done and did a little bit myself:

Here's hubby mixing in some super secret stuff into my beds, Finn and his neighbor friend are  working mixing it in, too!

Call it carnage or whatever, but these pretty brussels sprouts are going to get ripped out right before they "sprout brussels" LOL - I don't even like them but like the way the plants look when nothing else is growing - they are taking up very valuable real estate since I need this bed for tomatoes by the end of the week.

For the first time, we are planting tomatoes straight into the ground this year.  We need more to have a proper amount canned for winter, and the space is here, it just needed to be amended with some of our compost and other secret stuff, you know, army men and other things you find when digging :)

Poor hubby with all this digging and turning, I couldn't have picked a worse weekend for a back injury... or maybe a better one?  :)

Below, the 2011 Sacrificial Tomato... this year the honor goes to a Pink Brandywine!  She was planted Sunday afternoon, did well last night which was no spectacular event since it only got down to 60, but did very well with a high in the 80's today with full sun.  Tonight and tomorrow night will be lows in the upper 40's possibly, so depending on how she does, all the tomatoes will be planted by late this week.  Not soon enough for me, as they are all about 12 inches high!  This one was planted with 1/2 the plant in the soil.  No eggshells or magic stuff here, since she's the sacrificial plant :)

Apple Blossoms!

Harvest this weekend:  on the left are scallions and on the right, leeks.  Yes, poor small leeks... but they HAD to come out of the bed... I needed it!

I used them right up... still using up our stash from freezer garden veggies but it was nice to have the addition of fresh green onions and sliced leeks in the stir fry.

After this dinner, I pretty much collapsed into a worthless heap with nothing worth writing about except how many times hubby ran around for drinks, snacks, blankets, etc for me!

Allergies and back injuries are for the weak... 

(stay tuned for a recipe involving me eating those words!)

I'll leave you with a clip of Finn and his friend doing what boys are supposed to do... digging in the dirt!

I think I may have to actually take a day off tomorrow and work on the stack of magazines!

Talking to the plants again...

"Listen weeds, I spent 8 hours with you today and only covered about 75 sq feet.  A girl gets a lot of thinking done while scooting around for that long.  I've been silent long enough.  

A poor attempt at grass you are here-

Okay, now I realize that a weed is "just a plant out of place", or "a plant in an undesirable location", or any of the other technical descriptions you can dream up, but hey - read between the lines, why don't you?  You are unwanted!

Just look at yourselves, I mean, really?

Weed, don't even try to feed me any of your "you can make wine and salad from me" B.S. - if I am going to let someone get me drunk, newsflash, it ain't gonna be you, so go, neither the time nor the inclination...

Oh yay, here's you doing your impersonation of a snuggli for my birdbath...

Here's you again, impersonating a wanted plant... take this Sheen-ism, "not winning"...

See that space I call a lawn out there?  That's your space, I don't care what you do out there...

  

What's that, weed?  You ask why the below plant infiltrating my perennials was spared?  Oh, look, it's parsley - that's why you dumb weed, "winning"!

Oh, look at what you were suffocating here... a beautiful creeping plant of mine - take note, a plant with an even growth rate, note the absence of scrubby highs and lows...

 

I can't even compost you, since you don't have enough restraint to stop producing seed for even a week

I'm giving you permission to take a vacation!  Go ahead, go somewhere nice, Switzerland, maybe?  Get some work done on yourself while you're there, I hear they do great things.  Who knows?  If you show up next year Hollywood-ready, I may be able to help you out."