Wasting time with lots of photos!

The past 2 days we have seen gorgeous weather, temps in the upper 70's, no humidity! I had planned to basically "do everything" during this time since I cannot stand working outside in the oppressive heat we had last week. I did work all day yesterday and got a lot done, but I dunno what happened today!? I just couldn't seem to get it together, choosing instead to sit in a lawn chair and flip through magazines, look up random stuff in regards to the garden on the internet, and walk through the garden snapping pictures and talking to myself. I guess it was just one of those days, and I will be working in the heat wave that is sure to return tomorrow! Here are the photos of what is growing here right now:

"Bush Baby" Watermelon

It's easy to know when the shallots are done, they're like a toaster!

Blackberries

Unknown Polish Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, the remaining garlic

Marigolds

The Pepper Bed: Jalapenos, Bell, Fish Hot Pepper along with Mexican Mint Marigold

Heirloom Jalapenos

The Pea & Bean Beds (Peas were ripped out today!)

"Beer Friend" Edamame - can you see the little pods?

Heirloom Golden Wax Bean

Heirloom Dragon Langerie (Dragon's Tongue) Bush Bean

Nasturtium

We don't call it bolting 'round here... it's part of the rabbit Christmas Tree Farm! Time for these lettuces to go!

Dill

Looks like it's time to dig for taters!

One of the Colonnade Apple Trees

If you think you don't have room for an apple tree, consider the Colonnade! This is just the second year, and the 5 ft trunk is covered with apples top to bottom. Great for a container!

Close up of the apples... I really hope these all make it to harvest without any serious issues

These just started to turn a faint pink I noticed when outside this evening!

Japanese Climbing Cucumber - all cukes are in pots on my deck this year, thought maybe I could keep up with them if I had to constantly walk past them LOL

How many Grapes will make it past the wasps this year? Japanese Beetles expected arrival any day now...

I'm not sure why I continue to grow these... ummm, cuz the leaves are pretty?! Actually, their main purpose now is a supply of grape leaves to line the bottoms of my pickled veggies, it keeps them super crisp!

Tomorrow I will have to get back to work out there, I have some half-beds to plant where my peas were ripped out today. I am trying this year to be much more consistent with my succession planting!

OCD Friday

Lettin' my obsessive/Type A freak-flag fly today!  It seems that whenever my husband is due home from the ship I always get in the mood to organize things just prior.  I am not quite sure why, since I will spend the first day pointing all my accomplishments out to him because he will not notice them otherwise, he is just happy to be in a bed that isn't directly under the catapult of the flight deck and have clean laundry.  Apparently he supports my OCD personality, because last year for Mother's Day I got...a labelmaker!  Yes, folks, not a day at the spa but at least a step up from a broom, lol!  Actually it turned out to be the perfect gift especially since I started canning last year.  Today I finally got around to making my "freezer inventory".  This has been on my mind ever since I started freezing our garden produce, but became an absolute necessity since we picked up our beef share last week.  I have a small deep freeze we purchased last year and it is now packed to the lid!  Now instead of unpacking all the contents every day to see what I can drum up for dinner, I just "shop" by looking at my list posted on my fridge.  I can update it when it becomes a mess and print out a new one!  I just cross off what I take and use it also to make my grocery list.  Pretty simple really, but one of those things I kept putting off.  

And another adventure I couldn't miss... the grand opening of the new "Trader Joe's" here in Virginia Beach.  We were here at opening time, mostly because I knew there would be alot of giveaways and it's right down the street from our house.  We got a couple of free reusable shopping bags and some cookies, then stocked up on "Two Buck Chuck" Shiraz and beat feet outta there.  Before today, the nearest one was about an hour away near one of our airports, so I would visit in conjunction with my mom or husband flying in or out!  So the freak flags were flying here too...check out the mob scene:

The first of the radishes were picked yesterday.  Now if I could just learn to like them...

Here are some miscellaneous things going on around "the Estate"...

Baby bunches of grapes, aren't they cute?

Finally!  The potatoes are doing something!

The new Colonnade apple trees are actually growing!

Clematis is enjoying our weather right now

Remember licking the beaters when you were a kid?  That's one good thing about getting old, we get the BOWL now!!!

That's probably it for weekend posts here.  Sailor/Farmer comes home very soon so I will be busy working and doing things that he won't notice, and will most likely spend Mother's Day mowing the lawn :)

Have a good weekend y'all, and Happy Mother's Day!

Almost forgot...anyone have any experience with "The Food Saver"?  Would love to hear your reviews/experiences before I purchase anything!

You know you're "farming" when...

The past week has been filled with work and more work!  It's like one of those yard makeover in a day shows around here!  We have been needing to replace our weather and wind beaten fence for years now, and we decided to do half of that this past week as well as create a border and space for more raised veggie beds along the fenceline.  We managed to do it all without any digging (except for a trench barrier along the bed).  My husband was thrilled to have a legitimate use for his new propane weed torch aka "The Flame Thrower".  He torched all the grass/weeds for the new bed and we then laid down cardboard (courtesy of my neighbors' latest move, thanks guys!), then spread out a bunch of compost we had and mulched the area in.  

After that came the fence.  I believe you can judge how close you are getting to a homestead/farmette farming by they severity of the mishaps involved...!  As my husband was kicking down the old fence, I had my son stand safely away from the area (so I thought) when a huge gust of wind came and blew down the gate on the other end of the fence right on top of him.  It was one of those horrible moments when you can tell what is about to happen right before it does.  I looked up, started running but was too late.  The massive drive-thru gate smacked him down to the ground.  It took both Charlie and I to pick the gate up, and surprisingly, not a scratch on him!  He was terrified for sure, but he fell flat down on his front and took the gate on his back, which was the best outcome for that situation.  We have had that problem with the gale force winds and the solid fence blowing down for years, so I think we have solved it now by installing wire fencing and reusing the wooden posts to channel the wind through instead of smacking into the fence.  The downside to this plan is the loss of privacy and our little microclimate!  I am going to grow Hyacinth Bean vines for the summer, but now need to plan for permanent coverage.  I am debating whether to do something easy like an evergreen honeysuckle or something that will take a little longer, such as Rosa Rugosa or Russian Olive.  Either way, we will need to have some privacy back before integrating "Urban Stealth Chickens" into our family!  If anyone has any experience covering a fence cheaply and quickly for the long term I would love to hear it!  Here are a couple of photos of the new fence (on the left) and the new border and raised beds along the fence.  I hope to have some better pics soon.

The containers hold my new colonnade apple trees!  I am still a little unsure of where I will want them since the border is a blank slate right now, so I figured I would park them in pots in the meantime.

My youngest son Finnegan gave us a scare the other night by having what sounded like an asthma attack.  I took him to the ER where I was relieved to hear that it was not asthma but instead croup.  He had a couple of hours of nebulizer treatment and a steroid to help open his airway and then we were able to get back home (by 3 am!) and rest.  I thought only babies had croup but apparently it is not uncommon at all for a child his age.  I am just very thankful that it is not a chronic condition like asthma.  Here he is breathing his "magic dust"...

He was feeling well enough the next afternoon to plant his apple tree...

Next up, allergy season!  My husband and one of my boys have allergies pretty bad, and I find that every year I live in VA mine get a little worse, so maybe this year I need to get some meds.  I am sure we will all be sneezing today as we get outside to work some more.  I have a huge list of "Charlie Chores" for my husband to finish today since he gets to go on vacation in AZ for a week for his sister's wedding, while I get a "Staycation" at home with 2 kids, 2 dogs and a lawn to mow!  (Note to self:  keep removing parts of the lawn-grass is evil!)

Seed Swapping Fun!

The past weekend was alot of fun in spite of the cold weather!  I hosted a Seed Swap & Cocktail Party on Saturday night for my gardening group "Grownups Playing in the Dirt".  It was an evening of meeting lots of new faces and getting a ton of new seeds to try.  I was impressed by the amount of guests I had (24!) and the amount of seeds and good food everyone brought.  I ended up with all flower seeds since growing flowers from seed is something new for me.  For others, veggies were the attraction.  It's a great way to meet people and try something new for free!  My home is tiny, but the husbands were able to start a campfire out back (with a propane weed torch, I might add, lol!) and we were able to spill outside around the fire for some extra room.  It was chilly, but no wind at least.  Soon enough we will be complaining about the heat and mosquitoes!  There were alot of kids so they kept busy running around the yard, as all kids should be doing...and I am sure they all went home exhausted!  Outdoors and tired...nature's ADHD remedy!  I intended to snap some photos of the event, but forgot all about it once the party started.  My seedlings under lights are still too immature to send out into the world, so now I have an excuse to have another party in May!  Speaking of the seedlings, here they are as of this morning:

The rest of the weekend was spent cross-legged on my graveled perennial beds with my kids and dogs weeding.  Not exactly exciting, but very relaxing nonetheless.  The kids were so helpful in fact, hauling my debris in their little red wagon to the compost pile, that I offered to take them out to dinner and let them pick.  They chose, of course, McDonald's...yuck, what is it about that place and kids?!!  Anyway, they got their wish and all I got was my body desperately wanting its gallbladder back!  I am noticing that my kids now know what is a weed and what is a plant, important since alot of my perennials are self-sowing babies all around them!  

Yesterday, my best friend calls and is thinking about apple trees for her yard instead of trees that "don't do anything" and it got me thinking!  She has room for some nice trees and for them to provide food is awesome, but I am afraid if I add any more trees to my backyard it will shade my veggies.  After some researching, I decided to order some Colonnade Apple Trees.  If you haven't seen them, they seem to be the perfect solution to add fruit for the family without shading the yard, or would be great for tiny gardens as you can even pot them on a deck.  I ordered 3 of different varieties, and will try and update on the status of them to see if they live up to expectations!  Click for a picture and article about Colonnade Apple Trees, and a video from P. Allen Smith.  Now I can't wait for them to get here...funny thing is, the day after I ordered mine, a post appeared about them on one of my favorite blogs "The Crunchy Chicken".  So at least I'm not alone in trying this strange variety!

I am hoping to get the rest of my garden weeded and start on our fence building this week, but it is still cold and supposed to rain tomorrow...ugh!