I'm Gonna Hurt Somebody....!

Ok, don't laugh, but... does anyone know how to get rid of Bermudagrass creeping all over my beds?  Ugh!  I prepped the beds with about 4 layers of cardboard, then about 3 inches of mulch.  Now, can't even see the mulch through the damn weeds!  I thought of using Roundup even, but the stuff is too close to my veggies and plants.  Anyone tried vinegar?  I torched the ones furthest from the veggies with the "flame-thrower", and am now hand pulling them.  It's 90 degrees, I'm on my third change of sweat soaked clothes, holes in 2 pairs of gardening gloves, and trying to entertain a 4 year old.  You get the picture!  I am ready to throw in the towel, or pruners, as it may be!  So sorry to be bitchy and vent, but if anyone would understand, it's you lovely readers...  maybe it's because I am coming off a rough weekend...maybe it really is the Bermudagrass, LOL!  I hope to post updates of the weekend this evening, after the weather (and I) cool off a bit  :)

The Garden is finally appearing on the dinner menu!

Although too early for my own peppers or tomatoes, I challenged myself to include produce from our garden in every dish this evening, and this is what transpired:

I had mesclun, lettuce, salsa and peas for the salad, made pesto from our basil for the tortellini, and herbs for the "herb paste" on the grilled tuna, and parsley for a garnish!  Now, if I could just replace those store bought cardboard tomatoes for the real thing....

Men, Fish and Beer...

We were able to bottle the homebrew on Friday evening!  The kids find this whole project fascinating, and I realized that my boys are going to show up freshman year at college already knowing how to brew their own micro's....ooops!  I must admit it is alot of fun and actually is quite fascinating!  Now the freshly capped bottles have to age for about 4-6 weeks, which means I will get the first taste since Charlie will be out on the ship again next week for awhile!

The Chief Bottle Washer

Capping the bottles

This weekend we sort of played hooky from the garden duties.  I was looking at the calendar last week and noticed that even though Sailor/Husband/Father/Farmer doesn't go on deployment until this fall, he only has a total of 6 weeks home with us this summer since they are gone on "workups" (training) so often.  So, I figured the chores like building fence gates will still be there next week and we needed to just make a priority out of spending some time together doing things the kids enjoy.  We decided to take the kids fishing out in Back Bay and ended up eating at one of our favorite restaurants out there, the Blue Pete.  Next weekend I think we will go back out and take the canoe this time a little earlier in the day so the kids can have some better luck with the fish.

Fishing with Dad

Feeding the fish at Blue Pete's

Strawberry Shortcake with local berries, yum!

Other notable weekend happenings around the homestead:  

Pumpkin sprouting...this was neat since the seed case was still attached and the kids can better visualize what's happening!

One of our juvenile doves waiting patiently for mom to come back and feed her!

I am really hoping to get plenty of chores done during the weekdays this week so we can have a little fun again this weekend!  Now I am off to order more beans - this was the first time I planted them outside the raised beds and critters helped themselves to about half of the sprouts!

Don't forget the pumpkins, Mom!

It's a good thing I have kids, or nothing would get planted around here!  Yesterday, my son was perusing (ok, destroying) my new "Garden Manual" and he came across seed packets for pumpkins and wanted to know when they go into the ground.  "Well, I guess if we want pumpkins for Halloween we better get started!"  So it was off to start more seedlings even though truth be told, after the tomatoes and peppers, I don't want to see another seed flat for a good long while!  We planted a few of the classic orange jack-o-lanterns, a few white "Casper" pumpkins, birdhouse gourds, cucumbers and some flower seed.  If you ask Finn he will tell you "We planted pickles and birdhouses!"  Still no idea where the pumpkins will go.  I will probably plant them along the fence bed and just keep kicking the vines out of the yard each time I mow!

Aren't these seeds cute?  

And what the hay is this???  Where do I get to sit???  Apparently the term "Garden Dogs" was lost on them on the way to the living room.

We will be bottling our first batch of homebrew this weekend, and I spent 2 hours last night in front of the TV scraping labels off recycled beer bottles, scrubbing and sanitizing.  Hope Sailor/Farmer appreciates it.  No doubt he will actually notice my efforts this time, since it involves beer :)

Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That...

It's been awhile since my last post! Not much in the way of big things going on right now, but just a few small projects here and there that have been on the back burner for awhile.

Sailor/Farmer returned and was welcomed with his own home brewing equipment as a Birthday/Early Father's Day gift.

If he was only amused by my various sustainability projects previously, he is now paying full attention and loving it! Here he is cooking up his first batch of wort in the pouring rain last weekend. He and "N", his buddy tried to rig up some tarps on the pergola, but I think still got pretty wet that evening!

Cooking the wort...

We didn't do any camping or other adventures this year on Memorial Day weekend, but managed to have a couple of good cookouts with friends and awesome weather.

It's not a party until the Army guys show up in the food... (you can tell I have boys!)

And the following night at L & N's house...Crab Boil! Crab, Shrimp, Clams, Potatoes, Corn, YUM! Food was incredible, kids had a blast, we will definitely be doing more of this the coming summer!

Here's Big "O" enjoying some of the cuisine that was obviously prepared in his honor. "Family BBQ means me too, right???!!!"

Thanks to the help of a friend and some adult beverages, my husband got motivated to finish replacing the fence around the yard, and we hope to build new gates the coming weekend. I got my garden shed all cleaned and organized and it is now officially all mine, as my husband has his own shed and is cleaning his out as well and will no longer have to sneak stuff into mine!

An update to my tomato situation: the problem was indeed bad compost I had delivered! I tested the soil and it showed virtually no nutrients...NONE! Apparently what we got was composted mulch of some sort, and not the rich compost I asked for! So, after amending the soil in those 3 beds, and a few emergency boosts in the form of a foliar spray of seaweed, we are now growing again! Tomatoes are not frozen anymore, and and the new growth is green! We will just be a few weeks behind everyone on the tomatoes! I am just thankful the mystery is solved and it wasn't mosaic virus or mutated Swine to Tomato Flu! Now I just hope the downpours and severe weather of the past month can stay away...(at least until hurricane season!)

Good Morning, Garlic!

Happy Memorial Day, all!  I plan on writing an update this evening (it's been awhile!), but I thought I would share this morning's excitement with you to tide you over until then :)

Grill Fired Pizzas, here we come!

Catching Up

Yippee!  Sailor/Farmer is back home again (for about a month) !  Even though he wasn't here to orchestrate a stress-free Mother's Day for me, we managed to have a good time anyways.  I took the kids and packed a picnic lunch and we headed to the beach for a couple of hours.  Without the husband to tell them how to act on Mother's Day, I had to improvise a bit.  When they started acting up and getting whiny I explained to them that they HAVE to act good on Mother's Day and when I was asked "why, Mommy?" I pulled out the big guns and told them that Santa watches them very carefully on this particular day!

While Charlie missed alot while he was gone, he managed to get here in time for the first peas being harvested from the garden.  Not a ton, but enough for dinner that night.

No time for rest, though...I am going through my first traumatic gardening event, and it's with my tomatoes!  Yes, the heirloom tomatoes I nurtured from seed for the last half of winter, and then GAVE AWAY the surplus that I didn't use...(note to self!).  I will give you the horrid details and then let you see for yourself.  There are 3 new raised beds this year, filled with delivered compost that hold ALL of my tomatoes.  They were planted about a month ago, and seem to be frozen in time.  They have not grown, but are not wilted, either.  The leaves started becoming a dark green, then yellow mottling that looked alot like sunburn.  I thought this was the case for awhile since the day after I planted them was the start of a week of mid 90's temps that lasted about 6 days that caught everyone around here by surprise.  They never seemed to recover.  The past few days shows mottling, the undersides of the leaves has deep accentuated veining.  I am about ready to pull them and take one to the extension office, but am not hopeful, since I have read a ton of tech manuals and disease id's and know about as much as they do at this point!  I freaked out over tomato mosaic virus, the worst, but know that it is rare and they were not exposed to tobacco contamination unless the virus was in the compost that was delivered (this virus lives in the soil for 10 years, yikes!)  I have also seen some pics that sort of resemble mine that describe a phosphorous or manganese deficiency, but I believe this is unlikely since I have been using seaweed/fish emulsion and top dressing with my own compost and all my other beds are really healthy.  Anyways, any ideas???  I know I should probably just rip them out and start over before whatever it is spreads, but it's so hard to do!  Here's the evidence...

One of the Brandywines:

Close-Up of Brandywine leaf:

The Black Krims and Black Truffles in the next bed are starting to show signs as well:

Pic showing tomato size after being in ground for over a month:
I should mention that the 2 extras I had that I planted in my old beds are doing well and are getting huge, and the ones I gave away to friends are doing great.  Is it possible there was something contaminating the fill for the beds I had delivered???  I hate to think of having to remove all the fill and dispose of it.  I guess if you garden long enough, something is bound to happen.  I may laugh about it one day, BUT NOT TODAY!