Garden Pictures

 David Austin Rose Munstead Wood

 

 My daughter came out with the camera and snuck in a few pics of me watering the garden.  This is one of my favorite Summertime rituals.  Actually as I sit in the January rain and dark... I can hardly wait for the need to water again!  The lovely mornings or evenings doing nothing but watering the vegetable garden with the light playing over the water and plants.  We have so much rain here most of the year that there is rarely a need to take the hose anywhere to water.  Water-logged is normal state for the plants around here!

 

David Austin Climbing Rose "Shropshire Lad"

 David Ausin Roses have become my latest addiction in the garden.  Once you begin by getting their catalog, you fall in love and must have new varieties to add, I escpecially love the climbing roses.

This is what I talk of around Mother's Day.  The one above Kaley got me for Mother's Day this past year.

 

My patio overlooks the vegetable garden, I have a small Bloodgood Japanese Maple in one corner.  A couple years ago I bought eight of these trees for a super good deal.

I have one concrete raised bed, with the eventual plan of continueing to add them one by one.  However, at the moment I'm happy with just my mounded raised beds.   A greenhouse is what we need, that one element so important to grow food year-round in our climate.  Last year my tomatoes that I started extra early, thrived all Summer long, then they got blight just as the huge crop of Roma Tomatoes were about ready to turn red and ripen.  I had been looking forward to canning them all Summer, then they were destroyed by blight in an instant.  It made me realize how important a green house is for our self sufficiency plan.  To be able to garden year round is important to me, and to be able to grow tomatoes and peppers that need heat!  Now, cherry tomatoes I can grow, this year I will focus on both red and yellow cherry tomatoes.

 

Dahlias, Plums, and Roses from the garden

 

During the hot and dry time of the year I water frequently.

 

 

 

 



 

 

seed starts ~ overlooking the garden in snow

The earliest vegetable seeds are started under lights and have warm roots as they sit overlooking the snow covered garden below.  It snowed again yesterday and most of this morning.  We've  had snow on the ground now for a month, except for the 2 days the snow all melted and came back the very next day. It's nice to know the vegetable garden is already started. This is my first year using lights, every other year I have just set the seeds by the windows with heat underneath.  We have a couple of radiator style heaters that I place under a heavy duty plastic mesh table covered in a sheet so the heat can be distributed equally, I have the heater on low and it's enough to keep the soil warm.

 

The seeds have all come up, I planted several different types each of tomato, broccoli, kale, and cabbage, they will be planted out in early to mid April, except the tomatoes which will stay in the warmth for an additional month then be put into a cold frame for a few weeks. The  celeriac and asparagus took the longest to emerge.  I also planted some lupine, delphinium, zinnia, and portulaca flower seeds.  The first of April I'll start my warm weather seeds that I'll plant out around the middle of May.  We're at around twelve hundred feet above sea level and are about 2 to 3 weeks later than the valley below us, we have snow right now and if I drive just a short ways down our hill there is no snow at all.  

A reader named Cheryl at Misty Meadows asked me a question about the lights and wondered if I had any tips.  Here's a few tips from what I've learned.  I simply have 2 flourescent bulbs in a standard flourescent light case, the lights are hung from the ceiling close to the starts, as they grow I'll move the lights higher, the better bulbs to buy would be full spectrum light bulbs.  I turn the lights on in the morning and off in the evening when I go to bed, so they're getting plenty of light.  I'll be transplanting the seedlings into their own pots as soon as they have 2 leaves.  These little seedlings will expand on my windowsill and I'll add another table, one without heat.  Most seeds are ready to plant out after 6-8 weeks and need a hardening off period, a couple of hours per day, and increasing the time over a week.  Then they go into the cold frame, and then are planted out in the garden.  It's a process of them growing up and getting strong enough to handle being planted out early in the garden.

I sure am looking forward to seeing the sun again and feeling it's warmth! 

seed orders and snow

Over the weekend it was cold and wet, Saturday night we had a light snow and it's still on the ground this morning, the temperature is hovering around 37 degrees, so it should begin to melt.  I had high hopes for sun or at least dry weather this last weekend to work in the orchard, well mother nature rules, so yesterday I ended up by the fire surrounded by seeds, garden catalogs and order forms. I placed 2 orders for seed through Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  and Territorial Seed Co.  First, I sorted through all my current seeds and made a list of what I needed and wanted.  As I sipped a cup of tea, I sat dreaming of what my garden will look like this year as I perused the pages of each catalog, reading descriptions and figuring out where each crop will go in the garden.

I had already spent a great deal of time highlighting what I wanted on several different occasions, so putting together my order was fairly easy, then of course I changed my mind and added a few more things.  Somehow I always feel I can squeeze a little more in to the garden, and then I have to expand, just so it can all fit :)  I like to try new fruits and vegetables every year, and I love the heirlooms because of their rich heritage and the fact that I can gather true seed at seasons end.  Even if I don't always do it, I like knowing I can.  Last year I gathered broccoli, and kale seed, so this year, and for many years, I won't have to buy any seed, I have so many.  I've always gathered flower seeds, now I want to focus on vegetable seeds, my plans are to collect more seed every year by allowing a couple of plants at the end of a row to set seed. 

Here's a sampling of what I ordered.  From Territorial Seed Company, I ordered green globe artichokes by seed (my first time ever growing artichokes).  This year rather than grow spindly celery, I'm going to try celeriac (I've never grown this before either).  I have lots of winter density kale seed, but wanted to try a new one, it's a beautiful dark pink and green kale called red chidori.  The Territorial seed company is located in Oregon, so they specialize is some cool loving vegetables, I got sugar sprint peas and super sugar snaps, and some gold princess onion. 

From Baker's creek heirlooms, I've ordered 3 types of bush beans, blue lake, dragon's tongue and golden wax,  beans are a good successive crop and also double as a cover crop.  For carrots I got St. Valery and atomic red, I've planted these before and liked them.   I ordered giant noble spinach, and their best selling seed, rocky top salad mix.  For pumpkins I'll plant two varieties, Musquee de Provence ( a large lobed, brownish one I've never tried before) and one I plant regularly, New England sugar pie, for pie making.  New for me, a summer squash called Patisson gold marbre scallop, some scarlet runner beans (I love these beans), and I'm trying red forest crimson bunching onions for the first time

Every year I order seeds because it's a priority in my life.  If I have extra one's they go into our seed bank, I like the feeling of having an abundance of seed, it's another investment in self sufficiency.  

Are you trying any new vegetables this year that you've never tried before?  Have you ever grown artichokes or celeriac?

fall garden

Looking out my bedroom window towards the South, and over-looking my garden.  The vegetables in the garden are winding down rapidly for the year, the low temperatures have been around 38 degrees.  We haven't had a hard killing frost yet, but it will be here soon.  I still have some potatoes, carrots and beets to dig.  We just got a couple bales of straw today, so now I can line a deep hole with straw, cover it with dirt, and plastic for a winter root storage.  In the photo above you can see all my concrete columns for fence posts, hopefully in the next year, in the plans are wooden gates to the garden, there will be four in all, along with a wooden arbor along the left side.  I have hardy kiwi's planted and ready to climb the arbor next year. 

Remember the picture of my warm season crops of squash and pickles, well the warm and sunny month and a half we had was exactly what it all needed to grow.   Not a huge crop of delicata, but enough to enjoy for a dozen meals over the winter. 

Over the summer we had the crane over by the garden and set these stones in a circle for a new fire pit.  We have enjoyed grilling right over the open wood fire, the flavor  imparted to our just picked meals is delicious.  I love the fact that it's just outside my kitchen and deck for outdoor dining and entertaining.

 I just harvested all of my zucchini, and sunburst patty pan squash, we've been enjoying lots of sauteed vegetables and steamed kale as side dishes in our Fall meals. 

tomatillos love our climate, I never plant them, they just come up yearly on their own (like many things do in my garden).  We get a couple large harvests per year and I make salsa verde`.

One of my favorites "Delicata Squash" 

vegetable garden

I start my day walking out the door, over the stepping stone rocks, and looking at the entrance to my vegetable garden, on sunny mornings, the sun shines as early as 6am on the garden, and it's a wonderful time to work or walk around looking at all the new growth of each plant.  The garden is fenced with concrete pillars for posts, to add a natural touch of art, there are drilled holes in rocks and placed onto the posts that have a bolt coming out the top.  We have rocks incorporated into many projects, and it's a theme in our architecture.  There are still wooden gates and arbors to be built in the garden, but for now it's safe from the deer, and for that I am grateful.

Once I enter the garden, this is the center path, with strawberries and flowers on the left, the concrete bed is on the right.  Straight ahead on the right are the young fruit tree rootstocks, on the left is the rhubarb, more strawberries, a grape arbor, with 3 grape vines, raspberries, wildflowers, herbs and asparagus.

This is taking a right in the garden after you go around the concrete bed.  There are turnips, raspberries a large elderberry tree and more strawberries.  I've also got some carrots, onions, potatoes and elephant garlic planted.

Kale, garlic, and lettuce

We'll  have plenty of cabbage for fresh eating, both the purple and green variety, 

and lots of danish ballhead cabbage for sauerkraut.

Broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and kohlrabi, all of these love our cool rainy weather.

Purple Kohlrabi is delicious, and does well here.

This is my warm season crops, like cucumber, basil, lichi tomatoes, zuccini, sunburst pattypan squash, and delicata squash.  They are so late this year, I wonder if I'll even get a crop, the warm season stuff goes quite late around here often in October.  More motivation to get my greenhouse set up before next Spring.

My garden is a work in progress, each year I've spent making one big bed, by composting a small mountain right in the middle, and spreading it all over.  I bring in wheelbarrow loads of rabbit and chicken manure from cleanings, also weeds, kitchen scraps, wood ashes, straw, leaves, and coffee grounds.  Compost can just be made that easily, be sure to watch your brown and green ratio, and let sun, rain, and time do the rest.

Once the big beds were made, I then create a small path down the middle, and have square or rectangular beds, that are set up permanently so they are never walked on, and can be reached to maintain. 

Currently the first of August, I've just planted more greens, and will also plant more carrots, radishes, and kale.  Weeding is always a job that needs to be done, and some paths still need shade cloth and wood chips spread on them, I need to spread compost on more of the beds, and harvest some root crops, then there's successive sowing of greens and radishes, I always have a long to do list for the garden during the growing season.  Then there comes a point, usually in the early Fall, when everything seems perfect and the harvest is at it's peak, I will take a break working on the outside, and really go into high gear putting food away for the winter through canning, freezing and drying. 

We're in the middle of our summer, and this last week was our first solid week of sun we've had almost all season.  We've had so much rain and cool weather, the sun felt so good to all of us.  I hope you're enjoying your summer as much as we are. 

berries in the garden

 The red currents are ready to harvest in my garden, I'll make jelly with both the red and black currents. 

A yearly ritual on our farm is to make some black current juice at harvest time, it's a delicacy that only happens once a year, and is a highly nutritious energy drink.

We are in our abundant time of harvest, so many berries are ripening and need to be picked and processed.

Hinnomaki Red gooseberry bush, ready to harvest, I have 3 varieties of gooseberry, and love the taste of them all.  The skin is tart and the inside sweet. We're still getting a smallish harvest and may just eat out of hand this year. They are delicious cut up in salads too.

Above is an Autumn Brilliance service berry, there won't be enough berries this year to do very much with, so I'll most likely use them in a small pint of juice.

I have 2 different types of strawberry bushes, Benton is a June bearing strawberry, that starts getting ripe around mid July.  With Benton, we have have 3 to 4 weeks of strawberry abundance, not a day goes by that we're not out there picking.   The other variety I have is Tri-Star, an everberring type, that will go on after the July harvest, and then produce the rest of the way through summer and Fall and to the first frost.

We have many bushes of raspberries that I've been spreading throughout the garden over the years.  They are finally getting big enough for a great harvest.  The blueberries won't be ripe until the end of the month, we're higher up than the valley, so most things ripen two or three weeks later.  We usually have blueberries in late August, September and October. We have 15 blueberry bushes, 9 of the bushes are very old, that I  have spent 5 years bringing back into good production.  Some are early, mid and late blueberries, so we have them all the way to the first frost.

I'm also growing a few other berries, Aronia, Pinapple strawberry, and several more varieties of gooseberries and service berry bushes.  I took cuttings in the Spring, and will multiply the berry bushes through propagation, that way we'll have more plants to get a good harvest from each berry variety. 

Berry bushes take a couple years to get into great production, but they will still produce a little even the first year, more the second year, and the third year on you will have a good harvest.  They should be one of the first fruits planted on a new homestead.  Be sure to add some compost every year, and  protect them from the deer, and you will have years of fresh organic fruit to eat, can and freeze.

flowers of early summer

 Peonies are one of my favorite all time flowers.

 Salsify blooms in the vegetable garden

Lizianthus is a wonderfully easy perennial.

 Oriental poppies are a bright splash of color

 Bearded iris is tropical looking.

Poppies, poppies everywhere, they are like a weed in my garden.

 I love them and let them grow in many places.

 I have loads of comfrey, and the bumblebees love them.

 I've had all my peonies since I was in my early 20's.

 Lavender smells divine, and the bees love it.

 Coral bells are small and dainty pink.

 Siberian iris's are exquisite.

Foxglove is a wildflower here in the NW, I don't plant it, it just comes up everywhere.  I have literally hundreds of them this time of year that are growing all over the property.

I took all or these pictures one day at the end of June, and have been wanting to share them.  I have some new flowers blooming out in the garden now, roses, delphiniums, nasturtiums and more.  I'll take more pic's as soon as the sun comes out, we've been having rainy cool days this week.  Many flowers like the rain and cool weather, and when the sun gets too hot many of them can't take it and wilt.  As the season progresses I will have more flowers blooming with the warm red and yellow colors.  The early season I have more pink and purple blooms.