March 25th 2024, Day one (more or less) of Garden. The man put up trellis for the pea vines and planted widely spaced peas intercropped with radishes and lettuce. I need to do one more (heavy, stony, difficult) round of work in the asparagus bed before the new roots come in the mail.

Photo from April 25th, one month in. The alternating hot and cold weather has held things back, but the peas, lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, onions, and potatoes are all well-started and ready to grow fast. Soon. We hope. The asparagus is starting to come up; I need to weed that area (behind the other veggies.) The anti-Nutmeg fence is also up.

Late May - two months! A lot of seeds planted May 4 did not germinate. We didn't have frost, but it was just too cool for them. However, plenty of things are up and doing well, and the parts that failed have been replanted. The potatoes front/right are looking very spunky!

June - 90 days out from our first planting in late March. There is SO much going on here. However, the heat wave and some unseasonal dryness may hold us back. It's pretty common for late July and August to be dry here, as we are in the 'rain shadow' of the higher mountains to the west of us. June, though, is a little early for that nonsense. We can water, but the plants never do as well irrigated as they do with actual rain.

I have my fingers crossed for my bed of purple carrots. The two beds of orange carrots, planted a month apart, seem to be doing well.

July 25: Peas, lettuce, and other spring crops are long gone (the lettuce is going to seed like crazy back by the woodshed). The potatoes have died back, and I dig them a little at a time just as I need them. The pole beans, peppers, and tomatoes are set to come on very strong, cabbages are harvested and sitting in the basement fridge, carrots are not doing very well. The sunflowers and other flowers are COVERED in bees and butterflies.

Well, I took the photo timely (fourth week of August) but I forgot to post it until now. Better late than never! Things are definitely winding down. The apparently bare space to the right of the pole bean jungle is actually full of potatoes. We only dig a few at a time during late summer and early fall. Once it get cold outside, we will dig the whole patch and store them in our unheated attic. I am going to do one more green bean canning project (probably tomorrow morning) and then let most of these vines go. They'll produce more beans, they will mature and dry on the vine, and we will pick them for dried beans in October. I am hoping that the recent rains will invigorate the pitiful carrots, and they'll mature before frost. Will the sweet potatoes produce anything? Stay tuned.

Elapsed time from March 25 to today: 160 days.

First Monday of August

Walked the doggos, and one spicy tabby cat. Picked green beans, dug just enough potatoes for tonight's dinner, ditto carrots and peppers, and weeded just a bit. Gearing up now to make a big batch of marinara sauce. I voluntold (something I rarely do - but he's been kinda nagging me about the dratted sauce) my husband to chop the bell peppers and onions for the sauce, while I focus on relentlessly seeding and pureeing tomatoes. Shoot. I need one beet.

Adding green pepper and onion to tomato recipes (marinara, salsa, etc) makes the color kinda muddy. A small pureed beet makes it REDDER very effectively.

Three hours later, the largest stock pot is Too Full, actually, and bubbling away. A quart each of chopped pepper and onion (I was on my own for that, my husband had to take Son to get blood work), 8+ quarts of tomato purée, large quantities of garlic & herbs, and a touch of olive oil. I just need to stir every few minutes until it cooks down. The jars are clean and in the oven to heat up. I need to bring the canner in from the back porch. Lids are counted and ready to heat in not-quite-boiling water.

It's possible that I will be able to make the trip to Lowes to buy a new washer this evening, but I'm uncertain. It's a semi-urgent project, for sure.

I have accomplished nearly nine quarts of tomato sauce. Most is canned, the rest will be stored in the fridge to use soon because there wasn't enough to make a second canner-load worthwhile. I may or may not be finished with sauce for the season, but still need to can tomatoes (plain) and maybe make chili sauce; that's always nice to have on hand. In any event, we're going to give the next two day's-worth of tomatoes away to friends, to give me a break.

First Monday of August

Walked the doggos, and one spicy tabby cat. Picked green beans, dug just enough potatoes for tonight's dinner, ditto carrots and peppers, and weeded just a bit. Gearing up now to make a big batch of marinara sauce. I voluntold (something I rarely do - but he's been kinda nagging me about the dratted sauce) my husband to chop the bell peppers and onions for the sauce, while I focus on relentlessly seeding and pureeing tomatoes. Shoot. I need one beet.

Adding green pepper and onion to tomato recipes (marinara, salsa, etc) makes the color kinda muddy. A small pureed beet makes it REDDER very effectively.

Three hours later, the largest stock pot is Too Full, actually, and bubbling away. A quart each of chopped pepper and onion (I was on my own for that, my husband had to take Son to get blood work), 8+ quarts of tomato purée, large quantities of garlic & herbs, and a touch of olive oil. I just need to stir every few minutes until it cooks down. The jars are clean and in the oven to heat up. I need to bring the canner in from the back porch. Lids are counted and ready to heat in not-quite-boiling water.

It's possible that I will be able to make the trip to Lowes to buy a new washer this evening, but I'm uncertain. It's a semi-urgent project, for sure.

March 25th 2024, Day one (more or less) of Garden. The man put up trellis for the pea vines and planted widely spaced peas intercropped with radishes and lettuce. I need to do one more (heavy, stony, difficult) round of work in the asparagus bed before the new roots come in the mail.

Photo from April 25th, one month in. The alternating hot and cold weather has held things back, but the peas, lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, onions, and potatoes are all well-started and ready to grow fast. Soon. We hope. The asparagus is starting to come up; I need to weed that area (behind the other veggies.) The anti-Nutmeg fence is also up.

Late May - two months! A lot of seeds planted May 4 did not germinate. We didn't have frost, but it was just too cool for them. However, plenty of things are up and doing well, and the parts that failed have been replanted. The potatoes front/right are looking very spunky!

June - 90 days out from our first planting in late March. There is SO much going on here. However, the heat wave and some unseasonal dryness may hold us back. It's pretty common for late July and August to be dry here, as we are in the 'rain shadow' of the higher mountains to the west of us. June, though, is a little early for that nonsense. We can water, but the plants never do as well irrigated as they do with actual rain.

I have my fingers crossed for my bed of purple carrots. The two beds of orange carrots, planted a month apart, seem to be doing well.

July 25: Peas, lettuce, and other spring crops are long gone (the lettuce is going to seed like crazy back by the woodshed). The potatoes have died back, and I dig them a little at a time just as I need them. The pole beans, peppers, and tomatoes are set to come on very strong, cabbages are harvested and sitting in the basement fridge, carrots are not doing very well. The sunflowers and other flowers are COVERED in bees and butterflies.

March 25th 2024, Day one (more or less) of Garden. The man put up trellis for the pea vines and planted widely spaced peas intercropped with radishes and lettuce. I need to do one more (heavy, stony, difficult) round of work in the asparagus bed before the new roots come in the mail.

Photo from April 25th, one month in. The alternating hot and cold weather has held things back, but the peas, lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, onions, and potatoes are all well-started and ready to grow fast. Soon. We hope. The asparagus is starting to come up; I need to weed that area (behind the other veggies.) The anti-Nutmeg fence is also up.

Late May - two months! A lot of seeds planted May 4 did not germinate. We didn't have frost, but it was just too cool for them. However, plenty of things are up and doing well, and the parts that failed have been replanted. The potatoes front/right are looking very spunky!

June - 90 days out from our first planting in late March. There is SO much going on here. However, the heat wave and some unseasonal dryness may hold us back. It's pretty common for late July and August to be dry here, as we are in the 'rain shadow' of the higher mountains to the west of us. June, though, is a little early for that nonsense. We can water, but the plants never do as well irrigated as they do with actual rain.

I have my fingers crossed for my bed of purple carrots. The two beds of orange carrots, planted a month apart, seem to be doing well.

March 25th 2024, Day one (more or less) of Garden. The man put up trellis for the pea vines and planted widely spaced peas intercropped with radishes and lettuce. I need to do one more (heavy, stony, difficult) round of work in the asparagus bed before the new roots come in the mail.

Photo from April 25th, one month in. The alternating hot and cold weather has held things back, but the peas, lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, onions, and potatoes are all well-started and ready to grow fast. Soon. We hope. The asparagus is starting to come up; I need to weed that area (behind the other veggies.) The anti-Nutmeg fence is also up.

Late May - two months! A lot of seeds planted May 4 did not germinate. We didn't have frost, but it was just too cool for them. However, plenty of things are up and doing well, and the parts that failed have been replanted. The potatoes front/right are looking very spunky!

March 25th 2024, Day one (more or less) of Garden. The man put up trellis for the pea vines and planted widely spaced peas intercropped with radishes and lettuce. I need to do one more (heavy, stony, difficult) round of work in the asparagus bed before the new roots come in the mail.

Photo from April 25th, one month in. The alternating hot and cold weather has held things back, but the peas, lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, onions, and potatoes are all well-started and ready to grow fast. Soon. We hope. The asparagus is starting to come up; I need to weed that area (behind the other veggies.) The anti-Nutmeg fence is also up.

Asparagus

Prior to trying to clean up the flower beds around the house, I had been working on the veggie garden and the asparagus bed  (asparagus is a perennial plant, so it doesn’t live in the main garden with the annuals). The recent rains have made weeding as easy as it can be - it is never easy, but much harder when the ground is hard and dry! With my daughter and husband off to a Cross Country race, I decided to have a determined, forceful morning ripping weeds and grasses out of the asparagus bed.    

   A couple hours later, I had removed two wheelbarrowloads of mess to dump on the new compost heap, gently untangled the gourd vines from everything they were grabbing, and managed to avoid damaging much of the asparagus. It should clearly be three times as dense as it is; I am hoping to replant in the spring and increase the number of plants quite a lot.

   I also picked more green beans (more canning on Monday. oh no) and a few last tomatoes and ears of corn. The beans, planted in late June, are just really kicking into gear. They ought to keep coming until frost. Three or four more weeks?

   I hope I didn’t overdo it to the point that I’m useless tomorrow. It can be very difficult to tell how much work is too much these days.

@gryphonrampant​  a couple of reasons. One, storage. While I do have plenty of freezer space, it’s not enough for home-butchered meat AND a whole garden’s worth of veg

Second is taste. I can’t abide canned corn, will only eat it frozen. Beans and tomatoes, though, keep a good, fresh taste much better canned than frozen, so I can them.

Third, convenience of serving. It’s quicker and easier when I’m throwing together dinner last-minute (and I do, sometimes) to have a can of heat-it-&-eat-it beans than a block of stubborn ice.