What’s Happening in the Garden–September 26

I’m a little bit behind on my What’s Happening update.  Soccer, dance and golf (and school) are our main focus right now. Garden time is precious, as is blogging time.   Blogging makes me motivated to get things done out there. Right now I’m wishing I’d gotten fall veggies in. I missed the window, but this is life with a large busy family. I really try to take one thing at a time and enjoy it all!

Anyway, out to the garden we go!!

Bye-bye Black-eyed Susan! These will need to be cut back soon. If anyone who lives nearby would like some please let me know. They need to be divided.

We are still enjoying the zinnias! and that poor window box needs some attention. It gets lots of sun so if we miss a watering it suffers  a lot. 

There are still some peppers coming along. Just a few every few days, but we enjoy them.

Mesclun! Love, love, love this!

And the tomatoes are still producing too. I’m watching the frost predictions, we should be okay for a few more weeks. I guess I could bring them in but I don’t really have room and I like when they ripen on the vine.

Hello chickens! This one is cute but she’s a little bit aggressive for a buff orphington.

They really love the dust bath?

I don’t get it, but it’s fun to watch.

I would prefer this nice soft nest if I were them.

Lupines for next year! My neighbors Becky and Mags brought these over and I plopped them in. I’m looking forward to blooms next June. They are gorgeous over in their yard.

And this whole area needs to be dug out and reconfigured. Michael and I keep talking about it. This side of the yard makes me edgy because every time I set foot in here I find a snake. I hate snakes. For some reason I think I won’t see them just across the yard in the fenced in “garden”.. That chrysanthemum really popped out when the tree that used to be to it’s left was taken out in the spring.  Good light means everything.

This Japanese Maple tree came from Mrs Landi’s yard. Mrs Landi is a very dear friend of my Mom’s. I’ve had it in this pot for several years because I can’t decide where to plant it. It’s looking a bit weather worn right now but it actually does very well like this. When it gets colder we’ll put it in the garage for the winter and just water it a little bit. Next spring it will be back and beautiful again. Someday I may plant it but I like to move it around and I enjoy it so much in the pot.

This is a stream of consciousness post if ever there was one!

Please leave me a comment so I know you were here. I keep seeing all the views and wondering who is actually reading this..

Off to clean, cook and take kids places!

Thanks for stopping by! Love,  Michele

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Potato Day!!!

The moment you’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived!

Yesterday we harvested our pot of potatoes!

We had a few friends visiting after school who helped out.

Here comes the wheelbarrow.

The team lifted up the pot and dumped it in!

Success!!

We found  the pottery and rocks that we’d put in for drainage.

And here they go, a treasure hunt for potatoes…the kids loved this!

We were all quite surprised to find potatoes in there!

Everyone found a few..

Here’s our little harvest. Next summer we’re planning to plant several pots, start toward the bottom third of each pot and gradually add soil as the plants grow. We did a little bit of that but probably not enough.  For this year, we were just excited to see that we grew potatoes!

 After we’d removed potatoes and pottery the girls spent about twenty minutes digging around in the dirt and admiring the amazing bugs that they found. That made my day!

This is what gardening with children is all about!

What’s Happening in the Garden

It’s always fun to return after a good amount of time away from the garden to see the changes.

Here’s what we came home to this week after our twelve day road trip.

Our pot of potatoes took off!

The bee balm had bloomed

along with the lavender

.

The cucumbers had come along nicely.

Maybe this will be a good year for cucumbers since I only planted a few?

The carrots needed  weeding and thinning asap.

There were plenty of peas for the 4th..

Did you know that in the state of Maine salmon and peas is the traditional Fourth of July dinner?

It was time to pinch back the basil!

And the zucchini had done it’s thing

along with the Roma tomatoes!

It really felt like magic to come back to this.

What are you growing?

How are things in your garden?

Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

Michele

Sweet Peas, Veggies and Herbs!

First of all, thank you, thank you for all of your wonderful suggestions yesterday about what to do with the Green Monster! I’m newly energized and I’m  working hard on pulling that area together. I was feeling quite overwhelmed before I asked for your help.  Hopefully I’ll be able to share a photo of our progress soon. It’s such a shady, private spot. I love to sit there for a minute first thing in the morning or when we take a break during the day. It’s going to be a little oasis in our oasis.

Here’s an update on how things are going out in the garden this week:

The sweet peas are almost ready!

Here’s a beautiful post about sweet peas that  AmySue at A Healthy Life for Me wrote last week

http://ahealthylifeforme.com/2012/06/05/peas-peas-everywhere/

Her recipes and photos are wonderful!

The basil and tomatoes are coming along (notice that the bunny food/poop grass is still trying to surface). I decided to try  salt marsh hay as mulch this year to retain moisture and keep weeds and wilt away. We’ll see how it goes. I’d better get cages around those tomato plants soon.

I planted  few red cabbage plants in this  extra space and we’re enjoying the lettuce. Better get it while we can because lettuce is happiest in cool weather, once it gets hot it will bolt and be gone! The zucchini has settled in nicely and I planted a treat just beyond the lettuce… zinnias to cut and enjoy in August

Lemon balm, thyme and lavender…

And here’s our first purple coneflower blossom of the season! There will be many more to come..

It’s very rainy here  but it’s supposed to clear up over the next few days. Perfect weather for growing everything!

Thanks for stopping!

Enjoy Everything today!

Michele