End of season
25 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in gardening
This year has been the most successful gardening season, in my five or six years as a gardener.
The past few years, I knew my gardening plot was way too big to be practical for us, so this year I insisted on M making it about half the size of previous years. It’s probably about 50′ x 30′. Still pretty big to me, but much more manageable; tiny compared to people of my grandparents’ generation.
With my SIL’s help, we kept the weeds down in the early part of the summer, before it became too hot to feel like doing much in the garden. The middle part of the summer was extremely dry (I think they only didn’t call it a drought to keep people from freaking out, due to the economy plus a poor farming season). M and I watered it a few times. I think we used fertilizer on it twice, but no pesticides.
My pumpkin plants all died from too little water, after producing small pumpkins. The zucchini, squash, tomatoes and cucumbers all did amazingly well this year, in spite of bugs and rabbits and deer helping themselves from time to time. The green beans and okra did all right, although the rabbits ate half of my green beans, and the bugs ate the second set of blooms off my okra. I gave all the green beans and okra to M’s aunt, as well as about half my tomatoes, because I only have so much time and energy available for canning veggies.
So, all told this year, I canned 12 quarts of whole tomatoes (sooo much work skinning those tomatoes!), 12 quarts of tomato juice (much easier), and about 6 gallon freezer bags of diced zucchini and squash. My garden is still producing tomatoes like crazy, and I think I will most likely freeze a few bags of whole tomatoes, enough to fill my chest freezer, and then give the rest of the tomatoes away. M’s aunt plans to keep canning as many as I can give her. I’m just happy all my extras aren’t going to waste- I usually plant about 48-60 tomato plants, assuming that a few will die, but this year, none of them died, plus I had several volunteer plants that came up.
My week off
23 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
Monday night, I mentally kicked myself for volunteering to help with VBS this summer. The first night was rough, since I had the preschool class all to myself, and 8 of them showed up that first night. Oh, and also I had no helper, since the helper that I brought along with me was pretty much consumed with keeping my own preschooler from wreaking havoc.
After the first night, I left my son home with daddy (’cause seriously, a non-verbal 2-year-old isn’t getting anything out of VBS, although he was doing a great job that first night of growing a chain of small children running wildly behind him as he ran laps in the sanctuary). VBS has gone much smoother now that my helper is actually available to help me with the other 6-7 kids. Oh, and also the fact that my daughter decided to give her own class a try after the first night, instead of clinging to my arm all night again. That helps too.
And you know something? I really like this little church. Before this week, my only experience, other than a random Sunday morning here and there, has been taking my daughter there for AWANA. For such a small church, there is a large core group of people who are really really involved in the children’s programs, and that’s really cool and kind of contagious. The money the kids are donating this week goes to the Red Cross to help tornado victims. I’ve been pretty down on church lately, to be honest, but this place is really growing on me.
As far as the rest of my week off, well, we haven’t done much. I visited my new family practice doc (and yikes, this guy is only a year or two older than me! Being the same age as my doctor makes me feel old!). We visited my grandma, and the kids got to play with all three of their older cousins that day. I bought groceries after VBS one night. I frantically cleaned the house yesterday morning, so that the DT wouldn’t have to see it at its nastiest.
I’m proud of myself for not making any sweeping pronouncements about how much I would accomplish this week. No resolutions to clean the entire house or anything crazy unrealistic like that. Those kinda things just never really work out. My only goals this week were to help with VBS, and to stay on top of my garden. I haven’t been able to do squat with my garden since late last week, since it has rained almost every day this week (isn’t that what always happens on vacation weeks?) I guess I’ll get the tiller out and pulverize all those weeds next week, since I have 6 days in a row coming to me then. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.
I’m liking this part-time schedule. I work only one more shift per month than I did as a per diem, only as a benefited employee, I get in on the self-scheduling thing, so I’m able to compress my workweek into two or three days and then have a long stretch off fairly often. Nice.
25 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in gardening
The big kids in the family are big enough to be genuinely helpful in the garden this year! One of them went down the rows sprinkling plant food, and the other waddled behind with the weight of the big watering can. They’re old enough now that I don’t have to worry about them chopping down my tomato plants with a plastic toy hoe. I hope they stay as interested in helping me all season long.
The garden: Notes for next year
11 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in gardening
Gardening season is winding down.
As usual, my garden is a mess of weeds at this point. Last year, it was like this due to my having a 2-month-old. This year, it looks this way because 1) I worked A LOT more than I had originally anticipated and 2) I have a 15-month-old who wants to run to his great-aunt’s house next door at every opportunity, and thus I cannot garden without someone to watch him for me.
I planted 60+ tomato plants this year, anticipating that a few of them would die like last year. Yeah, no. They all survived, which is great, but wow, holy tomato, batman! Most of my tomatoes, I have given to my SIL to juice. I still have 31 quarts of whole tomatoes canned from last year, so I’m not too concerned with running out, and plus, spending hours over a hot stove is just about impossible with two little ones needing my attention, and needing clean clothes to wear and food to eat at reasonable intervals. 
I did finally can some of my tomatoes last night, by turning them into salsa with one of those Mrs Wage mixes. I added a lot more tomatoes than it calls for, and some green peppers out of the garden and onions. I ended up getting nearly 10 pints for my evening’s work. Now I can dispose of that cinnamon salsa that I made last year and didn’t touch all winter long. Yuck.
**Memos to myself for next year**
-Continue making the 40-minute drive to Coopers Hardware Store every year for my plants! Very high quality and healthy; none of them died off this year.
-Smaller garden (2/3 current size).
~45 tomato plants rather than 60+.
-About the same amount of cucumbers (~10 plants)
-Same amount of zucchini and yellow squash (4-5 plants each)
-More beans- I only managed to get about 6 quarts put up this year, and it was only due to not planting enough. Maybe two full rows next year. These kind were awesome and produced like crazy- I think they were blue lake beans, but I’m not sure since the dog ripped up all my garden seed packets that I had carefully staked at the front of each row.
-Plant corn and beans more thickly! I barely got any corn to even come up, because I planted it too sparsely.
-Don’t even bother with carrots next year- I never keep them up.
- Maybe add sweet potatoes and white potatoes, garlic and onions next year.
-Sunflowers!
-Buy some bulbs and some Cosmo seeds this fall to plant near the road!
28 Jun 2010 Leave a Comment
in gardening
Today I am scheduled to work 6 hours, then I have three full days at home. I have high hopes for that actually being 4 days, since the unit that I am scheduled to work in was closed as of yesterday.
Oh, and also? Both my kids went to bed by 9 pm last night. This is normal for the baby, but mega early for my 4-year-old. Which means that I had over 8 total hours of sleep last night (not counting the interruptions for the night-waking toddler of course). How awesome is that?! Ha, I remember when I used to complain bitterly any time that I had less than 7 hours of sleep. I only hope that I never made those complaints in front of any sleep deprived parents! Two nights ago, I had 6 hours uninterrupted- I went to bed at 10 pm, and when I got up at 4 am for work, the baby was still in his crib! I felt incredibly rested considering what an early hour it was.
I need to pick the lettuce out of my garden before it turns bitter.I love fresh lettuce, but I’ve hardly eaten any of it yet this year.
Note to self: next year, do not allow whoever tills my garden to till the entire area! Every year I ask for it to be smaller, but they never listen! It is twice as big as I need or can even remotely hope to manage, especially since my husband is not interested in gardening at all. Since I’m pretty much on my own with it, I need a much smaller space. Next time, I also need to plant the seed (especially the corn and beans) a lot more thickly, and some things, like lettuce, I will probably just plant in small squares instead of in rows. Maybe I will try some fall cabbage this year too. And asparagus.
17 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
in family, gardening, homeschool, work
*Transplanted 8 strawberry plants today from SIL’s garden into my flower bed; she was originally going to till over them, since she didn’t like their placement, but changed her mind after I had already transplanted the plants. She still has over a dozen, so she isn’t looking to steal them back.
*I feel less like an undercover agent at work these days than I have in a long time. Within the past few weeks, I have met one nurse who breastfed each of her children for 3 to 5 years, another who had 2 of her children at home with midwives. Nevertheless, I’m still keeping the fact that my son was born underwater and that both my kids were born in a freestanding birth center on the down low in my new department. I don’t want to be stereotyped as a hippie freak before I get established in the department. After that point, I’m thinking I can let my freak flag fly, much moreso than in my other department (where I rarely work anymore). These mother/baby department nurses, for the most part, definitely run more on the crunchy spectrum than the nurses downstairs, that’s for sure. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but I feel so much more at home in this new place than in the other place, despite having worked there for over 2 years. I think I just fit in better with the other nurses. Of course, it makes sense that similar types of people would be drawn to certain departments. I feel like everything is sort of coming together for me at last, work-wise.
*I will be off orientation in a few weeks, which I know will be nerve-racking at first, as it always is. It is nice to look at my schedule for the summer months and see a maximum of 24 hours per week, and several weeks with no work scheduled at all. Woo-hoo, freedom!
*I am thinking about starting some more focused homeschooling with my daughter this summer, as my work schedule tends to be so much lighter in the summer months. We are also looking forward to camping, possibly just me and the kids with my parents if my husband is unable to take any time off work. His work seems to be picking up, which is certainly a good thing, given how grim it was in January through March.
*Also- yay spring!
Can can (can)
24 Aug 2009 Leave a Comment
in gardening, God is love
I am drowning in produce from my garden. This year, thus far, I have canned:
14 quarts dill cucumber spears (turned out well)
12 quarts dill cucumber coins (these don’t count though since they turned out disgustingly mushy- no wonder all the recipes say spears. Now I know.)
24 quarts of tomatoes- and many, many more ripening on my porch and in my garden
7 pints of salsa
I have frozen bags and bags of shredded zucchini, knowing that I probably won’t use it all but didn’t want the guilt of just letting it go to waste without at least trying to use it. And this week alone, I have given away 3 or 4 big bags of ripe tomatoes, because I want to put off having to can more of them, since canning as a mom of two little ones always involves staying up into the wee hours of the morning. Canning while the kids are awake doesn’t work.
I also have a bucket of green beans in my kitchen, which I will probably just blanch and freeze. I picked them from my sis-in-law’s garden today; she is so tired of all the preserving that she told me to just take whatever I wanted out of her garden, because she is done with picking beans. She also has some lovely green peppers that I was told to help myself to however many I wanted. They are so pretty and shiny, not all dull and bruised looking like the ones you buy at the store; I just want to paint a picture of them. Maybe I will.
I realize that canning tomatoes probable doesn’t save me all that much money, when you add in the cost of electricity (or maybe it does- I never added it up), but home-grown tomatoes taste so much better than store-bought, and I love being able to eat them all winter long. Tomatoes are my absolute favorite food in the whole wide world. It’s been nice this year, having so many extra that I can just give them away and still have plenty for my own family’s needs. I like that feeling of generosity- I should give things away more often.
I have gardened almost every year for the past ten years, but this has been my first year having a big garden that I actually kept up with for most of the season. It was planted a couple weeks too late, due to having my son in early May, but considering the circumstances, I think I did really well with it this year. The cabbage, peas, and beans all crapped out due to being planted too late, but the cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins, and tomatoes all did crazy good. I got a whopping ten ears of corn, but that’s no surprise, since I never have much luck growing corn. Next year maybe I will try growing the type that my sis-in-law planted- Silver Queen. She has had tons and tons of really nice looking ears off her plants.
Time for bed- I am not canning anything tonight, so I need to catch up on my sleep!
Cucumbers
29 Jun 2009 Leave a Comment
in gardening
My sister-in-law has been saying that she has more cucumbers than she can eat and I told her to send some my way. So last night I found this bucket in my kitchen when I came home from visiting the neighbors.
Cucumbers
Hmm… don’t think I can eat fifty-some cucumbers all by myself – I’m the only one in the house who will eat green things that don’t come out of a can. Guess I need to expand my canning skills from just tomatoes and salsa, and learn how to make pickles this week. Good thing I’ve got plenty of jars and lids, because her cucumbers are still producing like crazy, and mine are on track to start producing about the time hers are done. I planted my garden a few weeks later than she did, due to the whole having-a-baby-the-first-week-of-May thing.
Garden
This was my garden last week. All the plants are twice as big now, after all the rain we’ve had. I’ve been really happy with being able to keep up with it this year, beyond just planting it and then letting the weeds take over like I normally do. Funny how I have more energy for these things now, with a newborn and preschooler in the house, than I did when working full-time the past few years, with only one child around . My husband’s grandpa, who at age 85 still works in his garden every day, gave me the ultimate compliment when he told me my garden looked better than his this year. Maybe it’s not a huge compliment- his garden isn’t immaculate this year the way it normally is since he’s slowing down a bit, but I’ll take what I can get.
I planted cucumbers, zucchini, corn, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, peas, and beans. I’m not surprised that the lettuce, cabbage, and peas aren’t doing too well, since I planted them so late. My main focus, as always, is the tomatoes. Tomatoes are my obsession. I planted 66 tomato plants this year, and I am hoping that I get a quart out of each plant, which is what I learned to expect in years past, with much weedier, buggier gardens. Every dry evening, I hand the baby over to my mother-in-law, and hoe the garden for half an hour or so, until the sweat is dripping off my nose. So far. this is about the only postpartum exercise I’ve been getting, but I’m thinking it definitely counts as “aerobic activity”.
Gardening and CSA share
23 Jul 2008 Leave a Comment
in gardening
So, this summer we have been participating in a local CSA. I suspected in the fall, when I paid up for the 25 weeks of fresh veggies, that this would force me to eat healthier. And it has. I actually crave fresh vegetables now, something that I have never really done in the past. I have been introduced to some crazy stuff like kohlrabi, and even figured out how to cook it (when in doubt, stir fry). I confess that a few times I had to google for vegetable images, because I wasn’t quite sure what that pale, alien-looking vegetable in my food box was.
Will I pay for a CSA share for next year? Nah, probably not. While I feel like I have learned a lot about eating seasonally already, I feel like the CSA share has given me the confidence to learn how to cook what is available, rather than what sounds good at the moment. Does that make sense? Tonight I made slow-cooker cabbage and apples, after doing a web search for cabbage recipes that included ingredients we already had sitting around in the kitchen. This is the first time in my life to cook cabbage, and it turned out yummy, if I say so myself (which I must, since everyone else was too chicken to try it).
Also, this year we put out a huge (for us) garden. Not huge by our grandparents’ standards, of course, but we’re still learning. The garden, while very weedy at this point, hasn’t been a total flop as in years past. I believe this is our 6th attempt at gardening. In years past, my sole concern was getting enough tomatoes canned to last me through the winter, as I am a tomato-holic. This year, we planted:
Peas: picked enough to fill a medium size bowl. That’s all. Must learn more about making peas happy.
Green beans: First year we have had any measure of success with these- yay, since we both love green beans! My sis-in-law picked enough from my garden today to cook up a large pot, and still had a large bucket of beans for me to process. Having bean plants produce more than a few stragglers is super exciting for me.
Corn: Wow, the corn. It is up to my height now, with normal size ears (not waist high with deformed midget ears, as in all our previous attempts). Unfortunately, our dog Mojo is slacking on the keeping away raccoons front. I am hoping they don’t steal all the ears before they are ready to eat.
Lettuce: I turned over a new leaf with lettuce this spring (yes, pun fully intended) – I actually started to like it! I have never been the salad type, because I always found lettuce to be too bitter. This spring I discovered that when you pick the lettuce early out of your own garden, it’s not bitter at all, and it practically melts in your mouth. Honestly, I am a little frustrated that I haven’t lost any weight this summer, considering all the meals that I have replaced with salads. Yum.
Spinach: It dried up and died a horrible, crinkly death before I could do anything with it. I think I planted it too late.
Pepper plants: I planted four. They sort of stayed the same size, and just grew a crazy amount of leaves and a few peppers here and there. I will have to read up on making these happy too.
Potato plants: I threw in a few potato eyes in the blank spots between rows. They flourished, and then the weeds killed them.
Onions, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, yellow squash: all very happy amongst their weed friends, and yet to be eaten, other than a few fried green tomatoes.
Things I will do different next year: Definitely going to try my hand at planting cabbage and broccoli. Probably not going to bother with peas again. They hate me. This fall, I will try to remember to pay for a truckload or two of manure from a local farmer, because I suspect that the soil in this spot isn’t super great and needs some boosting. Next spring, I hope to have the time and energy to plan the garden better, and to keep the weeds down enough that they don’t kill innocent vegetables. I will mark the rows already planted, so I don’t end up with a huge, guilt-inducing blank space between the turnip greens and the viney plants.
While my (and M’s) attempts at keeping up with the garden make his grandpa laugh at us, I am feeling confident enough in the gardening thing to forgo the CSA share for next year, and leave it to someone who doesn’t have the luxury of having land to grow their own veggies, as we do.
