The Victory Garden: How does your garden grow?

The summer days are quickly passing me by and yet on these hot July days it seems as if there will be no end to it. Being at the halfway point I thought I'd update you on my garden. I have only harvested some herbs and arugula but it's coming on like gangbusters despite my late planting schedule and lack of rain. My preference is rain water for my garden but that is not in the forecast. I did acquire a rain barrel but we would need some rain to fill it first. The potato plants are coming along nicely, and we have only found one potato bug on them this year!

This quadrant contains arugula, potatoes, basil, chives, and sunflowers.

 I have followed my garden design but some plants appeared and disappeared on their own. For instance these huge pumpkin plants showed up by themselves and when the were small it was hard to differentiate them from zucchini plants. Sure now it's obvious! I have been trimming them regularly so as not to loose my beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Please sign the list if you would like a pie pumpkin this fall!

The two east quadrants contain tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and pumpkins.

Cilantro is randomly sprinkled through out my garden too.
My cucumbers are behind but my neighbors usually ask me to take some off their hands once they are sick of pickling. I gladly oblige them.
My lavender is blooming and smells heavenly...think I'll slip some in my pillowcase tonight. My brother gave me the lavender and some rosemary, thanks little brother!

The last quadrant contains lavender, rosemary, zucchini, and more pumpkins.

The middle of my garden has some eucalyptus and flowers such as stock.
I only purchased two varieties of tomatoes this year and had lots of returning plants. I did sprinkle cornmeal around the base in hopes of warding off blight. It's probably time to give them a second round.

Trying to keep the pumpkin vines at bay so my wax beans can flourish.

Weeding has slowed down but there are plenty of other to do's. The tomatoes will need to be tied up with nylons and there is still the business of making a fence for my cucumbers to climb up. No wonder summer flies by, the garden keeps you busy. Taking stock I would have to say I am disappointed that none of my jalapeno pepper seeds came up, but I prefer the grass paths over mulch paths. Much softer on the feet!
 Although I do not have enough space to plant enough for preserving, it is gratifying to be able to feed my family from our back yard. Now that's local!

The Victory Garden

There is a certain comfort in working the earth. The Amish believe it brings you closer to God. At the very least I think it brings you closer to your spirit. Simple things in life like fresh laundry on the line, grass in your toes and gardening can be very sweet. Not since WWII has there been such a trend in gardening to save money. Some gardeners have even quantified the savings.
There is a great debate about when to start your garden. Some gardeners swear by planting after Memorial Day, so as to avoid the frost. This year's weather proved that theory wrong. I planted my garden on Memorial Day and thankfully my garden is in a warm spot tucked between houses so it escaped the late spring frosts. First, I recruited professional help for my design. I am the first to admit that I am clueless about what plants do better in sun, shade, my zone, etc. A Spark o Life sent me a beautiful design with my wish list of plants and veggies.

Ready to grow! My garden is an 18' diameter circle.

This year I will venture to try cucumbers and train them up a fence! I will keep you updated on that venture.  What will go in my victory garden this year? Well I have tomatoes, potatoes, jalapenos, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, cut flowers, and various herbs. While I could do a whole garden of exclusively herbs my family does prefer some other fresh veggies.

This year, for my son, I decided to grow cut flowers.

Off to a dry start, I did lose one of my herbs (although I do still hold out hope for it) and had to buy a replacement. Everything seems to be going well with some sprinkler treatments.

Although he got a new shovel and hoe this year, he favors the shovel.

Trying to keep the weeds at bay might prove difficult with my busy schedule but I will try my best!
At the very least I know my children LOVE helping me in the garden and are learning valuable life lessons.

He could have dug holes all day.
He did a great job of planting and "pulling the covers up
tight and tucking them in" as my grandmother would say.

My youngest, who seems to have a deep affinity for gardening, asks me how I know so much about gardening. My reply is, "I learned from helping your great-grandmother in her garden." My grandparents instilled so much valuable knowledge in me with their garden. It is wisdom I will always cherish.

Not unlike my children it is truly amazing how the garden grows.

 Even if I do not garden to the extent of my grandparents, I can appreciate my little garden. After all every little bit helps. "Food fights for Freedom!"

Happy gardening, Victory Girls!

Are you old enough?

Do you ever see those trivia posts in your newsfeed on facebook with a caption reading "Hit like if you are old enough to know what this is!"  And the photo is of an aluminum ice cube tray with the divider inside that has to be manually cracked apart.  Does knowing what that is really make me old, or just old-fashioned?  Well, I'm stealing that idea.

So are you old enough to know what this is?

I found this in the dark recesses of my china cabinet.  The only other person I know who has one is my mother.  In fact this one most likely came from her house.  She probably has four or five, but she uses them on her desk as pencil holders.  She would lose this game. 

I'm sure there are many of you who are talking at your monitor right now.  "It's a frog.  Ga-duh."  Yes, a glass flower frog.  Now what I really am curious to know...do any of you actually use them?

My daughter had a bouquet of flowers from her First Communion that had started to fade.  I thought maybe this method might eek a little more life out of them.  I found a shallow bowl in the same above-mentioned china cabinet (as a wedding gift, my Godmother gave me a gorgeous blue hobnail set - bowl, large cake plate and bride's basket - I use them as much as possible!).  After cutting the stems to 3-4" in length, I tucked them into the holes and filled in the arrangement.

This took just a few minutes and looks great.  I may have to use this frog more often now.  Peonies are just starting to bloom...

Enjoy your Springtime, Everyone!

linked up to the Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop

The last of the year's preserving

I really don't know where October went. I just remember summer, in fact I just put the kids slip-n-slide away this week. Wow! I have been busy! So it was to my surprise that my parsley was still green and fresh, despite the hard frosts in the garden. I harvested what I hope to be a full winter's supply.

Plenty of parsley left in the garden

I chopped most of it fine in my food processor with a little olive oil and pressed it into an ice cube tray to freeze. This will be great for winter's meals.The rest  was for parsley jelly. I know, it sounds intriguing, no? Okay maybe not to some but I'm convinced that if you add enough sugar to anything it will taste good. Upon reading this recipe I wondered, what do you eat parsley jelly with? Suggestions were the usual, toast, breads, etc. but there was also a suggestion of meat. Hhhmmm....

So the recipe is pretty simple and you can find several variations on the web. Soaking the parsley in boiling water and then using the strained liquid is the first step. Then adding your sure-jell and sweetener is next. I did use a bit of green food coloring since the liquid is a very faint green.

My boiling green jelly

 Freezing this batch appealed to me since canning would require dragging my canner out, washing jars, heating water, and clean up. Who has time for all that?



The "fruit" of my labor.



Tonight's dinner was shredded BBQ beef, garlic ciabatta bread, and peas. I decided to be brave and try my jelly on my bread with the beef on top AND.........

It was really good!

In my mouth was a sweet and savory flavor burst (my favorite) with the freshness of the parsley cutting through. It is not overly strong but rather a nice compliment to the meat. Test batch passed, so I will be stocking up on english muffins. I always enjoy discovering something new and tasty, especially one that makes use of an overabundance. Now to put away the last of my canning supplies, crack open the canned jewels from summer, and roll out the winter projects.

Cleaning out the Garden

With the last of the veggies brought in (except for those carrots that we like to ignore), it's time to face the inevitable . . . cleaning out the dead plants.  Ironically I enjoy this job during the summer.  There seems nothing quite so satisfying as ripping out green bean vines.  This is, of course, only after I've frozen umpteen quart bags of the little buggers and if someone so much as mentions the word "bean," my head may split open. 

But now we must clean up the garden in earnest.  Dead plants, cages, poles, it all needs to be dealt with.  Here are a few things to consider when your garden looks like mine.

1. Some things can be left in the garden.  Any plants that have seeds or berries can be left as bird food for the winter months.  Sunflowers, purple coneflowers and black-eyed susans are great ones to ignore for a good cause.

2. Leave some hiding spots.  Some spiders and beetles rely on dead ground cover in which to winter over. Give them a hand this winter and they'll be great additions to the kids' bug collection next Spring!

3. Clean out the blight.  Be sure to remove all plants that had blight or decay over the growing months.  Spores can survive over the winter only to rear their ugly heads again next year.

4. Remove the infrastructure.  All tomato cages and bean poles should also be removed.  If you're feeling really tidy, these may be wiped down with a bleach and water solution to kill any disease.

5. Cover the garden with organic matter.  Use the grass clippings from that blessed last lawn mowing, add dry leaves, mix in kitchen compost, sweet talk your local farmer into giving you some manure and spread it on thick!  Everything will naturally break down under the snow and be ready to till next spring.

Old caned-seat chairs make great peony cages!

6. Perennials can be divided now.  Peonys, irises, daylilies and hostas that have outgrown their allotted space can safely be split and will fill out nicely next year. 

7. Test your soil.  If your veggies and flowers left you less than impressed this year, now is a perfect time to test your soil and make adjustments.

8.  Plan for next year. Take notes and draw pictures to help with next year's layout.  Leave markers if you've added new plants that may be mistaken for weeds.  Each Spring I weed out numerous flowers in my over-zealous attempt to start the year out weed-free!  Plant bulbs now and make sure those are noted as well.

The cool weather always inspires me to button up the outdoor projects and return indoors for an extra cup of coffee.  Let the rototiller rest.  Leave the rakes and hoes collect dust.  And watch the mailbox in anticipation of the bright seed catalogs that'll be here by January!

Symco Shakedown 2011

This years Symco Shakedown was the best yet! It went better all around, the weather was nice, camping was fun, the bands were great and the pin up contest was a blast! This year I planned a little better too. The kids came with us camping Thursday night then went to Grandma's for the other half of the weekend. Sometimes it's just too much for the little ones, as we found out last year when our youngest got sick.  Also we get to dance to the bands at night with out them, you know that fun stuff you used to do before kids? If you haven't found out yet I didn't make it in the pin up contest. Three very lovely gals got into the top three, and nine more into the calendar. The contest flew by pretty fast as nerves will do that to you, but I still had lots of fun and met lots of new great gals!

Strikng a pose with my cute goodie bag post show.

But alas all good things come to an end. We packed it up Sunday morning, said good-bye to our friends, and headed home. As much as wish I could live at Symco Shakedown, I can't, so it's back to my reality.

Today's picking from the garden.

Right now that means harvesting and preserving food from the garden, back to school shopping, and all the other general housewife duties. The red manicure is already chipped. However, it will be great to pop some fresh basil into my pasta from my garden not the store, or eat some sweet corn in the middle of winter. I think the rewards out weigh the labor. I am trying to take it all in before fall is here. If I look back at how much my life has changed since the last Shakedown it is pretty astounding, I have made new friends that enjoy the retro lifestyle, learned how to dance, tried lots of new recipes, and got back into sewing. All in all, not bad. I wonder what's in store for the next Symco Shakedown? I don't know, but I can't wait.

Fending off the Critters

This year you vowed your garden would be the envy of all your neighbors.  So you've tilled, composted, tilled, mulched, tilled, planted, weeded and finally the seeds have sprouted.  Ah, to see the fruits of your labor!  Well, you won't if the darn rabbits and deer see those fruits first!

Newly sprouted vegetables are the most delectable niblets for the wildlife living just past the edge of your lawn.  They know where to look.  They know when to nibble.  They know to be gone by morning.  So here's a few household suggestions to keep them at bay.

Take all those little hotel soaps that you've collected and hang them around your garden.  Sprinkle the hair you've just trimmed off Junior's mullet.  Spray your old perfumes and colognes along the garden edges.  Hang tin pie plates on posts to rattle in the wind.  All of these will dissuade deer from stepping foot near your sprouts. 

If you'd like to get creative in the kitchen, mix four eggs, two ounces of red pepper sauce, and two ounces of minced garlic in one quart of water.  Stir well and let sit for one hour.  Strain off the liquid and spray on plants.  This concoction works well, but needs to be re-applied after a rain.

If you're more concerned about bugs then critters, try sinking a small container into the ground near your plants.  Fill the bottom inch with beer.  Slugs and bugs will climb into the beer trap and not be able to climb back out again.  Seems there's an analogy I could make here, but I'll press on.

Finally, we couldn't talk about home remedies without talking about vinegar!  Vinegar is very acetic and can be used as an herbicide.  Use it full strength but be sure to spray only the weeds.  Plants will turn brown and die within two days. 

So go out there and defend what's your's!  Your root cellar is depending on you!