Category Archives: garlic

Garden Goodness

Apple Trees, Apples, Bees, Fermenting, Flowers, garden, garlic, Hibiscus, Peach Tree, Pollinators, Reflections, Sauerkraut, Sunflowers, The Farm, Tomatoes, , , ,

Hello and welcome. Despite having very dry weather, and doing our best to keep things watered, our gardens have flourished.

Blooming Beauties

Right now our hibiscus bushes are the star of the show.

Their large, showy flowers are stunning.

I don’t like to play favorites, but if I had to pick a favorite flower, it would probably be the hibiscus.

This hibiscus that I planted three years ago on my mom’s birthday was just beginning to open on Sunday, August 10, which would have been my mom’s 80th birthday.

Today it was in full bloom. 🙂

Several weeks ago we decided that we needed to rework the memorial garden the we planted this spring. This garden memorializes our parents who have all passed away. The beautiful lupine plants that were planted on either side of the rock were struggling, apparently not getting enough sun. My husband dug them up and planted them in the very sunny prayer garden and they have since developed new growth.

On Saturday, August 9, I visited my sister who wanted to thin her flower beds. My husband and I decided the shade loving hostas would do well in the memorial garden. My sister had just what we were looking for. She was very generous, selecting the large beautiful plants, instead of the ones the deer had eaten. The two light green hostas were one that my husband split before planting. I also brought home a lungwort plant that my husband split and planted (the dark green wilted plants). It looks sad after being transplanted but I read that it will develop new growth and should be fine.

Veggies

Our garden situation is changing daily and some of these photos are about two weeks old. I’ve just fallen behind in my blogging.

The honeybees that moved into our empty hive seem to be doing well.

Bees love squash and pumpkin blossoms.

And this is what can happen when a pumpkin or squash blossom is pollinated. 🙂

A basket of fresh garden goodness. My husband has been bringing home this basket full of veggies every day.

Eggplant, sweet corn, beets, green beans, tomatoes, banana peppers and cucumber were the haul on that day. Many of these vegetables are being eaten fresh. Others are being canned or frozen.

I made four pints of dill relish last week.

On Wednesday my husband and I made a trip to the orchard so I could can some peaches. On Thursday I canned 23 pints of peaches and had a dozen left over for eating fresh. Sunday, I made peach cobbler with five of the fresh ones.

One of our peach trees produced two peaches.

One for my husband and one for me. They were perfectly ripe when I picked them yesterday and so delicious. The orchard peaches, that were picked before they were ripe, were not as sweet as these.

They are not ready yet, but it looks like we will have a great apple crop.

The other thing the bees are enjoying right now are the sunflowers.

But who doesn’t love sunflowers.

This week’s projects include canning tomato juice (I did 6 quarts yesterday), making sauerkraut (I started it fermenting today), and cleaning garlic (tomorrow or Thursday).

Thanks for visiting.

Our Garden Dinner

garden, garlic, Green Beans, potatoes, Reflections, Swiss Chard

Thursday we decided to grill up a steak for dinner. It would be delicious with some fresh-from-the-garden veggies.

So we dug up some potatoes.

We picked some Swiss chard. (We like to pick it when it is young and tender.)

And we picked green beans.

I sauteed the Swiss chard in olive oil with minced (freshly dug) garlic. I boiled the potatoes and steamed the green beans, and both were topped with garlic butter.

It was a delicious meal. Such a blessing!

Do you have a favorite fresh-from-the -garden dish?

Thanks for visiting.

As May Comes to a Close

Chives, Forsythia, garden, garlic, Lilacs, Peach Tree, Reflections, Strawberries, The Farm

Hello and welcome.

As May comes to a close,

the garden is planted,

the garlic is doing well,

as is the strawberry patch. There are a lot of blossoms, some beginning to turn into berries. We should have strawberries in a week or two. YUM!

The salvia is blossoming,

as is the thyme,

and the chives. Did you know chive blossoms are edible? Learn more here.

The peach trees have many small peaches. too many for this young tree to support. I read that the fruit should be thinned, leaving only one peach every 6 to 8 inches. This will be done soon.

I spent some time over the last two days pruning some of our forsythia and lilac bushes. When we planted the peach trees we put them on the berm where the lilacs and forsythia are. We wanted them on higher ground since the last few years had been extremely wet and we didn’t want them to drown.

I pruned down the lilacs and forsythia that are near the peach trees so the trees will have enough air flow and sunlight.

With hot weather in the forecast early this week we will need to get the pump in the pond so that we are ready to water to gardens if we don’t get enough rain. My husband claims it is my turn to put the pump in the pond so I’ll be sure to take some pictures so I can show you how we use pond water to irrigate our crops.

Thanks for visiting and Happy June. 😀

A February Walk at the Farm

Chickens, Dogs, Eggs, garlic, Horses, Pond, Reflections, The Farm

Hello and welcome.

We been having some nice weather this week so I thought maybe you might join me for a walk at the farm.

One of the first things you might notice is that our neighbor to the east, who has horses, extended their corral. The fence that my husband put up last spring is their barrier to the west, so they come right up to our property line. For the first couple of weeks Ruby and ranger would go over and bark at them, probably thinking they were doing something they shouldn’t. But Ruby and Ranger have since gotten use to them being so close and while Ruby and Bernard might touch noses through the fence, she no longer has an issue with them being there.

Ruby greets Bernard and Colby Jack

My husband said that every morning when he goes to open up the chicken coop Bernard and Colby Jack greet him at the fence. He likes to have a couple of carrots or other treats for them.

Bernard

They are very friendly horses, especially when there are treats to be had.

Colby Jack

The chickens out enjoying the nice weather. The hens started laying more eggs this week. For several weeks we have only been getting between zero and two eggs a day, but in the last four days we have collected 18 eggs.

Rex, our rooster, is one of the chicks that we got last spring. Unlike roosters we have had in the past he not aggressive toward people or the dogs. It’s nice not to worry about turning my back on him.

Garlic Sprouts

They are a bit difficult to make out in the above picture, but the garlic is about 4 or 5 inches high. I spotted daffodils, lilies and irises sprouting as well.

While things have started to dry out a bit this week the pond is still running over its bank. This is the highest we have ever seen the pond this time of year.

Most of our beach is under water.

As I walked down the west property line I loved this view of the barn.

The thin layer of ice that covered much of the pond early this week has since melted since temperatures reached up into the 50’s and 60’s F on Thursday and Friday.

There is still plenty of time for winter weather to return but we will certainly appreciate these nice days while we have them.

Thanks for joining me.

How’s the weather in your part of the world?

The Garlic is Planted

garlic, Planting Garlic, Reflections

Planting garlic this year was a smooth, uneventful task. We were keeping a close eye on the weather forecast during the first week of October, awaiting our best opportunity. The weather had turned cool and rain was in the forecast for several days last week into this week. Some days were all day rain events and others just passing showers. We saw an opening – last Wednesday and Thursday looked like they might be dry days with rain not forecast again until late in the day on Friday. When Wednesday was cool and overcast we decided to wait until Thursday. It was supposed to be a nicer day and waiting would give the ground a bit more time to dry out.

Thursday afternoon was perfect – not to hot, not to cold, mostly sunny and no mosquitoes. We were able to get our mere 320 cloves of garlic planted, mulched and fenced in about two hours time.

When we woke up to rain showers Friday morning I couldn’t have been more grateful that this job was finished.

I didn’t get many pictures of the planting process this year or go into a lot of detail in this post because most of you have been here in past years. I did however take a look back at all of my previous garlic planting posts and decided to share them here. If you/d like to learn more about the process or you’re curious about our history with garlic take a look – they go as far back as 2015, my first year of blogging.

Thanks for visiting.

Planting Garlic 2022
Woo Hoo The Garlic Is Planted
It Was The Perfect Day For Planting Garlic
Celebrating
A Year In Growing Garlic (Part III)
WOO HOO! The 2016 Garlic Crop Is Planted