Watching leaves grow

Gardening is kind of boring.  You walk out, you check things, nothing has happened, you come back in.  Next day, wash, rinse, repeat.

BUT THEN...some day, you peak out the window, wondering why you should bother and you find your squash plants are HUGE!  You rush out to see lots of large yellow flowers, and then you notice the cucumbers have blossoms too.  And there are tiny green beans and tiny bell peppers.  The tomatoes...well, they're growing.  They smell like tomatoes, so you take that as a good sign.

Then there's a holding pattern again, and suddenly it's August 5.  Which brings us to today.

Janet had pulled a few onions already, and cleaned them and put them in the fridge.  She said we could use the leaves as seasoning too.  She is not sure about the potatoes, as she only saw one or two blossoms on one plant.  I don't know what that means, or if it even matters, so I just agree.

Well, backing up a bit, I had gone out to see if ANY of the blossoms on the squash were turning into actual squash and that's when I saw it.  The dreaded cucumber beetle!  It flew away before I could do anything, but it confirmed what exactly was eating my squash blossoms.  To the Googlesphere I went, and there found all sorts of helpful information on cucumber beetles, including that not only did they like squash, but also cucumbers (hence the name) and beans.  All of which I have in the same raised bed.  It's like I made a buffet specifically for them.

In searching for what to do about them, there was the usual round of toxic chemical advice.  However, since I want to actually eat the stuff I'm growing, that is out.  The organic options are not much help.  "Find beetles and squish them."  Okay, they fly away.  "Plant baby blue Hubbard squash to distract them, since they like it better."  Yeah, I don't have room for that.  There's rumors of traps as well.  But the basic solution for everyone is to find them and squish them.

Thus, I have been looking.  And looking.  And looking.  And not since I saw the one have I seen any others.  I did go to a garden store in search of the aforementioned traps, but no one there knew anything.  I did get some insecticidal soap.  This will do pretty much nothing to the beetles, what with their hard shells, but it will make me feel better.  I think I will apply it in the morning.

Tonight when I got home I raked up some of the grass and tossed it into the compost bin, which is not really composting as much as it is just holding leaves and garbage.  I need to get a pitchfork to help stir that up.  Then I picked about 5 or 6 more tiny strawberries (a grand total of 10!), and then turned to the onions.  I picked about 12-15 of them (I didn't count) and watered everything.  At that point the leaves were probably too wet for the soap, or maybe they weren't, hell if I know.  I'm just winging most of this.  I was thinking of pulling the potatoes too, but I'll ask Janet what she thinks.

That raises the question of what to do with the empty bed.  I think I might take the lettuce and spinach seeds and toss them in there just to see what happens.  Trying to sprout them from seed indoors hasn't worked, so what could it hurt.

Our harvest thus far is kind of disappointing, and it's largely because much of it went in late.  The canning and preserving I was hoping to do is going to be either way delayed or there won't be enough to preserve.  Already I'll have to supplement the raspberries, and maybe the apples, for jellies.  I don't know that we'll get enough cucumbers for pickles or tomatoes for salsa.  I'm a little disappointed, but again, it's a learning process.  Janet is going to go with us to a farmer's market so we can get some cukes and I'll see if they have raspberries, and hopefully we can get started.

Apple Jelly – Not so much

I forgot to update this.  We ended up not going to Chillicothe, as predicted.  In fact, we ended up doing not much of anything.

[Okay, I am TRYING to put pictures in this....maybe check back later?]

ETA:  This all took place July 4 and 5th.

I did indeed wash and core the apples from our tree. The tiny little apples.  I had read somewhere that the underdeveloped seeds were potentially poisonous, so I wanted to make sure I got those out.  I only read it in one place, but that’s not the kind of thing you want to make a mistake with.  This was a fairly tedious and annoying job.  I also discarded any that looked wormy, even if there was no wormy evidence.

I was reminded that sometimes when Janet says “Yes, I will help you,” what she really means is she will wander down to occasionally supervise.  That was what today was.  No worries. I muddled through until most of the remaining apples from our yard were ones that were incredibly tiny.  The heck with that.  I turned to the store-bought Fujis I bought in case that wasn’t enough.  I left about six of those for eating purposes.  Into the pot it all went and, after boiling, I set it up to strain overnight.

Now…I am not big on buying things for projects.  When it comes to canning, I do not have special jar removers and what not.  I use metal tongs and nearly every towel and potholder in the house, but those are all free, having been paid for long ago.  So I didn’t get a fancy stand for the cheesecloth (which I did get).  I ended up having to rig something up with the cheesecloth and a few kabob spears I have laying around.  They come in packets of like a million.

The next morning I woke up, eager to see my gallons of juice that would be turned into awesome apple jelly and that would then be turned into Giftmas presents.  I went to the pot, removed the lid and plastic (to protect it from the fruit flies, who had resisted at that point all efforts to wipe them out), and looked.  A lot.  I tipped the pot and was instantly disappointed.  When I measured it out, I had BARELY a cup of apple juice.  

This was not good.  I needed more than that.  I looked at the jars and lids I had purchased at the store and just sighed.  I poured it into a glass jar and threw it into the freezer.  There are still some apples out there, so maybe we’ll try it again later….

In the meantime, there is likely some message in this.  I could have finished up even with the small apples, despite the growing hump in my neck. I could have used all the apples I bought.  All sorts of things.  Put into it what you get out of it, and all that.  Fine.

Name Change

I really like "Chlorophyllic Mojolicious."  A lot.  And maybe someday I'll change the name back.  But I hope not for a really long time.

See, some of you who know me know my mother-in-law Janet lives with us.  She has for a really long time, maybe about five years.  Now, most people shuddered when I said she was moving in, and I'll be honest, I thought that this was going to be a disaster.

I was also raised with many examples of parents moving in with their children when they were not able to take care of themselves.  My faith also stresses the importance of family, and not just when family is fun or not-problematic.  (At least, in my opinion.  I've since learned that others' mileages may vary, and that's fine.)

Janet is a quiet woman, for the most part.  She's got diabetes that is difficult to control, so often has blood sugar drops.  She also can't hear, but can only wear a hearing aid in just one ear.  The other one is beyond help.  She has a small dog, Sassy, and I'm not sure which one depends on the other one more.  Janet likes to be industrious, and hates to just sit around, but she also doesn't drive, which means that her independence is tied very much to whether my spouse or I are home and can take her where she needs to go.  We juggle the best we can, and for the most part it's actually worked out.  She takes care of my dog and cat while we are gone at work during the day and the house is generally not vacant then, either.  She does make dinner at least half the time too, which is nice.

Janet was also recently diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimers.  I do have my reservations about her doctor, but they have her on medicine which seems to be helping.  Mostly all she has right now is forgetfulness and transposing numbers.  She also can't find words sometimes, and I either way until she does, or if it's urgent, fill it in for her.

Why I have renamed this blog:  Janet doesn't remember much sometimes, but she does remember growing up in Southern Ohio, in the very Northern fringes of Appalachia.  And she remembers her mother and father growing much of their own food.  And she remembers how to do it, how to preserve and dry, and all the things I would like to do.

One thing that I have read about folks with Alzheimers, dementia, and similar disorders is that keeping them active and engaged is important.  It was with that in mind that I insisted we expand our garden and she is now involved.  She is excited to help me hill the potatoes when it is time, and when we found out we could use the green unripe apples on my tree to still make apple jelly she was pleased.  I got her two cucumber plants for the garden so we can make pickles.

The garden began as a way for me to connect to the natural rhythms of the land around me, bring me closer in tune with the Earth Mother and Sky Father.  If it supplemented our grocery purchases, all the better.  However, now I think I was asked to start if for another purpose, to help Janet stay with us as long as possible.  Hence the name change.  I'll change it back when it's no longer for that, but again, I hope it's not for a while.

So far, I've been getting about half a cup of raspberries a day.  No strawberries yet, but that's to be expected.  I think (and Janet has confirmed) the onions are ready to have their leaves bent over to bulb up, and we might be ready to hill the potatoes.  The cucumbers, beans, and squash are doing fine, but that bed seems to dry out quicker than the others.  We've had several days of rain and it's bone dry.  Two of the three tomato plants have actually come back, but the third is done.  I have a TINY green pepper though. The herbs are just HUGE, so I think I need bigger containers so I can separate them out. The first batch of basil and mint is dried and ready to be unhung, only to be replaced with another bunch, and I think the oregano could probably get some trimming too.

Instead of going to Chillicothe for the family reunion tomorrow, I think I shall stay home and get started on the apple jelly, pole the beans, and maybe see if i can plant those things C. gave me.  They may not survive, but we'll at least give it a shot.

To Water or Not To Water

This is the annoying thing.  The weather forecasters say "Oh, it's going to rain!"  So I wait...and wait...and wait...nope. No rain.  Now it's dark and late and I'm tired and don't want to haul the hose around.

I'm not one of those who jumps on forecasters for every erroneous forecast.  If people were honest, they'd realize that they are fairly accurate.  And I'm pretty sure it rained somewhere in the viewing area even if it wasn't over my back 40 feet.  Either way, there was no watering from me today, and I hope there's rain tonight or tomorrow.  I have this sneaking suspicion that if I water, it will rain.  I don't think that's a bad thing.  The beds seem to be draining well, so I am not worried about flooding.

There is of course some larger lesson here, about doing what one should do regardless of the promise of a gift from the heavens.  People who pray for work but don't put in applications would seem to be an analogy. So in the gardening-as-life-lesson realm, point taken.  Procrastinating because something might happen to make the task unnecessary or easier, when in actually it's just getting harder by waiting is a long standing failing of mine.  Now I get it from the garden too.  One day, that lesson will take.  But not today obvious.  Maybe tomorrow.

I was gifted with some new tomato plants to replace the dying ones, and then also some cabbage and muskmelon.  I will need to probably finish the pallets, throw some dirt in them and see what happens.  Everything that isn't the tomatoes seems to be doing well, and I've gotten about four to eight raspberries every morning, although the promise of more to come.  Herbs are drying; the mint seems to have gone faster, so I can take that off, store it somehow, and then hang more.

And water tomorrow....

Better Late Than Never

Happy Summer Solstice!  I spent the day out in the actual sun, trying to get the back yard into some semblance of order before our "really informal, not quite last minute but might as well be" solstice party on Saturday.  Still the larger things should be done.

It's much later than it should be, and as usual, later than I intended.  I wanted to have started and finished the week of our frost free date, however we just didn't have the time.  I have to rely on my spouse for some of the heavier lifting, and the construction projects, and it was just now we got to it.  He ordered two cubic yards of dirt which is maybe enough for what we intend to do...but maybe not.  We shall see.  I think 1.2 cubic yards of it are still in the driveway, which will make parking interesting for our party.

Now that things are all built (except the pallets, that's still a work in progress), next year we can probably get started 'on time.'

Stepping back a bit.... I was torn on what to do with the caterpillars in the herb garden, and finally decided to get new parsley plants.  I also got some dill, being told they would like that too, and planted those in some small pots, one for each caterpillar.  You know, so they can have their own rooms.  Well, I couldn't find one of them, and then the other was sort of hit and miss.  Finally I found him and after several tries to pick him up so he'd stay put but I wouldn't squish him, I moved him to his new home.  The other one, I never found.  I put the pots near the large herb pot (so perhaps the missing caterpillar would find its way to one of them), and just decided from that point on to let nature take its course.  But with some amount of checking every day to see where they are.

I've spent an inordinate amount of time worrying about caterpillars.

That was last week, I think ,a few days after my first post.  This week my spouse had the day off on Thursday (today) so we had plans to work in the backyard.  I had work obligations in the morning, and while I was gone he built me another vegetable bed, and filled it, and also cleaned up around the raspberry bushes.  Yesterday I began planting strawberries in one of the pallets, after attaching the landscape fabric to it, and I finished that up today.  The strawberries feel like they are happy.  I actually got them at Lowe's not my favorite greenhouse, since Dill's tends to follow the seasons rather than what late-to-get-to-things suburbanites want.  I seriously think I would be able to go there in fall and get spring stuff.  Dill's also was confused by my request for diatomaceous earth.  They did bring me some super poisonous stuff for the ants, despite me explaining it was for a VEGETABLE garden.  You know, for things I'd be eating.  They got it eventually, but were out of the product.

The potatoes appear to have gotten beaten down during a storm early this week but have come back, and the onions may be ready to bulb.  Peppers are alive but just kind of there and the tomatoes...well, I should not buy plants because they are 'little' and need to be taken care of.  I think those will need to be replaced.

Now I have an empty bed, but never fear, back to Lowe's I go.  (also did have the diatomaceous earth as well.)  Two cucumber plants (for MominLaw), a zucchini, a squash, and a few string beans.  I will plant those tomorrow.

Lettuce and spinach will have to wait until next year, and who knows if I'll find a place for broccoli and cauliflower again.

Some early (for me) harvest:  I've already frozen some basil, and I'll probably cut more and hang them to dry.  And it looks like the raspberries are starting to come in!  I need to reinforce my deal with the birds, to enable us to share the wealth as it were, especially now that I've added strawberries to the mix.  The apples need to be thinned, I've read.  Anyone know what to do with early not even close to ripe apples?

I've also discovered that the 'here's what I did' is really not exciting blogging.  But hopefully that will change as things get planted and it's just 'wait and see.'

I did get an opportunity to sit on my deck with a glass of water and watch the birds at the feeder.  Just kind of nice.  We also have our first squirrel sighting, which makes me very happy.

Welcome to My Garden!

Hello there!

The purpose of this blog is two fold.  First, I want to document the things I do in my garden, what works, what didn't, when I plant things, when I harvest them, that sort of thing.  Second, I have about a million questions that I've been posting on Facebook and figured I could post them here too.

Also, I like blogging.

I should probably talk a little bit about myself and my garden and yard.  I live in the southeaster suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, and so I have a bit of yard in which to plant stuff. The question has been for a while "What stuff?" and it's been an ongoing process in the five-six years we have lived there. We have done a few things, but it's just been in the last year or so that a firm plan has developed.

I had planned to start this blog when I started this year's garden, however, much like this year's garden, I'm getting kind of a late start.  This introductory post will thus serve also as a summary to date of what's been done.

The yard itself faces south, and is about 1600-1800 square feet.  It slopes a bit downward, especially in the southwestern corner.  That is the location of our future pond.  So far I have:

• One 4' x 6' bed of onions and potatoes (6) planted in early May
• One 4' x 6' bed of tomatoes (3) and peppers (3) just planted this week
• Raspberry bushes planted I think our second year there
• One dwarf Fuji apple tree that produces teeny-tiny apples and I believe has been mislabeled, planted our second year
• A pot on the deck with basil, oregano, thyme, sweet woodruff, lavender, rosemary, and parsley, planted around May 15.

Future plans include:

• A third 4' x 6' bed for beans, zucchini, squash, broccoli or whatever else
• Two pots for radishes and carrots
• 4 pallets to turn in to lettuce and spinach tepee kind of things 
• One pallet for strawberries
• Space for a grape arbor

Current "challenges"

• Ants, ants, ANTS everywhere.  The entire subdivision is built on what might be the world's largest ant colony.  I will be picking up diatomaceous earth as soon as my local place gets some in.
• Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars have eaten my parsley
• The usual...time, money, etc.

We do also have plans for more decorative flower beds and such, but we have decided that food gardens are first.  While I am hoping to get a great deal of our food during the summer and into the fall (I have successfully canned tomatoes in the past), I think it will be a while on our learning curve before we can rely on that. As we are only a family of three adults (me, my spouse, and his mother), it might be barely enough.  Eventually I would love to live out on many acres so I can have goats and chickens.  We can have three chickens however once we get all the other things set up, I don't know that we will have room for them.  We cannot have goats in the city limits. 

I digress.  I would love to be fairly sustainable, and maybe we will get that way, but I'm not going to obsess over it.  We also have had rabbits off and on, and while I don't really want them to have all my crops, I'm not going to obsess about that either.  Kroger and Giant Eagle are right down the street, so we aren't going to starve.

The point of all this, really, is to get more in touch with the rhythm of the land that has allowed me to live on it for a time.  My husband and I are pagans, Druids, specifically; paying attention to the land and the cycles of the seasons is more than a hobby for us.  Being in touch with the Earth is our sacrament, and there's nothing I like better than digging my hands into the beds when I plant (no gloves), or sitting on my back deck or around our fire ring, with a glass of wine or horn of mead, with my spouse and my dog, and just feeling the energies.

That's what this little experiment is really all about.  I hope you join us for the ride and enjoy!

(Also big props to my friends Kim, Irisa, and Val for name suggestions.  One of Val's won!)