Posted on July 3, 2021July 3, 2021Side yard dirt moving on Friday I’m getting the last bed much smoother and dirt on lawn much more level. Was able to do this on Friday evening as no rain since Thursday. Pasta from scratch topped with a mix of garden and store tomatoes, and garden oregano.
Posted on July 1, 2021July 1, 2021Wednesday harvest and other friends A lot of blue lake green beans. Several tomato varieties are ripening. UF garden gem was fine but all of the UF “W” at a similar color rotted and molded. Perhaps they don’t like the endless rain? I will watch more closely for ripening now too. The Chef tied all the onions up for storage. The mini bell peppers are more mini than I expected. Corbaci peppers. I think the three little ones aren’t ready, but their plant died. A mini bell pepper plant died too, in the same way, a rotting brown at the base. This mushroom looks like it should be named lemon chiffon something. Weighing the dried garlic. Pseudothyris sp. moth resting on strawberry leaf.
Posted on June 28, 2021June 28, 2021Quarter Gram = 1.76 kg I left this zucchini too long and it was 1.76 kg (about 3.9 pounds). Gram the cat weighs about 14 pounds last we weighed him. Paula’s moss rose has a lovely flower! Briar yawns. Photography of plants is borrrriiiiing. Several inches of rain is settling down dirt over geothermal pipes nicely. Once it’s not slippery mud, I’ll go spread it out more and continue leveling and shaping. You can see seedling ‘Will Rogers’ variety red zinnias on the right, and harder to see are ‘burning embers’ Linnaeus marigold seedlings near the peach tree, for quick orange. Briar looks over green and yellow bed. A triangle of Fordham giant chard with lacinato kale in the middle. The two scraggly plants are coreopsis recovering from being potted up for a month. Around it are dwarf marigold seedlings for more quick yellow. ‘Country gentleman’ sweet corn is flowering. Supervisor exhausted by his earlier brush with the monster zucchini. Book “Bean by Bean: a cookbook” by Crescent Dragonwagon. Lent by the Bean Queen herself, thanks Heather! Lots of interesting bean trivia. More focused on cooking than bean varieties (ie differences among Lima, green, cowpeas, lentils, etc, not varieties within those).
Posted on June 24, 2021June 24, 2021French onion soup First we must get approval of herbs (moss curled parsley) from the sous chef. The cooking begins. French onion soup with a side of chicken. Onions and parsley from the garden.
Posted on June 22, 2021June 23, 2021Assorted day off activities and observations Several strawberry runners took root so I snipped the runners. I set out a tray of dirt to try to capture more strawberry runners. The Chef helped me cut down the yaupon holly that was planted in a bad spot. It kept hitting the garage roof and gutter. Nine of ten water barrels are now in place for use! Dinner… I made it this time. It includes a few of the new tomatoes (as well as a store tomato) and fresh garden basil and oregano. Got mail!! Drying coriander (the cilantro seeds) for later harvest! Tepary beans reaching up! Wild poinsettia (A volunteer). The prairie and its rain barrel. Rudbeckia is looking great. A true bug. Standing cypress about to bloom!
Posted on June 21, 2021June 21, 2021Leonberries Blackberries from the Leon Memorial Bushes on Braum’s vanilla ice cream.
Posted on June 20, 2021June 20, 2021First harvests and little friend 95 g of blackberries!! A dinner’s worth of green beans! From Mbombo (more) and blue lake (fewer and smaller) beans. A lightning bug sitting on the zucchini. A’grappoli d’inverno tomatoes (larger ones) and white currant tomatoes (small yellow ones). I’m delighted the white currants grew true to seed since I collected them last year! The Chef cooked the green beans with bacon and put walking onions chopped on baked potato. A little gray treefrog guards the zucchini from a radish leaf!
Posted on June 16, 2021June 16, 2021The weekend blog crossover episode Baby zucchini harvest before departure. Saw a tree cricket on the mint. Rouge Vif d’Etampes squash has a baby. Upon arrival to Texas, Junior Supervisor Briar and Senior Director Gracie take a break. Mustard greens and rouge d’hiver lettuce from the garden in a fancy salad by Mom! Mom has outdone herself again with fresh blackberry sorbet. The mint leaves are from my garden. Upon return to Oklahoma, a very fine toad was seen. An excellent weekend visiting with our southern blog colleagues.
Posted on June 11, 2021June 11, 2021Yesterday’s stuff The Chef got three jars of dehydrated onion stems/leaves from our harvest of granex bulb onions. The bulbs are still drying in the hall. My hat is irresistible to Gram. He tries to eat the string and tulle until I get fed up and put it up. Fleabane in full bloom! Photography is boring for dog. Dill starting to bloom. Elderberry is thriving. Full view. It’s just one plant! A tiny bee on Gaillardia pulchella. A young (?) lynx spider eats a house fly while sitting on coreopsis. Coneflowers are going strong. I need to look up the name of this skipper, which is sitting on a dayflower leaf.
Posted on June 8, 2021June 8, 2021Humidity of spring Found the two tiniest stinkhorn mushrooms in the yard! Probably a bee fly? Decided the onions would probably dry better in the less humid air of house.