Power's Out Pizza

We're on day 3 of no power on our road.  While I had planned on using up things in the fridge this week, it's a bit more imperative now that the perishables are living in a cooler on my kitchen floor.  I racked my brain trying to figure out what I could make for dinner with the stove top or grill that would use up the most of what was heading towards moldy in the cooler.  Cheese, pesto and tomatoes were all rescued and piled one pizza crust on the grill.  It was a great dinner!  The tomatoes and basil in the pesto all came from the garden and are some of my favorite flavors of summer!  

Anyone else getting creative trying to selvage their food in the face of a power outage?

This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.

Tuesday Garden Party:

While the mornings have begun to feel like fall with cooler temperatures, my garden is still speaking summer: tomatoes and zucchini!  Carrots, basil and asparagus are also making regular appearances in my picking bucket.

This is the first year in about four years that we planted the tomatoes in beds instead of upside down pots.  I've forgotten what a treasure hunt it is to pick tomatoes in beds.  Our beds are raised and usually I have to walk around them twice to make sure I've gotten everything.  Then as I walk away, another flash of ruby will peek out from under the foliage and I dash back to pick again! 

I'm shifting some of my preservation to canning this year as I realized how quickly my smaller freezer is filling up!  (The winter's worth of chicken purchased on sale is part of the overload!)  So I dug down deep and found blueberries left over from last summer and some strawberries this summer that I had thrown in thinking HandyMan was going to use them for pies.  He didn't.  So now, those berries are headed for jam.  This week's tomatoes are headed for Canned Tomato Bruschetta Topping.  I think there will also be a couple more jars of dill green beans and some apple sauce heading into the canner.

What are you using your garden produce for this week?

This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.

Asparagus Round 2!

Last summer, another gardener friend mentioned to us that they were eating fresh asparagus in September.  We had a cool summer so I thought it was possible.  When I commented my surprise that his asparagus was still going, he told us that he lets it bolt in late June or early July and then cuts it all back in the beginning of August for a second crop.  This year we decided to give it a try, and what do you know, it worked!  I picked this handful of  fresh spears this afternoon:

I'm also picking the second crop of green beans and I have a bucket of ripe tomatoes collecting in my fridge.  I think I see tomato soup in my near future!

How does your garden grow?

This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.

A Walk in the Garden

In the midst of a very full summer, I finally caught an evening when the G-Tot was settled in bed before I ran out of energy and I was able to take a stroll with the camera to catch some of my yard and garden to share.

One of my favorite things this summer is this fantastic hanging pot that was gifted to my husband.  A local farm grows these and they're gorgeous and it really hangs almost four feet.  With all my purple hostas in bloom - it's one of my favorite views right now.



On the vegetable front, I have the most beautiful broccoli I've ever grown:



We're picking green beans by the bucket load every two days (ok, its a 2 quart bucket):



It also looks like it's going to be a great year for tomatoes in our garden too!  I am so excited but don't want to count my tomatoes before they're ripe.



Things are great in our yard this year.  How's your garden growing?

Garden's Gaining Steam

This year I really have not put much energy into my garden.  I've put in seeds and plants, offered up a hope and a prayer and just hope to end up with produce.  I started the season with great energy as I planned and prepared my early bed.  Our tomatoes were even more of an experiment as I planed two under the cover of my early bed and HandyMan had two in the wall-of-water type protectors.  Both are doing great - although the two in the water walls needed stakes right away after the walls were removed.  I am totally thrilled with the progress on these tomatoes - we have blossoms already  I'm hoping to have tomatoes to pick before August this year!

In order to stagger my tomato crops, I planted the rest of my tomatoes a week and a half ago.  They look so tiny!

My hills of squash are looking well and we should have strawberries ready within the week!

My early green beans are thriving too:

So far so good!  The rain we've been getting regularly is helping too!  How is your garden doing?

This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.  Check it out for other great garden ideas!

Tuesday Garden Party

Wow - it's been quite a while since I had my act together for a garden update!  The daffodils and tulips have come and gone.  The magnolia was glorious in full bloom and for the first time in about three years it didn't get frosted!  I've been picking rhubarb and asparagus by the fist full.  Or the armload - depending on who's carrying it in!



My "early garden bed" is doing well.  I picked the first of my spinach this week.  The green beans are all on their second and third sets of leaves.  I planted tomato and pepper plants about three weeks ago and they are both doing very well.  I also planted basil and cilantro seeds that haven't surfaced yet - or they've surfaced but they're among so many small weeds that I can't distinguish between my herbs and weeds yet.

I planted the rest of my garden this weekend: acorn and butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, more green beans, more spinach, and pumpkins.  I also have broccoli from plants going out there.  I've had bad luck the last couple years with broccoli, so I only planted six.  I also plan on getting another dozen tomato plants today to go out in the garden.  With temperatures forecasted in the 90s this week - they should be pretty happy!

So, my garden is off to a good start.  How does your garden grow?

:: Linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party

Reworking a Decent Idea

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Signs of spring are starting to show in our area - my crocuses are blooming and my daffodils are starting to bud out.  Ok, one of my daffodils is starting to bud.  The rest are still held by the grips of winter.  My little mascot daffodil is embracing the tiny threads of spring that we keep getting.

I discovered, after a day of high winds, that the hoop covering for my early bed needs additional reinforcements.   The wind caught hold of the sheeting and twisted it up and threw it in the yard like a dirty shirt, dragging the hula hoop structure with it.  I'm thinking that I need to come up with deeper stakes to attach the hoops to.  I'm open to any ideas!

Fortunately, I had only put in spinach seeds to date, so there weren't any little broccoli plants to face the demolition.

This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.

Tuesday Garden Party: The Early Bed

In our area, winter is finally loosening it's grip and I'm anxious for some fresh produce!  Our local produce stand opens this week and not a day too early as I've used up most of the veggies from the freezer and cringe at the grocery store prices on most produce right now!

Over the winter when thoughts of spring were trapped under days and days of sub-zero weather, I read about how Jamie at An Oregon Cottage used row covers to extend the growing season.  I was fascinated and the dreams began to grow.  Could I have green beans before July?  Tomatoes before September?  Oh IMAGINE!

Then I got a catalog with at $25 off coupon.  I had to do it.  So I purchased the row cover and started looking for ways to make the hoops to hold the cover up over my long garden bed.  The home improvement places didn't have anything to help, so I started thinking outside the box and here's what I came up with:



Hula hoops from Dollar Tree!  I pulled the ribbon off and stashed it  - I have ideas for the ribbon, but that's another post.  I separated the hoops placed them over the bed.  We had to trim them down a little, but the pruning shears did the job.



Handyman spent some time out in the garden last week with GBaby and turned all the soil.  Isn't it pretty!  The fabric came in a 10x10 sheet so I cut it in half.  The 5x10 sheets will be used as frost protection and I have a second sheet that will be used for more of a "hot-house" type protection.





I took the sheets and sewed fabric scrap strips along the inside to tie the sheets to the hoops.  I ended up using some clothespins on the ends too.  It needs a little bit more shoring up along the short posts on the end of the bed and I think it will be ready to go.

Last night we had some pretty decent winds and it held up really well.  I was afraid that it was going to double as a kite if the winds kicked up, and glad I was wrong.  I'm planning on planting broccoli and spinach in the next week-and getting the other two pieces of fabric ready to go.  We'll see how that all plays out!

This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.

Preparing the Tot to Garden

While much of the country is embracing spring, in our area winter has overstayed it's welcome.  Spring tried to grumble its way in yesterday with a nice little thunderstorm and I'm just waiting for the temperatures to reach that spring warmth.

In the meantime, I'm dreaming my early garden bed and trying to figure out how gardening is going to work with a two-year-old helper this year.  We'll be working on our colors in an attempt to distinguish between ripe and not-so-ripe tomatoes and strawberries.  I think weeding is going to have to be done when my copy-cat isn't looking, or she may "weed" my whole garden.  While my brain is working overtime on the protection needed to preserve my crops from a toddler, I'm also looking forward to teaching her about planting and seeds.  It's about time to gather up all the gardening related story books we have and add them to the story stacks around the house.

While we were at the children's museum this past week, we practiced planting skills.  We'll be planting for real soon enough!

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This post is linked up at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.

2011 Gardening Kick Off

I still have snow in the yard, but I am seeing signs of spring.  Which then got my brain planning on the garden and ... and... and... I'll just give you a couple shots of the daffodils and first buds of the bleeding heart that are coming up:

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This post is linked at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.