Harvest Shot

Spent some time outside with the boys picking blackberries this afternoon. I suspect that this basket would be full if the boys weren't sneaking so many into their mouths!

Now our fingers are pink as a fun reminder of the harvest.

Harvest Shot

Things are starting to get busy around here! We've pulled in several pumpkins and countless tomatoes.  Here are some more, stacked with potatoes in some very handy Clementine crates:

When the dining room table and most of our kitchen counters are covered in produce, it is time to start canning.

So far, all we've had time to do is can one batch of tomatoes.  We were up to our ears in blueberries and blackberries last month, but we froze them.

I'm not sure what we'll do with our eggplants...especially the one that has two little growths for arms.  How could we resist adding eyes?

He's our new pet.

I'm sure this will provide a nice excuse for why the kids won't eat eggplant now.

Fairytale Garden Update

The Fairytale Garden is doing well.  The Magic Beans are climbing everywhere. The 'pole beans' sign is barely visible in the picture below.  Some new bug is eating the leaves, but it hasn't stopped the beans from growing.  (New Bug is yellow and spiky; the chickens won't even eat this strange creature, so I'm hoping he just goes away.)

The Cabbage Patch is gorgeous.  Having never grown cabbage before, it is a thrill to watch the purple leaves form cabbage heads.  I've weeded out some of the crowded plants; the chickens love them. The primary reason for growing cabbages is to feed them to the chickens.  I enjoy purple cabbage, but my family does not much care for it. The plants add a nice color to the garden, so I'm glad to have them, even if the chickens and I will be eating them alone.

Cinderella's pumpkins are starting to grow.  Additionally, some of the squash we planted with the pumpkins are growing nicely.

The potato plants are starting to die off, which is good.  That is exactly what we've read they should do.  (It is always a relief when the plants have read the same gardening web sites as the gardeners.) 

We've seen a few fruits on these plants, which surprised us. Who knew potato plants made fruit?? The fruits look like green tomatoes, but we've read that they are toxic and not too common.  The potatoes are teaching us plenty, as we are new to growing them.  They are also the most controversial member of the Fairy Tale garden, since they are not an obvious character in any popular fairy tale.  It has come to our attention, though, that they are popular in folklore, having sparked Mr. Potato Head, hot potato, "one potato, two", and more.

There is much to learn from a potato. 

Harvest Shot

We often quiz the kids at dinner, "What on your plate comes from our garden?"

 For dinner last night, we had an egg frittata with parsley, roasted potatoes, carrots, and zucchini, and a sweet ending of yogurt topped with blackberries, blueberries, and wineberries (not shown in the above picture--as I was mixing the berries with sugar and cinnamon, I sent my oldest child to go gather a cup of them from the woods; wineberries are the wild cousins of raspberries and are plentiful around here).  The pole beans will be dinner tonight.  : )

Learning from Potatoes

Here at Apple Falls, we do not claim to be master gardeners.  We don't even claim to be 'real' gardeners.  As a matter of fact, when people come to us with questions about growing things or maintaining a garden, my husband and I usually qualify each answer with, "...But we don't really *know* what we're doing...!"  A fine example of this trait is found in our potato patch. 

Having never grown potatoes before, we thought we'd give it a try.  We don't eat a lot of potatoes, but we do eat french fries (you know, those frozen things from the grocery store???) and we like the idea of harvesting something that doesn't need to be canned or eaten right away since we're usually up to our ears in tomatoes and apples each fall.

It has been a great learning experience for everyone at our house to watch the potatoes grow.  Even from guests, we hear comments like, "I didn't know potatoes had bushy green leaves above ground," and the newest comment is, "I didn't know potatoes had flowers."  They do indeed have flowers and are a very pretty addition to the Fairy Tale Garden.  We can't wait to see what else we learn from them this season.

A Window with a View

If you recall from my garden wish list, I have been hoping for something to spruce up the very bare part of our house that we see from the patio.

I am happy to report that this wish has come true in the form of my Mothers' Day gift-- window boxes! It has taken a few weeks for R to install them, but today I finally prettied them up.

The nursery was overwhelming, so I immediately latched onto the first employee who could tolerate me.  She was kind enough to show me all the options available to someone with my sort of light exposure (full sun until afternoon).  Being the kind of person I am (no plan at all) I put plants into my cart, put more plants into my cart, took out the plants that didn't look right, got more plants, took out more plants, and so on. My enthusiastic nursery staff person put up with that for a little while and then said, "I'll leave you do your decision-making." I settled on ivy, trailing verbena, geranium, vinca, and magilla perilla (why do I want to call it 'gorilla'??). 

Peach Trees

The view from our kitchen window just got three times prettier with the addition of three small peach trees behind the fence and blueberry bushes.

R planted them this weekend and hopes to add three apple trees to the 'orchard' later this week.  The small trees have little fuzzy peaches on them, but we are not expecting much of a harvest this year.  Either the shock of being planted or the local deer population will minimize our first summer of peaches.  Once the trees get tall enough to outreach the deer, though, we are hoping to be able to start adding peach pies, preserves, and wine to our list of things to do in the late summer.

In this shot you can see the zigzag pattern of how R planted them.

Losing the Lawn, Bit by Bit

My husband hates to mow.  Well, he *says* he hates to mow.  He didn't seem to hate it too much a few years ago when I was inside with a crying baby and he escaped for a few hours of blissful silence (the word 'silence', here, means 'no baby screaming'). Anyway, when it comes to our lawn, the less he has to mow, the better.  So he frequently suggests that I expand the blueberry patch by another three feet, that I mulch all around the vegetable bed perimeter by another few feet, that I expand the herb garden by a few feet on each side... are you starting to form an image in your mind of how garden design works around here?

Anyway, this weekend it was my idea to expand the mulched-not-grassy area, whittling down the amount of mowable lawn by just a dozen or so more square feet.  I had several reasons for this temporary insanity.  First, I must take the wheelbarrow to the mulch pile at least every other day or my neighbors start to think maybe I've gone missing. Second, I have a lot of cleaning indoors that needs to be done and I'd like to avoid that at all costs.  And third, my parents gave me lots and lots of Russian sage Sunday morning, which I needed to plant right away.

 

I spent the hour car ride from their house to mine trying to think of where I'd plant the Russian sage. (Why can't I say no to plant give-aways!?) The only solution was to spend my entire day creating a new area in the garden.

Rather than dig (my least favorite chore in the garden-- I only dug enough to plant the sage) I put landscape cloth down over the grass by our trellis.  This may be cheating, but I love this shortcut.

I mulched all the way out to our crazy fig tree/bush/thing, creating a welcoming entrance through the garden gate.  This took all day and was a lot of hard work.  It may be just me, but hard work often seems more difficult when someone watches you the whole time, occasionally yawning loudly, as Boo is prone to do.  See her here on top of the trellis:

Harvest Shot

I love going outside on a rainy morning and coming inside with something like this.  The pop of a strawberry coming off the stem, the thrill of looking under leaves to find something red and round, the smell of wet dirt...it is a good morning.

This is the first day we've picked strawberries.  Last year, we got a very low yield after weeding out some Creeping Charlie two years ago. The weed wrapped itself around most of our strawberry plants, so to remove it required unearthing each plant.  We also had a drought that summer, so the weeding and replanting and baking in the sun was a bit too much for most of the plants to take. After two years, we're finally starting to get some strawberries back.  The ground ivy is still a problem, but I've promised the strawberries I'd be more vigilant about weeding it before it strangles them.

Oh, and I found a pretty egg when I opened up the chicken coop this morning. (See it nestled in the strawberries, above.)

Jack and the Beanstalk: the Beginning

Surely this is when Jack's story started to get interesting: those beans started to grow!  And this is when our Fairy Tale Garden* starts to get interesting, too.  I didn't have to trade a cow (not that I own one to trade), because most of these beans were given to my by my father, who grows pole beans around his swimming pool.

Our Fairy Tale Garden will hopefully be full of many magical story elements by summer: beanstalks for Jack, orange pumpkins for Cinderella, giant sunflowers for the wondrous effect they create, and purple cabbages to represent that mythical cabbage patch where all children are told they were found (all my children, anyway).

*Our Fairy Tale Garden is different from the Fairy Garden, which is another magical place found here.

Happy Day!

This day started off rather dreary outside, but upon closer inspection there was a bit of happiness coming up from the soil.  Look carefully in the picture above and you'll see two butterfly-shaped cabbage leaves sprouting.  I tried growing cabbage last year, with no luck.  I am trying again so that I'll have a nice supply of red cabbage for the chickens all summer.  (I'll eat some, too!)

Rosemary, O Rosemary...

The tale of our relationship with rosemary is a long and sad one.  It started fifteen years ago when we had a beautiful rosemary plant near the side door of our home in the city.  It was a lovely plant that overwintered well and eventually grew to be a two foot high shrubbery.  Yes.  A shrubbery.

We almost didn't move to our new house because we'd miss the rosemary so much, but more practical reasoning prevailed and we assured ourselves that we could always plant rosemary at our new home.

You know where I'm going with this, don't you?

For ten years we have failed to get a rosemary plant to overwinter outside.  This year we took one small plant inside in a pot and it survived, but barely.  Now that it is spring, we start the experiment again...

Here we see location #1, near the shed. This location faces west, gets afternoon sun and has the benefit of the shed wall to shelter it and a driveway in front of it to radiate heat from a day of sunning.  Of course, planting it right next to the dead remains of last year's experiment should be a clear sign that this location isn't all that great... We garden the hard way around here.

Location #2 faces east and gets morning sun.  The small patio light may or may not have an effect, but the patio stones should collect heat all day in the sun and hold some for the little plant to enjoy.  The bushes behind the rosemary may provide shelter from cold air and wind, but may also hinder growth by blocking some sunlight.  We'll see.  At least no rosemary has ever died here, so we have hope.  No rosemary has ever lived here, either, but people with hope ignore stuff like that.

Location #3 is the favorite to win, mostly because it will come inside this winter.  We planted a new rosemary in the lucky pot.  Our money is on this guy to live all winter.  Especially if we water him.  (We have found that potted plants need lots more attention in this area than the plants in the ground. . . Please don't ask how many potted plants had to die before we figured that out.)

Location #4 has two rosemary plants.  One of the plants is the guy who overwintered inside.  The other is a new guy.  You can see them in this picture in front of a large clump of sage. [From front to back, left to right: thyme, thyme, rosemary from the pot, rosemary, sage, parsley, parsley, wilting gerber daisy]

This location gets full sun until the afternoon, but has no shelter from wind or cold air, and no wall or patio to retain heat.  We don't have a lot of hope for these two plants, but we have failed for ten years, so what do we know??

More Plant Markers

I was happy to find these inexpensive write-on plant markers at two area gardening stores recently.  They are not large enough for the vegetable rows, but are perfect for the herb garden.  The tops bend back, too, so that no one has to crawl down in the dirt just to read them.

Fairy Garden

One of the first things we noticed about our home when we moved here is that the yard has an oddly placed circle of pine trees in the corner.  I have no idea what the original garden-planner was intending for these trees, but I was immediately drawn to the room created by the branches.  We started calling it the fairy garden, based partly on the 'fairy circle' lore, but also based on a delightful memory I have from my babysitting years (long, long ago) when I had the honor of working for a family who had tiny houses placed throughout their home...for the fairies.

Now we keep our eyes peeled for tiny things that the fairies can use as homes.  Birdhouses work well, like the yard sale finds above and in the branches below, and each year the kids try to make houses from sticks and other natural materials.

The home-made houses usually don't last more than a few months, but the act of building them is the best part. 

We also add things to the garden for our own amusement, such as the old elf statue, stepping stones and toadstool seats.

My Garden Wish List

We visited Ladew Topiary Gardens today.  The historic property is a great place for children because it has lawns that beg to be run across, whimsical topiaries, and secret rooms hidden among the gardens. 

Walking along the pathways, I formulated my Garden Wish List.  I'll likely never own a property like Ladew (*likely* never) but I would still like to try to encorporate some of the elements I saw there today.

1.  Windowboxes  -  I don't know how I'll get these, but these top my list.  Those tulips are great, too, but I feed the wildlife in my neighborhood enough as it is.

2.  More places to sit  -  This little nook is the perfect place for tea or a game of cards.  The odds of me or anyone in my family ever playing cards or taking tea outside are really low, but I'd like to have the option. We found this stone set hidden in a sweet 'room' at the beginning of our tour, which leads me to my next wish list item...

3.  Hidden places  -  What fun it is to walk down a garden path and find an unexpected place to play or sit!

In this picture, notice that the wall has an alcove with a bench, through the arched walkway.

4.  A walled garden -  Just like in The Secret Garden, a mysterious walled garden could have anything hiding within.  I would need a lot of bricks, but this is a project I'd love to try.

5.  A greenhouse  -  I'd call mine the Orangerie, and I'd pronounce it with the most annoying nasal twang I could muster.  It would be fantastic.  My cat would love it.

6.  Nooks  -  Lots and lots of places for the cat to hide and the children to go find it.  What would be better than that? (Oh, and the statues and brick pathways just add to the charm, so I wish for them to accompany the nooks.)

7.  A potager  -  The one at the end of this path is actually a cutting garden.  Cutting gardens are cool, but I'd rather have an English potager, a kitchen garden.  Every year I imagine that  have one, but in reality it just looks like a bunch of plants in a huge cage.  I have got to work on that!

Plant Markers for the Garden

I searched for a while for plant markers to use in the garden.  I had high expectations for plant markers, so high that my search dragged on for over a year.  Ideal plant markers, for me, need to be inexpensive and decorative, last for a long time, involve the kids in some way, and hopefully use some materials I already have around the house. 
I spent a lot of time searching my sheds and garage for materials, but finally found my inspiration elsewhere.  In my kids' office (if you can call a room full of crayons and legos an 'office') we have a thousand or so fuse beads.  What could be better for making weather-proof, colorful markers in the garden?

My nine- and four-year-old boys really enjoyed making markers for the plants we plan to grow this year.  I was surprised how patient my little one was, even using tweezers to make the words I spelled for him. (He's wearing a Christmas elf hat; the soldier hat in the foreground just doesn't suit a crafter.)

To make a plant marker like ours, you'll need fuse beads, an iron, the ironing paper that comes with the fuse beads (to protect your iron), a small drill, bamboo stakes, and nylon cord.

Make a fuse bead design and heat it with the iron it to make it permanent.  Leave two holes near the top of the design for the cord.  String the cord through the fuse bead design once the design has cooled.

Drill a small hole in each side of the bamboo stake. Run the cord through each hole and tie.  Now your plant marker is ready for the garden!

Korean Spice Viburnum

Everything around here is blooming early this year, due to some very nice temperatures in March and early April.  One of our favorite flowering plants is this Korean Spice Viburnum.  This shrub gets large white flowers that smell great.  Even before blooming, the pink buds fill the yard with a delightful scent. We have them near our patio so we can enjoy them when we are outside, but the bonus is that they are along the driveway; we are greeted with their frangrance each time we get out of our car.  What a pleasant welcome!

Blueberry Blossoms

Spring has sprung here at our home.  If all of these blossoms get berries, we're going to be making a lot of pies this summer!