A Garden In Pictures

The garden here is in full swing.  We had a huge amount of rain last weekend--four inches--and a little more during the week.  I took the Mantis out and did some roto-tilling when the soil was dry enough earlier this week, but the weeds are already coming back again.  The tomatoes are getting big, the beans are getting tall, our peas are about done for the year, the corn is slowly getting tall, the sunflowers are coming along, potatoes will be ready to dig up soon.  Flowers are beautiful after the rain.  Enjoy a photo tour of a garden in the middle of a great growing season!

A yard full of clover is the perfect home for honey bees!

Lavender in the morning light.

Basil, thyme, oregano, sage...tastes like summer!

Snap peas...these were so sweet and delicious!

Pumpkin plant flowering.

Pumpkin on a stick, AKA ornamental eggplant.  I'll let these dry on the plant and then use them for decorations.

Close-up of the pumpkin on a stick leaf.  These little spikes are on each leaf, and they are sharp!

Beautiful nasturtium.

Viola in the morning sunlight.

There are few things better in life than a bowl of sun-drenched strawberries picked fresh from the garden after a long day!

It's Been a While!

Wow, where to start?  I've been off of here for quite a while.  So much has happened.  Things that I want to talk about, and things that I don't want to talk about.  I've lost a parent, quit my job, my health issues have gotten worse, and my dog has a rare disease.  I've started my garden again this year, started and transplanted my seedlings, and continue to work on finishing a room in the basement that I'm confident will, one day, be a studio/craft room.  I'm working on opening a new shop on Etsy, but in light of all that's been going on, it's on the back burner right now. 

Herb bed on the left, asparagus bed on the right

My main goal with the garden this year is preservation!  My garden last year was experimental.  I tried several types of plants to see what grew well and what struggled.  Here in northwest Ohio, we have very clay-ey soil.  I wanted to know what could grow without amending the soil at all--it was once farmland--and I learned a lot.  I learned that tomatoes and green beans grow well here (but I believe they grow well anywhere!).  I learned that growing a sweet corn variety next to an Indian corn variety will result in cross-pollination and some seriously unappetizing corn.  Haha, once my hubby found out how I planted the corn, he found it hilarious, because he would have told me not to do it!  I learned that there was no need for more than one plant each of zucchini, yellow squash, and winter squashes, although my abundance of winter squash kept very well in the basement for most of the winter.  I learned that potato plants should be planted in a different area of the garden on account of how wet certain areas of the garden become after heavy rains.  I had great success with carrots last year!  A five-gallon pail was overflowing with the harvest.  I processed and froze them in slices. 

A rainbow of carrot varieties

Sugar Baby Watermelon

Melons seemed to like the growing environment, and I ate some of the sweetest cantaloupe I've ever had from the garden.  I learned that garlic just doesn't like my soil.  Vidalia onions seemed to do well, even though I don't like to eat onions.  Home-grown strawberries are delicious, but hard to maintain and keep de-weeded, and when it's time to replant the patch, there will be a raised bed with weed block underneath.  I started an herb garden directly in the soil last year, but moved everything to a raised bed after the herbs struggled to get established in the clay.  I've tried to start a lavender patch, and some lavender came back and some didn't.  This year, we started an asparagus patch that should yield a harvest, even if only a light harvest, next year.  I dried and preserved herbs at the end of last year, and plan to dry and preserve much more this year (more about that in another post).  I dealt with insect issues and other plant diseases.  I fought a losing battle with weeds that continues this year.  So I say all of that to say that this year, I've planted an abundance of tomatoes, herbs, green beans, potatoes, corn, and melons, with the plan of preserving as much as I can this summer and fall.

Strawberry, before the weeds invaded

Herbs drying on a rack in the basement

I love the education that this garden has provided.  Having a large garden space has been a dream of mine for years.  Thankfully now, I have it and can continue to learn.  And maybe even pass a few tips along to others who read this! :)

Winter Blues=Spring Garden Planning

With temps this cold for this long, my thoughts inevitably turn to warmer weather.  I'm aching and tired and sore from shoveling snow nearly daily.  Temperatures have dipped below zero more times than I care to think about.  I realized that in the summer, we had days where temperatures rose to over a hundred degrees and now we have had temperatures well below zero--that's a swing of at least 110 degrees' difference!  Crazy!

Around here, it's almost time to start seeds indoors here to prepare for the spring and summer gardens.  However, this year, I think I'll do something different with my garden beds.

I think I've been planting veggies out there for the past four summers now.  I want to give my garden a rest and plant two beds full of cutting flowers to have around the house this summer--I've never done this, so I think it would be a great change of pace.

I'm also planning to transplant some perennials that grow on the north side of our house.  The bed gets constantly overgrown with weeds every summer because it's a narrow space that is close to the house next door and never really gets sunlight, so it remains damp and shady all the time--perfect conditions for growing weeds, we've found!  I'd like to take the lilies and move them to the front yard, along with the large sedum.  A friend of ours gave us tiger lily transplants a few summers ago, which have done fairly well in the weed patch, but will probably be moved to the backyard.  Once that's clear, we'll just spray the bed with weed killer and not have to tend to it anymore.  Plus, we'll have some nice plants in our front yard, so win-win!

  

Yard Critters: 1, Me: 10 (pounds)

I didn’t want to do it.  I didn’t plan on doing it.  But the creatures of the urban forest forced my hand.  

I dug up my potatoes tonight.

It was either this, or sit on my back stoop 24/7 with heavy artillery and vaporize all offending critters that enter the yard.  Ain't nobody got time for that!

It’s a little early, but in my defense, they are an early variety.

Something has been gnawing on the stalks of my potatoes, digging up potatoes near the surface, and chewing on the potatoes.  Not the whole potato, mind you, but just a little nibble in one spot—enough to render them unusable for humans.  I have found four potatoes dug up and used as a chew toy in my bed, and after finding another one tonight, I decided enough was enough.  I can’t confirm my suspicion, but I suspect either the squirrel posse that terrorizes our neighborhood or the rabbits I’ve seen scoping out my backyard.  Fortunately for me, the plants were yellowing anyway, so I called the potato game on account of animals and took a shovel to the bed.  I had nine plants, and this is what I got:

Ten pounds of potatoes!  Would have been more if the furry fiends hadn’t dug some up to snack on.

We've finally been getting some decent rains lately.  It's really helped everything growing outside.  Here's a flower to brighten your day!

Gardening and Spring Fever

How is your garden doing so far?  I know it's early, but I've planted a few things, and they are coming up!  I planted nine potato plants (I think), and I'm seeing some sprouts, and my radishes are thriving.  I planted lettuce this past weekend, and transplanted the broccoli plants I purchased at the local greenhouse.  And the strangest thing has happened with my one lonely tomato plant: somehow, four more have sprouted in the same pot!  I have no idea how it happened, but maybe I'll have more than one tomato after all!  Time will tell.  I am calling it a tomato miracle.  I'll take whatever I can get!

Fresh garden beds.  I'm using stones to separate the spaces in the garden beds (just for my reference).  Top to bottom: four broccoli, three rows of radishes, and a freshly planted lettuce bed.  Potatoes on the right.

The miracle tomato pot.  Five plants.  How...??

Potato plants just beginning to poke through the dirt.

The lone asparagus!

I think we have a pair of nesting cardinals somewhere in our property.  I've seen this guy out and about a lot lately, and the female is usually somewhere nearby.  I have yet to locate the nest, although I'm really not looking for it.  I will leave it be.  But it's such a treat to see the bright red contrasted against the lush green grass when I catch him poking around the yard.  Check him out!

"Hmmm, which blade of grass will be tasty?"

"This one looks delicious!"

Well, as of right now, the doctor doesn't think that I am gluten intolerant.  Removing gluten from my diet didn't make much difference in the symptoms, and the celiac blood test came back normal.  They still have no idea what may be going on, though.  I'm slowly adding wheat-based products back to my diet.  I can't say that I've noticed any difference my overall health by avoiding gluten-based products, and I don't believe that it's a good idea for a body's health to cut out an entire food group from the diet, but I am going to try and cut back a bit.  Hopefully I'll find out some more answers when I go back to the doctor this week: they did an abdominal ultrasound on Friday, and I'll get the results.  I don't anticipate them finding any issues in the results, though.  Time will tell.

Independence Day Celebrations!

What Fun We've Been Having

Hello!  It's been a little while since I've been on here.  We've had a lot going on over the past few weeks!  We were affected by the storm that moved across the eastern US on June 29, resulting in no access to the Internet or any news for several days.  Praise the Lord, though, that we didn't lose power during one of the hottest weeks of the year, though!  We watched the storm come through, and it was unlike anything we'd ever seen.  After the storm, we drove through town to see how everyone else fared, and it was an astonishing scene of destruction.  Massive trees were uprooted and homes damaged, windows were blown out and shattered, debris in the streets, and about 90% of the city was without power.  While everyone has their power back, there is still a lot of cleaning up being done.  I didn't have to go in to work last week--the town where I work didn't have power until last Wednesday night, and I'd requested Thursday off to go up to Michigan to visit family (more about that in a moment).  To sum it up, I ended up with a surprise week of vacation thanks to the storms!  I needed it, but it's been really hard to get the motivation to be back at work this week as a result.  I wish I had more pictures, but these will do for now:

Overturned shed in the yard next to my work.

Wide view of the house across from where I work.  The arrow on the left shows the bottom half of what's left of a pine tree that was about the same height as the one next to it; the arrow on the right shows half of a tree that was destroyed.

A closer picture of the destroyed tree.

Everything in town had pretty much come to a stand-still for the Fourth of July celebrations, and even though the fireworks happened as scheduled here, we opted to stay in and out of the intense heat.  Besides, we knew we were going to see the granddaddy of all fireworks shows up in Bay City, Michigan.  Every year, since before I was born, the city has held a three-day fireworks festival for Independence Day, and this year was the 50th anniversary of the festival.  They had promised that it would be the biggest show ever, and it truly was.  We left Thursday and stayed with my mom, as we always do.  I showed my mom how to make the scented gels, and we made a dozen together, creating new scents and having a good time.

The next day, my mom, stepdad, husband and I all traveled an hour and a half north to a beach on Lake Huron.  It had been years since I'd been up that way, and I had forgotten how beautiful of a drive it was.  We took food with us and once we arrived at the beach, we had ourselves a nice picnic, with grilled hot dogs, all kinds of chips, a delicious broccoli cole slaw, and fresh watermelon.  We spent several hours there, until the beach began to get too crowded for our liking and we began to get a little crispy.  We headed back to meet my sister and her husband for dinner at a favorite Mongolian barbecue restaurant, and we all had a good time together.

Saturday was the big day!  Lunch with my dad, a little shopping with my sister and brother-in-law, and the fireworks festival!!  My hubby and I left a little early to go to a few shops downtown (there are some really great little boutiques in Bay City), and several antiques stores, as well.  I have to credit my love of antiques and historic architecture to growing up in Bay City, because it has a good amount of both!  It's changed since I left almost fifteen years ago, but it still has some great gems.  I found a small cast iron cauldron at an antiques shop just before lunch, and plan to give it a new coat of paint and use it for a little flower pot on our table on the patio.  It's super-cute.  I'll post pictures later.  Then it was time to meet for lunch, and we ate at a little Italian restaurant and chatted.  Afterward, we went to St. Laurent Brothers, the chocolate/candy store that's been there since 1903.  I have always loved going there, and since I no longer live there, it's always a treat to be able to stop in.  I sampled an almond confection that was great--and I don't really even like almonds!--they had coated whole almonds in dark chocolate, then coated it in cocoa powder, and it was delicious!  We did some errands with my sis and b-i-l, and then had dinner.  Then, finally time for the fireworks!  We met my sister and b-i-l at the park downtown, and after waiting for a few hours, it was time for the fireworks to begin!  They shot off 50,000 shells in a fifty-minute show choreographed to music.  It was AWESOME!!  They usually have a great show every year, but this was above and beyond what we expected.  We were all impressed.  To see pro photos and a video of the entire show, click this link to the Bay City Times July 7.  You won't be sorry...unless you're sorry you missed it!  I took video, too, but the videos are way too big to load onto here and even YouTube, so I'll just post a few photos for your enjoyment:

Whew!  This is a long post!

And now...onto the Owl Corner!

Photo from Owling.com.

This week's little guy is called an Elf Owl.  He's called such because he's so tiny.  He's actually the smallest owl in North America, and one of the smallest in the world.  The size of a common sparrow, the elf owl has a call that sounds like a yapping poodle.  Its main habitat area is the southwestern US and parts of Mexico, and eats mostly bugs and beetles.  During breeding season, the male owl is known to sing throughout the night (what a way to woo!), and when the female lays eggs, they usually nest inside old woodpecker holes and saguaro cacti.  The female usually lays 2-4 eggs.  These owls are on the endangered species list.

Photo from Owling.com, and information from Owling.com and Audubon.org.

And finally
...the next post will be post #100!  I'll have to come up with something good to talk about.  Until then, adios!

Today, Christians are under attack more than ever in this country.  While this is not the first time a nation has rebelled against the commandments of God, I think that we are approaching some really serious consequences for our rebellion.  I have to believe that we have been under the protection of God for a long time, but probably not much longer.  We as Christians are called to be modern-day prophets and evangelists in a world that doesn't want to hear a much-needed message of love and hope. The prophet Ezekiel experienced a world much like the one in which we live today: "He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against Me to this very day.  The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ And whether they listen or fail to listen —for they are a rebellious house —they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. You must speak My words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious." (Ezekiel 2:2-7)  Sounds an awful lot like what we are still called to do today!  

Introducing...The Owl Corner! Learning is Fun Again. Plus, A Floral Arrangement and Other Neat Stuff!

The Owl Corner

Photo by Harrison Benjamin, from Audubon.org.

Welcome to a new series that I dedicate to my sister called "The Owl Corner".  She loves owls, so I'll add a little info about owls in her honor!  Some brief fun facts on owls:
-More than 130 different types of owls live all around the world, with habitats ranging from the North Pole to the deep tropics.  Only 19 types of owls are found in North America.
-The smallest owl is the Elf Owl, which stands at 5 1/2" tall, and the largest owl is the North American Gray Owl, which stands at over 2'.
-Owls are known for their incredible vision and hearing.
-An owl's feet have two toes that point forward and two toes that point backward to give a stronger grip on prey.
-Owls help control the rodent and insect populations, and are fascinating to watch.  Keep an eye on your small pets outside, though, because large owls (as well as other large birds of prey) have been know to attack kittens and small dogs.

The owl pictured (and oh my gosh, isn't he cute??)  is an Eastern Screech Owl.  It can be found east of the Rockies, and lives on small animals and insects.  They range in size from 6"-10" tall, with the females being larger than the males.  A neat fact: screech owls usually mate with the same partner for life, and usually lay a nest of 2-6 eggs at a time.  They prefer to live in dense trees, and you'll need to have good eyes to spot them during the day: they like to nest in tree cavities and evergreens at least twelve feet off of the ground, and some can even be found sixty-five feet up in the taller trees! 
(Information take from Audubon.org, Ask.com, and Allaboutbirds.org)


Fake Flower Arranging 101
The other day, I wandered over to the local Hobby Lobby (it's always dangerous when hubby leaves for business trips, because I have to find some way to entertain myself!) and of course, I headed to the clearance aisles first.  Usually, they only have broken, chipped, useless items in the clearance, but it's my nature to investigate to the fullest extent, and this time, they had some things that I could use!  I am really interested in glass items right now, and I like to use them to decorate the house in all sorts of ways.  This trip, I found a glass thingamajig that looks like it could be used for keeping olive oil or something similar for cooking, but it didn't have a glass stopper in the top (which, if it originally had one, would explain why it was on mega-clearance).  I had to have it, and I also had to have a neat outdoor thermometer that looks like a sun.  I had an idea of what I wanted to use the glass bottle for, so I meandered over to the fake flower aisle.  Normally, I am not a fake flower fan, but I found some that I really liked (I can't call them silk, because they aren't made of anything remotely silk-like.  It's more of a flocked flexible rubber that looks a lot better than it sounds).  I purchased the glass bottle for $1.60, thermometer for $6.00, and flowers--three stems at half price for a total of $6.00--for a grand total of $13.60 plus tax.  I proudly walked out with my prized new possessions, eager to get home and get crafty!  Once home, I clipped the stems of the fake flowers to the lengths that I wanted them.  Then, I arranged them, one stalk at a time, tying each stalk together with floral wire that I already had.  When I had arranged them the way I liked, I tied them together one more time with a length of floral wire, then I wrapped it all with ribbon.  I tied the ribbon around the top, a little lower than where I planned to end with the ribbon.  With the ribbon tied, I began winding the ribbon very tightly around the bunch of stems, going down the stems first, then tightly wrapping back up the stems to the top.  When I got to the place I wanted to stop, I cut the ribbon, folded the cut end under, and fastened it in place with a straight pin.

If you do this, you can be more decorative with the straight pin, using something with a decorative head, or weave multiple colors of ribbons around the stems in a braid pattern.  I was happy with what I did, but the possibilities are really only limited by your imagination.  I then placed the bouquet into the bottle, and wrapped more ribbon around the top of the bottle, making a bow.  And voila!  For about $10, I had created a nice centerpiece or decorative vase for any room in the house.  All you need is a good clearance selection and a little imagination.  I still have to place my thermometer, though.

The Hawk Flies at Midnight

Photo courtesy of Animalplanet.com

Well, maybe not midnight, but the other day, while I was leaving Jo Ann Crafts (again, hubby leaves me alone, so I have to do something with my lonely self), I heard a rustling in the decorative shrubs near the door as I was heading back to my car.  I looked over, and out of the shrub pops a hawk!  I stopped and watched to see what he would do.  He had something in one of his claws, which piqued my curiosity.  He then hopped out into the mall driveway, and he watched me as I moved closer to see what was in his grasp.  He gave me the bird eye the whole time, as though sizing me up (who would win in a fight--a thirty-something, out of shape woman or a hawk with a very pointy beak and sharp talons?  Before you answer, I should say that I'd put my money on the hawk) but allowed me to get within ten feet of him and see that what he had as a small bird, likely a sparrow, that I didn't think was quite dead yet, because one leg kept twitching.  I didn't know that birds ate other birds, but this one was very obviously about to be the hawk's dinner.  We just stared at each other for a few moments, I observing just how pretty the hawk was, and he likely thinking nothing of the sort about me.  Then, a van came up the driveway, and the hawk flew away with dinner, and I was left standing in the middle of the mall drive watching the hawk fly to the top of the building.  The guy driving the van must have thought I was lost or crazy just standing there, but I didn't care.  It was a rare glimpse of nature that I don't get to see very often while living in town.  It was really fascinating.  Oddly enough, another day last weekend, hubby and I saw a fox in the broad daylight standing in a field near a busy road.  Maybe the animals are trying to take back their property!

Miscellaneous Plug

Finally, I have to mention this nifty storage solution for anyone who likes to do canning: Jar Boxes!  I found this on the Little House on the Prairie Living blog, a blog which I follow and where I find a lot of useful info on homesteading and the like.  The author found these while trying to find a solution to moving all of her full canning jars in her pantry.  I have to say, I'm very interested in these!  They are currently only available online, but will be found at Menard's in the future.  To view her blog about these and see pictures, click HERE.

I struggle every day with the influences of the world around me.  It's not easy, in a world of material means, to remember that having what you want is not really the ultimate goal in life.  Whenever I read the following passage, I always feel a conviction to do better with my goals and priorities: "If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content." 1 Timothy 6:3-8.  To sum it up: When someone tries to twist the words of Jesus for his own gain, he will never be content, and he will always perpetuate a "constant friction" between himself and those around him.  Being content with what God has given us, and not constantly striving for more, is where our focus needs to be, because when we are truly content, truly thankful for the provisions that God has bestowed upon us, that contentment will be more satisfying than anything that money can ever buy.  A great life lesson!