Small Garden

Usually by this time of year the garden is in full swing and we are getting ready for the fair. There are piles of tomatoes and zucchini and we are canning like crazy and giving the stuff away. This is not the case this year. This past weekend we finally had a break in the hot weather, Sunday was overcast and cool so it was time to work in the garden. The main goal was to move the irrigation hoses around to only water where there were still plants. We also cleared out the weed and dead plants, this resulted in showing how truly small the garden is this year.

So what do we have left...well there is the kale

...and a tomato plant.

Here is Katie with the kale.

Katie with the peppers, there are three plants.

There is a random volunteer tomatillo that hasn't produced yet but looks healthy.

The corn is doing good and getting quite tall. This is all popcorn so we are in the drying out phase.

The pomegranate tree is doing good but no blooms yet. The near by peach tree did have three peaches but the birds ate them before we could get them. 

And here is the wide view of the garden. There are two watermelon plants and a cantaloupe but so far the melons are really small and I don't hold out much hope for them producing.

I had thought last year the garden was low producing but this year makes last year look like a great year. I have not found anyone who has had a good year. There are a variety of possible factors including the severe drought, usually hot weather, etc... Given the current state of water in California if there isn't rain this winter we may not be doing a garden next year just to conserve water. 

Garlic

We planted garlic in the garden over a year ago, recently my brother decided it was time to harvest it. We used the seedling shelves to lay the garlic plants out to dry.

The garlic has blossoms on it that need to be separated.

Kevin and Katie have been working on this.

The small seed, bulb part will be able to be planted for future garlic plants.

Grapes and Beets

This year my garden is really not taking off, usually I would have a whole bunch of posts highlighting all of the bounty from the garden...but not this year. We have pulled two small zucchini, grapes and beets. Not sure what the problem is this year but we have not given up yet!

Here are the grapes. I went to Las Vegas for the annual gathering of librarians known as ALA. When I got home I looked into my back yard and found a nice purple surprise! In a few weeks the green grapes should be ready as well.

Also a little over a week ago I was weeding the garden and noticed the beets were ready. I pulled all of them not sure if they were going to be ok, some were huge which usually means they will be fibrous. This was by far the largest crop of beets I have had survive. 

A day after picking them we canned them There were a variety of types of beets but we cooked them and canned them. They were delicious! We did two canning methods, the smaller beets were left whole and the larger ones were sliced.

\

Strawberries

My strawberry plants have really taken off this year, a bowl full were collected today and quickly eaten!

Garden is Going

We got a bit of rain this last weekend, not nearly enough to make a dent in the drought but it gave the yard a little boost. I have been taking pictures of the progress but failed on the posting them part. The weeds also got a boost so don't mind them in the photos.

 Here is the peach tree, it had a few peaches on it! Katie is keeping a close eye on them.

Here are the rows of beets and kale.

Here are two rows of tomatoes, that is the artichokes there on the end. We already harvested those a few weeks ago.

Here is the side yard, our new addition this year. The hoses show where the rows are. Today the corn and popcorn seeds were planted.

There are still a few shelves of baby plants growing in the garage, they will be moving out to the yard in the next few weeks.

Side Yard

This year I want to expand the garden to my side yard, we have been working on cleaning up the branches that were put there when removed a few years ago. The branches are almost gone! With the recent rain storm the weeds grew like crazy, some were over a few feet tall. This weekend was time to mow and weed whack to clean it up. Here is a look a little over half down. 

I moved the remaining branches and wood near the house to get everything down. I had a helper from the window.

A look at the finished mowing. There are still tree stumps here from the cottonwood trees that took forever to get rid of.

My brother happened to show up so he started tilling it.

Here is the finished tilled area, cant wait to get some plants in here!

Speaking of plants here is a look at how they are doing.

It's that time of year again

It is seed planting time again, over the last week Katie and Kevin have been starting to plant the first round of seeds and they have started sprouting.

Also with out freakish warm weather everything is blooming. The lack of water or rain is a serious issue. We are experiencing the driest year on record and there is no snow pack to rely on either. I have a lot of concerns for my garden this year. However my peach tree is blooming and the blooms are beautiful.

A vibrant color.

My grape plants are also sprouting tiny fuzzy buds.

The bulbs in my front planters are about to bloom as well.

These are a little camouflage but are definitely there.

Overall things are growing and blooming and its good to be getting back into it.

Fall into Winter Yard

My garden was cleared out early this year and I am still getting peppers and tomatoes, the artichokes, garlic and beans are still going strong.

The beans are going crazy, we put many plants in so there is a lot of variety and figuring out what the beans are is an adventure.

These long ones are dried out and were ready to pick.

We didnt get many beans... but we did get some. I will probably mix them in with other dried beans to cook and eat them.

My peach tree was thought lost at one point but is still hanging in there. The rhubarb that I had planted next to it did well while the corn was there around it but died as soon as the corn came out, perhaps too much sun. 

The pomegranete tree is still doing well. I will be pruning it even more this winter as it just keeps getting taller. We got a good crop this year which we finished off a few weeks ago but you can still see some empty red husks there at the top of the tree, way out of reach.

Here you can see what is left of the lawn that I planted. Most of it did well but there are bald spots. I reseeded and fertilized last week, if it sprouts before it freezes there should be an improvement in the Spring. The grapes are losing their leaves and we will be doing some structural work on the trellis when they get pruned.

In the mostly cleared out garden we have finally planted a winter crop. This is a mix of seeds for plants that are beneficial to the soil. The idea being that you grow it over the winter and in the spring you till it into the soil and do not have to add fertilizer or mulch. I have very healthy soil due to the addition of large quantities of mulch over the years, we hope this will keep the quality ip with a lot less shoveling. 

The next project in the yard will be to finish clearing out the garden once it freezes, surprisingly this has not happened yet. Until it does we will keep picking tomatoes and peppers from the garden. 

Pumpkin and Squash

I have posted about our pumpkin adventures here and here. We have updated and refined the process over the years. This year we only had a few pumpkins but also had banana squash, hubbard squash and butternut squash. We cooked and combined all of these for our "pumpkin" this year. Most store bought canned pumpkin is not actually pumpkin, many other squash have similar flavors but smoother consistency.

In our usual routine we de-seeded and cut up the squash. 

The best and easiest way to cook the pumpkin is...in my pressure cooker! Usually used for canning we have found it is great for cooking large quantities of things like potatoes and squash too. The pan is large and it cooks easily.

Once cooked we run it through Kitchen Aid mixer food mill attachment (I love this attachment). We can then freeze the puree and are set for another year.

AV Fair Wrap-up

The AV Fair has come and gone, here is a wrap-up of what was entered.

Vegetables - It was a bad year all over the AV and this was clear by the entries. We did not submit nearly as much as we had planned and the total turn out was really low. Here is what we entered and how they placed: 

Japanese Eggplant 1st Place

Banana Squash 1st Place

Hubbard Squash 3rd Place

Tomatillo 3rd Place

Pumpkin 1st Place

Canning - We entered the most in canning

Carrots 3rd Place

Bread and Butter Pickles 2nd Place

Cucumber Pickles 1st Place

Blackberry Jam 1st Place

Strawberry Jam

Apple Preserves Honorable Mention

Apple Jelly 2nd Place

Jalapeno Jelly 1st Place

Lemon Jelly 3rd Place

Mint Jelly Honorable Mention

Blueberry Chutney 2nd Place

Golden Gossip Chutney 2nd Place

Dried Zucchini 3rd Place

Quilting - I entered two quilts and actually did well with one, I have never placed at all in quilting

Halloween Jelly Roll Race Quilt

All Framed Up Quilt 1st place and Best of Division

It took first for its category, machine pieced and machine quilted and best of division. All quilts are split into two divisions based on size so it took the top ribbon for all quilts 42" and under. I was pretty excited about this!