spring & summer 2015 harvests
9.12.2015
It has been a LOOOONG time (3 years!!!) since I posted something about gardening. We still do it, and we still make some mean dewberry jam, I just have not been diligent about photographing the hauls and posting the progress.
We have three peach trees. Two of them are dwarf trees, and is a one regular southern peach. The largest dwarf tree produces the biggest, fattest, juiciest, peachiest peaches I've ever had. The poor tree is about 6 feet tall and 7 feet wide. The leaves are HUGE, so they hide all the peaches from the birds until the fruit is perfect and ready to be picked The other dwarf tree is still a baby. We got one peach this year. Awwww.
The southern peach tree is the largest in the garden, but it has normal leaves, so the fruit isn't' quite as hidden -- that means we have a constant battle with birds and wind for the fruit.
Thankfully this year we have had ample rain so apples, peaches and berries were prolific. We ended up picking dwarf peaches every couple of days for three weeks before it was empty. Prairie Husband sliced and cut them up, I processed, froze or canned for days and days. YUM! Some got a bit of sugar, some were put away in their own juice; all taste GREAT!!
Prairie Husband also found a fabulous bevy of wild dew berries.... but I promised I wouldn't tell you or anyone else where!! He went out here every few days to watch for ripe berries so he could get them before anyone or anything else (wild hogs!! Yikes!). Diligence paid off! They were delicious! We still have several pounds in the freezer, too.
The peaches and the berries together make the absolute best Peach-Berry Crumble! Sorry -- no photo of those. They don't last long enough. maybe the next time. :-)
On a sadder not, the garden suffered from lack of motivation this season. I had NO motivation and Prairie Husband had minimal. We got a load of cucumbers, a few messes of green beans, a lower amount of tomatoes than ever before and only a few squash this time. It just never really warmed up enough, even though this is Texas. It was a weird summer. I think the foot and half of rain we got was a little much, too, for the bedding plants to handle. The okra did great until it didn't. Okra is fickle -- it likes it really hot and really dry -- a combination we didn't see much of here this summer. We had a few pickings of carrots, radishes, lettuce and spinach, but over all it was pretty piddly. There is always next year!
The main beds are cleaned out and covered now, the organic matter in them breaking down and getting ready for spring! The grass took over the butterfly garden beds -- oh well. I don't have the patience for Bermuda grass issues. I wish it would all curl up and DIE!! >:-{ The drought the summer before last summer took care of the poor plum, nectarine and pluot trees. RIP. We also discovered that all four of our apple trees have fire blight and have to come out. We'll have to plant all new trees in new areas and hope for the best since we are told that there is a fire blight issue with certain apple trees in our area. This is NOT good news.
Although it is all a lot of work, it is fun, great exercise, and good for us. I love being outside, even when it's really, really, really hot in Texas. There is a certain satisfaction you get from growing your own food that you can't get from any other project.
We have three peach trees. Two of them are dwarf trees, and is a one regular southern peach. The largest dwarf tree produces the biggest, fattest, juiciest, peachiest peaches I've ever had. The poor tree is about 6 feet tall and 7 feet wide. The leaves are HUGE, so they hide all the peaches from the birds until the fruit is perfect and ready to be picked The other dwarf tree is still a baby. We got one peach this year. Awwww.
The southern peach tree is the largest in the garden, but it has normal leaves, so the fruit isn't' quite as hidden -- that means we have a constant battle with birds and wind for the fruit.
Thankfully this year we have had ample rain so apples, peaches and berries were prolific. We ended up picking dwarf peaches every couple of days for three weeks before it was empty. Prairie Husband sliced and cut them up, I processed, froze or canned for days and days. YUM! Some got a bit of sugar, some were put away in their own juice; all taste GREAT!!
Prairie Husband also found a fabulous bevy of wild dew berries.... but I promised I wouldn't tell you or anyone else where!! He went out here every few days to watch for ripe berries so he could get them before anyone or anything else (wild hogs!! Yikes!). Diligence paid off! They were delicious! We still have several pounds in the freezer, too.
The peaches and the berries together make the absolute best Peach-Berry Crumble! Sorry -- no photo of those. They don't last long enough. maybe the next time. :-)
On a sadder not, the garden suffered from lack of motivation this season. I had NO motivation and Prairie Husband had minimal. We got a load of cucumbers, a few messes of green beans, a lower amount of tomatoes than ever before and only a few squash this time. It just never really warmed up enough, even though this is Texas. It was a weird summer. I think the foot and half of rain we got was a little much, too, for the bedding plants to handle. The okra did great until it didn't. Okra is fickle -- it likes it really hot and really dry -- a combination we didn't see much of here this summer. We had a few pickings of carrots, radishes, lettuce and spinach, but over all it was pretty piddly. There is always next year!
The main beds are cleaned out and covered now, the organic matter in them breaking down and getting ready for spring! The grass took over the butterfly garden beds -- oh well. I don't have the patience for Bermuda grass issues. I wish it would all curl up and DIE!! >:-{ The drought the summer before last summer took care of the poor plum, nectarine and pluot trees. RIP. We also discovered that all four of our apple trees have fire blight and have to come out. We'll have to plant all new trees in new areas and hope for the best since we are told that there is a fire blight issue with certain apple trees in our area. This is NOT good news.
Although it is all a lot of work, it is fun, great exercise, and good for us. I love being outside, even when it's really, really, really hot in Texas. There is a certain satisfaction you get from growing your own food that you can't get from any other project.
building the prairie garden's new raised beds :: spring 2012
8.25.2012
250 sq ft up to 900 sq ft at once! Whew! That was a LOT of work!! No, we don't believe in doing this part way, or a little at a time. Nope. Full throttle. 200% all the time. Go for the gusto! Work like you mean it! We worked until it began to get dark and my pictures were not turning out. Then it was dark and there was no moon, so we gave up for the night.
We were WORN. OUT.
Then came the planting, watering, de-bugging, weeding, and watching! Wow!
Watching the growing and blooming is the best part! We planted a LOT in 900 sq ft. Over the years we have come to use a modified square foot gardening technique combined with companion planting. So far it has worked well. Prairie Husband built all of our beds so they can mostly likely withstand flood, hurricane, and tornado -- pretty much anything you can throw at them. I do NOT want to be the person who has to disassemble any one of these beds. lol This year we planted squash - bell peppers - wild flowers - Lima beans - carrots - eggplant - tomatoes - onions - serrano peppers - garlic - chives - thyme - rosemary - okra - cilantro - parsley - habanero peppers - beans - radishes - peas - various lettuces - spinach - roses - Swiss chard - arugula - mesculin - basil - dill - chili peppers - oregano - black-eyed peas - and cucumbers. I think that was it! One weekend to build the beds and fill them. One weekend to lay the landscape cloth and cover it all with 8" of shredded mulch. Two long, hot, sunny days to plant the majority of the transplants and seeds. I went back to the store a couple of times and picked up odds and ends. 900 sq ft of growing yummy goodness! Woot!! :-)
Since I am copying this from the long-lost blog (see 'time for a new beginning...again..' dated 11.1.2013 for an explanation about that), next I'll copy the list of all we canned, dehydrated or froze, in addition to what we ate!
We were WORN. OUT.
Then came the planting, watering, de-bugging, weeding, and watching! Wow!
Watching the growing and blooming is the best part! We planted a LOT in 900 sq ft. Over the years we have come to use a modified square foot gardening technique combined with companion planting. So far it has worked well. Prairie Husband built all of our beds so they can mostly likely withstand flood, hurricane, and tornado -- pretty much anything you can throw at them. I do NOT want to be the person who has to disassemble any one of these beds. lol This year we planted squash - bell peppers - wild flowers - Lima beans - carrots - eggplant - tomatoes - onions - serrano peppers - garlic - chives - thyme - rosemary - okra - cilantro - parsley - habanero peppers - beans - radishes - peas - various lettuces - spinach - roses - Swiss chard - arugula - mesculin - basil - dill - chili peppers - oregano - black-eyed peas - and cucumbers. I think that was it! One weekend to build the beds and fill them. One weekend to lay the landscape cloth and cover it all with 8" of shredded mulch. Two long, hot, sunny days to plant the majority of the transplants and seeds. I went back to the store a couple of times and picked up odds and ends. 900 sq ft of growing yummy goodness! Woot!! :-)
Since I am copying this from the long-lost blog (see 'time for a new beginning...again..' dated 11.1.2013 for an explanation about that), next I'll copy the list of all we canned, dehydrated or froze, in addition to what we ate!
making squash relish with a 25 lb fresh summer squash harvest
6.4.2012
Squash relish, you say? Yes! But shhhhh..... no one in my family under 30 knows it's not pickle relish! ;-) 25 lbs of squash yielded 8 pints of relish. I sure thought it would have made more.
broccoli and cauliflower and cabbage
12.2.2011
The winter/fall garden has served us well and is still going strong. The weather has been so warm here this winter that the garlic and onions all came up thinking it was spring time. I hope we don't end up with 2 full weeks of snow and ice on the ground like we did last winter or they make not make it. Right now they are about a 9-10 inches tall and looking like a million bucks!
The broccoli and cauliflower are still going strong, too. Last Friday I picked 4 gallon ziplock bags worth of brassicas - er, I mean, broccoli and cauliflower. I knew the varieites I chose to plant would be colorful and pretty, but I had no idea they'd turn out this great! I took some pictures and will add them to this post shortly. I planted white, purple and pink cauliflower along with green, purple and vivid light green broccoli. They were GORGEOUS on the raw veggie platter with baby carrots, celery, and homemade french onion dip!
I'm still holding off on an overall assessment about which of the varieties did the best here during our mild winter. I'll post updates as soon as I have some answers. So far, Mammoth Broccoli is the best -- EXCELLENT growth, full heads with beautiful color, and great flavor. The down-side is that the leaf hoppers LOVE to eat every last leaf on the plants, too. :( Diatomaceous earth worked like a champ on the little, disgusting buggers!! <shudder>
The cabbage plants are doing well overall. A couple of the varieties did better than the others. I have that all marked and will post here when I have answers on that, too. The Chinese or Napa cabbages did better in one bed than in the other. ???? Not sure why ... I need to study that a bit more and figure out the soil difference.s. The heirloom head cabbage is just starting to get little knobs - they are about the size of pool balls as of today. Yay! I would really love to have a big enough harvest to make one good batch of German kraut! It makes my mouth water just thinking about it!!! I am watching them veeeeeery closely, with DE in hand!
The thyme and chard and cilantro are going strong. OH! and the little plot of spinach is about ready for harvest. It'll be more than enough for a giant spinach salad with all the accoutrements later this week. Lettuce that I'd long written off all of a sudden sprouted it's tiny little heads up, too. Since I can never eat enough cilantro (corriander), it's a good thing this has been a good winter for it. I think the plant is 3 feet in diameter! It started to bolt once, but I cut the top right off; it has behaved itself since! I always get so sad when it heats up and it dies back. This year I am going to attempt growing it INDOORS in the air conditioning. LOL
The broccoli and cauliflower are still going strong, too. Last Friday I picked 4 gallon ziplock bags worth of brassicas - er, I mean, broccoli and cauliflower. I knew the varieites I chose to plant would be colorful and pretty, but I had no idea they'd turn out this great! I took some pictures and will add them to this post shortly. I planted white, purple and pink cauliflower along with green, purple and vivid light green broccoli. They were GORGEOUS on the raw veggie platter with baby carrots, celery, and homemade french onion dip!
I'm still holding off on an overall assessment about which of the varieties did the best here during our mild winter. I'll post updates as soon as I have some answers. So far, Mammoth Broccoli is the best -- EXCELLENT growth, full heads with beautiful color, and great flavor. The down-side is that the leaf hoppers LOVE to eat every last leaf on the plants, too. :( Diatomaceous earth worked like a champ on the little, disgusting buggers!! <shudder>
The cabbage plants are doing well overall. A couple of the varieties did better than the others. I have that all marked and will post here when I have answers on that, too. The Chinese or Napa cabbages did better in one bed than in the other. ???? Not sure why ... I need to study that a bit more and figure out the soil difference.s. The heirloom head cabbage is just starting to get little knobs - they are about the size of pool balls as of today. Yay! I would really love to have a big enough harvest to make one good batch of German kraut! It makes my mouth water just thinking about it!!! I am watching them veeeeeery closely, with DE in hand!
The thyme and chard and cilantro are going strong. OH! and the little plot of spinach is about ready for harvest. It'll be more than enough for a giant spinach salad with all the accoutrements later this week. Lettuce that I'd long written off all of a sudden sprouted it's tiny little heads up, too. Since I can never eat enough cilantro (corriander), it's a good thing this has been a good winter for it. I think the plant is 3 feet in diameter! It started to bolt once, but I cut the top right off; it has behaved itself since! I always get so sad when it heats up and it dies back. This year I am going to attempt growing it INDOORS in the air conditioning. LOL
fall garden - planted and growing
10.28.2011
It has been a busy last two weeks. The garden had pretty much gone to pot, as they say, with the drought, and the heat, and the lack of motivation in either me or Prairie Husband, to get out there and work it. In early November we still had 12 tomato plants, a slew of hot peppers, four 12 foot rows of okra, a bell pepper plant that suddenly had come to life and was producing prolifically, some chard and a few herbs. Cold weather was coming and the plants were barely hanging on, so we decided to yank most of it out and prepare our beds for spring.
This last spring we got super motivated, counting on a good summer growth season. HA! We had no idea what trauma the heat and lack of rain would cause. I am sure if we had known there would have been no way we would have work our tails off to increase our garden area from about 400 sq ft to almost 900 sq ft. You think? LOL
Looking back, I can honestly say, and I did say it directly to Prairie Husband, "WOW. All these years that I tried my best to get you to be as interested in gardening as I am finally paid off!! It's amazing how much more area we have (to garden) now that YOU find it fun!" LOL (Prairie Husband does not EVER do ANYthing partially -- not building sheds, furniture, painting, repairing things around the house, saving money, and now, not even creating more usable garden space!)
So, out came the suffering plants (all except one tomato that was covered in baseball size greenies, the 3 foot tall jalepeno pepper plant and a couple of cool weather herbs). In went the poop -- er, I mean compost, the bone meal, the azomite powder, the peat, the earthworms. Dig, turn, dig, turn, dig, turn. Thankfully it was in the 70s, not the 112s. :) ALL of the in-ground beds were covered with a couple of layers of thick black plastic, to help the soil stay warm and to speed up the composting of the ammendments we added. The large above ground bed was slowly, over the next week and a half, covered in broccolli, brussels sprouts, cabbages (head and napa), cauliflower, onions, garlic, winter chard, peppers (that I have to baby and cover when it gets cold), lettuce and spinach. More spinach and cool weather lettuces will go in in two weeks (after Dec 1). I will be spending Thanksgiving weekend making a "green house/hot box" to lay over the top of the tender greens when the weather gets colder -- if it ever does here. ;-)
There. That should keep us busy for a while - weeding, watering, watching, babying, picking, debugging. And I hope and pray it will keep the Prairie family well fed during our short winter months.
Bon Appetit!
~prairie
This last spring we got super motivated, counting on a good summer growth season. HA! We had no idea what trauma the heat and lack of rain would cause. I am sure if we had known there would have been no way we would have work our tails off to increase our garden area from about 400 sq ft to almost 900 sq ft. You think? LOL
Looking back, I can honestly say, and I did say it directly to Prairie Husband, "WOW. All these years that I tried my best to get you to be as interested in gardening as I am finally paid off!! It's amazing how much more area we have (to garden) now that YOU find it fun!" LOL (Prairie Husband does not EVER do ANYthing partially -- not building sheds, furniture, painting, repairing things around the house, saving money, and now, not even creating more usable garden space!)
So, out came the suffering plants (all except one tomato that was covered in baseball size greenies, the 3 foot tall jalepeno pepper plant and a couple of cool weather herbs). In went the poop -- er, I mean compost, the bone meal, the azomite powder, the peat, the earthworms. Dig, turn, dig, turn, dig, turn. Thankfully it was in the 70s, not the 112s. :) ALL of the in-ground beds were covered with a couple of layers of thick black plastic, to help the soil stay warm and to speed up the composting of the ammendments we added. The large above ground bed was slowly, over the next week and a half, covered in broccolli, brussels sprouts, cabbages (head and napa), cauliflower, onions, garlic, winter chard, peppers (that I have to baby and cover when it gets cold), lettuce and spinach. More spinach and cool weather lettuces will go in in two weeks (after Dec 1). I will be spending Thanksgiving weekend making a "green house/hot box" to lay over the top of the tender greens when the weather gets colder -- if it ever does here. ;-)
There. That should keep us busy for a while - weeding, watering, watching, babying, picking, debugging. And I hope and pray it will keep the Prairie family well fed during our short winter months.
Bon Appetit!
~prairie
prolific lady banks roses
5.12.2010
Lady Banks Roses on the Garage -- It only took this little vine a year to take over the front of the garage and then the next year it was covered with thousands of tiny yellow rose blooms. The scent drifted into the front door on cool days when the windows were open. It was heavenly!
By the end of the summer 2010, the vines had overtaken the trellis, the "trunks" of it nearly 3" in diameter. I finally had to give in and cut her back. I took her almost to the ground, refortified the trellis and sat back to see if I'd harmed her.
Spring and summer 2011 brought blooms again, but not as many. The vine itself is almost back to the same size as seen here though! I didn't have the heart to trim her down this time, even though the trellis is once again straining and buckling. Those tiny fragrant blooms are just too pretty to hamper!
I learned that the roses will only bloom on old canes, not new growth. Now I know not to trim her back in the winter, but instead, right after the blooms die off, so that she can grow again and be ready to bloom the next season.
Below is also close-up view of one of the nosegay blooms. I wish there was some way to relay the scent through the screen for you!
I have a white Lady Banks growing about 20 feet away from this one, on the fence, sheltering an arbor over a gateway to the vegetable garden. It has never grown like this one, nor bloomed as prolifically. It also has thorns! Ouch! The prairie boys recently trimmed it down to fence height, and cleared out some dead canes. We're hoping that we haven't completely robbed ourselves of blooms for next year. Both the yellows and the whites smell divine!
By the end of the summer 2010, the vines had overtaken the trellis, the "trunks" of it nearly 3" in diameter. I finally had to give in and cut her back. I took her almost to the ground, refortified the trellis and sat back to see if I'd harmed her.
Spring and summer 2011 brought blooms again, but not as many. The vine itself is almost back to the same size as seen here though! I didn't have the heart to trim her down this time, even though the trellis is once again straining and buckling. Those tiny fragrant blooms are just too pretty to hamper!
I learned that the roses will only bloom on old canes, not new growth. Now I know not to trim her back in the winter, but instead, right after the blooms die off, so that she can grow again and be ready to bloom the next season.
Below is also close-up view of one of the nosegay blooms. I wish there was some way to relay the scent through the screen for you!
I have a white Lady Banks growing about 20 feet away from this one, on the fence, sheltering an arbor over a gateway to the vegetable garden. It has never grown like this one, nor bloomed as prolifically. It also has thorns! Ouch! The prairie boys recently trimmed it down to fence height, and cleared out some dead canes. We're hoping that we haven't completely robbed ourselves of blooms for next year. Both the yellows and the whites smell divine!