Pardon the Garden

Confessions of a lazy wannabe homesteader

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Fall harvest

October 4, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

Tonight we picked the last of the peppers in the garden. The plants are still trying to flower but I doubt we’ll get much more from them. I also grabbed the only good cob of corn – we have some other, smaller ones on the stalks still, but they’re not great so I’m going to leave them for the squirrels.

This season’s garden just wasn’t all we hoped it would be. Another year of fighting weeds, bugs, and just not enough time. Our tomatoes were pretty worthless, with most of them either ending up with rot or bugs nibbling on them. The kale did great, but we never even touched it (talk about a waste!). The eggplant only produced two fruits but they weren’t great, either.  I’d like to blame the weather entirely for the garden’s faults, but it’s our own faults, too, for not keeping up on it more, keeping it weeded better, etc.

Lessons learned and notes for next spring:

  • Trellises were a great idea… if we had actually gotten them all installed in time.
  • Pickling cucumbers suck as a regular eating cucumber. Skip those next year. Also skip the kale, the celery, and the eggplant. Complete waste when we don’t even bother to eat them. (Perhaps that’s something to work on next year?)
  • That burgundy corn? Plant that again! If only because it’s absolutely gorgeous!
  • Tomatillos – you need to pick those suckers earlier before they drop off the vines. Also, the ants like them.
  • Start the seeds indoors and actually pay attention before they dry out and die! NO MORE STORE-BOUGHT PLANTS NEXT YEAR!
  • PUMPKINS.  Absolutely must plant some sort of pumpkin!
  • Garden soil definitely needs some amendments to fix that blossom end rot the tomatoes had.

In the ultimate dream of being self-sufficient and producing enough food to can and preserve to (mostly) provide for ourselves… we’ve failed greatly. So I guess it’s good that we don’t actually have to provide for ourselves through our garden!

Posts fall, garden

The October Slow Down

September 30, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

I can’t believe we’re at the end of September already. Wasn’t just yesterday the end of August? Where has the time gone?

This month has felt so busy, and an October slow down feels absolutely necessary. I need time to settle down and refocus. I’ve not spent a lot of time focusing on things at home, and I feel it internally as well as seeing the external results. I’ve over-committed myself these last few months, and now it’s time to slow down, get reorganized, and regroup.

 

Posts fall, knitting, Me

Vacation photo dump

September 24, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

Two cameras worth of photos to edit, which is very… boring. All those shots of the lake? They all end up looking the same after a while. I know there was a reason for taking all those photos, but perhaps next time I’ll remember that just a few is perfectly fine.

The weather didn’t want to cooperate, and the perfect sunny weather the previous week had turned to cold and rainy. To make it worse both of us were sick. We made do, though – either sucking it up and going out in the rain or finding shops to duck into to wait the heavier rain out. I spent most of our days feeling high from medicine but trying to power through and make the most of the trip, and then we’d return to the motel where I’d crash hard asleep on the couch while we watched TV. We’re the epitome of exciting, aren’t we?

Despite the weather (and being sick) we managed to see and do quite a bit. Pasties for lunch, hot chocolate at the cafe/book store, beach walks to see the shipwreck remains, lighthouses, waterfalls, Presque Isle with its monster rocks and heavy winds and crashing waves… not a bad itinerary, if I do say so myself.

Posts fall, family, nature, out & about, travels

Homeward bound

September 23, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

image

We’re on our way home as I write. It’s been a long, kinda chilly weekend but much loved as the Mr and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. It was a great way to celebrate. Pictures and more to follow as soon as I get a chance to sift through the bazillion photos we took. For now I leave you with a pretty waterfall we visited while in the UP.

Posts fall, family, out & about, travels

Apple season

September 16, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

$24, 1.5 hours, and 54lbs later… I have an epic amount of canning to do. So far I’ve finished 7 jars of applesauce. I don’t think I even used half of a bag. I’m working on another batch of applesauce (I go through it like crazy over the winter!), but everything else is up in the air. I’ve got a bee in my bonnet to try making some hard cider, but that requires equipment I don’t have. So I’ll probably settle for some apple butter, and maybe some apple pie filling? I’m having a hard time finding recipes to can that are different from the usual things. Maybe I should hit the liquor store and get some brandy and soak the apples in that?

Posts fall, food, preserving

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Pardon the garden. A phrase I’m most likely to utter anytime anyone visits the house during the growing seasons of spring through fall. Sure, there are pretty flowers and delicious veggies in there somewhere, but they might be a little hard to find amidst the mess of overgrown grass, dandelions, and weeds that have found their way in there and haven’t been pulled. Read On

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