Monday 28 July 2014

Things I've Been Doing and Freebie

The garden so far:

Weeded, stone picked and augmented all eleven beds
Put new boards around four of them-the remainder will be a winter project
Planted a strawberry bed with a mixture of June bearing and Everbearing plants. No strawberries yet as we nipped off the flowers to encourage growth.


Sowed beets, carrots, parsnips, peas, wax and green beans.

Tomato plants just appeared one day in the beets and parsnips. ?seeds in compost ?birds. Despite interfering with my planting plans we left them and they are covered in fruit. The beets like their new friends the parsnips not so much.
The three smallest and saddest beds were seeded with buckwheat as green manure. The flowers attract pollinators so it is doing double duty. Later these beds will contain our winter crops.


Busy harvesting blueberries, I can barely keep up.

Rose rescue mission in progress. More on that in another post.

Deer have discovered the sweet peas and consider them a gourmet snack. If you are a long time reader you will know sweet peas are a must have in my garden. How I Became a Gardener Part 1

The to do list for the garden seems as long as ever. The to do list for the house is lost.

On other fronts

I'm collating images for our garden club cookbook
Attending numerous meetings about the new library-it's an uphill battle
Just stopped taking antibiotics for strep throat. Off to the doc's for a recheck later this week. Please let it be gone, I can't face any more pills.

To heck with it all, summer is here and so are the kids. Swimming and picnics and baseball on the lawn are the order of the day. I hope you are having as much fun as I am.


PS the first one to comment re the free book(in left column) gets it. I have an editor friend who passed this on to me as a freebie. She will even pay the postage.

16 comments:

  1. Hi Susan, well some of our friends probably think that we are crazy, too. This spring we purchased a one acre lot with a 1905 fixer-upper bungalow. For thirty-three years we lived in the same house and for the last eight years it was nice having it paid off. Now we have our other house on the market and we are enjoying starting over in the country. I feel so free. We lonely have one acre but this is at least six or maybe eight times more land than we had before. We are loving it and happy as two old geezers can possibly be.
    I'm your newest follower and I think that it would be fun comparing your journeys . . . I hope that you will follow me back. I have met some of the nicest people through blogging.
    Have a wonderful day.
    Connie :)

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    1. I know what you mean about feeling free. I step out my back door first thing in the morning and my spirit soars.

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  2. You've been working hard.

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  3. Great job! You are much more ambitious than I, but I do enjoy the fruits of my labor.

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    1. I'm planting a lot of root veggies this year that I hope will see us through most of the winter. I will certainly enjoy not going to the supermarket.

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  4. I may look into getting that book - I love all things foraged and natural. Sounds like you have been very busy! I feel for you on the library slog - we have a delightful library in town, but the librarian (though I like her) is not a good fit. She does not read fiction! She's been there a long time and no one wants to have 'the talk' with her. So the library languishes. It's a shame. Sounds like you are enjoying your summer.

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    1. Foraging is interesting and there is always the thrill of the hunt. I'm into scavenging too-stuff for the compost, old fence posts, pallets-anything I can get my grubby little hands on. Doesn't read fiction!!!!

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  5. Glad you are having a good summer friend and I hope that you get a clean bill of health. We just got home from vacation and both of my girls had strep! Not fun at all! Sounds and looks like you have an amazing harvest! That is just fantastic! And boy do I wish I had blueberries like that! Wishing you an outstanding week! Nicole xo

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    1. Poor girls, I hope they are feeling better. It has been wonderful to pick the blueberries fresh for breakfast. I'm getting a nice stock pile in the freezer too.

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  6. The birds eat my blueberries. I have yet to taste a single one this year. But the mockingbird think they're so delicious she even lined up her fledglings to help devour them. Hope your strep goes away. What a nasty thing to deal with.

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    1. The birds have had the raspberries so I feel it is only fair I get to keep the blueberries.

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  7. Susan your garden is certainly producing so many yummy treats....enjoy!!

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  8. I pulled out all of my strawberries last year to give my garden a rest. They struggled for two years so I gave up for a while. Yours look nice and healthy. I'm going to miss the garden tour again this year. Kind of sad. - Margy

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  9. My strawberries grow in a great big pot and produce enough for hungry grandchildren to pick and for me too, not that the kids have gone. Good luck with the Sweet Peas - the deer are voracious!

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  10. Sometimes the volunteer plants are the best. Sorry the deer go for the sweet peas-- our deer eat most everything, even tomato plant leaves... I do envy the blueberries. I'm hoping for a pies-worth next year!

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