Harvest Monday; May 29, 2017

Memorial Day. A time to reflect on those that have made the sacrifice for our country. I am forever grateful.

Well harvest-wise we got a few more strawberries but they are starting to die down now. We'll cut any remaining flowers off, clean up the bed, and mulch them. I am still considering transplanting them. We'll see.

Amy and I did a lot of work in the garden and her flower beds Saturday. It was a long, hot day to be sure. I got the remaining tomato plants in the ground, weeded the upper field where they went in, threw up some cages that I had, watered everything in real good (still have to run drip line up there), transplanted some marigolds between the plants, planted 3 more rows of green beans, did a little weeding on a few of the beds, finished the mulch around her flower bed, and opened the pool up, which turns out survived winter really well. All it needed was sweeping, a few chemicals added and we were off and running.

Aforementioned pool. It was very clear when we took the cover off.

I put this post in the marigold bed and Amy hung a couple of hummingbird feeders on it.

This was at the end of a long Saturday. Summer is definitely here. 

One of the three green bean beds I started a few weeks ago. Those are Copra onions in the long beds behind them. First time for those. 

Looking north.

And looking south. Still a lot to do. 

WOF Dog Farms at its finest. Looking at this reminds me to get the light post done. Sigh....

My son and I drug out the telescope this past weekend as he hasn't had the chance to view the moon through it yet. These are what we got from our driveway. It wasn't completely dark obviously and I like to view the moon during first or last quarter. Good shots with the phone though. 

I spent Sunday morning helping my oldest son put some new belts on his lawn tractor. Took us a while as we replaced all three and it's not exactly the easiest thing to work on. I come home about 2 in the afternoon to this. Amy floating in her pool. I'll say this, my wife loves her pool. 

"What are you guys doing out there?"

I changed my book on the main page as I finished it and also read another book named Hillbilly Elegy. It wasn't the longest but interesting if you know people from Appalachia. Family on my mother's side are similar to those hillbillies but not quite the same. Still half- crazy though. Worthy read if you have the time. I believe I am now going to read Vikings; Raiders, Traders and Masters of the Sea. I seem to be on a history kick and the Viking Age in particular interests me. I will cruise Barnes and Noble near my office for sale books, and yes, I buy books. I like turning pages instead of looking at a screen. :/ 

That's it for now. Dave of Our Happy Acres is host to all Harvest Mondays. 

Harvest Monday; May 22, 2017

Happy Harvest Monday. Go to Our Happy Acres to see all Harvest Mondays.
Slim pickings so far this year as strawberries have been our only harvest.

Been moving slowly this year getting things planted. Really slow. I usually have everything plated and ready by tax day, but between sickness, being worn out, and just blah its been hard to get anything done. I did get a lot of planting done this weekend as well as weeding all of the beds. I still have a few more tomatoes to put in the ground, start some eggplant, and run the water lines. I am planting all of the tomatoes in the upper field this year and am going to run the water line out of a bed that I am not using this year except for flowers. At the end of this year I plan on tearing out all of the beds and redoing them with block. The wood beds have finally worn out and are falling down. OK, enough about my problems. :)

Strawberries are even growing out of their bed. I have a plan of trying to transplant them into a long, skinny bed that I can net around.

I told Amy that we should just be marigold farmers. This is one of the beds I'm not planting out this year and volunteer marigolds have come up. 

Even got a morning glory mixed in there. 

Nice picture of Amy's flower bed. We still have a little mulch to put down.

This weeks' harvest. We grow June Bearing strawberries here as they seem to do well in our climate.

Quitting after a hot day.

WOF of the Week.

The cat loves the bags from our Sunday morning grocery shopping trips. 

Harvest Monday; October 17, 2016

Happy Harvest Monday. Cruise on over to Dave's site, Our Happy Acres for all Harvest Monday posts.
Contrary to popular opinion yes I am still around. Seems like anything that can come does come up. Been busy on other projects which means the garden has suffered. In my last post a month ago I was hoping to get some cabbage in but that didn't happen. I visited the garden this past Friday (and once before on the 26th of June) since last post and things weren't as bad as I thought they would be. Turnips came in strong and the mystery disease on the bell peppers seems to have gone away on most of the plants. Actually got a decent harvest of bell peppers and some turnips that will be cooked this week. Probably freeze the peppers. Let's take a tour.

Updated figures. Pales in comparison to last year.

I did some seed saving on the marigolds Sunday and plan on getting more seeds collected before years' end. 

Not real happy to see this Carpenter Bee cruising around but he/she is doing their job all the same. 

With the dire situation a lot of the bee population is currently facing, we need to do what we can to enlarge their habitat and garden responsibly. It is against the homeowner's covenants to have bees where we live but I may just do it anyway. I am considering mason bees as well as a hive or two of honey bees. 

Marigold Seed Saving 

Find the dead- looking ones.

Pull them out like you are deadheading them.

Pull the top off and there are the seeds. I got a lot of them saved into envelopes.

I also have more that are getting ready to bloom.

Pulled a few turnips out for meals this week. 

Part of the bell pepper harvest. 

As I know everyone is aware, Hurricane Matthew headed up the east coast last weekend and made a turn into North Carolina, our current home state. It started at our house Saturday morning and didn't let up till Sunday afternoon. We live about 120 to 150 miles from the coast so the wind speeds weren't hurricane- force but they were strong enough to topple a lot of trees. We did have a lot, I mean a lot of rain. It washed out a lot of the roads near us and people lost power for 2-5 days. Surprisingly we lost power for only about 5 hours Saturday. Usually we are the first to lose and the last to regain. People east of us towards the coast were dealing with flooding all week last week and are now cleaning up. Not a real fun time for all.

That's it for me for now. Happy Gardening.

Harvest Monday; September 12, 2016

Yes, made it back. Been a busy few weeks around here. Put the post up from our 2nd vacation day and I put our 3rd day up this past Saturday. But we are here for Harvest Monday. All Harvest Mondays can be found at Our Happy Acres.
Did a big clean- up this weekend. I let weeds overrun all of the beds, the tomatoes died off, and the marigolds have taken over. That in itself has been the best investment. Probably $5.00 invested. I got a few bell peppers and a lot of banana peppers picked this week.

The before and after shots. Man it was a chore to get those weeds out. Hope to plant some cabbages.

Hot peppers that are certainly colorful. My wife is going to take some to work with her for one of her coworkers. I am going to use some in my salsa. Have to buy some romas at the farmers' market though. Sad day here when tomatoes run out. 

Marigolds.

I planted some turnips a few weeks ago along with some cabbage seeds but the cabbage did not start. So my idea was to plant out the bed with turnips. Good idea if I had the seed to plant. 

Well that's all I got for now. Happy Harvesting. 

Harvest Monday; August 22, 2016

Yes, back on Harvest Monday. See Dave at Our Happy Acres!

Garden- wise, beyond peppers and watermelon, everything is pretty much had it. I know this is a repeat of every week but this simmer has been brutal for us gardeners (another repeat.) As I mentioned in the previous post, we took a small trip to the mountains and I just reviewed the garden when we got back Sunday. I also caught up my spreadsheet, here.

As I said I did a quick tour Sunday evening. 

Hope you can see four watermelon. That's whats there. 

Hot peppers and banana peppers seem to love this weather. My bell peppers all have bad areas on them. 

Marigolds. I have touched on them previously. I have done nothing to these. Maybe that's what I have to do with everything. 

Overall. Pretty sad. Got my work cut out for me next weekend. 

Our vacation wasn't a full week but a nice break from everything that seems to go in our daily lives. We are always busy with something. My oldest said such as much until he bought his house. Now I think he understands. Anyway we had a nice time and in looking at the pictures I see a few more upcoming posts so stay tuned. I will leave a few here. 

The house we stayed at had hummingbird feeders and I counted 10-12 at one time, fighting each other to eat. And boy do they eat. And very territorial. Actually kinda mean.

Biltmore. About 179,000 square foot. You want to clean it? 

70'-0" tall banquet room with organ. Note the carvings on the balcony. Everything in this home is hand- carved. Everything.

Atrium. Now that's a greenhouse. 

Part of the gardens. There's 30 acres of them. Needless to say this was at the end of our day at Biltmore and we were tired of walking. 

View from the top of Craggy Gardens in black and white. Sometimes I like to see black and white photos as I think they lend a different perspective. 

I took this from the deck of the house Sunday morning before leaving for home. We stayed in Little Switzerland. Notice the fog in the valleys. Yes, we hit a little of that heading home. 

That's it for now but as I said I have some great information for posts. Stay tuned. 

Harvest Monday; July 25, 2016

Happy Monday to all and visit Dave at Our Happy Acres to see all Harvest Mondays.
Well I am writing this during lunch today at work so my spreadsheet is at home on my laptop. And since it is my lunch this won't be too long. At least I am posting more often now though :)
Hot. Dam hot!
That was last week and this weekend. More coming this week. No fun to go outside and immediately sweat. I did minimal work in the garden this week as 1) This weather is doing a pretty good job of finishing off the summer crops and 2) I really didn't want to be outside that much. I did do some staining on the pool deck yesterday but while I was wearing my swim trunks. At first it's refreshing but after a while it's not.

The Wife and I cruised the Raleigh Farmer's Market Saturday. We got there somewhat late (for us) but the local farms were doing well! And it's great to see this many people coming out.

Pulled our red onions out Friday evening. Got some really nice sized ones this year which makes me happy. Our onions have always been suspect. I only planted reds this year too and got the slips from Renee's Garden. Plan on getting some next year from them as well. 

I have pretty much left this bed alone after I picked the garlic except for pulling a few weeds. Those are volunteer marigolds. We didn't plant them. Maybe we shouldn't touch anything and see what happens. 

You want hot peppers? I've got hot peppers. I did a good picking on them for salsa I made Sunday and need to go out there again. 

Something has been eating my Sweet Potatoes and I'm not happy. Most are leafless now. Maybe design a fencing system next year. 

This was my picking from Sunday morning. See that big one on top? First Solar Flare that hasn't cracked this year. 

WOF of the Week. 

This goes out to Chewy this week. He had to go to the vet for an infection and as a result has to take medicine. One type is a liquid that the vet said he would love. He didn't. But he does love it with ice cream. He is one happy canine!

That's it for me for now. Until next time, stay indoors.