not your average harlequin romance story, 7/25

in the medicinal herb bed, we have a horseradish plant. apparently it has been used for treating coughs and as a diuretic in homeopathic remedies. lately though, this plant has been nothing more than a magnet for harlequin bugs. what i did not know was that this plant is a member of the brassica family-a cousin to broccoli, mustard and cabbage. as you can see, the plant is looking a little stressed. that didn't help-it attracts more of the buggers.

on close inspection, there are lots of them in all different stages of life. it was time to make them go away. since we try to use natural methods in the garden, pesticides weren't necessarily and option. knowing that we are expecting some rain, using diatomaceous earth also wasn't an option. that left one method for removal and luckily for me i had two of them conveniently located on the end of each of my arms-two hands...

armed with a large bucket of water, some ordinary dish soap and a pair of scissors, i removed all of the plant parts with bugs and eggs. into the soapy water they went and there they drowned. the soap reduces the surface tension of the water and the bugs sink rather than skim across the top and fly away.

bye bye harlequin bugs, it's the end of your love affair with my horseradish plant!

not all of the bugs in the garden are pesky. this guy is welcome anytime

so is this tiger swallowtail

remember our lovely little cornfield?

this is what it looks like now. deer trampled it and ate the corn

the only little stalk left, i doubt it will do much though.

atomic cherry bombs-hot cherry peppers

over by the asparagus bed, we are a bit overrun by weeds and in the middle of it is a single pink petunia.

weed whackin and dirt stompin fun, 7/18

sometimes, things just do not go as planned-need i say more? this week, i had a big basket of blueberries and i decided to make a blueberry cake to take to the garden. simple enough, just blueberries and an easy recipe that i have used many times before. well, if something is supposed to be simple, it should go well-no? NO!!! not this time...we finally purchased a table to add to our patio at home and after eating dinner at the new table on our newly finished patio, we decided to sit outside and enjoy the lovely evening-it really was nice out; not hot and humid with a slight breeze and lots of wildlife. i went into the house, quickly mixed up the cake, popped it into the oven and programmed the timer for 55 minutes. darry and i returned to the patio and watched bats fly over head, listened to a screech owl in the trees behind us and saw a little fox wander through the yard. then i checked the timer and realized that i hadn't started it-it was still set at 55 minutes...@#$* was my response. this was the beginning of the end for the cake.

although i made my best guestimations at how much time had elapsed and even checked it several times with a skewer, it just didn't work. after taking a shower and allowing the cake to cool on the counter in the pan for at least 20 minutes, it collapsed when i turned it out and it ended up looking like this. (insert loud sigh here). looks like i would have to make something new in the morning...

so i made muffins, a small mountain of blueberry muffins and they were perfect!

as i photographed the two, the cake disaster and the muffins, my new friend gave a running commentary. meow, meow, meow!!! this is the captain, he is a beautiful cat and one of the most lovey cats around. he is also in need of a home. we can't take him in because we have 3 in the house already and a dog too. let me know if you can take him, we will even help with the cost of neutering him.

it was an extremely productive morning. we completed work on several things in the herb garden!
after a run to the rock yard on friday, darry and i had lots of rocks and bricks to work with. here he is with sam, they are packing in the dirt around the brick/block wall they just assembled.

sam thought they looked like trains trudging down a track

many thanks to doris weakley for the bottles!

fellow dcmg doris, dropped off two boxes of bottles and with them, darry and sam completed the bottle wall. we had used some beer bottles but they were too small for this bed and the guys replaced them and used the others to finish the wall. darry actually pounded them in with a rubber mallet.

the completed bottle wall

while the guys were digging and pounding, anne and i were crawling around the ground by the compost bins-the weeds had completely taken over the area. it was a dense mat of unwanted residents with a few volunteers popping up. we carefully sorted through the plants and rescued some of the volunteers which anne will relocate to the garden at sam's school.

and this is what it now looks like by the compost bins

pretty garden phlox

on the coneflowers, a carpenter bee and a skipper

pretty little eastern tailed blue butterfly

metallic green bees, they move fast and it is hard to get a good photo with my camera.

community gardens

while visiting the new woodbine farmer's market, we took a walk around the flatrock heritage community garden at the coleman community center

a clever use for a rake

tomatillos

red cabbage

beautiful sunflowers

herbs galore

peppers, peppers and peppers. oh and tomatoes too

something new to try, sweet potatoes, basil and tomatoes growing in a hay bale-no digging!

just another sunday morning in the garden, 7/11

today was a productive day in the garden. we had just enough help to get the plants in the ground and some of the beds assembled. we also had plenty of fresh baked sour dough bread. you may recall that last year i made a sour dough starter using some of the grapes from the garden. well, it is still going strong and today i brought a loaf with me instead of cake.

take a gander at our herb garden:

darry and sam working hard at filling the beds with layers of leaves and other debris. all of the beds in the herb garden are filled using lasagna gardening methods-what a great way to compost and recycle!

we added layers to this corner and a few borage transplants. this is our medicinal herb bed and it has interesting things in it. comfrey, chamomile, horseradish, st. john's wort and feverfew are just a few of the plants in this bed.

another view of the medicinal herb bed as it stretches across to the fragrance bed. in the fragrance bed we have some southern wood, donated to us by dcmg member, waneta strickert.

sadly, all of the lavender in the bed has died due to the hot, dry weather we had right after the transplanting took place.

just another view of the medicinal herb bed, the big leafy plant is the horseradish which is currently being snacked on by harlequin bugs.

things over in the pepper patch are growing strong...

we have bell peppers

banana peppers

cow horn peppers and more not in the photo include serranos and habaneros

anne is watering some late season transplants in the hope that we can keep them going!

just look at the corn, it is really doing well in the vegetable garden.

lots of ears of corn are in our future-we hope, there are lots of deer and squirrels around to sample them too. once again, the deer came into the garden this week and this time they ate all of the leaves on the okra plants.

darry tying up the tomatoes

asparagus long beans

dr. hale's grapes-these are the same grapes i used last year to make the starter. i combined the red and white grapes and there was enough natural yeast on the skins to get a nice strong starter going.

dr. hale's white grapes-he grows these grapes to attract insects and therefore, he does not treat them with pesticides! great for the yeast if you want to make starter.

pretty hibiscus, most of these were removed to make room for the vegetable garden but we kept a few because they are pretty!

don't ask, obviously i was not paying attention and i took a picture of the bright blue sky...

happy birthday! 7/4/2010

so how did we spend the fourth of july? why, out in the garden of course! at least for a few hours in the morning. it was hot, the mosquitoes were hungry and we had a great time. i have really begun to enjoy sunday mornings in the garden. we have a small group of delightful and dedicated volunteers who show up to work and they help make the time pass quickly.

taking the time to bake a cake each week is not a burden. it is more like a big thank you to this small band of friends who come out each week and to all of the new interns who stop by to begin earning their work hours for certification. this week, it was a sour cherry crumb cake.

the log wall is complete!!! a big thanks to john wallace, the log fairy. john brought out two loads of logs in the exact sizes we needed and we are now done!!!

this week we had lots of butterflies in the garden. this is an eastern black swallowtail.

like i said, lots of butterflies! on the left, a painted lady and on the right, a pair of skippers

my $3 rose bush from walmart is thriving in the herb garden. it is part of the old edible flowers bed and i am going to leave it right where it is. the foliage looks great and there are lots of hips developing so i am a little hesitant to move it.

another skipper on a coneflower

the last of the daylilies

the bluebirds are back this year. they liked the box last year so they came back. we also assume that they like the garden-must be lots to eat! free pest control, you can't beat that!

feeding the gang

they must be hungry

another shot of the swallowtail, so pretty!