Learning the Ways of the Bees

Nature is fascinating - the way every element developed just so to keep everything functioning so perfectly. Last weekend we began learning more about the bee and can't wait to see where this journey leads us! (maybe to some honey:))

 

Sunshine for the Sunshine Lover's Soul

Even though rain is always a welcome occurrence here, there is nothing so lifting for the spirit as the return of the bright sunshine in beautiful blue skies. Today the sunshine brought an added bonus to cheer the heart! Our seed trays had been looking as desolate as the outside landscape with their bare soil sitting for hours inside the house under fluorescent lamps during the cool, rainy weather. With the return of the sunshine and mid-60 temps, the trays were whisked outside to the rejuvenating sunshine and lively breezes. I noticed that the trays needed some water. Watering meant focusing my attention briefly on each cell of each tray. And then I began to notice them - the first sprouts of the warm weather garden! New baby tomatoes, tomatillos, basil, eggplant, nanking cherry, and strawberry spinach have begun to awake! 

Come on squash and peppers - What are you waiting for?!

Saving the Harvest

What a long way the garden has come in one year, and how quickly a freeze can take most of it away. We wanted to make the most of all the goodies in the garden as the first freeze approached, which necessitated a  little creativity.

 We spent one evening harvesting all the basil after dark as we worried the first freeze was approaching. The entire house filled with the smell of basil as we removed the leaves, rinsed and pureed them, then made basil pucks with olive oil in cupcake tins. Although the first freeze ended up still being several weeks out, the basil was harvested in a better condition than it would have been following the cooler, cloudy weather. It also allowed us to focus on the vegetables crops when the next freeze approached...

In mid-December, we spend a weekend harvesting all our eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes, whether ripe or green. This photo shows the harvest after the first day. On day two, we added a few more big bowls of cherry tomatoes. Over the next week we turned over 52 cups of green tomatoes into pickled tomatoes, salsa, and my new favorite - green tomato pie! The eggplant made a super over-roasted baba ganoush.

The frozen water exploding from the stem of native frost weed is evidence of the first winter freeze

A hawk (juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk?) has become a frequent visitor from which we seek to keep the chickens safe

Reflections

A busy work schedule this summer made the days fly by. Then we had a great 2.5 week camping trip to the southwest. We came home to discover some of the largest veggies we've gotten from the garden - just beautiful - thanks to great care from mom and less frequent harvesting. I wanted to say that the veggies looked good enough to be store bought, but actually I think that degrades them a little bit.

Being back in the garden is so fulfilling for the soul - seeing the happy bob of the sunflowers in the breeze, discovering that our milkweed is feeding some hungry monarch butterflies, seeing the chickens happily scratching and bathing in the dirt, harvesting a big bowl of fresh salad greens, and discovering the first bluebonnets leaves in the wildflower meadow. We had a lot of success with our garden this year. As the first frost chances enter the weather forecast it will be sad to think of losing the riot of tomatoes, eggplant, and okra that have taken over the garden. But at the same time, it will be exciting to have the opportunity to regain space in which to feed the soil with compost and begin planning for next year. I wanted to take an updated panorama of the garden to compare its lushness to images of when we first created the garden. It's a jungle out there now!

It's hard to tell what's what in this panorama of the garden. It's become a little jungle during the mild summer.

A November harvest. Our salad greens include a variety of lettuces, endive, mint, stevia, cilantro, and dill.

An artfully prepared green tomato

Mole keeps an eye on the chickens

The birdhouse gourd took over the arbor and juniper trees

A $1 salvia cutting from a community garden puts on quite a show at last!

It is a hit with bees and butterflies, including the monarch 

The monarchs also find the milkweed

Only one type of lettuce took off in this bed. I thinned it by transplanting it throughout the bed in the rain. It is doing great! 

The cheery sunflowers were a bright spot (that took over beds and cascaded over paths) all summer long. This plant keeps the mulberry tree company, which has taken off since being planted

Dill, cilantro, beets, radishes, and kohlrabi are doing alright despite a bit too much shade on this bed

Our amazing sugar snap peas are back in bloom

A fancy grasshopper

Chick Uno is now Hen Uno, and w're expecting eggs soon

Ready for Flavor

This new addition to the garden is a lemongrass plant that we bought at the Madison, WI farmers market. Next spring we can divide it to create a border of lush grasses which is also an integral ingredient in Thai cooking. Harvest the stem at the soil line and crush or finely chop to steep in broths and sauces to add a wonderful lemon flavor!

Continuing to Grow

 For a long time, we have heard about a technique called hugelkultur, in which a raised bed is created by covering a pile of rotting wood with soil. The rotting logs are supposed to act like a sponge, holding more water in the soil, as well as providing housing for soil life and releasing nutrients for plant growth as they break down. We utilized this technique to create a nice, new home for our fall vegetable seeds. This bed had been cover-cropped with hairy vetch during the spring and fallow for the summer. The first step was to pile  some old stacked firewood into a depression on the downslope (right side in photo) side of the bed. Then a few longer trunk pieces were used to help support the soil of the raised bed. Then we seeded radish, carrot, and beets in a nice design throughout the bed and around an existing poke weed that planted itself into the garden and has pretty, deep purple berries.  Lettuce and turnip will be added in a few weeks.

A triangular planting of seeds creates more consistent vegetation coverage across the bed than rows do

Radishes beginning to sprout

Berries beginning to form on the poke weed, whose young leaves are edible  in the spring but poisonous otherwise

The Colors of Summer

Our typical harvest for the month of August has been some okra (whatever we catch before it gets too large and woody at which point we let it age to save seed for next year), eggplant, hot peppers, and a few cherry tomatoes, especially sun golds and blondkofpchen. It creates such a nice basket of bold colors.

Ripe Serranos are abundant

Mature okra pods

Eggplant ready to be harvested