Turnips!

The turnip greens have been tasty all season, but I've really been waiting for the roots to bulb out.  Roasted turnips are soooo yummy!

Holy Rhubarb!!!

So, Rob and I walked down into the lower 5 acres after dinner tonight.  I found 11 rhubarb plants, each needing to be divided.  And I bet once I divide them I could get 5 plants out of each one!  They have been there for probably 20 years, and I can see that they are actually in a raised bed of sorts, which is terribly over-run by weeds at the moment.  I also found a second raised bed (they are more like raised rows really, 20 ft or so long) that used to have raspberries in it.  The soil down there is looking very good, although still sandy.  I bet I could cultivate all my rhubarb and berries, and have a large potato patch as well!  It will be a few years, but there is a definite future here!

The garden can't be stopped!

I just got back in from the garden, after finally having a chance to do a little upkeep.  The sun is out and Lily was happy in the stroller, so I took some pictures too!

Laundry line doing its job!

Sugar Snap Peas are blooming

Squash taking over...

I trimmed it back a LOT after I took these pictures.  The plants are less crowded now and seem much happier, and the cucumbers can breath again!

Happy little zucchini

Little cucumbers

The eggplant seems happy, but no blossoms yet

Tomato plants

The first of the tomatoes!

Broccoli and Turnips loving the sun.  I thinned the turnips by about half after taking this picture, and I will probably be pulling the rest within the next 2 weeks.  There is another row of them just starting their second set of leaves, which should provide me with greens for the rest of the season, and might even have time to bulb up!

The broccoli is producing a good head, with several secondary buds further down

Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts are both getting huge!

Green Beans are starting to pick up the pace now, but now blossoms yet

Here's the Kale, Spinach, Lettuce and Radishes.  I had just picked the last of the second planting, and will be planting round 4 there this evening.  I also pulled the remaining spinach plants, giving more room to the Kale which is a bit crowded by the Broccoli here.  I blanched the spinach and froze it, which was the first official food storage from this years garden!

Uh Oh

So, in the past, I have never gotten a squash plant to get bigger than 8 inches or so in total diameter.  Why then, shouldn't I be surprised when the squash plants are now threatening to take over the entire hothouse, and choke out the cucumbers?  I'm going to have to trim back the leaves on that side of the plants!  Next year the squash get an entire bed to themselves!!

Its a jungle out there!

The garden is going absolutely crazy!  I officially have squash on all of my squash plants now.  The picture below is the first squash harvest, not only of the season, but of my entire gardening career!  I have NEVER gotten to pick a squash off of my own vine before!  And man was it tasty!

The spinach has finally started to bolt.  I have been pulling the plants as the flowers appear and adding them to the compost pile.  Once spinach starts to bolt, the leaves get more bitter, so we won't be eating much more this year.  I would plant another round, but I simply have no room in the garden!  And that is not a bad problem to have!  I do wish that I had planted the spinach where the kale is, and vice versa.  The broccoli is starting to cover the kale, which is now leaning to the side where the spinach plants were.  It will all work out, but it gives me something to remember when planting next year.

The first group of turnips are finally starting to bulb out as well!  Soon I will be pulling that row, making more room for the broccoli to grow and for the second group of turnips to get bigger.  I'm also getting ready to plant round four of radishes.  They are growing better than I could have wished for, and they are a very tasty treat in my daily salads.  I can't wait until I get to add the tomatoes and cucumbers!

The broccoli is doing amazing as well, forming beautiful heads which will be quite tasty, and will fill the freezer nicely.  The green beans seem to have made a full recovery from their bug attack at the beginning of the season.  They are showing the first signs of blooming, which is very exciting.  And last but not least, the snap peas are blooming like crazy!  We are going to have a TON of peas this year!  Canning season is going to be happening before we know it... time to get prepared now!

What is everyone else harvesting right now?

A tough decision to make... (sorry, this post is a little graphic)

What do you do when one of your cats is a killing machine and its getting out of control?

One of my cats, Isis, has always been a champion mouser.  Problem is, she likes to skin them alive, in the bathroom.  We actually had to close off the dog door because we were waking up to a bloody massacre every morning.  She has more recently moved on to birds, so I have purposely never put out any bird houses or bird seed, which I really want to do.  Well, now she has added rabbits to her list of fun animals to torture.  Mind you, this cat is declawed.  This morning I woke up to a rabbit gutted in the middle of the path to the garden.  Half of its face had been eaten off.  As soon as I recover from finding this, Isis comes around the corner with a live sparrow in her mouth.  I managed to rescue the little bird and tuck it up into a tree to *hopefully* get over its shock.  This afternoon she has attempted to bring 2 other birds into the house.  I have been finding rabbits guts around the yard all week, and have found more than one rabbit with no head at all.

I have thought about making her stay indoors, but if she wants outside, she sits by the door and meows so frickin loud that no one in the house can sleep, or even hear themselves think for that matter.  This cat will never be happy as an indoor cat.

So, what do I do?  Do I continue to tolerate it, because I am the one that welcomed her into my home to begin with?  Am I failing her if I find her a new home?  Is she worth the lives of all the animals she is killing, purely for sport?  What would you do?

I got a few pictures last night...

Managed to snap a few pictures last night of the new setup in the yard...

Here's my new clothesline!  Its cemented in properly and is much sturdier than I expected!  You can see the new Lilac planted to the right.  I'm hoping that in the spring it will scent the laundry as it drys.  Drying the laundry outside is something that can save a ton of energy.  Our dryer is electric, so it will be nice to see that bill drop a little!

This is an old photo which shows the old location of the greenhouse, on the right.

This photo was taken standing on th corner of the deck, by the grill.  Rob just dragged the whole thing across the yard with his pickup!  And the yard now feels HUGE!  We will be getting rid of the dog house soon, and that will open it up even more.

Last but not least, the new chiminea!  We've used it 2 nights in a row.  I've wanted one of these for years!

Happy birthday to me!

I have the most wonderful husband in the world.  Yesterday was my birthday.  In the pouring rain, he managed to move my greenhouse (YAY!) to its permanent location, install my new solar clothes dryer (LOL, such a fancy name for a clothesline!), and purchase and assemble a new chiminea!  As soon as the rain stops I will have to take some pictures!  And now, I have new places that need flower beds!  Then, to top it all off, he dug a big hole today, filled it with good soil, and planted my lilac bush for me.  Yard work is such a great birthday gift!

A dinner worth writing (ok, bragging) about...

First off, I just had to share this picture with you!  Playing in the rain!

Tonight's dinner just had to be shared!  

We start with the halibut, caught on my Dad's boat last week out of Seward.  This picture is of my Father-in-Law, who should be very proud of himself!

Here it is again, just thawed.

Turnip greens, Spinach and Kale, from the garden.

The halibut is seasoned with olive oil, lemon and curry powder, dried onion, and fresh green onion from the garden.

A nice cup of tea while I cooked, flavored with milk from the local dairy, and local honey I bought at the farmers market.

Sauteed the greens with some olive oil and minced garlic.

Halibut is baked until just flaky.

The finished product, and it was SO yummy!  The boy kept stealing the greens off my plate!

How's that for a sustainable, local, completely chemical-free dinner?!

In other news, I changed the front path from the driveway to the deck.  I had a flower box up against the wall before:

I moved the flower box and the bench that was on the deck:

I like the feeling of sitting in a little garden that you get now when you sit on the bench.  It also freed up a little room on the deck.  What do you think?

OK, that's quite enough!

I'm ready for the sun to come back!!! 

A garden update, and a mystery plant!

Here's a few photo's to update you all on the state of the garden.  I have to say, this is the most beautiful, most productive garden I have ever had!!!

My newest flower box... Rose, Peony, and Bleeding Heart

Porch Tomatoes

Edible salad flowers

Apple Mint and Chocolate Mint

Rhubarb

Cucumbers and Summer Squash

Eggplant is looking good!

Tomato blossoms

More Tomatoes

Broccoli, Turnip, Green Onion, Kale, Spinach, Lettuce, and Radishes

Kale, Spinach and Lettuce

Cabbage, Onion and Brussels Sprouts

Green Beans

More Cabbages

Broccoli

Swiss Chard is not doing much right now

Dianthus (volunteer)

New Rhubarb plant

My new wheelbarrow garden

Now for the mystery plant:

Anyone have any idea what this is?