Garden Update

We have corn seedlings!! They're about 3-4 inches high, looking very healthy. This photo is right before thinning and weeding. We planted three rows of them, so hopefully they will pollinate, they are open pollinated Hickory Cane corn. Just like my dad always grew. I am so excited, I can't wait to have corn fresh from the stalk.

Sophie's precious pea plants are growing vigorously up the trellis and have beautiful white blooms on them now. How exciting!

We also have Summer Squash, Broccoli, Spinach and potatoes, both white and red coming up. We are off to a good start. The bottle gourds are also up. We still need to plant a few more things, but its still early here. We have at least another week or two to get it all in the ground.

Here is the lovely shrub in our front yard. Blooming it's heart out.

First Fruits

Here is what I did with the apples from my friend Mari. I froze six quarts of cut up apples for the winter. I love to make hot apple pies and apple crumb cake and apple crisp in the fall and winter months. I also froze a quart of tomatoes from our garden. Finally, I made carved a semblance of a head for Sophie to dry and make an dried apple "Crone' for Harvest and Samhain. Now is the time to carve them if you want them to be dry in time for Mabon in September or Samhain/Halloween. Hope each of you are enjoying your own harvests of whatever kind. Autumn is in the air. Blessings.

First Harvest~Lammas

Here are our first harvests from our very own garden, no less! The first sunflower blooming on Lammas! What a blessing! I love sunflowers!
Next is Sweet Basil, oh yes. Soon to be delicious pesto.This is the first summer I have not had to buy my basil from the Farmer's Market to make pesto. Also tonight we have Fried Green Tomatoes! Ah, I have never made them before, but have always wanted to try them. Sophie got a little carried away picking them, so we have plenty. Yum! Happy harvesting! And a blessed Lammas/Lughnassad to all.

Baby Plants!

Look at our baby seedlings! Sophie and I are so excited about them. These are pumpkin, squash, cukes and sunflowers. In the other bed we also have spinach, broccoli, and peppers, though the seedlings are too tiny to show up in photos yet. I am already dreaming of the fantastic harvest we may have. (The wire is to convince the cats that the garden is NOT a huge litter box.)

One Step Closer to Feeding Ourselves

Here are my two lovely garden beds. They are each 4' x 6'. After it finally stopped raining this afternoon, I got the gorgeous compost shoveled into them, and with Sophie's help, of course, we broke up the lumps and smoothed it all out. Now it is just awaiting the seeds and seedlings, hopefully as soon as tomorrow. Yeah!

Sweet, Sweet Compost

Here is my compost bin. A gift last spring from David. And here is a little of the lovely compost that I got from it this year. Still needs a little more cooking time, as this is a passive system. But I am so psyched about it. My gardens are going to flourish even more this year with my own organic home made compost! Woo Hoo! I think its beautiful. Here are some places to find out about making your own. Mother Earth News , always a great source for all things in life. Organic Gardening has some wonderful articles about what else.....organic gardening. Enjoy!

Still Here

Well, for the time being, it looks like I won't be off line. Yeah! Thanks to all of you who left the encouraging comments. They really meant a lot to me. We have just finished enjoying our fourth day of rain. Looks like our gardens will come up nice a healthy, if we can just get a little sunshine now....please...Goddess. I am working hard on garden plans for the transformation to urban homestead. Hee Hee. I cannot wait! It so exciting to think that we could possibly grow our own food, at least a lot of it, right here in our yard in the city, small one though it is. We have a lot that is a little larger than most typical ones. We have just under a third of an acre, including the house. So we have plenty of room for gardens galore!