The Garden is Ready

We finally cleaned the garden of all the weeds, as you can see DH finally got the "Little Green Thing" (John Deere Tractor) to finally plow the garden. Yahoo! We no longer need to depend on our fantastic wonderful helpful neighbors we have to come and plow for us. I think we will keep our "Little Green Thing" after all. Now we have to wait for three days to plant our seeds as I sprinkled the Preen so we won't have a lot of those nasty weeds. That stuff really works great!

As DH was plowing between the third and fourth row he kept saying that he felt a piece of rock or something. Well it turns out that there was this big piece of cement slab as you can see below. Well we did end up having to get our helpful neighbor to bring over his big red tractor to pull this slab out of our garden. No wonder last planting our plants kept falling over on this section of the garden. We could not figure out why. Well this is why, this big piece of cement. I told DH that this would now be his pouting stone. So he better behave. LOL. I guess I better go make a sign so he doesn't forget where he will be sent if he misbehaves.

Hope we get some rain soon, well maybe after I plant, that would be helpful.

Hugs :)

Irma

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

Today was such a beautiful day. We were able to go outside and clear out the over grown garden. I pulled the last row of carrots, of course I had to pull some weeds out of the way to get to the carrots. My son Mark and his friend Barret helped pull weeds and cleared out the rest of the rows in no time. They then got on the tractor and tilled the dirt. I still think it needs a little more work. Our little John Deer needs to be adjusted as the discs just don't dig far into the ground as DH would like it to. We may just ask our neighbor to bring in his big tractor and help us out. I'm just glad the garden has been cleared out. I'm sure our neighbors are happy too. It was a sad sight. But not anymore.

Hugs :)

Irma

I Know My Garden Was Here.

Well here it is, it's not a pretty sight. You might want to sit down and take a deep breath. I know what your thinking, (Irma, how could you let this happen). Where is your garden?
This all came about when I was in my "blue mood". I sort of just gave up. Did not have the energy to work in the garden every day like I should have. This is what happens when you become sluggish and everything just goes to pot. .......And even though I was soooo neglectful. Look what came out. Yes, I finally got carrots. My little neglected garden did not fail me.

I know its hard to tell because of all the weeds, but I still have another row of carrots to pull.

I guess I better get ready for tomorrow for some more weed pulling and, oh yes, some more carrots.

Hugs :)

Irma

Lesson Learned

Look at all the vegetables I picked in one day! I am so amazed that we have been able to grow all of these veggies. See how the tomatoes to the left of picture are beginning to ripen. Wish you all lived close by, I would share. I had to pick the tomatoes before the squirrels and birds decided to make a meal of them.



I had to scold Hedwig the other day...not a pretty site. I was watering the garden and had layed the water hose down in the first row while I harvested some of the veggies and who do I see... just one row away....Mr. Birdie, taking his morning bath, flapping his little wings and dunking his little feathered head in the water as to say...Look at me, your Hedwig does not scare me nor do you! Well, I walked myself over to that first row and HE STILL DID NOT MOVE! Not only was he thumbing his little beak at Hedwig, but he was thumbing his little beak at me...YES, AT ME! Well, this did not set well with me nor with Hedwig, as I started to move even closer, I guess he decided he was not as brave as he thought. He flew away, hopefully never to return. I hope Hedwig learned his lesson not to sleep on the job.



DH decided he wanted to grill chicken, (they still don't trust me on grilling since the Easter incident).

I sliced one yellow and one green squash and brushed both sides with olive oil, salt and peppered it and put them on the grill.

See how good it looks, as Rachel Ray would say Yum oh!

Vegetables and Pink Marshmallows, Yummy!

Looks like our vegetables are starting to come in. I was able to get some lettuce, peppers, bell peppers and some tomatoes. The tomatoes still have to ripen so I have them all in a row on the kitchen counter top like little round soldiers waiting to turn red. There are lots more on the vine, but my Mom said I need to wait until they sort of turn from the green to a white green. Not to leave them on vine until red as the birds will then want to peck at them.
I also got my first squash, it looks like a baseball nice and round. Well, it got eaten up for dinner today. I fixed it with onions, peppers, diced tomatoes and chicken. Yum Yum, it was just delicious! Can't wait for more to ripen. The cucumber plants are just a blooming like crazy. Can't wait to see them grow. We tied the vines onto cattle pen and they are climbing up very fast. I think we planted the tomatoes too close to each other and also too close to the cucumber plants. Well, we will be prepared next year a little better on the planting space.

Now you know I had to show some yummy pink which I call Frocks because they are the fake Crocs, but they are just as soft as can be, almost like walking on marshmallows, Pink marshmallows. I got these for Mother's Day along with some other goodies (Martha Stewart glitter, Susan Branch stamp pads, craft books and craft supplies. Yippee! I get to do some crafting while wearing my PINK Marshmallows).

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day. My day was great! Just stayed home and relaxed. My middle son came over and spent the afternoon with us. My oldest called to wish me Happy Mother's Day, he is in the Navy and could not make it home. My youngest son grilled chicken this time and it turned out great, did not get burned like Easter time when I tried to grill it, Middle Son remembered this incident and brought some brisket just in case (I think he was trying to be funny or maybe he just wanted to make sure we had something to eat in case it happened again, He! He!). We had Hummingbird Cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert. Very addicting. Here's the receipe for Hummingbird Cake:

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs beaten
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can 8 oz. crushed pineapple with juice
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups ripe mashed bananas
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon together into a mixing bowl. Add eggs and oil to dry ingredients. Stir until ingredients are moistened. Stir in vanilla, pineapple and 1 cup pecans. Stir in the bananas. Spoon the batter into 3 well greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans. (I used 2 pans which were a oval). Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn onto cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.

Crean Cheese Frosting:
2-8oz. pkgs. cream cheese room temperature
1 cup butter room temperature
2 pounds sifted confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Combine cream cheese and butter, cream until smooth. Add powndered sugar, beating with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Frost the top layers, stack and then frost sides. Enjoy!

Below are pictures of the sterling silver ring I won at Across The Pond Designs by Casey. Thanks for having such a nice giveway. I need to practice taking pictures, these came out a little blurry. The ring is gorgeous, I love it. Sorry for the bad photos.

Looky! Looky! These are the first of some peppers from our pepper plants. Its an assortment of banana peppers, cayenne, and jalapenos. Hedwig seems to be doing a great job. He has managed to keep the birds and squirrels away. Nacho is on call waiting to be backup just in case.

The Garden is Growing

The plants are growing! As you can see the tomatoes and cucumber plants are starting to stretch. In the back ground you can see the onions growing (all 200) ha! ha! I still need to do some weeding, but that seems to be a never ending job. We have also been trying to clean around the yard and get rid of a whole bunch of items that need to be gone. The weather has been so wonderful, in the 80's with a cool breeze.

Well, it's time to go back outside and do some weeding in the garden.

Taxes, Garage Sales and Gardens Oh My!

Today has been a little busy. First, we went and had our taxes filed. Whew! Glad we got that done, almost down to the wire. I hate rushing and thats what we usually end up doing. Got back in time to start hauling out all the stuff, I mean great bargains people will find at our "City Wide Garage Sale" our little town is having tomorrow. Now, I need to look inside our house to see what else I can get rid of. I love to have garage sales, but, I hate to actually sell my things. I'd rather go to garage sales and buy more things (hubby does not like this). I was in my cottage looking around at all of my goodies and really, I could not find enough things to part with. I think I came out with just two baskets full of things, my husbands things Ha! Ha!, not mine LOL. I guess I will just visit with people as they come by, I really don't have much to sell.

Will let you all know how it goes.

Now to the "Garden" , I pulled weeds and the next morning it looks like it just enticed them to come back out again. I hope it does not grow into a jungle out there as I won't be able to go out and pull weeds again until Sunday as I will be busy with the Garage Sale tomorrow. My tomato and bell pepper plants are growing fast. The cucumber plants have sprouted as well the the onions (all 200) and the corn and squash is starting to peak through also. Have not seen Mr. Cottontail, hopefully he got the hint and moved on.

The Garden has been planted

These past few days we've been really busy getting the garden all prepped for planting. Finally had the rows plowed so we planted our seeds and small plants. We planted corn, squash, lettuce, bush beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers and 200, yes you heard right, 200 onion bulbs. I think my husband plans on feeding our town again. Of course, in the process of cleaning around the garden we discovered that we have a new neighbor on our premises, we did not invite him, he just showed up and who knows maybe his family as well. Mr. Peter Cottontail has a home somewhere in our yard. We tried to shoo him out of our yard but the sneaky Mr. Cottontail or should I say smart Mr. Cottontail has eluded us. My son got the bright idea, lets have Tipper and Wolfie sniff him out. So, he let them loose. Of course, Tipper was happy to run around and just roll around in the grass and Wolfie has been in love with the poodle three houses down the street that he most likely said to himself now is my chance to go and visit that he just took off. I called to him, no I yelled at him "Wolfie come back", he just turned his head and looked back at me as to say "Adios, I'm outta here". Well, I was not going to go chase him down, that's my son's job. I've done this too many times before, no more. I continued to water the garden as we still have had no rain. Wolfie was finally apprehended. I guess we will have to keep an eye out for Mr. Cottontail to make sure he knows this is not an open buffet for him or his family.

Strike a Pose, Work It , Work It

Ya Hoo! Computer Whiz Kid (my son) was able to help me upload pictures. Hope I can remember how so I can show you more pics. He wrote down the instructions for me, so hopefully I will do it right.

Well as you can see, this is Mr. Pumpkin 2007. We hope to have some this year, but we will see how it goes.

Learning to Garden

Well, today started as a slow day. It has been real gloomy outside, looks like rain again. Started my seeds in their little peat pots. Hopefully I'm not to late. Of course our garden plot looks like a jungle out there. We will need to plow it so it will be ready when my plants start sprouting. Now, even though we live in the country, we really are not farmers. When I speak about our garden plot it is now 40 ft x 50 ft. When we started our first garden last year the plot was only 10 ft x 15 ft. and that was an experience. I planted squash, eggplant, pole beans, onions and carrots, tomatoes and then I got the bright idea that I wanted to grow those mammoth pumpkins, the kind that can weight up to 1200 lbs. or more, oh, and also those gigantic watermelons that can feed the whole town. Well, needless to say the pumpkins and watermelon vines took over the whole garden. There were vines everywhere. We had a good harvest of squash and I did manage to grow one huge pumpkin, but it did not get as humongous as I wanted. Of course, I could not pick it up. It took both of my sons to pick it up and put it in our wheel barrow in order to bring it into our house. We only had 3 watermelons that weighed about 3-4lbs. Out of all the carrots planted, I only had one large carrot top and when I pulled it out there was no carrot! But did we have beans, squash and tomotates.
My husband at first was not to excited about gardening, but when he saw all the squash, beans and tomatoes he was ready to go buy a tractor. Now, I tell you, do we need a tractor for a plot 10 ft x 15 ft? Well, that is how our garden plot turned out to be 40 ft x 50 ft. So, he did manage to find an old John Deere garden tractor which he worked on and even painted it and then he proceeded to start buying the implements needed on ebay. All the money spent on ebay for the implements, we could have bought the vegetables at the market and fed the whole town. But like they say, nothing is better than growing your own. Plus, it keeps my husband busy working on the tractor and at least it gets him outside.
Still learning on gardening, I think I'll wait on planting the pumkins for the fall garden this time.