We are definitely 2 weeks ahead this year
Not sure exactly what is going on this year . We are 2 weeks ahead of schedule with blooms in South Western Ontario Canada . We normally would be just starting to get bloom but this year it started mid June . Here are just a few shots of the gardens in my backyard .
Comments (13)
Related Discussions
Starting lasagna beds years ahead of time
Comments (9)CSA - community support agriculture. Basically like a community farm, people pay you to grow produce for them. You can do 5 members or 100. It's got some advantages over doing farmer's markets, but that's also debateable. Basically, you grow the produce and the deliver boxes of it to subscribers (or they come pick them up). Most subscribers pay in the beginning of the season which really helps because when farming, that's when cash flow is needed the most. Good point about the water. I think my concern was, since I've never actually done the lasagna beds before, is that if I don't water the layers quite well then wouldn't the weeds underneath the cardboard on the bottom have an easier time surviving? I thought it was the combination of the wet & thickness of it (plus the weight of the mulch on top) that killed off the grass beneath. Am I incorrect in my thinking? I was only thinking about doing the watering initially when establishing the beds, but I wouldn't worry about it after that, as I add more mulch over the years. And another good point about the trees. Those will definitely be going in ASAP as $$ allows. My husband and I are both students and so cash flow is tight but plan on getting quite a few fruit/nut trees by the end of the summer for sure. If I have to start them from seed, I'll get it done....See MoreYour favorite 'make-ahead' foods for the week
Comments (21)Vettin: I have a lot of recipes here are a couple. I'll put in Pre Baked Pizza Dough later. Lou's Pizza and Spaghetti Sauce I use canned tomatoes but make sure they are Italian or a red color. Some choices are Contadina , Red Pack , Hunts , All Red, = Tutto Rosso, Chento To use Fresh Tomatos Pulse them in a blender but leave some small pieces. Add one can of Tomato Paste. Pizza Sauce 1 Large can of Tomato Puree and Crushed Tomatoes or all Crushed Tomatos 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder ( add more later to taste ) or use 4 fresh Garlic Cloves smashed ,sautéed and chopped small. I use all Powdered Spices now, and get the same results 1 tablespn. of Onion powder. 1 teasp. Salt. or to taste 3 teasp. Sugar ( add more if it tastes too acidy ). An Italian pinch of pwd.cloves. 3/4 teasp. Oregano ( or to taste ) if it is strong. 1 teaspoon of Parsley, 1/2 teasp. Basil. 1/4 teasp. black pepper. ½ teaspoon + of ( Chicken flavored Soup Base ) Simmer for about ½ hour or use without cooking. Large handful of Parmasan Cheese, when done , after 1/2 hour. - - - - - - - - - - - - - Continue for Spaghetti Sauce This recipe can be used for Spagetti Sauce , just add a can of Tomatoe Paste , with water to thin a little ,.if the Sauce too thick to start it will burn easily. It will thicken as it cooks. Add to the Pizza Sauce: ½ cup of fine chopped Onion. And 3 bay leaves . Don't forget the Chicken flavored Soup Base. I add uncooked Meatballs, couple at a time or , ( I bake about 3 dozen meatballs and freeze them ) Sausage and Chicken Thighs, when you start cooking. (cook at least 1 ½ to 2 hours )Take the chicken out when it is done. ( About 1 ¼ hours ) Add the Parmasan Cheese " after " the sauce is cooked & stir ALSO !!! season to your own taste. Add more or less of what you like. - - - - - - - - - - - Lous Italian Hamburgers or Meatballs Do you use your KA for mixing Meatballs ??? I watched many of my relatives making Meatballs, thru the years. Break the eggs on the meat and start mixing with their hands. Then throw some bread crumbs in , with all the spices and keep mixing. Always thought there should be another way to mix the Spices, thru the crumbs and meat evenly throughout.. I did it this way now, for years. Ingredients: 4 ½ lbs. of Ground Sirloin 1 ½ lbs. Of ground Pork ½ Cup of fine chopped Onion ( micro wave 2 minutes ) let it cool. 3 cups of Italian Bread crumbs ( including 1 cup of Corn Flakes, ground to crumbs ) 3 tablespoons of Parsley 1 tablespoon of Salt 1 tablespoon of Garlic powder 1 tablespoon of Onion powder .3 tablespoons of Parmesan Cheese. 3 tablespoons of Powdered eggs or 2x large eggs beaten 1 tablespoon of Chicken Soup base , mixed in 1 cup of warm water, Put the meat into the mixer , in alternate spoonfuls . Use the paddle beater. Turn on low speed to mix. Meanwhile , in another bowl, put in the bread crumbs, Onions and all the spices. Add the Chicken water mixture, if needed add more water, to make a damp mixture. Add this to the meat in the mixer. Everything mixed thru evenly. And the paddle took all the Gristle, from the meat. - - - - - - - - - - - - Measure out the meatballs ( I use an ice cream dipper ) and roll them. Place in an oiled baking pan. And Bake at 350 Degrees for about ½ hour or, Until they are browned slightly or cooked thru. I made 38 meatballs. BUT I stole a piece of the meatball mix and made an Italian Hamburger. It was delicious in a slice of bread , with nothing else on it. Reminded me of when I used to steal a meatball and run out of the kitchen, before my Grandmother grabbed the Wooden Spoon. LOU...See MoreAnother Rainy Week Ahead
Comments (46)Amy, Unfortunately it is about to start feeling like July. The good thing about the rain is it has kept us cooler. There's no rain in my 7-day forecast, so I expect we'll dry out a lot over the next week, and we're expected to hit the upper 90s early next week. Can 100 degrees be far behind? Bon, Yay for the rain. You did need it and I'm glad you got it. You may feel stormed out, but it will be a fleeting feeling. We are about to feel the wrath of July heat + high humidity from all the moisture in the ground, so I think it is going to feel worse for a while before it feels better. Carol, Well, Grove was overdue for some heavy rainfall and apparently it finally happened. With all the accidents on the lake over the July 4th weekend, I hope people will be exceptionally carefully out there on the water now that there's all the runoff from all that rainfall. I have about half of my garden weeded and more or less under control---the upper half that dries out more quickly. I got a lot of that weeding done in the two hours I was out there this morning. I quickly harvested the one row of tomato plants that I hadn't harvested from prior to the storm, and then I weeded, weeded, weeded as the sun climbed higher in the sky and the temperatures began heating up. The fence lines are a mess, though, and I have to go slowly and carefully with them because that's one of the favorite hiding places of the timber rattlers. I do the same thing with rain gauges. I've noticed that even the radar-indicated rainfall this year has rarely matched what I've recorded in my rain gauge, and neither does our mesonet station's. It's why I try to keep an unbroken rain gauge (and occasionally a slightly-cracked one that manages to record most of the rainfall) out in the yard at all times. I left the one that cracked in the winter and put a new one beside it. There is only about a 0.10" difference between the two, so the broken one is almost recording correctly. Dorothy, For so long this year, I was worried y'all weren't getting enough rain, but I can see now that you're getting plenty. Last year was perfect for us in terms of rainfal, beginning in mid-June, and once the rain started, it's hardly stopped at all. Prior to mid-June, the drought was so bad I was about to close the garden gate and walk away, so the rain began falling in the nick of time. It can stop now if it wants. After the drought years of 2011-2013, I am just thrilled to have plenty of rainfall and (so far) not too many grasshoppers. It has been a struggle all year to keep up with the bare minimum of mowing, trimming and hand-weeding, but we just keep plugging along, doing what we can when we can and not worrying or fretting about what we can't get done. You can only do whatever the conditions, weather and time available allow, so I try not to worry about the rest. Eventually we'll get it all done. Sandplum, I weeded all I could this morning and was happy with what I got done, but some of those weeds were so big already that I had to dig them out rather than pulling them out. I'll get out there in the cool early morning hours tomorrow and try to work on it for another 2-4 hours. In June and July the harvesting and canning keeps me too busy to focus too much on weeding, and the rain this year has made weeding even harder to accomplish, but the tomato canning is winding down now, so I should get to weed every day for the next week, especially with no rain in the forecast. I think that with a week of weeding every morning, I should catch up on the backlog of weeds waiting to be removed. Y'all, I don't remember exactly what our all-time record rainfall is, but I believe it is around 59". I need to look it up and see. I am fairly certain we'll break that record this year, as Burneyville is sitting at 54" right now. Never, ever, even after 2007, did I think we'd see that sort of rainfall here. Dawn...See MoreA Really Rainy Week Ahead For Many of Us
Comments (5)Light rain is falling here now, but it is really really light, so almost more like a mist than drizzle. More is expected to fall overnight. We rarely get even close to what the QPF predicts. Usually we get a lot less but every now and then we got a lot more. I guess it evens out in the long run. We all need the rain and some areas really, really need it in the worst possible way. stockergal, After last year's 78+" of rain here in our county, I'll never complain again about regular old heavy rainfall, just as long as it isn't falling every day. The cut-off lows often do give us incredible rainfall. I'm just relieved that yesterday's hail missed us. I can handle having the garden drowning, but really hate having all the plants smashed. Dawn...See Moresignet_gw(6b)
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoHi Everyone , thanks so much for the lovely comments about the gardens here . The stone pathway is the result of having dogs and clay soil. When I first started gardening we were getting what I thought was a normal amount of rain . We had big dogs and when it rained they would race to the house and drag in oodles of mud on their feet so that was the impetus to figure out something that would maybe , just maybe reduce the amount of mud being dragged into the house. . It has worked for the most part . The difficult part is trying to keep it weed free as the weed seeds lodge in the cracks . I don't like to spray anything because of the daylilies so I have to pull the weeds ( time consuming) and done every so often through the season . I am trying to get moss established in the cracks which means I definitely cannot spray the weeds for fear of killing the moss.
MaryL the Black Hole is a small pond that I keep running to help out the local frogs as we usually are in a drought from May to October here . NOT this year however .
Lilykate It is the weirdest thing . We have had more rain this season so far than we have had from May to September the last 4 or 5 years yet the daylilies are shorter this year . Not sure if this is because we had really warm weather in April ( temps more like June ) and then dropped into cold weather ( more like March ) for the month of May and then high temps like August the month of June . It has been the most mixed up weather here all season so far. Nothing at all like what we have gotten used to over the last 5 years.
Debra, sounds like your weather has been weird too . I am wondering if my daylilies will be bloomed out by August or whether this might mean more rebloom on plants that have never rebloomed before . Time will tell I guess . The other odd thing is many of the plants are shorter than normal. Go figure.......I cannot understand this . Here is a pic of the rain from yesterday at noon . There is about an inch of rain covering the walkway.
Julia , how are your new gardens coming along . Not getting too much rain I hope .
Nancy 6b ....not much to that walkway just broken up patio stones but thanks for the nice comment !
Sherry Here are a few more garden shots for you !
and here is an image from the other side of the backyard gate heading from the chicken pen (chicken pen on the right veggie garden on the left) . I like looking at daylilies more than the mud in the chicken pen at this point .
Last image is what will be an extension of the garden bed near the veggie garden ( also on the left in this picture near chicken pen ) for daylilies that I am moving as where they are located now is much too shady to produce good blooms . I am in the process of prepping a bed where the green house used to be for more seedlings that I HAVE to get planted if the rain would ever stop . Thus the reason I am so far behind in getting images posted here .
signet_gw(6b)
2 years ago
Brad KY 6b
2 years ago
daylilybedmaker