What has gotten into me with all these ‘bug’ shares lately. I think it is all the green and growing natural I have been doing that is inviting all the wonderful creatures into my growing zone.
And just when you think you have seen it all this little guy is truly doing his thing with my blue bloom. I think this image share just became the ‘Photo of the Week’. What do you think?
It has been a busy week and I have lots to share from my garden and a garden events I recently covered. Be sure to stop back to take a peek and hopefully be inspired!
You should have know I would post the recipe – RIGHT? Click on the image above for the Sweet Hot Pickling recipe I have been using as long as I have been canning. Don’t let the tightly packed jars fool you into thinking this is a hard recipe. If you have any interest in canning your own food and saving a little money on the side you can do this. Click on the Image above for the EASY Sweet Hot recipe.
From my Kitchen Canning Supply Storage
A view of my kitchen on canning day.
In the image above is a look at my kitchen counter on canning day. I’m fortunate enough to have a food processor that I use for most of the slicing in my canning adventures. If you are not doing a large scale of canning then it would be silly to get out a tool like the food processor because it adds more time to the clean up project when using that tool.
Easy to grow and Make Dill Pickle Recipe
Here is where the Picklin’ Begins :
It all started in my greenhouse with a few little seeds that I received from the Toledo Growers Seed Swap. This year I have saved my own seeds from the harvest to continue the growing next season.
Seeds Starts in my Greenhouse
My friend Jan over at City Farmer did the math for me. Jan wrote on her Facebook Network:
City Farmer These numbers are as crunchy as the pickles! Bren of BGgarden canned 72 pints of pickles this week from 6 plants. So that’s a case of pickles per plant, or 1 pint/month for the coming year. Eat 2 pints of pickles/month? Then you’ll need 2 plants, and so on. One cuke plant is totally do-able on a balcony or patio. Two or …more, great for a city farm or community garden! Our pickle math is done.
July 29 at 9:20pm / at Facebook / CITY FARMER
These are the 4 plants in the Veggie Garden.
In the photo above are my four plants I have growing on homemade trellis’ in the veggie garden. My veggie garden is pretty ‘darn’ big but the cucumbers take up a space measuring 4′x4′. You don’t need fancy store bought trellis’ for your cucumbers to stay compact. We use 3 pieces of left over wood stakes, drilled a hole at the top with a ‘twist tie’ to hold the T-P together. I use garden twin tying the strong up and gentle placing the cucumber vine as it grows. I have been using these for five years now.
Cucumbers in Raised Bed Project
The photo above shows my two pickling cucumber plants that are over in my Greenhouse Landscape project featured in the raised beds. There are lot of fun annuals and herbs growing in this box as well. The funny thing is, I have harvested more cucumbers from this location then the four in the veggie garden. This bed is fed with Haven Brew Bags.
I hope I have encouraged you to try canning up some of your own Pickles this year or at least keep it on the list of must dos in the garden soon. Happy Growing your own – Bren
I will admit we have had some amazing felines who have called our property home. There hasn’t been a kitty I couldn’t say no to if they needed a home. Their have been a few that just couldn’t adapt to living with the other rescue kitties in the outdoors. One cat that has adapted just a bit to well is the cattail. At first it was a serene addition to the end of the pond filled with waterlilies. This was their second summer in the pond and they appear to be taking over, making it difficult to keep up with the growth of algae in our pond.
**The kitty in the top photo is Kink : enjoying the arrival of Spring near the orchard on our property.
In the photo collection : putting the waders on and clipping the cattails back in the waterlily garden. Corona Tools pruners made this job super easy.
Making the Cattail project super easy : Corona Tools.
The cattails were putting off way to much nutrients to keep the pond naturally clean. We were constantly scooping the algae out from the sides of the 1/2 acre pond. We decided to remove as many of the cattails as we could by cutting them 2 or 3 inches under the waterline. This would basically drown the cattail. For this job we used the Corona Tool hand pruners.
Too many plants in a pond can make it unhealthy because it produces too much nutrition, depending on the size of the pond.
Keeping the veiw of the pond Purr-fect!
I want to note that we did this clean up at the end of June and the cattails seem to be gone from the pond. I am happy to report that the algae issues are down so I’m off to enjoy the rest of the day in the pond. I hope you are enjoying the first day of August as well. Don’t forget the sunblock! Bren
This may just be my favorite zinnia ever! I’m loving the pink in the middle of the orange blooms.
The first of the zinnias have arrived just in time for canning season. The peaceful display of elegant tones of color would make anyone stop and take a breath. I’m loving what they have provided for me as I take a moment to capture the arrival of these magnificent blooms with my camera.
Rose by Burpee Seed
Please take a moment to enjoy a short video of some of the other zinnias that have arrived that I have uploaded onto my BGgardenLive Youtube Channel. IF you have a channel please leave me a comment so I can follow your shares.
And the really cool thing about the Zinnias in early August: It is only the beginning of a spectacular show in the garden.
Signs of more to come.........
Enjoy your Friday and don’t forget to ‘flaunt it’. I am heading out to do some enjoyable weeding in the middle of those zinnias. I hope you find your peace today as well. Happy Growing – Bren
I was so excited to pull this beauty from the ground with many more peeking out as I begin to harvest.
This was the first year I grew potatoes. A bin at one of my favorite Garden Centers filled with Irish Potatoes caught my eye and got me thinking seriously about growing my own spuds. Last December my husband and I had traveled to Ireland where some of the best meals were from their potatoes. What an adventure it has been to grow my own.
I can’t believe how many potatoes there were under one plant. I felt like a kid finding treasures on an Easter Egg hunt as I began to fill my harvest basket. I pulled 5 nice size potatoes out from under one plant.
Before and After Photos of the Raised Bed Potato Garden
If you know anything about planting potatoes, you can tell by the twine I used to separate the varieties of potatoes I planting (photo on left) I had no idea what I was getting into. In the beginning I was a little nervous wondering if I planted the potato correctly. They took a few weeks to pop up green. Once the green arrived there was no stopping. The potato bloomed about six weeks into its’ life cycle. The photo on the right shows the bed the day I harvested. The green of the potato plant starts to look tired and almost as if it was ready to die. I did notice there are additional spuds growing under the new green. I am hoping to have potatoes all the way into Autumn.
One of my favorite finds in Ireland was a bag of Mr. Taytos. Don’t get my wrong, I totally enjoyed all the healthy European foods made with organic veggies but I have to have my junk food sometimes. These Potato Chips, which the Irish call ‘crackers’ or ‘fries’ had an advertisement for a book featuring this Irish Spud. During my days of touring the city I made it my mission to find that book to take home to share with my children. You can imagine my delight when I found the book in a larger book store located in Limerick after being told by many Irish retailers that there was no such book!
A few of my favorites photos from our trip to Limerick, Ireland.
I can’t wait to share some recipes of all the yummy dishes I have been making with these Taytos. Do you have a favorite dish you make with Potatoes in the summer time?
I’ve been super busy in the kitchen processing all that I have been harvesting. Tonight I took a quick walk back through the zinnias I passed up in all the rush this morning while picking hot peppers for pickling. This is the perfect ending to a busy day. Time stands still in the zinnia garden.
