In the Garden--2009 - Reed Hollow Barn Antiques

IN THE GARDEN

These are wildflowers that grew in the area over by the clothesline.

Cutting Garden at Reed Hollow...

This year the raised beds in front of the Barn will be filled with flowers to cut for bouquets. I plan on selling bouquets starting at $1 each.

**Two summers ago, when I planted my tomatoes, I planted beans beside them. I did this because beans are part of the legume family and legumes fixate nitrogen in the air into the ground. All plants need nitrogen, but most cannot get the nitrogen out of the air. Anyway, the tomato plants did really well and so did my beans. I picked all the beans and put them away in a closet. There they sat until last week. I had made a yummy ham and had the hambone with some meat left on it still in the refrigerator. Not one to waste food, I decided to make a split pea soup, but I didn't have any peas. That's when I remembered the beans in the closet. Well, I took out my faithful Hood Basic Cookbook from 1949 and found the recipe for split pea soup and lo and behold, it said you could substitute beans for the peas. Here's the recipe--it came out deeeelicious, so if you like pea soup, you should like this soup, too. First, two pictures--one of the beans in their shells in the basket (I still have tons left!) and then a picture of the beans themselves.
By the way, I didn't plant beans next to my tomato plants last year. I planted them in old straw bales that were decomposing. This year, we're planning a garden over by the Little House and I will plant beans next to all the plants. I can use the beans I saved for planting, too. They don't go bad. Beans are really one of those great foods that don't require special storage, don't go bad, and offer tons of good nutrition,

Bean Soup

Ingredients: (serves 4-6)
1/2 cup or more beans (I used at least a cup)
hambone with some meat on it still
1 carrot diced
1 onion sliced, chopped
1 potato sliced
4 cups boiling water
pepper to taste after finishing the soup.

Place beans in pot, cover with cold water, and soak overnight.
Next morning, add the rest of the ingredients, and cook slowly until beans are soft (at least 45 minutes).
Take out the hambone. Cut off any meat and put aside to add to the soup at the end.
Really mash everything right in the pot with a potato masher.
Pour it all through a fine strainer or a spaghetti strainer if you want a thicker soup.
Add ham chopped into small pieces and pepper to taste.
You can serve it with croutons or a nice crusty bread or toast. Good stuff!

**When I need to feel cheery, or I can't sleep at night, I think of my daffodil bulbs that I planted this fall on the little hill that is on the right of the driveway as you come around the corner going up to the Barn. I picture them nestled under the ground, chilling nicely, just waiting for that slight warmth that will send up the green stems long before anything else thinks of emerging from their long winter sleep.

**I read in my Organic Gardening magazine about an organic solution to those stinking squash bugs that infest all squashes, pumpkins, and gourds...The person wrote that when he plants his squash seeds in the hill, he also plants onion bulbs and cuts the top of onions and sprinkles them all around, too. He says he has had no problem with squash bugs since he started this. I'm definitely going to give it a try.

**We're thinking of buying composting bins--Mantis ComosT-Twin. Two bins make sense, one doesn't. Two work because while you are still "feeding" one, the other one is the one to use. Then when that one is empty, the other will be ready. We've always composted in a pile, which works, but when you add new material, you tend to bury the area where that's ready. And as for turning the pile over...well, easier said then done. You end up with new material mixed in with the old. We'll see...

November 1, 2009
It's time for the gardens to rest, to sleep under blankets of snow, but let's remember the summer's beauty and bounty with these words:
The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the bird for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on Earth. (Dorothy Francis Gurney God's Garden 1913)

And from Rudyard Kipling...
And the glory of the garden
It shall never pass away!

Until next spring!

This guy (gal?) was walking through our grass Wednesday, the 16th. He's a Eastern Box turtle (a threatened species in Massachusetts). A picture of him closed up in his "box" shell follows.

The Herb Garden after a summer of growing. I'll be picking and drying some herbs this year.

The first potatoes dug today, September 13, '09 for supper tonight.

Here's our painted turtle happily sunning himself. Check out the stretched out legs! Nothing like relaxing!

Dew on some grasses early on August 31st.

Long done with the snow peas...

All finished with cukes, too, thanks to bugs!

Nothing like your own cucumbers--no chemicals used on these babies! I'll be pickling some using dill from the garden.
The first time we grew our own cukes, I was very surprised when I picked them. You know the bumps along the skin? Well, that's where little thorn-like protrusions grow. When you buy a cuke, the "thorns" have been rubbed off.
The biggest problem we have with growing cucumbers is the squash bug that gets into the vine. It lays its eggs on the underside of the leaf--smart little devils. Since we don't use any sprays at all, all I can do is try to search and destroy.

Now it's TOMATO TIME! Too many, too fast, so I freeze them.

Just picked tomatoes, ready to be dropped in the pot for a few minutes. Had to show one of my "volunterr" pumpkins that grew in the compost heap! Nothing like a touch of fall.

All the necessary items--tomatoes, a big pot with boiling water, an enameled colander to drain the tomatoes. In the orange and green bowls are my onions that I pulled yesterday. They'll be all eaten up raw, fried, or used in stews, etc.

Here are the tomatoes with their skins nicely split. All you do is put them in boiling water for three to five minutes depending on their size, and the skins split. When they're cool enough to handle, you pick them up and squeeze them out of their skins. It's really easy! The finished product follows.

This is what eats the leaves (and tomatoes!) on your tomato plants. I can't bear to squish them because they are soooooooo big! So, I put them out in woods away from the tomatoes. Last year I didn't have so many. I think it was because I planted beans all around my tomato plants. I didn't plant them this year.
Next year, though, I will.

Heavenly Blue Morning Glories

The morning glories are beginning to bloom on the four corners of the gazebo by the pond.

Look who I discovered under one of the orange cones!

I had to go around and check in all the irragation boxes for baby toads that may have gotten in through the little hole you see in this picture in the green cover and then couldn't get out. Well, this cover had an orange cone on top and a family of field mice decided that this would make a perfect home. When I lifted the cone, out ran the mice, so I quickly checked for toads and then carefully replaced the cone. I l0oked later and the mice had returned. Cute little things!

A great way to plant tomato plants--thanks to an idea from the Organic Gardening magazine

May '09--I planted tomato plants directly into old mulch hay bales. I reached into the middle, grabbed out a fistful and planted the plant way down deep. I put a Nasturtium to the right, then put my tomato cage on upside down, anchored by old flag poles that I retrieved thrown away in trash barrels in our local cemetery right before Memorial Day last year.

June 28--about one month later. Even with all the rain and just a little sun, the plants look great and the tomatoes are blooming.

Figured cucumbers could be planted in the old bales, too. (May '09)

Oh what a difference a month makes! Cukes are bloomin' and we'll have some soon! Mmmm. You may think that I'm a poor weeder, but actually, I'm leaving all these wild plants around the bales in the hopes of deterring bad bugs while attracting good ones.

The pink wildflowers are called Deptford Pinks (I think I spelled the name wrong, but my wildflower book is over in the house. I'll check later.)

"Wildflowers are perhaps the most enchanting of all for me. I love their delicacy, their disarming innocence, and their defiance of life itself." Princess Grace of Monaco (1929-1982)

My herb garden--herbs are the ultimate kind of plant--they look good, they smell good, and are so versatile and tough.

Here's one of our favorite guests to the Garden!

Now, this cute guy is not going to get run over by a dump truck...this is where he lives...between two trees over by the Furniture Annex in the Wagon Shed. So, when you visit that building, you'll see a sign in the Tonka truck telling you NOT to move the truck because then you might hurt our friend. Another picture follows.

Strawberries have been discovered by the birds. Oh, well, they were sweet while we had them, and I'm still picking some.

Our resident turkey here to feed on the cracked corn.

Our latest visitor to Reed Hollow...

This crow came to visit me Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (May287-28). He can't possibly be a "wild" crow. I've never been able to get close to a crow before and most crows that I've observed have companions. I didn't see him Saturday, or Sunday, so maybe he is someone's crow that lets him loose during the week when he/she is at work.

Well, I haven't seen him again so I guess he was just stopping along his travels to far away places. May the Crow Gods be with him wherever he goes!

This is too cool...the dragonfly just "hatched" out of his nymph form. He had metamorphisized into the adult. I've found lots of the nymph skeletons by our pond in front of the Barn, but I never saw the dragonfly just as he emerged! This picture was taken by the gazebo in the pot where I planted morning glories that hopefully will climb all over it.

These are lots of damselfly nymphs that have crawled up on the cattails.

Some are just beginning to climb out of their shells. There is one that has emerged--far to the right--you can see his green wings. Good camouflage! A closeup of one emerging from the shell follows.

This is a Bullfrog tadpole--I saw two of them, maybe there are more. Since they take two or three years to go through the egg stage and tadpole stage before they become adult frogs, they must have lived the winter in the pond. He's about five inches long. The next picture is what he'll turn into this summer. The frog in the picture is sitting happily next to regular-sized tadpoles in the pond.

Here's the Black Racer. I took this over by the strawberries. He's probably looking for a tasty little mouse or vole to eat. Yum! Yum!

Did you know that a snake unhinges his lower jaw to put his mouth around his food--live--by the way. He doesn't chew. He just swallows, very slowly! His tongue goes in and out because that's how he smells! I'd love to find this guy's skin after he sheds. If I do, you know you'll see a picture of it!

Yes, this is the Black Racer with his friend, a milk snake I think. I can't believe this...I guess you just never know! Another picture follows.

And as of about 3:00 on May 24th, we welcomed our latest newcomer to the pond! He must have walked over from the old cranberry bogs that are behind us. May he enjoy it here!

The "Beach" Garden

The two pictures that follow are the "Beach" Garden that is on your left as you come up the hill toward the Barn. I made it because "Life is Better at the Beach!" That's what the sign in the picture says.

Coleslaw Recipe

Talk about a coincidence, I wanted to make coleslaw from a half a cabbage head that I had in the refrigerator for supper tonight. I knew how to make the slaw part, but not the dressing! I just opened this great book, The Curious Gardener's Almanac, by Niall Edworthy, 2007, Penguin Group Inc. Publishing, NY, and guess what was on the page--a recipe for the slaw and dressing. Here it is:

Shred half a cabbage, a carrot, and an onion. Stir in some mayonnaise, two tablespoons of soft brown sugar, a sprinkling of salt and pepper, and either half a wineglass of vinegar or a teaspoon of mustard powder. Regrigerate before eating.

UPDATE--It tasted great. Scott loved it. Proves you don't have to buy everything premade for you!