What a day!

The other day I was getting discouraged when I walked out to my square foot garden area and saw that something ate one of my cukes.  One of my tomato plants it gone as well.   The weather was actually one of the best it had been but I was in no condition to work on it. (see my developing eagle wings blog and put the pieces together :) ).

So this morning I went out and harvested from my herb garden my rosemary, sage and English and French lavender.  I was surprised that when I was done putting them in the jars to make my bath oils that I filled all four jars that I had.  Now I need to go get some cheesecloth to cover the jars, and allergy pills for my husband. 

I feel renewed today with my garden.  I started Chamomile, Oregano, a second batch of Basil, and transplanted my Cilantro and planted a second batch of that also.   I still have four marigolds that I haven't planted in the garden yet to heed off the aphids that I think is what got to my cukes and the one tomato plant.  I put newspaper around both of the tomato plants that are out there as I was told deer would stay away. 

I really want to get a 5 ft high wire fence around this area of the garden to keep some animals out of it when I plant my root plants later this week.  Its going to be spendy and I'm trying to come up with an inexpensive way to do it.  The deer did leave my trellis alone, so I'm thinking that might be a good deterrent if  my cukes and peas last. 

Yes I feel like Noah did when he went to build the ark.  Granted I do have people who have treaded this path of Northwest Coast Gardening and we've all had tried and true experiences to find what really works.  We've got the climate for most of it as we are an even temperature all year around with the exception of mid July and early August.  Trust me its not an "I'll show them" attitude that I do this.  Its more out obedience to a call that I have.  And its more of my frustration that I share with my God as I ask Him "Are you sure I'm the one you want?"

What Noah would say if he had a blog

I was wondering this when I looked outside to rain again. 

I've started my square foot garden over the weekend, planning it and I bought two tomatoes and a six pack of marigolds  to plant through out.  I even set the boards to eye ball what a foot was and thought I didn't have enough room. 

Then Monday I got out my tape measure and realized that it was actually 2ft by 2ft and was relieved!  I cut off the excess over one foot of my smaller boards to make temporary borders until I can get some string.    I had only laid out the boards for a plan on Saturday so my removing of the nails from the boards was necessary on Monday which as my husband stated "that's the least of my worries" with this garden.

Its been questioned if tomatoes will ripen in our climate.  I know last year with the tomatoes in the containers, they didn't ripen at all and I put the tomatoes still on branches in brown paper bags to ripen.  The reason I'm doing them in the ground this year is because in the container they didn't grow as large as they should have.  That's my logic anyway. 

So back to the rain.  My plan was to go out again after work and dig up another section while also still planting in the first section (the beauty of having a square foot garden so the book says!).  I still need to make a trellis of sorts for my pole beans and for my cukes and zuccs.   The rain changed that plan, however I do know that there are some brookingites that don't mind the rain.  However, I"m not one of those species yet.

I will probably start some seeds indoors any like my beans and some more herbs that I'm using for pest control and maybe peas, even though right now they could go in the ground.  The rainy day alternative.

I'm not sure if my father would be proud or disappointed in how his daughter is taking on his trade. I'll send him pics if it turns out great.

A gardening goal

Since I'm doing an actual garden this year, I figure I should start looking over the area I'm planting in.

I started with my herb/rose prayer garden this afternoon. Yes, its a bigger mess then last year or the pic above. My lavendars need clipped back of dead branches and I cleaned up one while I was there. I also noticed that the rose bush that was small last year and had black spots ( I cut off the infected leaves but didn't do the soap mixture for black spot that I do), is growing nicely and no black spot as of yet.

My rosemary bush has really over grown, and I noticed that the rose bush that is in front of it is still rather small for a minature so I cut back the Rosemary quite a bit.

I've labeled my herb/prayer garden on FB as to who is who so if you are friend on FB and I tag you in the photo, that's your plant! (If you aren't there, don't fret, I probably have you indoors!) The herb/prayer garden is from a past bible study I was in and a few women from a message board I'm on that have encouraged me over the years.

The main area that I'm going to be working on this year I do need to find new homes for my daisies. The mums have run its course out there so I'll be digging them up in the next few weeks. I'm studying what type of soil I need for the ground.

I did discover a few days ago that pouring a little lime on the soil where an Oregano is planted helps with the acidicy of the soil for the plant. I don't know if I'm transplanting my Oregano yet this year in the herb garden. It might grow better out there as it didn't do much this past year but is still alive. Funny thing was, I have it under the same florecent lamp as the basil, and when the first basil died, the oregano grow about a couple of inches. It stopped growing when I replanted the basil again. And they are in different pots!

So my goal is to try to spend at least 20 minutes outside investigating my garden area for the next few weeks. I still need to do the two small bags of weeds everytime I go out to start toning down my weed problem. Clover has really taken over in many areas of my yard where it was not a problem in past years. Not liking that at all!

Started Herbs indoors

I decided to start my herbs early this year indoors. I have a florescent light that I read gives off the right kind of light for the plants to grow indoors.

I went out into my garden yesterday and my chamomile didn't survive. I replanted that and also my basil for the third time this year. I am still refusing to buy the plant when I know I can grow it. When these are mature I will put them in the garden pictured above for a second round.

Still planing on taking out my daisies in the next few months in the back and putting in a real garden this year. Even though I liked the smaller peppers that I got off my pepper plants as well as my zucchini and my yellow squash, I think they'll produce better in the ground then in containers. I'm still going to do the tomatoes and lettuce in the containers as well as my beans and peas.

I started a compost pile

After much deliberation (Yes its taken years to take this step!) I've started a compost pile. I will post pics up in a few weeks as we've had several storms pass through in the last few days.

I cleaned up my container garden of my dying peppers, squash and tomato plants and put them in my compost pile. I didn't realize that I had actually started one along the way with the stump that was already there and the bark that was decomposing on its own.

I'm thinking of starting another basil plant indoors. I brought in the one that I started from seed and its still trying to grow.

My vegetable garden is still thriving :)

We have had the strangest weather system here this summer. Very rarely was our days nice and sunny much less warm enough for tomatoes to blossom. Around the Middle of August I started getting blossoms and by late September tomatoes were forming on my Cherry Tomato and my BeefSteak Tomato. My Early Girl even made a second appearance and picked on ripe one last week to put in a tuna salad.

My peppers have been producing madly and I've picked about 15 of them from the 4 plants that I planted so far. I'm freezing them whole as they are small, most just the right size for stuffing with rice as a side dish. I used a couple of red peppers for tuna salad finger sandwhiches I made for our women's tea we had Sunday night. Also added to the tuna was basil from my garden. I used the lettuce I had growing as well.

My zucch, yellow squash, and the two cuke plants have come to an end. I was able to get only one zucch and two yellow off the plants, and about 3 cukes from the two cuke plants I had. I decided I will be digging up my back area where the daisies are for a garden next year. I will probably do zucch, yellow squash and my cukes on trellises.

My beans are producing quite a bit and I love how the vines are wrapping around the tomatoe cage that I planted with it. I did also get some pea vines and bean vines wrapped together as they merged with in a couple of days. I will probably keep them in containers next year.

I will do peppers again next year and will do them in the ground. Most of my herbs that are surviving I've been transplanting. I have two basils that I started from seed and I will bring them inside and hope to coax them to make it through the winter season. My Thyme is doing wonderful and I dryed my first small patch of chamomile for tea the other day.

I've got pics of the begonias I planted in the back yard that I'll post later. It was an inspiration from my mom as we were discussing my back yard plans. They look nice around my azalea tree.

Making bath oil out of herbs

Finished one thing on my memory list Today: Found a website on how to make bath oil. So I went to cut lavendar and rosemary and had sage drying in my dehydrator and mixed them together pressed down in a small jar and pour Canola oil over them using a knife on the sides to remove airbubbles. Its suppose to sit for 2 weeks in a warm area and today that is next to the sliding glass door in my family room. Supposively the scents from the herbs mix with the canola oil.

After about 2 weeks, you strain the oil through a cheese cloth into another glass jar and let it sit for another 7 days. After that you can pour into gift jars for gifts or use for yourself.

What I used for this one as I was limited was I did Rosemary, Lavendar, Sage. I'll post pics of how I did at a later day.

There are other oils such as sesame seed, almond and olive oil that you can use as well.