November

Today I dug up the voodoo bulbs - some of them are HUGE! And there are lots of babies, so our voodoo bulb stink fest next spring should be fantastic. :-)





I also pulled the canna from the big pots so they could come inside for the winter. They didn't bloom this year. I need to figure out why so I can try to avoid whatever it was that I did wrong for next year.



Things are looking very fall-like in our yard. Miscanthus:



Asparagus:



Hydrangea:



Last rose bloom:



Rudbeckia, still plugging along:

Don't hate me!

Okay, here's what September brought...now that it's almost October.

The woodchuck got the zucchini:



The sunflowers were falling over (still are):





Really BIG potatoes!





Corn, peppers, and wax beans into the freezer:



And sauce:

Steve isn't blogging...

So I will post some veggie photos!

Tomatoes, 8/23/09



The paprika peppers are delicious!



Our green beans have anthracnose:



The delicata squash vine looks like it has wilt, but we're not 100% sure. Just in case it's a borer, we have harvested the squash, hopefully not too early!



Apparently this cucumber was hidden...1 lb. 7.5 oz



And here's what I picked tonight: eggplant, zucchini, peppers and a variety of tomatoes:

Mmmm...zucchini bread

Okay, so it's not pretty, but it tastes good:



Here's the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Whole-Wheat-Zucchini-Bread/Detail.aspx

Out in the gardens, the phlox is still going strong. And the white is hiding behind the purple again this year:



Here's a Coral Bell, and a lot of weeds, in front of the phlox:



The Rudbeckia planted themselves a little more in front of the pear tree this year:



The Resurrection Lily has two stalks this year!



This week we picked quite a few tomatoes (and zucchini). I froze all these tomatoes today, then went outside and picked more:

A rainy morning outside = a busy morning inside

So it was raining today. Again. So I spent the morning in the kitchen!

Sungolds ready to slow roast:



If you've never had a slow roasted cherry or grape tomato, you really must try them. They are like candy, I swear! These probably could have stayed in the oven a little longer, but I was ready to get out of the kitchen. Spray your roasting pan with olive oil, slice your tomatoes, put them in the pan skin side down, add fresh ground pepper and some kosher salt, spray with more olive oil and give them a couple of hours in the oven at 300 degrees. Watch them, you don't want them to burn!



While the tomatoes roasted, I steamed and blanched some green beans to go in the freezer.



When the beans were done, I steamed the little tiny beets we got in our farm share. Even though they're small, it's still a bit of work, but so worth it!





And I made German Coleslaw with cabbage and kohlrabi from the farm share.



And when the tomatoes were done, I chopped and roasted patty pan squash, zucchini, eggplant, cauliflower and white peppers.





All that made me hungry, so for lunch we had Fried Green Tomatoes.



And, this cracked me up. We have something like 14 windows in our house, and Wally and Finn have to sit in the window together!

Sad news from the vegetable garden...

We had to pull out, cut down and bag two of the tomato plants showing signs of late blight. :-( This is scary stuff. If you have tomatoes and/or potatoes in your garden, beware.

So, on to other things. The zucchini are still coming in strong. (The yellow squash is from our CSA, Common Ground Farm)





I don't know why I didn't take an after photo!

Silver Dollar Plant, aka money plant, is drying okay. Some other ones are moldy. Too much rain!



I told you the sunflowers were bigger now! These are ALL volunteers, planted themselves from seeds that fell from last year's sunflowers.



This one planted itself right next to the front steps. And amazingly, I was able to overwinter the canna!



These pretty "red" ones are on the west side of the front beds.



Voodoo bulbs, still going strong!



Lots of phlox. I really don't want this much phlox here. It's crowding out the echinacea.



Rose of sharon:



Russian sage, yeah, I need more of this, too:



Normal size cucumber and crazy big cucumber we obviously didn't see and pick till it was HUGE! And some zucchini and eggplant in there, too.



Just for fun, because I love them so. Finn:



Wally. Naughtiest cat in the whole world. I would prefer he *not* hang out right there on the counter!

Wow, I am a seriously bad blogger!

It's been like 2 months since I last posted. Oops. Here are some shots of what's been going on in the gardens, and in the kitchen.

First strawberries:

Peonies, Sweet Willieam and Geum:

New Nicotiana under the pear tree, with aster on the right:

Silver Dollar Plant (aka Money Plant), post bloom:

Sunflowers, but I need to post a newer one, they are big and blooming now:

Steve Irises, and sunflowers that planted themselves:

More berries...after the darn skunk dug up the strawberry bed we didn't get too many more:

Lamb's Ear and Astilbe:

Smoke bush made it through the winter:

Silky Dogwood came back, and bloomed! after being accidentally cut down by the "tree guys" last year:

Voodoo Bulbs!

Miniature rose that was dead when we got back from Italy, a little rain (more like a LOT of rain) during June, and it bounced right back:

New perennial daisies and daylilies:

Monster lilies, taller than me:

Yucca:

Hydrangea and daylilies:

Stuff from Mom on the left, and Snow on the Mountain on the right. Steve has been mowing this for the past few years, I finally weeded this area and the Snow on the Mountain bounced right back:

First attempt at Dilly Beans refrigerator pickles, yum!

Zucchini pickles and dilly beans: