Oops...bad blogger

Has it really been (more than) a month?! Sorry about that... Things were pretty status quo in the gardens in September, and now things are fading, dying back, going dormant. No real frost or freeze yet, but I'm sure it will come soon. Steve and I were talking in the car today on the way to pick apples (yum - cider donuts!) and I realized that I probably spent more time this summer in the kitchen then in the garden. In the past I would spend plenty of weekend afternoons outside, but this summer we bought a chest freezer and committed to freezing as much local, fresh produce as we could to try and get us through winter. Many a weekend afternoon this summerI spent blanching, quick cooling, freezing and foodsavering! I should have blogged everything we froze... hmmm. Maybe I'll blog it as we eat it!

On September 20th we had "Brunch in the Fields" at our CSA, it was absolutely a beautiful morning and a wonderful event! Here is the set up before we all sat down to a delicious homemade from local stuff brunch!

Tomatoes kept both of us busy in the kitchen one weekend in September. We bought 50 lbs. from one of our favorite farmers, froze some and Steve also made sauce. After ruining a few t-shirts this summer I finally started wearing an apron while processing stuff!

The roses were blooming again late in the month.

The firecracker fuscia that Mom brought us is still going strong.

The aster is blooming, and looking good!

And this little guy (or one that looks just like this one) was in our green beans earlier in the summer, and here it is on our neighbor's house.

It's September already?

This summer is flying (has flown?) by. I can't believe it's Labor Day. Things happening in the garden include...

A woodpecker on the sunflower out front! (Sorry this photo isn't so great, I stood out on the porch in my towel after getting out of the shower to try and get a shot, so was in a bit of a rush!)



The pear trees are full of pears, and we have started picking - yum!



The sunflowers are still doing really great!



The peppermint rose is blooming again.



We learned a few years ago how absolutely beautiful cotton flowers are, so each year we grow a few - not only because it's kind of neat to pick cotton in our backyard, but for the flowers as well.



And, we had the most delicious, colorful, local dinner the other night. Everything is local, even the sausage is from the northeast. Green beans, cremini mushrooms, purple potatoes, red and green peppes, onions, tomatoes...yum!

A few new things blooming

The sunflowers in the back have started blooming, I can't tell you how much I love this one. The photo doesn't do the color justice, it's called Lemon something, and it is a very accurate name for it! The bumblebees also love it!





The hollyhock Lisa brought me on Memorial Day weeknd is blooming, but it is short! The ones Mom brought us have not really grown either. I'm hoping they'll all flourish next year.

Canna!

The canna out front have started blooming. This morning there was this neat looking creature on one. I think I'll do more canna out front next year, I really like the way they look.

Remember this?

Do you remember this from waaaaaaay back earlier in the Spring? (Is anyone really reading this, or am I talking to myself?) From April 12th, to be exact:



I promised you it wasn't daffodils, and it's not. It's a Resurrection Lily, and here it is today!



Neat, huh? :-)

It's August, where is the summer going?

Time is flying by... things in the garden are good, things are flowering, we are picking green beans, cukes, cherry tomatoes, zucchini and onions from the veggie garden. Here's a shot of Steve with the other winners of the Beacon Garden Contest. I'm so proud of him. He works so hard on our vegetables, he started 99% of them from seed, and has devoted a lot of love and attention to them, and they are delicious!



I love this! The Green Teens had these signs in front of their salsa booth this past weekend (follow the link to Flickr to see the full size photo if you can't read these):





These two Rose of Sharon planted themselves here a couple of years ago, but I'm going to need to take them out, because they are shading the hydrangea which is not doing so well this year.





Our mums are blooming, oops, a little early!



The white phlox is hidden behind the pink! Maybe I'll have to thin out the pink and move some of it this fall. I like the white.



One of the voodoo bulbs has sent up a second shoot!



We had a full rainbow the other day!

Ah, refreshing

It rained the past two days, and we needed it, so I won't complain. Now there is a beautiful breeze and things in the gardens are perking up as the sun shines. Here's what's going on:

The "real" daylilies are blooming. I think I will dig up some of the "wild" orange ones that bloomed earlier and replace them with some Stella D'Oro ones this fall when they go on sale over at Adams.



Cool rooster in the background, right? Uncle Bruce gave us that for our wedding. It's a bummer the paint is wearing off.

Near the daylilies, the Rose of Sharon is also blooming, and has been for a couple of weeks.



In the back corner, it's more purple phlox!



And, brown eyed susans I brought with us from Cold Spring that came back for a couple of years, then didn't last year, and are now back again, but in a slightly different spot. Hmmm.



The only problem with all the phlox doing so well is it's shading the thistle, which is not nearly as big this year as it was last year.



The sunflowers out front are still flourishing:



And the basket on the fence has filled out nicely. Here is is when we planted it, and then the next shot is now. The black eyed pearl peppers did not do well, they needed more sun, so I added coleus which seems pretty happy!





And I cut a couple of huge bunches of silver dollar plant last weekend. This weekend I'll sit there and peel them and harvest the seeds to sprinkle around in the beds and on the hills.



Speaking of seeds, Steve and I are going to a Hudson Valley Seed Library seed-saving workshop on Saturday, should be fun!