This morning's harvest

Okay, so I haven't found my camera yet...but I borrowed my mom's. Had to share today's harvest:

No pictures...but the garden is doing great!

It appears I have lost my camera. I recently moved into a new apartment down at school and ever since my camera has been missing. There are only a few places it can be..at my house, at the new apartment, or with Claire..it's hard to tell. Anyway, so I will not be posting pictures any time soon. I know, I'm bummed, too.

So some updates on the garden: The grapes are growing like crazy. There are bundles of plump pea-sized grapes all over both of the vines. The vines now reach the top of the trellis. The blueberries are doing well, also. One out of two of our blueberry bushes is completely covered with purple-ish green berries. They just recently started to turn purple. The other bush has no berries, but it did have flowers at the beginning of the season. These few flowers may have fallen off, but at least they were around long enough to cross pollinate with the blueberry covered bush. The tomatoes aren't doing so bad either. The one's in the front of the house looked pretty bad for a while, but are really taking off now. I've counted about 12 little green tomatoes, so that's not too shabby for the beginning of June. The broccoli leaves look beautifully frosted, as they always do. And don't even get me started on the peppers. We have sweet banana peppers probably 2-3inches long, already! Next to the grapes, they are the most thriving plants in the garden. If and when I find my camera, I will post pictures. Happy gardening!

Dirt under my finger nails

"...all I can think about is the feel of dirt under my nails and in the cracks in my hands, the growth of those little seedlings in the earth, pulling weeds, Franklin the turtle and the garden fish, and grandma Nance hovering over me conducting her general inspection of the placement and orientation of each new member of that plot of dirt...I can almost taste it."-one of my recent facebook postings

No more 'almost' tasting. I got to enjoy the real thing today!

Today has been a great gardening day. I'm still scrubbing the dirt from beneath my nails and in the cracks of my hands. Sweet compost, sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, and the bees are buzzing. Ahh. It's just one of those days where you stand in the garden and think, "Wow, I can't believe dirt, seeds, and a little love can do all of this." My parents surprised me by planting tomatoes, peppers, and some broccoli. I came home to a partially planted garden. What a nice surprise to come home to. I have to say, I'm a sucker for these kinds of surprises. I sewed some sunflower seeds today and will sew more this weekend when finals are over. (Whew.) It is crazy to believe that by this weekend I will have the entire summer to get my hands in the earth and see what life will spring up. Sometimes I forget how the simplest things can blow you away. Happy gardening, everyone!

Cabin Fever...C'mon spring!

Well, we've had quite the winter in the northeast so far. I am ready for all this snow to melt and for some green to come poking through. I know the garden is going to be better than ever. It is with every new spring and summer. Expectations are high. I bought lots of sunflower seeds at Wal-mart this past week. I was shocked to see the wall of seed packets. I am sure that everyone at Wal-mart thought I was nuts when I shrieked with joy and ran to the wall of seeds. Oh well. Typical day, I suppose. I bought some old and new hybrids (they were all Burpee seeds). These include:

Moonwalker (new) - pale yellow sunflower. I hope these are similar to the Lemon queens I had last summer.

Citrus (new) - orange sunflower - Looks like bright orange mac'n'cheese colored petals (according to the packet).

Strawberry Blonde Hybrid (new) - pink center fanning out into yellow/white tipped petals

Mammoth (old) - gigantic bright yellow sunflower - everyone knows what these guys look like

Chianti Hybrid (old) - deep red/purple sunflowers - these are those incredibly unique dark sunflowers. They were a hit last summer. I bought two packets of these guys.

Evening Sun Mix (new, but similar to old mix)- yellow to orange to deep red petals. I had a similar packet of seeds last summer with a different name, but I believe them to be almost identical. I can't wait to see how these turn out. Mixed seeds are always exciting because you never truly know what you're going to get. I like the surprise.

Garden Blues

I have been on a cooking kick for some time now, but I am really missing my fresh ingredients from the garden. My parents cleared out the garden so now it is bare and without fresh tomatoes and herbs. It's so sad to see it so bare, but I know this is the time of year for composting and planning for the upcoming garden. Next year my goal is to learn how to can everything so I will have these fresh ingredients all winter long.
Does anyone know of some good canning blogs that I could follow?

Cooper's Rock in the Fall

One of my favorite places. Fall just makes it even better.

Look what I found in the garden...

This long holiday weekend brought me home to my garden and as it turns out, I had a visitor. My dad was hosing the plants because they were in some desperate need of water. He noticed a fairly large insect climbing on the tomato plants. He started yelling for me to come take a look. I couldn't believe my eyes; a praying mantis swiveled its head around to see what I was up to. I didn't bring my camera home this weekend so I had to quickly find my mom's camera and take a few pictures of this guy (or girl).

Click on these pictures to make them larger. You can really see some intricate details on the praying mantis.





He (or she) eventually mad his (or her) way over to the grapes.