Tag : gardening

106 posts

Hello! I made it for T stands for Tuesday…I was beginning to think that I’d be missing it until school starts. I still won’t guarantee I’ll be here every week but I’ll certainly try my level best to join in the fun.

T Tuesday: harvest edition| Halle's Hobbies

I’ve been collecting seeds from my Cleome plant now that I know what it’s called. I’m guessing there will be a bunch of volunteers starting under the deck next Spring though since so may seed pods broke open before I noticed.

T Tuesday: harvest edition| Halle's Hobbies

Look at the pretty tomatoes on the vine. I’ve been having Caprese salad for lunch each day. The fresh mozzarella likely isn’t the best for the waistline but you’ve got to eat those tomatoes when they are at their peak!

T Tuesday: harvest edition| Halle's Hobbies T Tuesday: harvest edition| Halle's Hobbies

This was my harvest photos from the last two days! YUM!! Look at that ridiculous cucumber though…I finally just picked the dumb thing since it’s been that size for a week.

T Tuesday: harvest edition| Halle's HobbiesI also so happy with the way my little flower garden is doing this year…

T Tuesday: harvest edition| Halle's Hobbies

The pots are so nice and full.

Little J and I are off to the salon to get haircuts in a little while. I’m thinking I’m going to get 5-6 inches cut off. I’m tired of constantly having my hair in a ponytail or bun. Big J just endured almost 2 hours in the orthodontist chair this morning…poor kid.  We’ll have to bring home him some ice cream to sooth his sore mouth.

What are you doing today?

We had a busy week leading up to the July 4th holiday weekend. I barely touched my computer for days… I totally missed 2nd on the Second that Elizabeth our T stands for Tuesday also hosts. I didn’t even realize I missed it until the 5th. How’s that for being out of touch!

Lets start back on Tuesday of last week…

hail damage

after writing my T post, we headed off to my inlaws to check out the damage to the garden and their house. The garden was a wreck. Leaves and plants ripped to shreds and beaten into the mud. I cleaned up as much as I could and will just hope for the best. At least we have a thriving garden here at home as well.

Wednesday and Thursday were a blur… I can’t even remember what we did.

Friday evening was spent at the carnival in town. The kids had a great time. I had a great time too. I wasn’t looking forward to going this year but I’m glad I did.

carnival

I don’t know if you can tell from the photo (upper left side) but we’ve been effected by smoke from the Canadian wild fires here. The sun at times is just a red glow in the sky. Yesterday after our heavy rains ended it was so hazy and the air smelled really bad. I found out later that we were under an air quality warning. Our air quality was worse than Beijing, China yesterday.  Thankfully today it has cleared out.

EDIT: I can still smell the smoke but at least the sky is clear.

On to Independence day…chalk collage

Before the parade I walked over to the hockey rink at the Elementary school to check out the chalk drawing contest entries now that they were complete. Amazing work! The girl who drew Uncle Sam was 14 yrs old! Wow!

And now parade time….

T6 Texans flyover

The annual flyover by a T6 Texan squadron announces the start of the parade.  Then we have another good 30 minutes before the parade reaches our seats. That’s ok…we sit with a group of about 55 people in a friends back yard along the parade route. Can’t beat that!

It was a hot and steamy day…my drink of choice…

corona

Ok I didn’t get that fancy that day…I had to take one for the team yesterday for dramatic effect on the post. *grin*

After the sticky day it was time for a dip in the neighbors pool.

pool party

And then some fireworks…

fireworks

We are back to a normal schedule I think. Errands, hopefully knitting and visiting my T friends are on the list for today.

What are you doing?

Welcome to yet another edition of T stands for Tuesday hosted by Dr. E aka Elizabeth, caretaker of Bleubeard and Squiggles.

20150629_8030So what’s a Juneberry you ask? I love putting words in your mouth…makes me feel all powerful and full of myself.

20090623_2733 But seriously…ever heard of a Juneberry? How about a Saskatoon berry? Or perhaps a Serviceberry? Until recently I didn’t know that they all happen to be the same thing. And even more so…we have a tree in our yard. Wish I’d realized that 12 years ago when it was much smaller!!

20150629_8044Of course they are much tastier when left until they are a deep purple…but you have to fight the birds for them.

I found several recipes online for Juneberry jam but decided to go with this low sugar version.

20150629_8029Isn’t it pretty!?! I ended up with a partial jar that went into the fridge for immediate consumption.

I’m not a big sweets girl…(unless it’s chocolate…which I’m allergic to but I’m willing to deal with the consequences occasionally but that’s a whole other issue)…so a slightly tart jam suits me just fine. Honestly I haven’t tried it on bread yet…just the spoon. Slightly tart and quite full of seeds. It will depend on if anyone else likes the jam if I bother with all the tedious picking again. It would be interesting to know if you could make wine or mead or some sort of adult beverage from these berries. More research I guess.

Speaking of research…can anyone help me with the name of this flower?

20150629_8035I believe it starts with a “C” but I threw out the handy dandy marker that came with the plant. I want to write it down so I can remember to purchase more next year.

I’m not sure what’s on the docket for today other than talking to my in-laws. The Twin Cities area got hit with some pretty big thunderstorms yesterday…large hail, winds and heavy rain. We got very little hail here and not much of it so the garden is fine. We heard reports of two inch hail in their area  though. UGH..that would be awful!

I have to show you my rouge bean plants too…I did not buy climbing beans but 4 of my plants have decided to climb.

20150629_8038I’ll be putting in some bamboo stakes today.

What are you doing today?

Welcome to another edition of T stands for Tuesday. Come with me for a little walk around the yard today. You won’t believe how huge the tomatoes are!! FYI…picture heavy post

We’ll start were we left off last week. The former playset.

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The sand box has been removed and all that’s left are some bare spots in need of a load of dirt and grass seed.

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I got a little carried away with flowers this year but I’m really enjoying them.

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Of course many of them are perennials which suits me perfectly.

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Here’s one of the crazy horseradish plants along with some tiny cucumber plants. Only one survived the transplant to out doors after our strange spring. I just replanted some seeds. It remains to be seen if they ever get big enough to produce.

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Here’s the same deck box garden from a different angle. Those are my yellow pear tomatoes.

Remember where they started this year??

plant vigil

Hey look…there’s the playset in the background.

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And we can’t forget the obligatory beverage for T stands for Tuesday. Ice water for the humid afternoon we had while taking these photos. Heavy rain early in the day gave way to a sticky afternoon.

Continuing my backward progression around the house we come to this sad bucket of dirt.

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There are seeds in there…I set it in the sun hoping they’d germinate. If not I’ll throw something else in there…perhaps some daisy seeds for a splash of texture and color.

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The big garden or shed garden or perhaps deer feeding station.

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Some things are doing wonderful like my peppers and a rouge carrot.  My beans not so much. I’ve replanted seeds twice now after only a handful came up.

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The herbs I transplanted from a Trader Joe’s herb pot are getting really big.  Behind them is the other horseradish plant we inherited.

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I have beef steak tomatoes in this garden…nice thick stems and blossoms. Hooray!

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One of my Egyptian Walking Onions is starting to look real interesting. I inherited these with the horseradish.

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Not surprisingly the clover is looking fantastic. *grin*

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I picked up these great hanging pots at Walgreen’s of all places. I couldn’t pass them up for the price.

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The front walk pots aren’t looking the best this year. I was a little late in planting them.

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I do really like these ones though. I picked up with watering can half filled with dirt at a garage sale this spring for $2. It’s a nice edition to my eclectic bunch.

It wouldn’t be Tuesday without a full to-do list  for me. I’ll be around to visit my T companions at some point…have patience.

What are you doing today?

Good morning! I’m once again linking up with T stands for Tuesday where we grab a beverage and have a little chat hosted by Elizabeth.

I talked about my garden here at home as well as the one at my in-laws but you’ve never seen the the space at the in-laws.20150606_7893

It’s a really big garden! They downsized from the original when the critters got so bad they had to put a 5ft fence around.

20150606_7931She has a huge strawberry patch! We picked almost 4 quarts last Saturday. YUM!!  The boy snapped this photo of us covering the patch with bird netting after the harvest.  He told me he took a few photos when I asked him to put away my camera. He said he found photography relaxing. :)

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After a hot day in the garden there we came home, had a late lunch and a well earned glass of wine.

Any guess on what these flowers are??

You’ll never guess…  Horseradish!! My horseradish was blooming. I cut off the tops to save the energy for the plant.

I, of course, have a few errands today. I hope to be back inside before the forecast 97°F hits this afternoon. YUCK!

What are you doing today?

Welcome to T stands for Tuesday!  (just a touch early this week)T stands for Tuesday_200Grab your cup and join me for a few updates.

Where shall I start?  I guess the garden is as good a place as any…update1 update2 update3

Everything is planted…the Alfalfa’s Secret is around some of the plants. My inlaws swore by this stuff last year and I have to admit that my tomatoes at their house were amazing! So I bought a bag of it myself this year to try here at home.  Only about half of the beans came up so I went back and planted some more seeds, soaking them this time hoping to speed the germination.

I got my advanced copy of Sew Somerset containing my article last week. You can check out my post about it. It’s so exciting to hold it in your hand vs just seeing it on the computer screen!

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Yesterday morning was spent on the deck with my coffee disassembling some jeans that no longer fit anyone.

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I cut the legs off then open the seams and also save the back pockets. All of this will be utilized for other projects.

20150601_7755Only a little bit of waste….or maybe that should be waist. Oh so punny.

I have a few errands as usual today and of course, my Second on the 2nd post which will be following shortly.

What are you doing today?

Hello , hello…welcome to T stands for Tuesday!T stands for Tuesday_200

I’m finally back. From where you ask? Absolutely nowhere. I’ve just been caught up in the end of school year craziness.

When the kids were younger it seemed as if actual learning stopped about 3 weeks before the end of school and the rest was just filler. Now there are speeches, presentations, projects, concerts and finals.  Throw in some appointments and after school activities and driving lessons…whew!   I have a teen with a drivers permit now!!  He got it on Friday. We’ve been out practicing twice now. Last night I heard…”when can I drive again?”

Enough reasons excuses for neglecting my blog. You’re here for T stands for Tuesday. Grab your drink and sit a spell.

Currently I have half a dozen or so projects going…well truth be told if I dug all my UFO’s out there would be at least twice that number.

WIP bottlecaps

After receiving a couple more bags of bottle caps last week, I was inspired to drag out my supplies. I turned on the TV to re-watch a show I fell asleep during last weekend while wiring and beading.  Sometimes having the background noise helps me work and other times…not so much.  Yesterday was a mixed bag.

WIP painting

I’m also continuing work on this painting I started so long ago. I keep adding layers as the mood strikes. I don’t have an end vision of this piece at all…I guess I’ll just know when to stop…hopefully.

Lastly I thought I’d share a garden update.

WIP seedlings

These are the seedlings that will go in my in-laws garden likely this weekend. The tomatoes are getting quite tall.  The rest have been planted in my gardens….WIP garden

you’ll have to take my word for it of course.

WIP deckbox

We had a frost warning last night so I had to cover everything up and hope for the best.

cold

Luckily it didn’t get quite as chilly as they said but I’m still waiting until the temps get over 40°F to uncover. I don’t want to shock them.

Errands then an appointment are on the list today, along with pesky household chores. Hopefully I’ll get a bit more creating in as well.

What are you doing today?

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