End of Summer Harvest and Draught

We're enjoying the last tomatoes, zucchinis and basils as summer comes to an end.

Instead of gearing up for a late summer/fall planting we have decided to let our garden rest for remainder of the year.  California is in a serious draught and it just seems wrong to be watering the garden.

We have already let our back lawn go...and planning on planting more draught resistant plants/trees and fake grass for the kids next spring.

Though we might have some good rain this winter (fingers crossed), we must still make a conscious effort to conserve as much as we can even when we're not in a draught.

NO no ... we are not getting rid of our vegetable garden forever...rest assure it will be back next spring.  But we'll be renovating the water system to be more effective :)

Garden is in Full Bloom

Love this time of year - reminds me why we fell in love with this little neighborhood.  And this year we are grateful to have yard full of beautiful blooms.  Veggie garden pics to show soon as well :)

First Broccoli In the Garden

For all you mighty home gardeners out there, this picture may not seem that impressive  However, it makes me smile because it is my very first BROCCOLI!  EVER.  And as my husband says, it might be my only. 

Do you see it?  The broccoli crown is only about 3" but based on what I've been reading online, I needed to harvest it because the florets were beginning to 'loosen'...if you know otherwise, please let me know so I don't prematurely harvest prematurely again. 

Why is it my only?  I started to see bunnies [along with the usual other critters like aphids, squirrels and million birds, etc] starting to invade my garden.  I sprayed soapy water for the aphids, put up little barriers for squirrels and now bunnies...sigh.  Hopefully the other broccoli will survive this small zoo we're creating in our yard.

Crossing my fingers we will have more than one broccoli to harvest before it gets too cold around here.

Happy gardening everyone!

Getting Ready for Fall Planting

I don't know if it's too soon but I've been itching to get my fall vegetable planting in order.  So after having a couple of failed less than successful attempts to plant straight in the ground (think it's the off and on heat spikes we've been having), I've decided to invest in a few of these:

I got them online here but you could find them [or similar ones] at your local nursery.  I like how they are pretty much ready to use - just add water and pull back the netting a bit.

These were started a week or so ago - with the tray on the seeds start to sprout in a couple of days.  Also the percentage of success was almost 100%.

As you could see I put WAY too many seeds into this tray.  Hey, it was the first tray I used and I was actually expected only like half the seeds to sprout since I was getting less than that when I planted it straight in the ground.  Like I said, pretty much 100% of the seeds sprouted :).

So far, I really like these little Jiffy pots.  I'll try to transplant a few into the ground soon - stay tuned!  Crossing my fingers for a good autumn garden.

Green Beans and Tomatoes

Great times in the vegetable garden.  Our family is enjoying the greens this year - lots of basil (I have some pesto pasta photos to share later), green beans cucumbers, etc.

The green beans (pole) are a favorite among our kids.  The boys like to just pick it and eat it off the plant.  Aya (8 months) has many many baby food from it.  And there's even some left for the grownups to enjoy for a few dinners :).

I don't remember what variety of pole beans these are.  The bean seeds were dark brown with specks.  I got them from a local nursery - organic seeds.  Each plant is about 6.5 feet tall - and would grow taller if I had longer poles :).  

Enjoying Our New Garden

Love it!  New house, new garden.  The previous owner of our house was a very active garden and she had put in 3 large size vegetable planters years (and years and years) ago.  After some hard work I have a new-to-me veggie garden this year...and it's thriving. 

We have the usual suspects that we usually put into our vegetable garden, like - cucumbers (a couple of varieties) and zucchini:

I think so far we have over 40 cucumbers from our 3 plants and well over a dozen zucchinis from our 2 plants.

We have made many meals of pesto pastas out of these beautiful basil:

Next up - pesto chicken pizza :) - can't wait!  I'm sure the boys won't miss their usual marinara sauce for one meal.

And this is my favorite this year from the garden.  It's a type of kale and it is delicious.  Super easy to grow, doesn't need much food, heat tolerant and suppose to be super healthy for you...can't beat that huh?  I put it in my soups, stir fry and even made kale salads out of it.  

Other vegetation not pictured but also in the garden: green beans (pole), cilantro, jalapeno, tomatoes (still green) and green onion.  Here's to a great planting season!

Garden Harvest

I always chuckle a little when I think of the vegetables in the garden as "harvest".  Mainly because harvest, to me, sound like such a plentiful word.  And trust me, my harvest is not ;).

This is the second year in this garden - well first if you take into account these are NEW vegetable beds because of some ground intruders from my last bed that needed to be completely redone.  I am loving it.  Three planter boxes and a whole lot of work later, I have my first tomato harvest - 3 Early Girls and 1 Roma.  I also have a few zucchinis and even a handful of green beans. 

As you could see from the picture above, 2 of the zucchinis are tiny.  I didn't get a chance to pollinate those by hand.  If you don't get honey bees in your garden, you would understand :).  Articles such as this will go over the importance of having to hand pollinate such plants as zucchinis if you too find yourself with stunted zucchinis.

Also in the garden are a small pepper plant bearing a few little peppers.

I also have a couple of rows of basil growing. I already harvested it once and had enough to make pesto for the whole family :).  Nothing like home grown plants!

I'm hoping to get a second round of vegetables in the garden this year.  Maybe another round of green beans and is it too late for broccoli???

WIP and Garden Update

After a usually cold and rainy few days here in California, we are finally treated to some beautiful weather. That means GARDENING time...and some time for sewing of course ;).

My oldest, Asher, helped me pick some annuals to put into our new vegetable garden.  Here's a picture of the new flowers next to our little tomato plant.  

The strawberries has embraced the sunshine and turning a delicious red.

The zucchini seedlings has POPPED.  Wow what a difference a couple of weeks make...

And of course some time in the sewing room :).  Binding all cut and sewn for a quilt that is (almost) ready for showing.

I'm also working on a new quilt inspired by retro style florals.  I have a bunch of half squares cut and ready to be pressed.

...only 400 more to go!  Fun times :)

Adding to the Garden

Last year we started on working on our (unruly yard).  Months of clearing out weeds, dead plants, cutting down some old trees, putting in a patio, etc etc.  We are finally ready to prune existing plants and even add some new stuff to the garden this year. 

Here's a few of the right side of the yard - notice the nice (new) grass, the old rose bushes has sprung back to life and the honey suckles from the far side has the whole yard smelling awesome.

The kids finally have a patch of grass to play in without worrying about weeds.  It's funny, when I asked our boys what they wanted - Grass or Playground - they actually voted for Grass.  Phew!  Glad we didn't spring for the play-set we had our eye on.  Grass is actually quite versatile.  They've been using it for soccer practice, picnicking and everything else they don't do on the patio.

After a failed attempt at a in-ground vegetable garden last year - failed due to ground rodents (squirrels/mole or something that chew up all the roots of the plants) - my husband helped me put together these lovely planters.

Each planter is lined with chicken wire on the bottom :) - hopefully that would be enough to stop the critters from chewing up my plants this year.  

And the lineup so far for the 2 of 3 boxes:

Strawberries saved from our garden from last year:

Tomato plants:

Zucchini:

Okra - something new:

Also in the lineup: bush green beans, green onions and basil :).  Hopefully we'll have a successful garden this year.

Weekend Wrapup - Half Triangles and Outdoors

This weekend was full was half triangle fun - for the Zig Zag quilts.

That means a lot of cutting and sewing:

...and pressing:


I could totally see how making these half triangles can be quite addictive.  More progress to show SOON :).

This weekend was also full of beautiful weather. Remember the little nest in our little planter box?  Well all five of those eggs have hatched and now we get to watch these 5 little birds grow up:

How adorable are they? They are just 2 days old in this picture and already they look much bigger...though still teeny tiny.

This is the first year ever that I have had any orchids re-bloom :).  This is the one outside in our walkway - 4 stems of beautiful orchids!



Have a great and productive week!

-Q

End of the Growing Season

Welcome AUTUMN!

Chilly mornings, long sleeves and a browning garden - ahhh it's the end of another growing season.

The last of the tomatoes:


Some that will not make it to maturity:


Peppers that has reached its last rounds of bloom:


Planter boxes that has seen better days:


Did I mention Autumn is my favorite season :).