Not a lot to report on the garden as it's January in Minnesota. Everything is under a foot of snow and we are experiencing below zero temps. I am however checking out seed catalogs and figuring out what is going into the garden this Spring. I'm also taking orders from friends and family who don't have gardens but want the garden fresh veggies.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
December in Minnesota
It's been a couple months since I've posted anything and the backyard is now under about 8 inches of snow. The ground is finally frozen and the sump pump stopped spewing water a couple weeks ago. Christmas is nearly upon us which means we enter the new year in less than two weeks. Whew, where did the year go?
Prior to the snow falling I broke down the garden, pulled up the mulch and ground cover. Moved the ground cover to other areas in order to kill off more grass over the winter months. I gathered all the leaves I could get and buried the garden area under about 6 inches of leaves. I'm hoping that it will kill off any remaining grass and by next Spring I should have almost 700 square feet of garden space.
Now it's time to start dreaming about next years garden. I'm stealing an idea from a friend and putting in cut flowers, the idea is that I plant the flower seeds each week so that I can cut one row each week and have fresh cut flowers everyday!
As for vegetables I'm taking orders. This year I had waaaaaaay too many tomatoes, lesson learned. I hope to try a few new veggies for example brussel sprouts, I'm not a big fan but I have a friend who loves them. I grew 'em about 10 years ago and if I remember correctly they were easy to grow so I'll put in a couple plants for her. I also have a hankering for pumpkins, I've never grown them but I think I want to. There's nothing better than homemade pumpkin pie. I also want to grow acorn squash, it's one of my favorites and I haven't grown them in a long time. I don't think I'll do cucumbers again, I put in a couple plants each year and they just haven't done well. I'm unsure about zucchini, a girl can only eat so much of the stuff and I have a freezer full right now.
The seed catalogs should start arriving in the next couple months so I start making my decisions then. I'm sure after spending hours looking through catalogs I'll have a head full of ideas.
Prior to the snow falling I broke down the garden, pulled up the mulch and ground cover. Moved the ground cover to other areas in order to kill off more grass over the winter months. I gathered all the leaves I could get and buried the garden area under about 6 inches of leaves. I'm hoping that it will kill off any remaining grass and by next Spring I should have almost 700 square feet of garden space.
Now it's time to start dreaming about next years garden. I'm stealing an idea from a friend and putting in cut flowers, the idea is that I plant the flower seeds each week so that I can cut one row each week and have fresh cut flowers everyday!
As for vegetables I'm taking orders. This year I had waaaaaaay too many tomatoes, lesson learned. I hope to try a few new veggies for example brussel sprouts, I'm not a big fan but I have a friend who loves them. I grew 'em about 10 years ago and if I remember correctly they were easy to grow so I'll put in a couple plants for her. I also have a hankering for pumpkins, I've never grown them but I think I want to. There's nothing better than homemade pumpkin pie. I also want to grow acorn squash, it's one of my favorites and I haven't grown them in a long time. I don't think I'll do cucumbers again, I put in a couple plants each year and they just haven't done well. I'm unsure about zucchini, a girl can only eat so much of the stuff and I have a freezer full right now.
The seed catalogs should start arriving in the next couple months so I start making my decisions then. I'm sure after spending hours looking through catalogs I'll have a head full of ideas.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
First Snow
I wasn't sure how Jake would like the snow, but he loved it! He and Lash spent quite a long time running and playing in the backyard.
October 12, 2009
October 12, 2009
Summers Bounty
As you can see I had a bumper crop of tomatoes! I had so many tomatoes and zucchini that I could not give them away.
I did a whole lotta freezing. The freezer my folks gave me this summer sure did come in handy.
Made a big batch of red sauce, had friends over for dinner then froze the leftovers. There is nothing a using fresh veggies.
I planted heritage sunflowers and I gotta say they were beautiful.
The only downfall with Sunflowers is that the are kind of a pain to pull up at the end of the season.
More tomatoes? see I told ya they just kept popping up!
Jake really enjoyed the sunflowers too; he did his best to eat all of the stalks that I pulled up.
I did a whole lotta freezing. The freezer my folks gave me this summer sure did come in handy.
Made a big batch of red sauce, had friends over for dinner then froze the leftovers. There is nothing a using fresh veggies.
I planted heritage sunflowers and I gotta say they were beautiful.
The only downfall with Sunflowers is that the are kind of a pain to pull up at the end of the season.
More tomatoes? see I told ya they just kept popping up!
Jake really enjoyed the sunflowers too; he did his best to eat all of the stalks that I pulled up.
Catch Up
WOW, I can't believe it's October already. The Summer went by way too quickly. In any case, I will try to get you caught up on whats been happening in the backyard. I cannot believe I haven't posted anything since July.
Around about August the backyard was hit again by the dreaded Japanese beetles.
I had a problem with them last year and worked hard on getting rid of them. I put down grub killer in the Spring with hopes of killing them before they came out of the ground but obviously that did not work.
If you don't know what a Japanese Beetle is click here for more information.
They damn near killed off my new trees
While I was at a friends house she turned me onto Bayer Advanced so I picked up a bottle of it and it did the trick, no more Japanese beetles!
Around about August the backyard was hit again by the dreaded Japanese beetles.
I had a problem with them last year and worked hard on getting rid of them. I put down grub killer in the Spring with hopes of killing them before they came out of the ground but obviously that did not work.
If you don't know what a Japanese Beetle is click here for more information.
They damn near killed off my new trees
While I was at a friends house she turned me onto Bayer Advanced so I picked up a bottle of it and it did the trick, no more Japanese beetles!
I'm usually not a fan of using chemicals but drastic times call for drastic measures. There was a noticeable difference after the first application. Next year I'm hitting the entire yard with this stuff as soon as the plants start blooming. All you need to do is mix with water and pour it on the roots of your plants. The plant/tree absorbs the liquid bringing it up to the leaves, the beetle eats the leaves and as they say, that's all folks, no more beetles.
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