August, Oops, September Garden Update

A while back I thought I was getting caught up, but then sending twins off to college this fall proved to be quite a time consuming effort! So the garden has been a bit on auto pilot for a little while now. Thank goodness it got off to such a good start this spring. Here’s some tidbits on what I would have written about, if I had had the time 🙂

There was a family of chickadees that must have nested and fledged near my feeders. For weeks, I was so entertained by the hilarious antics of the 3 young chickadees that truly behaved like little kids.

I got a lot more green peppers and Mariachi hot peppers as the summer went on. Unfortunately, Daisy was not at all dissuaded by munching on the hot peppers and continued to eat almost all this year’s pepper harvest (Little White Pepper Thief).

Surveying the garden for her latest snack…

A couple of years ago this patch of creeping thyme was a disaster. I wrote about it in my earlier post, “Creeping Thyme Problems“. I was skeptical that the severe pruning was going to help, but it has. It looks gorgeous and lush, and smells awesome when I walk on it to get to the garden hose. So if in doubt, cut away, it’ll be better for it!

I didn’t get many sunflowers this year thanks to the bunnies. But I did get this one, beautiful Evening Sun Sunflower. Made me smile.

Thankfully Daisy doesn’t seem have found the tomatoes or basil. I don’t ever seem to tire of fresh tomato salads.

The raspberries I planted in the spring flourished over the summer. I even got a few tasty raspberries in the late summer. Looking forward to having the plants mature and getting lots of berries. What did I plant? See my previous post “My Raspberries and Strawberry Plants Are Here!”

Two of my clematis plants got a terrible case of Clematis Stem Wilt earlier this spring (What’s Wrong With the Clematis and Clematis Stem Wilt). I was hopeful that the plants would survive and I think they did. Both plants put up a couple of new, healthy looking stems that looked good until the last few days when something has decided to munch on the leaves. We’ll see in the spring how they look. At least there’s hope.

The petunias were home to lots of pollinators. This bumblebee was fun to watch as he dove deep into each flower. He seemed to really prefer the dark pink over light pink. While I have no decent pictures, I had hummingbirds also visit my yard late this summer. I don’t always get them, so it has been a treat the last few weeks to have them visit.

How was your garden this year?

(BTW Go Hokies! Go Blue!)

…and the Ugly, Not!

It was brought to my attention that following the good and the bad should be the ugly. But since I thought the bad was ugly enough, I thought I’d spare you the ugly! Instead, I thought I’d just continue to post some of the beautiful Michigan fall photos from Peggy.

Gray Dogwood

Winterberry or Michigan Holly

Elderberies

Viburnum trilobum

The birds and animals aren’t the only ones to have yummy berries to eat– The garden raspberries are still producing berries!

photos by Peggy

What’s Going in My Freezer?

I have been very busy freezing whatever I can fresh from the Farmer’s Market for the winter. I seem to have a lot more freezer space than cupboard space, so I decided to forego the canning of the things I can freeze. Here’s just some of what I have so far:

Strawberries, Raspberries and Blueberries

Strawberries, raspberries and blueberries should be fresh, unwashed and checked over for damaged or generally yucky ones. Then they are spread in a single layer on a pan, placed in the freezer until frozen and then put into freezer bags. They can be used frozen or thawed, but need to be rinsed since you didn’t wash them before freezing. I like to keep a bag of blueberries in the freezer, take out a few in the evening, rinse them, put them in my cereal bowl and put the bowl in the fridge overnight. Fresh blueberries are all ready for my cereal in the morning. Or you can thaw them quickly by putting what you want into one of those handy little berry colanders and rinsing with running lukewarm water. Washed and thawed all in one!

ZUCCHINI

In a previous post I talked about how to freeze zucchini, either shredded or in chunks. I’ve got a whole winters worth of zucchini stored away!

Tomatoes

I’ve used what I grew in the garden, then bought lots more (about 30 lbs worth–I got a great deal!) at the Farmer’s Market. I now have many bags of whole cherry tomatoes (not blanched, treated like the berries), chopped and diced tomatoes, tomatoes crushed for sauce, and ready to go sauce. It was like a little factory in my kitchen! I’ll talk more about all that in a later post, but you can see how to generally prepare tomatoes for freezing here.

Green and Red Peppers

I didn’t have much luck with green peppers this year, but they looked great at the Farmer’s Market. I’ve been buying a few at a time for freezing. Like most other vegetables, you need to wash them, look and remove any blemished areas, blanch in boiling water for 2-3 minutes then plunge into ice water to stop any further cooking. I left mine in pretty big chunks so I can use them as needed for a recipe, but in the past I’ve frozen them diced or sliced. I freeze them in a layer on a pan in the freezer and then put into a freezer bag so they don’t freeze as one giant clump together in the bag.

And more…

I also have a few bags of diced and sliced spring onions. I’m thinking about freezing some corn if I can get some really fresh, otherwise it’s no better than the store bags. I bought a head of cabbage today to make some “freezer slaw” from a family recipe from a friend. Can’t wait to try that! So, what’s in your freezer this year?

Sunday Feature: My Michigan

A Sunday photo collage of things that remind me of many summers spent in Northern and Upper Peninsula Michigan. One sighting can throw me back to being 10 years old.