The Winter Lull but Still Eating the Fatted Calf

One of my goals in 2012 was to lessen the garden waste due to end of summer burnout.  Are you familiar with this?  You have buckets and buckets of corn and you take the time to pick it, haul it, shuck it (*ahem, this taken a few days in years past) and by the time you're ready to process it for the freezer it's starchy and gross.

In July, I spent 2 weeks to find the perfect shade of aquamarine for the farm.  Red, White, & Aquamarine--kind of Americana with a twist.  I priced a high quality paint, swept in during a one a year rebate, then brought it home with big plans to freshen up some outbuildings once the kids started back in school.

But the thing is, once the kids started back in school the garden was unloading harvest after harvest upon us.  It was a frenzy.  So the bucket still sits in the garage, and August, September, and October I was in the kitchen canning garden produce!

Here are a few long overdue (I don't think I updated much about our own garden last year) pictures from Our 2012 Garden.
Prepare to do the scroll dance.

We had some raised beds built in the spring.  Here we planted the traditional 3 sisters.  3 sisters equals corn, pole beans, and squash.

Here they are the beginning of July starting to take off.

By harvest time I found some squash bugs that had been hiding under the leaves.  I tried to use the most organic chemical-free methods to promote garden health and for the most part it worked.  

Here I just sprayed the squash bugs with a solution of water with a little Ivory Soap.  Ivory Soap is one of the most biodegradable soaps there is.  Just spray spray spray and eventually they seize up and just quit.  To get the eggs, check the underside of leaves, grab some packing tape and pull them off with the sticky side of the tape.

Here the 3 sisters near harvest time.  This bed we planted sugar-pie pumpkin which are the perfect size for steaming, pureeing, then freezing for pumpkin muffins throughout the year.

I feel quite passionate about providing fun creative avenues for the kids to play in the garden setting.  I was enamored with the idea of a labyrinth (labyrinths are different than a maze! I won't elaborate to spare the boring details) so I found a pattern I liked and roughly shaped it out with flour.  Then we added new compost to the pattern and planted in that. 

 Here's the Labyrinth shortly after planting.  Eventually I laid down layers of cardboard in the paths to suppress weeds and it did a great job!  I planted a hybrid corn called Optimum Sweet because it is a very tall corn (and more importantly, a very sweet corn).

By harvest time it just looked like a big corn patch!  Eventually we had a big white PVC teepee at the end of the labyrinth along with 4 chairs for little people.  I'm kindof totally ticked off to report that my kids were scared of wasps all summer.  Next year I will come up with a game that will lure them in more effectively.  Also, I hope the coming year doesn't have the wasp problem that we had.

Two boys running through the tall corn.  We had some of our "Labyrinth Corn" in our soup tonight!

This shows the teepee a little better, along with my best garden helper last year, Gideon.  He loved to be outside with me while I worked in the garden.

Blurry!

Here was another addition last summer.  We took cattle panels and bent them.  They act as a support to peas, beans, while shading the cooler crops like spinach, salad, and broccoli.  Here it is pretty early on when our peas were starting to take off.

 Prior to a weedfest, my little orphan child in the hoophouse.

  A little later we got some mulch down to help with the weeds.  This is my favorite picture of Leif in the garden.

 I strung lights around the opening, it was so magical at night!  But darnit it didn't last with garden sprinklers hitting it 3 times a week!  Baby + Baby Rake = Happiness.

At the mouth of the hoophouse is the sandbox.  I wanted to clean it up a bit and bought lots of wooden alphabet letters, sea shells, and glass coins.  Here's my two blondies having fun!

This is my favorite picture of the hoophouse.  I took some old sheets to keep the shade coming.  Boy did we have a HOT summer.  

Also, did you know it takes about 8 hours to shell enough peas for a big pot of creamy potatoes and peas?  I had so many, and they were so intensive to shell, that we did have much go to waste in the pea department :(

After trying to grow a plethora of items in this top tier, I finally broke down in July and just planted the drought tolerant Portulaca flowers.  They filled it up nicely and could handle the HEAT.

Tomato guy!

We planted a cover crop of Clover after harvesting fava beans.  They will enrich the soil, suppress weeds, and provide happiness for our bees in the spring. 

The Mister of the House was cute.  I would stack a box of completed jars and ask him to take them downstairs, but instead he kept stacking them in the piano room.  He wanted to keep seeing our progress and take a picture when we were done.  

Although I know there are many awesome woman who canned more produce than I did, I was happy with the progress we made.  We still have lots of food preserved and it is serving our family well.

 Sadness = roasting peppers and garlic for a tomato sauce, only to ruin the entire HUGE patch with too much parsley for the garden.  Lame!

Peach Basil Jam and Dehydrated Pears.

 The pears came to Idaho with me and my mom helped me put them up.  Thanks mom!

Green tomato relish, peach jam (sweetened with honey), and peaches!


I love this jar of salsa with a mashed avocado and fresh cilantro.  Also good on it's own!

Here's our parting shot.  We took some trimmed branches and made an arch leading from the garden/yard to the "farm" area.  I love it!  Looking from the farm into the garden. Stay out chickens!

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Garden Tour: The Careful Gardener

Today's Garden Tour is a quiet, thoughtful, garden in the back of a comfortable cottage.  The tended gardener is always quick to say he's not fit to give advice, but his raspberries look about forty-eight thousand times better than mine, and they speak louder than him.

Having a grandparent endure when you yourself forge into motherhood is a good thing.  You get that eternal perspective and want to know about their life, instead of wanting to avoid their crunching shoulder hugs (when you're a kid).  

My own sweet Grandma Cooper made it through 3 of my own kids, but marrying into the Olsen Fam scored me the persistent grandparent influence that continues today.   So yeah, in case it wasn't obvious, this is The Mister's Grandpa (and Grandma).  He's the Gardener, so let's have a visit shall we?

There's something about the industry of this garden that is wonderful.  Grandpa amends the soil every year with his own compost.  Grass clippings from the yard mulch paths to retain water and suppress weeds.  

PVC pipes section off areas of the garden and different connectors bring water to drip-lines holding culinary water.  No water waste, a direct drink right to the plant. This also helped him to completely stop watering his onions in July so they were sweetened and hardened off in time (mine are still green).  While the onions were sweetening in their drought, corn and squash kept getting the water they needed.

In case you sit on your tooshie all day on the computer, or live under a rock, this summer has been brutal in the dry and hot department.  I assumed he was watering his garden everyday to beat the heat, so I asked: How often do you water?

He said it was only every 3-4 days!  I just look at the squash, and when they look like this:

I watered them.

When he was a squash, he didn't say he was kinda thirsty.  That was Mrs. Olsen superimposing herself as thirsty squash.  Grandpa was 100% body language, and it made me laugh.

Works for me!

How old would you say this tool is?  See the smooth stained grain? The clear strong tines?  How old? How old?  

Here's another look:

What if I told you this tool was over 60 years old?  Would you believe me?

Because it is that old!  He's had it for years and years (same with his wheelbarrow, and a bunch of other stuff!).  I've had a rake for 10 years and the handle has already rotted out.  Why?  Because I get an urge, I rake, whack the weeds, then I remember I have sour laundry (or hear chocolate) and run into the house.  Later I can't find my rake and it's rotting in the garden getting watered every day.

This could be in part a lesson about how things were made better in the olden days, but if that's all you want to focus on then you're missing out.  I figured that if you're an impatient jerk then go to McDonald's instead of helping Grandpa in the garden.  Because he will rake, or till, or dump, then he will take that carefully coiled hose and wash every speck of dirt off.  Chocolate doesn't speak to him until he's finished what he set out to do!  He leaves it to dry on the hook, and a few hours later puts it away in his garden shed.

Also don't forget a new coat of varnish on the wood handles every year.

So he hangs onto things, and not in an unhealthy hoarder kind of way.  He's my careful, thoughtful gardener.  He's the same way with human relationships.

The same care is taken with his fruit trees.  He didn't necessarily love having pictures taken of all his hooks and jimmy-rigging to train the branches, but it serves my point right?  

God bless the kid that mows this lawn every week.

  Cantaloupe trained on a fence.

Some crazy melon he's growing (can't remember the name)

Here's his favorite tomato.  It's small and ripens to a glorious orange.  It was bigger than him and was delicious!

So in all this care, pruning, guiding, cleaning, drying, watering, I marvel at Grandpa's garden knowledge and persistence to do the job right.  Weeds aren't given much of a chance because he does a little work every day.

I think what amazes me most when I eat the fruits of The Careful Gardener's labors is that he's doing all of this while his hands are shaking all over the place.  Not sure why such a gentle soul needed a lesson in patience, but he's mastering it with shiny stars.

I like this picture because he was holding out his favorite tomato to show me.  The front is out of focus because his hands start doing their little dance.

A shaky hand never tended so steadily.  Heck, a steady hand never tended with such precision.

I don't want to leave the impression that Grandpa does all this work himself.  After their bounty is brought into the house, Grandma still prepares and preserves their fruits.  Here's the storage room with a line of peaches right from their yard.

He grows 'em.  She washes, skins, pits, slices, packs, and cans them.  Who has the tougher job here?

 Grape juice too!

She also cans pears from their tree.

Wait, what's that Grandpa?  Is that a mouse?

"Oh she put that down here to trick me. Scared me half to death."

Aren't they cute?

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Garden Tour: Norma's Weekend Garden

I'm so excited to give my second garden tour on ye olde blog.  Today we will be visiting the garden of a woman who has been drawing house plans on scratch paper since she was about 9.  When I see an empty room waiting for a move, and plan for a dining room, sectional, and buffet table, she will wisely tell me I just have room for ONE of those.  And why is this woman helping me look at empty houses to move into?  It's because she is my mother-in-law (and no I'm not moving).

Ironically, she has never built her own house, but she has put her finishing touches to make it her own.  Several years ago, she did a major overhaul on her yard.  I was so excited with the turnout.  Let's take a look:

(click on the image for a better view)

The veg patch is right off the front yard.  The cedar beds are nearly waist high, making soil drainage excellent, and your back happy.  The day we came to take pictures and have dinner, Norma made a delicious pan of Spaghetti Squash Lasagna, with ingredients right from her garden.  Lovely.

I love the crunch of the pea gravel under my feet.

I call it "The Weekend Garden" because there's been many times when that is the only time Norma is around.  But it is designed to get soaked with the automatic sprinklers and waits for her to return.

Off the back porch are some ready access herbs close to the kitchen.  Baby turns the corner and enters the oasis zone, where many a lovely summer dinners take place.

Gorgeous right?

These pavers are perfect for Rocky Mountain Zone 5.  They have a flexibility so they don't get cracks like a concrete pad is at risk to do in the bitterness of winter.  Trex decking makes the raised eating area low maintenance and timeless.

My two chocolates.

Here's Chloe "acting natural".  Is it working?  See the white garden lights hanging along the fence?  I wished I had been able to stay until dusk, so I could capture my favorite glow-time.  White lights in the garden seem so essential to me now.  Let's take a closer look.

 There's a grassy patch for little mutts to wander...

...and roll.

On the grassy patch is the classic Mormon Staple: The Trampoline.  Here the older boys wrestle, roll, squeeze, steamroll, and trip.  It seriously never ends.

Everyone's happy at this place!

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