Where Did Summer Go?

August 15, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

I woke up this morning, before daylight, to the sound of rain on the roof. My first thought was “Are you kidding me?!?” I went back to a restless sleep and finally got up to a rather cold house. When I looked at the thermometer it was 48 degrees.

I picked up a brochure for the Heath Fair last weekend at the local farm and garden center and the woman at the check out said, “Yup, next weekend, marks the end of summer”.

To me this has been the summer that wasn’t. We had a handful of days in the 80’s, very few days in the 90’s. All of the fans have been taken out of the windows so I can close them at night against most of the cold air. The window in my bedroom will stay open until November – in part to keep the fresh air coming in but also so I can hear the owls and other critters at night. The garden has been so so. I look back at records of past years and realize that everything is 2 weeks or so behind except for the garlic. It will be a miracle if I get beans at all – they love the sun and heat.

This past Wednesday was a complete washout (and the only day I really had to work in the gardens). It was warmer but pouring and brought in the cooler weather. There was a rainbow to mark the end of the day and the rain. It also showed me where my pot of gold resides. There is such beauty here. Every day gives another opportunity to see it and share.

Today the chicken fence goes up and they will venture outdoors for the first time in their lives. Although I have so much to do with the summer ending I will move my lawn chair to a good vantage point with camera in hand and watch the chicks take in the fresh air and sunshine. What better way to spend part of a late summer day.

Regroup

August 13, 2014August 13, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

Today is the kind of day weatherwise where time is spent (at least initially) regrouping. We have been fortunate to have had a lot of rain over the course of the summer and most of it happened at night. The gardens and even the potted plants needed little attention as far as moisture is concerned which left that much more time to pursue the heavy gardening that I wanted to get done.

Well, we are almost to the middle of August and there is sooo much more to do in the next week or so. That is what is in the back of my mind but also this little voice is saying, regroup. Tackle those indoor projects that can be done in less than an hour. You know the ones – clean the refrigerator, wash a floor, scrub the stove. No matter how much I don’t like these jobs they have to get done and no one else is going to do them – sigh. Where are those elves when you need them?

This rainy, indoor day is also a blessing. I need to get my things prepped and ready for the Heath Fair. They need to be dropped off tomorrow night and there is still some finishing that needs to be done. Three things are going in this year, weaving and a photograph. The weaving needs to be pressed, the photograph framed (I printed it last night). I’m not as confident in my blue ribbon prospects this year but it’s always fun to see your stuff on display.

Photographs are something I never, ever enter into anything. I think they are so close to my heart that I don’t want to know that they aren’t as good as I think they are. I guess I’m thin-skinned when it comes to opinions of how I see. Be brave, take a step, just do it, what’s it really going to hurt? So in it will go.

My weeks have suddenly filled with a weaving camp that I’m taking until the end of August. Tuesday and Thursday mornings will be filled with rug weaving, a new skill. This is great for my brain because I’m a morning person, not so good for the other projects I wanted to get done by fall, choices will need to be made.

Now back to my lists. Maybe, just maybe that refrigerator will get cleaned out today . . . but there’s a warp on the board that is calling my name.

The Volunteers

August 9, 2014August 9, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

I have a large mulch pile where I throw a lot of stuff over the course of the seasons. I usually turn it over a number of times throughout the year with the tractor. This year there were recognizable plants growing in the spring so I just left it.

There are now potatoes in blossom and the biggest squash plant I have ever grown. I think it is actually a long pie pumpkin. There were blossoms in profusion (and still are) earlier in the summer but no fruit. Yesterday I took a closer look and there it was. Looks like a giant zucchini but will ripen off of the vine to a wonderful, orange, thick skinned pumpkin. An excellent keeper and awesome pie pumpkin.

Every year there are volunteers in my garden. This year there were potato plants which I expect since I don’t always get all of the potatoes when I dig them. There are also a couple of tomatoes and sunflowers. It always amazes me that something grows, I till the plot multiple times before it’s planted each year.

It’s the mulch pile stuff that always fascinates me. Things that are rotten and intentionally cast off grow and bloom into something more spectacular than is ever grown in the garden. Maybe next year I’ll just toss my seeds over the bank and hope for the best, it certainly is working this year.

A Burning Question

August 7, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 6 Comments

This is driving me a little crazy. The little yellow things on the ground normally cover the nectar holes on this hummingbird feeder. I have three feeders around my yard. Every day something has pulled these things off and they are lying on the ground as shown. The feeder is about 3 feet off of the ground. Any ideas what might be doing this? Inquiring minds want to know.

Garden Bounty

August 6, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 6 Comments

My vegetable garden has been somewhat of a disappointment this year. The tomatoes have blight, the cucumbers are slow, everything is 2 to 3 weeks behind because of the cool temperatures and copious amounts of rain we have had. The things that are doing great are my perennials.

The cooler temperatures have allowed me to begin a long, long overdue garden rehab project. Yes, new gardens are going in but one of the reasons for the new gardens is that there are so many things that need division in the old gardens. I have to say that it has taken me by surprise. One iris, planted about 5 years ago, yielded a garden full of new ones.

I’m never one to complain about free plants mind you but this is a little concerning to me when I look at what I have to divide. I dug up three plants yesterday, an iris, a balloon flower and a Stella di Oro lily. The iris yielded about 30 usable rhizomes, the balloon flower maybe three separate plants and the lily went from one larger clump to six good size plants.

The distressing part for me is the fact that I haven’t even begun to dig up the garden that needs to be redone. I’m not one to throw plants over the bank but foresee that happening. How many haphazard gardens are there from plants being pitched when the gardens are redone? (You gardeners out there know what I’m talking about). I have two of those right here. Daffodils come up all over the place now where they were thrown purposefully or accidentally over the years. Hostas, myrtle, daylilies, even Jack in the Pulpits. I prefer to refer to those haphazard messes as reserves for the day when I need them.

Yesterday I gave away half of the iris to a friend that was here in the morning. I didn’t give him a choice – I told him he could pitch them over his bank, I would never know.

This is how friendship gardens happen. Someone is dividing up their plants in order to have them be healthier and bloom better, they are overwhelmed with the number of unexpected plants they end up with, they force them onto their friends and family. That gives me a whole new perspective on a couple of the gardens that I always thought of as “friendship” gardens. Maybe all those special plants are really things that were being cast off and rescued by my mother, similar to things that have happened to me recently.

Regardless of how the plants have ended up in my garden I love most of them. Even if some were cast off from another’s garden renovation I look upon them fondly. Some of them have been here since 1968 when we moved here and my mother began gardening in earnest. To identify certain specimens with certain people in an aspect that I love.

So as the garden renovation continues I will be giving away a lot of things and hope that some years from now someone will say, “Oh I got that from Joanne in 2014 during the big dig”. For that reason I’m careful what I give away and make sure it is weed free. The last thing I want is someone cursing me out for some invasive species that I introduced to their garden. Although at this point irises are feeling a little invasive.

Birds, Bees and Butterflies

July 29, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 9 Comments

This garden was one we put in about 3 years ago (time all melds together at this point – maybe it was four years, maybe two). It is pretty spectacular this year. All of the plants have matured and I put in a few annuals that Bill brought up. The best part about this garden is its attraction to hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

If you are within sight of this garden you can see it is a hub of activity.

I was thrilled to see honey bees on a lot of my flowering plants this year, it’s been a while.

There is always something to watch.

I originally planted this for the color it would give our view of the back forty. When I sit in the Adirondack chairs and look over this garden I realize I planted the perfect wildlife garden. There’s a hummingbird feeder that I have to fill every few days and I have seen finches in and out of it all day long.

There are also a critters that I could do without – chipmunks, red squirrels and woodchucks. Although, truth be told, I love watching them too. They don’t really bother anything, they do dig holes all over the place. If and when they get into the vegetable garden I might have a change of heart but for now I’ll share this beautiful space with anyone that wants to visit.

Enough Already

July 28, 2014 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

I woke up this morning to thunder rumbling in the west and air that was thick. Visibility was low. It rained, hard.

There were breaks of sunshine allowing me to get a little gardening in but the day pretty much looked like this. Small breaks of blue sky with the ever present clouds building all around, thunder constantly in the background. The kind of day best spent doing chores indoors. Digging in the dirt was more like digging in the mud.

There’s nothing worse than being forced to stay in the house when all you want to do is be outdoors. Somehow doing laundry and vacuuming lose all appeal when there is sod to dig and plants to move. Maybe sitting around thinking about it will make setting the garden in easier. I might actually have a plan.

Fig Bars

July 28, 2014July 28, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

After baking these and posting this photo yesterday I had a number of requests for the recipe so here goes. This comes from the King Arthur Flour Baking Companion – a book that I’m slowly baking my way through.

I started with the filling because it needs to cool before making the cookies.

1 pound dried figs

1/4 c granulated sugar

1 c water

1 tbsp orange juice

1 tbsp lemon juice

Grind the figs in a food processor or blender until a sticky, cohesive mass form. (They say you can snip them with scissors but I have to tell you, without the food processors these cookies wouldn’t happen.) Combine the figs with the other ingredients in a saucepan, stir well, cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is very thick, 3 to 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

The cookie dough.

1/2 c shortening

1 c packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 c all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

In a large mixing bowl beat together shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla until creamy. In a separate bowl whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Add this mixture to the wet ingredients gradually, beating until blended thoroughly. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Heat oven to 375.

Remove dough from refrigerator and roll it on a lightly floured surface to 14″x 16″. Cut the dough into 4 strips 4″x 14″. Spoon filling evenly down the center of each strip. Lift the sides of each strip over the filling pressing the edges together to seal. Cut the strip in half crosswise, making a total of eight 7″ strips. Place the strips seam side down, leaving 3 inches between them, on lightly greased or parchment covered baking sheets. Cut each strip into seven 1″ pieces but don’t separate them yet.

Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes, until they’re puffed and firm to the touch. Cool for several minutes on the baking sheet before separating them and cooling completely on racks.

This makes 56 cookies.

They are delicious. Reminiscent of fig newtons but fresher tasting. The fig really shines.

When reading through the recipe I thought these might be more trouble than they are worth. There’s a lot of dough manipulation that goes on. The only thing about this is that you have to work fairly quickly once the dough is rolled out. As it warms it’s more difficult to work with. All in all it’s worth the effort, I probably will never buy a fig newton again.

Digging Sod

July 24, 2014July 24, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

I have been thinking about expanding this garden for a couple of years now. I blame the weather for my lack of commitment to the project. It’s been too hot during the window I have every summer to move things around.

An opportunity presented itself in the past week or so that has pushed me to do this. A lifetime gardening mentor is dismantling her perennial gardens and I am the recipient of a lot of her plants. This is a mixed blessing. I’ve written before about how I feel about plants in my garden that come from friends and family, they hold a special place in my heart. For the most part perennials last more than a lifetime, that’s the reason you often see flowers blooming in odd places. They are very often in spots where homes once existed that are long gone. I have many, many plants that I can tell you came from people I love. Friendship gardening.

The difficulty in this particular gardening adventure is that I have been visiting Mabel’s gardens for decades. They were spectacular in design and there were always new and unusual plants in them. I learned a lot about the gardening of perennials from her. There are many reasons why she has decided to dismantle her gardens but for me to go there and dig plants out of it seems so wrong to me. They are part of how I think of her and it seems so sad to me to know that I will not be visiting an amazing array of plantings and have the narrative to go with it. And it’s not that I visited often but it was just knowing it was there.

At the same time I will be taking a piece of her for my yard. My sister and I walked her gardens over the weekend with her and she made a mental list of who was taking what. There were tips on how to dig up certain things and where they might go. There was also the excitement of having practically a ready-made garden for the moving.

Then comes the hard work. I have been digging out the sod for a couple of days. I finished yesterday early in the morning and have been thinking about other spots that should be dug up. Plants will be moved in the next week or two to various spots around the house, some love sun, some shade. It has also forced me to do things that I haven’t done in the past. I had to remove the forks from the tractor and put on the bucket – I’ve been shown once but never actually did it. As you can see that was a success.

All in all this project has given me perspective on my physical capabilities. It’s easy to say I’m too old and out of shape to be digging this much space by hand but honestly it feels so good doing it. Pace yourself I keep saying, stay hydrated my brain reminds me. Focus remains a bit of a problem, I want to dig up all sorts of places and know that I could get myself into some trouble with the amount I’ve taken on.

I came in for another large glass of water the other day and my father said, “You know this place once had the most beautiful gardens in town”. That, my friends, is something to aspire to.

The Coop – Some Thoughts

July 23, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 13 Comments

I finished the coop today. This journey began June 18 so it took a little over a month to complete. I have to say that I am pleased with how it came out and the chickens really love their new home. They aren’t old enough to go outdoors yet but the ladder is ready when they are.

Building this taught me a lot of things, some of them about building. The huge lesson I learned is that I can’t do everything myself. I physically just can’t do it. I was pretty disappointed to find that out. For some reason I thought I could have this pretty much done in a couple of weeks – I’ve built things before. I didn’t take into consideration the weight of a sheet of plywood and how high I was going to have to lift it. I want you to know that I can barely drag one across the floor.

Bill was here to help on weekends and had a 12 day vacation where this was THE project. For the most part it was much more enjoyable having help build it and I admire Bill’s ability to just tackle anything. It wouldn’t have been quite as pressing if I had actually waited to get the chicks until AFTER the coop was build. I didn’t expect them to be escaping their initial enclosure at 2 weeks old, they grow fast! As it was they were moved into it before any trim was done.

Building a shelter is one of those things that has been on my bucket list forever. I always thought it would be a cabin in the back forty (and that could happen at some point). Getting chickens was really just an excuse to build their shelter. I had been looking at coop plans for a really long time and this one popped up into a search just a month or so before coming to Rowe permanently. Yeah, I could have built just some little shack of unpainted plywood that I moved from place to place but I wanted something that looked good, something that spoke to the whole whimsy of having birds in the first place. One would think having chickens is serious business but it really isn’t. At some point their egg production may be important to me but for now I’m just watching my once fuzzy little chicks rapidly grow into adult hens. The coop provides them with as much protection as I can get from a building and it looks good in the landscape.

I took this photo the first night the chicks spent out in the coop – they had been in a room off of the shed up until that point. Their heat lamp is glowing nicely inside and they were all settled into their cozy wood chips with water and food. I worried though, was I sending them out there too soon? Later that night I woke up to the sound of foxes in the back forty, I got up and looked out my bedroom window to see their snug little home with the glowing red lamp. For now they are as safe as they can be.

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