Raspberries, day 2

Mr. GV went out for round 2 of raspberry picking.  I'm freezing most of these, as they only last a couple days fresh.

So pretty!

Compost bed

Our compost bed is kind of like a grab bag--you just don't know what's going to pop up from there! 

I've got some sort of squash.  What kind is yet to be determined. 

Here I'm thinking maybe it's butternut squash. 

And here I think maybe it's acorn squash.  Or maybe some type of mutated zucchini?  Ha. I can't really even tell how many plants there are, because it's a big tangled mess. 

Underneath there's an onion growing.  I'm interested to see how that turns out. 

Cat nap

This is part of the recycling.  It's in my dining room with a couple of cardboard boxes, waiting to be taken to the collection bin.  Actually I think I'll unscrunch it and fold it up so J can color on it to his heart's content the next time he visits.  At any rate, right now it is apparently the *perfect* place for a cat nap. 

In my backyard

I love these little blackberry lilies.  They pop up after most of my other lilies are done for the season. 

See this?  It's lemon balm.  Don't ever plant it unless you want a bed full of it. 

Because it will seriously take over.  Seriously. 

 This is frogger.  He is supposed to live inside, but I found him a few days ago where "someone" (Max) partially buried it.  Macy will take toys out when the weather is nice and I can leave the door open, and Max will bury them if he is able.

I planted a potato 3 years ago in this backyard flower bed.  I had one left over from planting in our barrels and just randomly stuck it in this bed.  Well, that year it came up and we had potatoes there, and this year it looks like we will as well. 

The hostas are blooming.

The furry resident who likes to hang out in the backyard. 

Uh oh, looks like more rain.  We had a few very dry weeks, but not anymore!  Lately it's been just about every day that we've had some pop up thunderstorms. 

The cannas are coming up but the Japanese beetles are already munching away on them.

And there's the rain.

Harvest

Yesterday's harvest:

a head of broccoli plus a few more pieces underneath,

a bowl full of lettuce,

potatoes that I acidentally harvested.  I was pulling up another plant and it just happened to be attached at the roots to a potato plant, so I wound up digging these out of the ground too.

A couple pints of raspberries, with a couple early blackberries. 

In my yard yesterday

Yesterday I decided it was time to get outside for the first time in a week and see what my garden was up to. 

I found that the lettuce had bolted.  Well, I knew that a few days ago when Mr. GV reported it to me, but I hadn't seen it for myself. The stalks were so heavy that they were leaning over.  Mr. GV said the lettuce was a tad more bitter but still pretty good, so I went ahead and cut down the stalks and pulled off the leaves.

The broccoli was still in pretty good shape.  Mr. GV had harvested one head while I was sick, but I got one and the good parts of another one yesterday. 

The raspberry/blackberry patch has gone wild this year.  Not sure you can see all the little bits of red in this picture, but there are lots!

I hate having a paved driveway.  We started out with a gravel drive and kept it as long as we could.  But several years ago our driveway washed away and caved in, and we had no choice but to pave it.  We put the fruit bushes right between the driveway and our neighbor's privacy fence, which gives us this weird nature vs manmade area. 

Still kicking

Yes, I'm still around.  I've been sick.  As in do-nothing-but-lay-in-the-bed-for-a-week sick. As in lose-5-pounds-in-2-days sick.  Also known as go-to-the-hospital-to-get-fluids sick.  I'm still recovering, although I am able to get out and about now, just a bit on the weak side. 

I will return with an actual blog post in a couple of days. 

See you then!

A tour of mom's yard

Last week while waiting for my mom to get home, I decided to take a tour of her yard, and document it in pictures. 

Here's the Russian sage that's along one side of her driveway.  You can't see it so well in this picture, but it's covered in purple flowers, and the bees and other insects love it.  

The magnolia tree. 

A bed of lilies.  A few weeks ago it was filled with irises, but of course their season is over by now. 

I love rocks that are stacked. 

And I love moss, so a moss-covered rock especially thrills me. 

Daylilies, which have since bloomed more. 

Zebra grass blowing in the wind.

Roses.

Asiatic lilies of all colors!

This is what's left after the clematis flowers have fallen off.  I kinda like it.

One of the grape vines.  If the birds don't get them, there will be a bumper crop this year!

Peach tree.

Pears--there are going to be quite a few of those this year too. 

I love my mom's yard--always so colorful!





Simple meal

Our compost pile sent up several potato plants this year.  One of the plants has already died back, so it was time to dig some 'taters!  I waited until Mr. GV came home from work so he could have the honor. 

Here's what we got--2.6 pounds!

Mr. GV suggested we roast them, so I added some carrots and beets (the latter from a local organic farm), olive oil and rosemary.  I roasted them at 425 for 45 minutes. 

While that was cooking, I went out and picked some fresh salad greens.  I really am loving just picking enough for one meal at a time. 

I thought I'd try combining it all together, so I put the roasted root vegetables on top of the lettuce and added some poppy seed dressing.  It was delicious, and gave me some more ideas.  A couple of days later I baked a potato and did the same thing.  I normally eat baked potatoes with Earth Balance.  It's non-dairy but it's still a butter-like spread, so if I can do without it, that's great.  I sprinkled a few fakin' bits, added some poppy seed dressing, and had another tasty meal.  I've got some good recipes for making my own salad dressings, so once the store bought kind is gone, we'll be using homemade only.