What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

@penny1960 I hope you have a Merry Christmas. I wish Joy to the world, all the boys and girls. Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea. Joy to you and me

 

[ChocolateMouse]

It sounds like you had a wonderful time CM. I had to work, started well after sunrise and off before sunset, so it was just me and hubs this year. We had bbq'd salmon with a salad and asparagus. The altar was lovely, the sunrise was beautiful!

Our Yule fire can be only one night most of the time, then there are burn restrictions because of air quality.

Enjoy your seed catalogs, I'll be erecting the greenhouse and planting some tomatoes and lettuce. Already have some carrots in

Oh, I'm so glad your was so peaceful! Shame you had to work though... You can't ask off? :<
Mine *was* super great! Lots of good omens this year. Lots of happy people!

That salmon sounds awesome. We always have a giant spread, but the most interesting thing that went over well was the strawberry ginger sekanjabin, which is an ancient Iranian drink made with vinegar, sugar and mint. We made ours with fresh cut strawberries and ginger in the mix and it came out amazing and was surprisingly popular. I'm thinking of maybe focusing a lot on my strawberries this year and growing some mint and see if I can make some during the summer too out of my garden. It's really refreshing!

We only maintain our yule fire for one night too. I know that some traditions go up to 13, but also some new wicca traditions just light the three colored candles stuck in a log for an hour, so we light our log on the solstice and keep it going til dawn and call it a happy medium. It feels good and earthy to me. We had three friends stay with us nearly overnight so we were up swapping D&D stories until 5AM and it was very happy.

It must be nice in some ways to be able to grow in winter. I sometimes wish I could grow in winter, but then the time off for reflection is kinda nice.

In other news, now that I'm thinking about the garden again I have come to the conclusion that I may need a new kind of green bean. The KY wonders are ahmahzing for the garden, but less so in the kitchen. They're productive and big and disease resistant enough for my garden but when they're picked early they're too sweet, almost sickly, and then picked a bit later they taste good but have a tough texture best for a longer cooking time. So I'm thinking of doing a new variety this year. Maybe several to try things out.

 

[pennyJo1960]

@penny1960 I hope you have a Merry Christmas. I wish Joy to the world, all the boys and girls. Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea. Joy to you and me

Thanks girl back at ya have Merry whatever

 

[WthrLady]

had great success with Landreth Beans this summer. Agree, KY are lackluster unless you can them with plenty of salt and let them sit. What's the point of a huge bounty if they taste bad? They are a bush bean, so that's a little different. Great yields though.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Bush beans would be an interesting experiment. I've never grown them before tbh but it might be good to do them for a couple years in my rotation so I don't have to grow them in my limited trellis space. I'll look into those for sure!

 

[pennyJo1960]

my garden is toast till late spring so carrots and frozen peas from Costco green beans there not good but get the frozen ones for Schwans and they are like fresh lightly steamed steam all veggies there is a guy on the highway we take to Chehalis and our banks that brings many other fresh veggies from eastern Washington

 

[igorsMistress]

Oh, I'm so glad your was so peaceful! Shame you had to work though... You can't ask off? :<
Mine *was* super great! Lots of good omens this year. Lots of happy people!

That salmon sounds awesome. We always have a giant spread, but the most interesting thing that went over well was the strawberry ginger sekanjabin, which is an ancient Iranian drink made with vinegar, sugar and mint. We made ours with fresh cut strawberries and ginger in the mix and it came out amazing and was surprisingly popular. I'm thinking of maybe focusing a lot on my strawberries this year and growing some mint and see if I can make some during the summer too out of my garden. It's really refreshing!

We only maintain our yule fire for one night too. I know that some traditions go up to 13, but also some new wicca traditions just light the three colored candles stuck in a log for an hour, so we light our log on the solstice and keep it going til dawn and call it a happy medium. It feels good and earthy to me. We had three friends stay with us nearly overnight so we were up swapping D&D stories until 5AM and it was very happy.

It must be nice in some ways to be able to grow in winter. I sometimes wish I could grow in winter, but then the time off for reflection is kinda nice.

In other news, now that I'm thinking about the garden again I have come to the conclusion that I may need a new kind of green bean. The KY wonders are ahmahzing for the garden, but less so in the kitchen. They're productive and big and disease resistant enough for my garden but when they're picked early they're too sweet, almost sickly, and then picked a bit later they taste good but have a tough texture best for a longer cooking time. So I'm thinking of doing a new variety this year. Maybe several to try things out.

We have time off in summer instead All we do is maintain the trees and shrubs then.

We went to Lowe's yesterday to price some fencing, the puppies have had a grand time destroying my potato bush and the bougainvillea, and I picked up an artichoke for the garden. Super thrilled about that!

My focus this year is getting the greenhouse set up and starting some tomatoes and lettuce. I want some good tomatoes and it's been a real struggle here.

I'm still building my compost, today I'll be raking the yard and generally cleaning up. I also need to water, it's been a dry winter so far.

Have a great day everyone

 

[pennyJo1960]

What a good idea I have soil just begging to grow plants in the greenhouse not ther next couple of days but will get some salad makings growing

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Now that it's actually christmas, merry christmas!
We'll be spending my partner's day off eating cookies, planning the garden, and sleeping cause it's a pretty normal day for us... But we will be joining my sister and her husband for dinner because she wanted an excuse to buy a honey baked ham. My best friend will be joining us too. It should just be a quiet and tasty meal. Maybe after we'll have some raw eggnog from my chickens cause I didn't get the chance to make it for Yule.
Hope ya'll have a nice day.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Today it was 50*F< outside so I went out and did some cleanup!
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to do my usual fall cleanup/putting my beds to bed, so I got to go do a bunch of it today.
I started with the chicken fence, which has been down since the raccoon attack. It's just a big wall of black plastic bird/deer netting that cuts off the back end of my lawn from my main lawn and garden beds. The main wall of it is now standing up again, though it's not secure around the new chicken coop yet.

I also gathered/stacked a bunch of pots from plants that were overflow and never made it into the garden and so stayed in their pots in case we needed replacements. We had a lot of those so it was a good 20-30 pots/trays to pick up and I'm not done yet.

And then I pulled a whole bunch of my 8' tomato stakes from the beds they were still standing in, and threw the dead tomato plants into the chicken pen along with a bunch of dead Asters. I need to get rid of the asters and tall grasses (like timothy and orchard and sedges) before spring comes around and they all start growing back! If I can get rid of them now, lawn management in the spring/summer will be much easier.