Sweetiepie's Garden 2015

[sweetiepie]

The carrots are small but my son is here and lives 4 hours away, so I was going to give him a little taste before he leaves. Of course green beans. I have canned 40 quarts so far and probably will do another 10, the rest I will give away or give to the animals.

This is Thyme. Before I remembered to take out the camera, I had already processed for the dehydrator, chives, basil, marjoram, rosemary, sage, tarragon and cilantro.

This is oregano.

This is Parsley.

Lots of cucumbers, I have canned 10 quarts of pickles. Not sure if I will can more, not many pickle eaters here.

Jalapeno peppers. I have already gotten Hungarian Wax, paprika peppers, and some North King green bell peppers harvested. Now I just need my toamatoes to catch up so I can make salsa.

[sweetiepie]

We had 75mph hour winds for two days and then some days of 30 or so. The garden took a hit with wind damage and burn too because it was in the 80's. But the tomatoes protected the corn pretty well, so I am happy about that. We lost 8 large trees and some people lost new construction projects, crops and shingles.

The grapes are doing really well considering I thought they got killed this spring by snow and ice. I am not looking forward to pruning this next spring. The books make it look nice and simple but it isn't like that in real life.

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You can really see the wind damage to the cucumbers but they are still blooming and should recover.

Sure glad the corn didn't fall over to bad.

[imafan26]

You have a very beautiful and productive garden. I am glad it came through the weather all right. I wish I had your energy. I couldn't take care of a garden that size and animals and do all that processing.

[applestar]

Looking REALLY good despite the weather.
I second imafan. Your garden puts mine in perspective and gives me no excuse to slack off

[digitS']

You have to be pleased that it took that much wind and looks as green and wonderful as it does.

There are several windstorms here every year but almost never that bad. One thing I have learned is that insect pests may take advantage of wind-damaged plants and deliver a one-two punch that the plants cannot recover from enough to produce a crop! I've also learned that soil moisture is in critical need after wind-damage.

Bell peppers? I'm still waiting on my Kings of the North. There were a few little hot peppers that have been harvested and I know of one Giant Marconi that is ready. A few eggplants have come off. I'm gonna have to get real serious about picking tomatoes soon. More and more ripe ones each week and I'll hope for the same for you (and your pepper salsa, Sweetiepie ... ).

Steve

[ElizabethB]

Sweetiepie - your garden is beautiful. Congratulations.

There was a time, MANY years ago, when I had your energy. Now I get tired just thinking of the work involved with caring for your garden, animals and children. Enjoy it while you can.

[sweetiepie]

Thank you for your kind words. I am glad you didn't look to closely because there are some weeds hiding in there. My milk cow has been sick the last two weeks. So I have been tending to her. I honestly thought she might not make it. My husband has been home the last two weeks too, shingling our roof. We thought it would take a week but the roof is so steep that just him in the bucket truck can do it. So it has been very slow going. It has never had shingles stripped off before, 113 years worth of shingles up there. Makes a mess on the ground, that was my job, clean up crew. So I had to actually make a noon meal, the kids and I usually just have a "free for all." So it has been one of those times were I thought I had bit off more than I could chew. But my cow is better and today the roof will be done.

So glad digitS that my tomatoes are not ripe yet. I am sure those grasshoppers will be showing up soon.

We had a lot of rain before all that wind, so it helped things stay green. The plants in the orchard were not protected by the trees and being in just pallets, suffer from lack of water, even though I watered every other day. The wind here is normal just not 50 mph and above. So we tend to have few diseases in the garden usually. We have had though exceptionally high humidity before the wind so I did have a little bit of mildew since I tend to plant really close together and haven't had problems before.



One nice thing about having a large garden is if a plant looks bad you can feed it to the animals and not feel bad because you have more or if you just have to snitch something before it is quite ready, you don't feel guilty either. I love being in the garden, I just wish I could find more time to be there. Morning is my favorite but that is usually filled with chores.

[sweetiepie]

Here is an update on how the garden faired. I have no idea how much we ate raw. This is just what I have canned or dehydrated. I am still canning tomatoes and paprika peppers that are still green also.

Tomato sauce 108 pints.
Tomato salsa 91 pints
Tomato juice 12 quarts
spaghetti sauce 25 pints
pizza sauce 27 pints
BBQ sauce 83 pints
ketchup 12 pints
Tomato powder 1 pint
Corn 71 pints
Carrots 63 pints
Beans 40 quarts Dilly beans 7 quarts
Celery 18 pints
Pickles 26 quarts
potatoes canned 25 quarts
potatoes dehydrated 1 1/2 gallon jars
Grape Jam 6 pints
Strawberry jam 16 pints
Basil 10 jelly jars
cilantro 4 jelly jars
parsley 19 jelly
sage 8 jelly
chives 6 jelly
dill 3 jelly
green pepper 34 jelly
red pepper 34 jelly
onion powder 2 jelly
minced onion 19 jelly
caraway 4 jelly
rosemary 2 jelly
thyme 3 jelly
Horseradish 3 jelly
paprika 7 jelly
oregano 3 jelly
marjoram 4 jelly

Other things canned or dehydrated but not from my garden.
Pears 15 pints
Applesauce 3 pints
Apple butter 13 pints
Apple juice 4 quarts
Apples 12 pints
Chicken Broth 35 quarts
Chicken meat 48 pints
Milk 35 quarts

[digitS']

That Garden! !

Where is the Like Button?

Yay for You!

Steve

[applestar]

-- My eyes glazed over around 1/3 of the way down the list and I had to pay closer attention. WOW! You and your garden have been productive, @sweetiepie.

[imafan26]

Wow you can feed a small army on that. You must have a lot of storage space for it too. I am just amazed at your energy. I wish you could pass some of it my way.