Cleaning Up the Garden

Yesterday afternoon, I dug in and did some 'maintenance' in the garden.

First, I picked all the tomatoes that were close to ripe.  I also removed a lot of the bad fruits and tossed them into the compost heap.  The good ones were put on a table on the back porch.  We'll be 'saucing' them.

The green beans were basically a failure this year.  We were able to get  a couple of good messes to eat, but weren't able to grow enough to can.  The drought was just too much for them.  So, I took down the short poultry netting fence I had erected around the beans to keep the rabbits out.  I rolled it up and put it away, along with the electric fence posts I had hung the wire on.  I then pulled all the drying plants, stripped the vines off the bean poles and piled all the vegetation in a heap.  Then I pulled up all the beanpoles and stacked them up off the ground next to the shed for use next year.
       
Next, I pulled back the straw mulch all along the rows and also down along where I'd pulled all the onions a few weeks ago.  I hoed up a nice long row and sowed turnip seed.  If they germinate well, there should be plenty to store and use.  We don't use a whole lot of turnips, but they are good once in a while, cooked along with mashed potatoes.  Of course, they're good raw too!

I pulled a few turnips from an earlier planting and picked a few bell peppers.  So now, the garden is caught up and we're just waiting to see the turnip seed sprout.

It's Dry!

Our area is experiencing drought conditions.  It is actually early in the year to be seeing things this dry, but we deal with what we get.  There have been some burn bans put in place for some of the counties around us.  The last rain we received amounted to about a half-inch.  It's all welcome, but we sure could use some more.


The garden is well mulched and that is helping to hold moisture, but I'm keeping an eye on that.  The pole beans are really vining and blooming and the tomatoes are starting to turn.  We should have some fresh beans and 'maters really soon.

Below is a shot of the first few blackberries of the season.  I hope to get enough off the young plants to make a cobbler or two, or maybe a batch of wine.  I had a handful with breakfast this morning.

The first berries...and lots more to come!

Great Weather, Gardening, and a new (old) book!

The weather has been great the past few days and it looks to continue for a few more.  Temps have been in the 70-degree range in the afternoon and in the upper 40's at night!!  Fabulous for Southern Indiana.  We'll be begging for days like this come July and August!  But for now, we'll sleep with the windows open and enjoy the weather we're blessed with.

 The past couple of evenings were spent on scrounging expeditions.  You know, good bean poles aren't that easy to find any more.  I prefer sassafras, about an inch to inch and a quarter in diameter at the base.  When found in a fencerow, they are usually tall and as straight---well, as a beanpole!  We found enough of the saplings and once home, I sharpened the base end of each one.  I stuck the beans, four hills at a time, one pole to a hill.  Then I gathered the four poles just above head high and tied them securely together in tipi fashion.  Then on to the next four.  Somewhere in the early plantings, I lost track of a couple of hills of beans that didn't come up and replaced them with tomato plants, so I have fourteen hills of Kentucky Blue pole beans.  Once the poles were all in place, I laid tomato cages on their sides around the perimeter of the plantings to keep the neighborhood cottontail rabbits from nipping the young plants.  Once the plants get going a bit and climbing up the poles, they don't usually bother the older leaves near the base.

I am also adding a shot of our compost bin.  It is another of those do-it-yourself projects that I like.  It is simply made from old, used concrete blocks that are loose stacked.  I stacked them on their sides to allow for more air movement.  Note too, that the holes in the blocks at the front of the bin allow me to place some short poles to help contain the contents of the bin.  All of our vegetable scraps go in the pile as well as old straw, and other trimmings.

Finally, in today's post is a photo of an old book I recently located.  It is titled "Early American History--1492-1789--Political, Social, and Economic"  It was published way back in 1938 and was written by one of my great uncles, Jennings Bryan Sanders.  I never really knew 'Uncle Jennings', as my dad called him, but our family was very proud of him and held him in high regard.  He earned a Ph.D. and was, at one time, president of a college in Tennessee.  I guess you could say he was the scholar in our family.  He wrote several books including a couple about the Continental Congress.  Apparently, I came by my interest in Revolutionary War History naturally.

Got some Gardening Done!

After yesterday’s successful program an Vincennes University Jasper Center, I came home and worked on our garden for this year. I first headed over to the home of an Amish friend who had said I could have all the horse manure and bedding I wanted to shovel! I took him up on it and soon had the better part of a pick up load. His sister also showed me the new colt of one of their driving horses. Back at home, I scattered the manure-straw mixture around my blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries. I also put a bit as mulch around a small plum tree.
Most of the plain manure went on the garden. I then hopped in the jeep and went over to the nearby greenhouse, also run by some Amish friends, to pickup my tomato and pepper plants.
Back in the garden, I ran the tiller through a couple of times to mix in the manure. Then, I measured off and made holes with the hoe for each of the eighteen tomato plants. A dozen are Celebrity and a half dozen are Viva Italia paste-type tomatoes. These should give us all the tomatoes we need for canning, juicing, and salsa.
I also added eighteen hills of pole beans, sowed five to the hill. I used a variety called Kentucky Blue, a cross between the old standby Kentucky Wonder and the popular Blue Lake (which I was not able to locate seed for). I will head over to our Martin County acres to cut some sassafras poles to use as bean poles.
Four sweet pepper plants and a trio of Jalepeno completed the day’s plantings.
All in all, it was a good day for ‘homesteading’!!