Last week was a “no spend” week for us so instead of running around town buying groceries and running errands I pretty much stayed put for the most part and worked a lot on the yard.
How is your garden doing these days? Is it a bit overgrown? Well mine sure was. 😉 Yesterday the puggle princess and I spent 8 hours outside harvesting and then replanting both garden beds and a few containers on the patio.
If you haven’t thought about getting your fall garden in… Now is the time to do it. Yesterday we planted another round of zucchini, cucumber and beans. And for our fall garden we planted beets, green onions and carrot seeds in the garden. I also started kale, broccoli and cabbage under grow lights in the laundry room and in about another month I’ll start some lettuce, bok choy and radishes as well.
Who needs a rototiller when you’ve got a dog that loves to dig? 😉
Lately I’ve been making {and drinking} about 3 bottles of sun tea a day. I use recycled glass containers and if I had a few more of them I’d probably be drinking even more.
Red, white and blue potatoes!
I wasn’t going to dig up the ones I had in the garden beds until fall, but I wanted to get another round of zucchini and beans in the raised garden beds so I decided to yank them. We have potatoes growing in the front yard {hidden by a hedge} as well as sprinkled along the back fence so we should be fine as long as I don’t harvest anymore until late fall.
Fava beans. Have you ever grown them before? I only grow the giant beans every few years or so {they take up a lot of room} but I’m always happy when I do.
I think I’m going to make a summer salad with some of the beans and maybe dry the rest to put in soups this winter. That is if I can keep Lucy away from them. 😉
This years garlic was super tiny. I blame the potatoes {and the shady spot I planted them in} for a less than stellar performance. In years past I’ve been very successful growing garlic but with our current growing conditions it’s a bit harder to grow the giant bulbs we’ve been used to.
Food wise, we ate a bunch of weird combinations… Like blueberry muffins and eggs for dinner, chili and grilled zucchini and a plain vegetable stir fry and sausages and rice to name a few. It was really more of a what can I throw together real quick kind of week then well thought out meals. Summer. It does that to you.
The chicken curry was good though…
But The Girl said the potatoes I cooked on the grill tasted like “the city.” Dirty, smoggy and smokey. The HH didn’t say anything, he just sat there and ate them. HA! Lesson learned. Don’t cook potatoes in a grill pan over a bbq that needs to be cleaned.
Since last week was a “no spend” week for us when the HH brought home a flat of fresh raspberries a customer gave him at work, The Girl and I flipped out.
We gobbled about half of them up before deciding to whip up a batch of raspberry freezer jam to enjoy later this winter.
Summer. It’s here and it’s chaotic and that’s okay. 🙂
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $0
- Total Spent in January on Groceries $202.99
- Total Spent in February on Groceries $143.94
- Total Spent in March on Groceries $183.35
- Total Spent in April on Groceries $205.67
- Total Spent on Groceries in May $248.60
- Total Spent on Groceries in June $147.47
- Total Spent on Groceries in July $87.27
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- Total Spent in January on Take Out, Date Nights, and Bakery Treats $42.19
- Total Spent in February on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $118.45
- Total Spent in March on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $25.29
- Total Spent in April on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $62.50
- Total Spent in May of Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $54.52
- Total Spent in June of Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $119.15
Tami says
I do that with my recycled tea bottles too…and we share a love of Pure Leaf!
Karin C says
Use Mason Hars for your sun tea. Great harvest . Happy Monday to you and Lucy .
Karin C says
Jars
Rita says
Love seeing your garden photos. Have you had a good crop of zucchini already? Mine are sure not growing!
Laura says
Yes, agree with the above. Use leftover jars. I clean out spaghetti sauce jars and save them for vases, leftovers, etc. Love the glass. Someday it will probably all be plastic and we will be glad we have them. Plus, they are larger so you get more to drink!
Carolina says
That photo of the fava beans with Lucy down in the corner looking at them is oh, so cute! you can look forward to moving to New England, where you WON’T have to hide your potato plants behind the hedge. Here, you can plant whatever you want in your own front yard. Check your P.O box one of these days. I sent you another article about a fun and whimsical garden to visit in Lee, NH!
Susan says
I have been picking lots of kale to make kale chips and just finished up a row of radishes.
Beans are slow going, and a rabbit (s) has made a buffet out of a few things 🙁
We have 32 tomato plants – finally flowering and growing great after a deer had himself a feast earlier in the season.
Corn was “knee high by the 4th of July” so right on target….
Purple onions doing great.
Zucchini, lemon cucumbers, pattypans, pumpkin and yellow squash…zipping along,too
And then there’s the potatoes. Beautiful plants, just starting to flower. I think we will have LOTS of potatoes!
Our daughter expanded her herb garden that she has here, and everything in it is going gangbusters! Picking daily.
I had a package of Tillamook Strawberry Seeds (from a promotion somewhere) that were in my seed bucket that were 10 years old!! I planted them in the hoophouse, just to see what would happen and they sprouted and will need to be planted somewhere soon 🙂
Mavis Butterfield says
Wow! 10 year old strawberry seeds… that is impressive because they are hard to grow. 🙂 I was thinking about you and your canning recipes the other day… if you have more you’d like to send in, please do.
Susan says
Just this morning I made Blueberry Syrup AND Blueberry Butter. You use the left over pulp from making the syrup for the butter! ZERO waste!
Both turned out really good.
I’ll get those to you in the next couple of days.
Chuck’s Produce has Blueberries fresh from the farm for $8.99 1/2 flat.
Enough for these recipes with a pint for the freezer 🙂
Mavis Butterfield says
Those both sound delicious Susan. I can’t wait!
Tami says
Oh I have to tell you…I already have three dogs so we agreed that we have enough. But..my son called to say he found one that needs a home…he said I know you will say no but listen…..it’s a pug….named Lucy… be still my heart! We’ll see where she ends up living…:)
Sharon says
I’m growing potatoes for the first time this year. How do you know when to dig them up?
Mel says
Some varieties take more time than others, but I think the general wisdom is that you can harvest any time after the plants begin to die back. The longer you wait (fully dead vs. starting to die back), generally the larger the potatoes because the plant continues to build up the roots after the foliage dies.
We had a few plants already die back entirely–I couldn’t even find the stems–so we dug those. It was a variety that had done well for us before but was from a new company, and I was pretty disappointed by the yield and quality, but we at least had enough for one batch of oven fried mashed potatoes. We have a couple other varieties that are starting to die back now but are not fully gone yet, so I’m hoping they turn out better.
Susan says
When the plant withers and dies.
Mine are just flowering and the plants are really tall and beautiful.
sharon says
thank you both!!