Garden's Ready for Fall, and Upcoming Large Project(s)

The garden is ready for fall: old things cleaned out, seeds planted, cat barriers (just some plastic mesh and bamboo stakes) installed.  Refrigerator pickles made with carrots and turnips.  Beans, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants still going strong!

HOT! Thai chilies

Japanese eggplant

New mustard seedlings

Verdant pole bean vines against the brilliant sky

A rather large bean ready to be picked

But inquiring minds want to know:  what's going on inside the house?  Didn't that sunny coral colored room used to be a home office?  Why does it look like such a wreck?

New paint samples to contemplate

If you guessed baby, you guessed right!  The tiny little office is becoming a tiny little nursery.  Stay tuned for its transformation.

Future nursery's closet full of hand-me-downs and garage sale finds

Garden Update

Bean haul

Digging for carrots

Beautiful Eater

More wildlife -- a mantis!

All the carrots and lavender.  I'll probably try making a refrigerator pickle with the carrots.
Not sure about the lavender yet.

GGGGAAAAAAARRRRRRRRDDDDDDDEEEENNNNNNNN

After a few months and lots and lots of rain (especially just now at the end of June), this is our crazy verdant garden.  It looks kind of like a big, hairy, green monster in our backyard.  It includes pole beans, bush beans, okra, cucumbers (maybe), beets, carrots, turnip greens (and beautiful turnips!), beaucoup tomatoes (see the tiny yellow and red spots in the back right? those are ripe ones I'm going to pick tonight), mustard greens, strawberries, a couple of chard plants, Thai peppers, Asian eggplants, and lots of herbs.  Phew!

Things we have eaten so far (not counting herbs and greens):

Baby carrot with a few wax beans and the first okra pod

Early Girl tomato (first one to ripen) with sweet basil

Baby carrots!

Otherwise, lots of various projects have been in the works at The Ear over the past few months, and continuing on this summer.  Some were small, some will be very very large, and some will be life changing.  Stay tuned!

GAARDDENNN

The time has come...

Four raised beds are better than two, and just in time for spring!

So far, we've got planted: turnips, mustard greens, swiss chard, carrots, spinach, and salad greens.  Now we wait...

Late Spring/Early Summer Farm Report

Hello faithful readers! It has been a quiet spring around The Ear as we have traveled, hosted, and watched our garden grow. Since I last posted almost 2 months ago (wha?), we've made two raised beds in the backyard (full of tomatoes!) and gotten lots of salad greens going in containers. Enjoy these snaps, and have a happy Memorial Day!

(Thanks to Mr. MJ's mom for the last one.)

Gardening at Night: 2 Years On

A couple of days ago, we celebrated two years of living here in The Ear. We've made so many changes to the house in that time, from stripping off most of the wallpaper, giving all the walls and ceilings a fresh coat of paint, changing out some light fixtures, installing a new sink and cabinets in the bathroom, and of course, the redoing the kitchen, our biggest project yet.

We're always working on improvements outside too, both large and small. Lately we've been focussing on edibles in the back, and our tulips have bloomed as well. It's a beautiful Easter-time scene. Happy spring!

Germinated seeds to plant:


Arugula seedlings:


Lettuce mix seedlings:


Collards:


Strawberry plants!


Mr. MJ keeping the weeds in check:


Dark purple tulips framing our birdbath:


Beautiful tulips:


Next project:

Gardening at Night: Bulbs Coming Up

While we worked on our kitchen, our front garden was stirring to life. Last week, we finally got some flowers:







The tulips are just starting to come in, and maybe we'll have some alliums before long too (if the squirrels didn't eat them all over the winter).

Wild Hair: Painting the Front Door

The dirty old dingy-white front door was not the most welcoming of entrances to the Ear. A couple of weeks ago, I finally decided to do something about it.



I cleaned it really well, and on a warm, dry day, got out a can of Rustoleum (always to the rescue, it seems) and some sponge brushes.



A few hours, spread out over a couple of weeks later, I got this:



Better, yes? Perhaps not the most optimal color, but when the mood strikes, sometimes you've just got to use what's on hand.

Gardening at Night: A Hard Rain (or freeze, or snow) Is Gonna Come

Wow, it's been a while! Not much has been happening inside the house, but I've gotten a few things planted in the front yard. Here's the round up:

Oak Leaf Hydrangea (native to this area) planted in the corner. This one is still quite small and will probably (fingers crossed) grow to 3 or 4 times this size.


And it already has a lodger (we watched the black, wooly caterpillar build his chrysalis. Don't know what he will be)!


Coreopsis hybrids (they will have pink flowers; this was a totally root bound TLC plant I got on sale) near the gravel area.


And lots and lots of bulbs: crocus, grape hyacinth (also called muscari), purple-black tulips, and purple alliums.


Unfortunately, some of the bulbs have woken up a little early (I guess these are probably the crocus). They are in for a rude shock at some point.


Porch decorated with some mini gourds and squashes for Fall!

Goodnight Irene, Goodnight

Last night we survived our first hurricane (after living through a tropical depression or two while going to college in Houston). Here's what our preparation looked like:

We pulled all of our outdoor stuff (hand-me-down patio furniture, trash cans, grill, compost pails) under our back porch and piled sand bags against the basement door. Here's Mr. MJ sweeping up debris around the storm drain.



We also moved all of our container garden into the back porch.



Kind of looks like a makeshift green house. Otherwise, we battened down every hatch we could find and bought one of the last packs of D batteries in the city (seemingly), along with bread, cheese, crackers, and bottled water.

Our neighbors across the alley prepared by cutting down a big old catalpa tree in their back yard (if you squint you can see the worker strapped to the trunk; sad to see that one go...it made amazing looking seed pods). You can see the storm clouds moving in beyond the houses.



And this morning, we woke up to electricity and a dry house. Hurrah! We consider ourselves very lucky in this regard. Here's the tail end of Irene moving on out. I'll see you in my dreams, old girl!