This post would be great to show your six-year-old son.

We received a few inches of snow today. It should all melt in a few days. Chris spent most of the day today outside shoveling dirt… I helped for a couple of hours, but I have a slight foot injury right now which prevented me from doing too much work.

Following is a fun little gallery of pictures of our compost delivery. We received three truck loads (30 cubic yards total; 10 fit in one truck). Click on a picture to enlarge.

I’ll try to snap some pictures of the snow tomorrow… when the sun turns back on.

Like this post? Share it with your networks!

In April, 2010 we ordered two truck loads of compost from a company in Elk River, Minnesota. They helped the garden quite a bit. This fall, Chris decided to order three more truck loads (30 yards) before it snows, to give our garden an extra jump start next spring.

Puck checked it out. He approves. (This is him sitting in front of one truck load, 10 cubic yards).

Chris is putting in a new garden section, so this should help with that. We also cut out quite a bit of sod and top soil to prepare our current garden – and I put in a bunch of concrete block raised beds, so this black dirt will be nice to fill the rest of those in. It’s going to be a lot of work incorporating this, and hopefully the ground will stay free of snow for a couple more weeks so it will get done!

Like this post? Share it with your networks!

Actually, winter is fast approaching with the first snowflakes falling in our area today.

We ended up neglecting this blog (and the garden a bit too!) this year, as life quickly got in the way of leisure time. Chris and I were married in September – we had a pretty fun wedding with some of our homegrown sunflowers, great vegetarian food from Holy Land, good friends, a beautiful day for an outside wedding, and a mime to entertain our guests! I’ll put up some pictures of the day eventually. I figured the blog deserved a small garden update first, though.

There are still Brussels sprouts out there, and Puck munches away on them whenever he gets the chance. We’re hoping to order another truck load (or two) of compost this fall, and prepare the beds for spring – but that will depend on how long the snow holds off.

You can see the concrete block bed in front – I did manage to fill that with strawberries this fall, so hopefully they will get a jump start next spring!

Like this post? Share it with your networks!

In Minnesota, the tomatoes don’t really start to ripen until late July. This year, we had a lot of rain in July and I think that made the fruits take even longer to ripen. But once there are fresh tomatoes… nothing else in the world matters.

Our tomatoes are overrun with early tomato blight once again this year. It is at the point now where there are very few green leaves left on the vines; they are nearly all brown. Fortunately the fruit hasn’t been affected, but I’ve done as much as I can to try and manage it this year. I have some ideas for next summer – and I’m hoping to spend some time learning more about blight this winter.

That’s a giant bowl of assorted cherry tomatoes: Amish Mayberry, Prize of the Trials, and Yellow Pear. I’ve been working on our tomato varieties page, compiling a list of varieties we’ve grown over the years, seed sources, and a few notes. I’d like to put a bit more time into this, and also put together the Peppers section in a similar way. Maybe some day…

Like this post? Share it with your networks!

I added a tofu ricotta, cream sauce, and mushrooms. Topped with nutmeg and cinnamon. Chris wasn’t a huge fan, but I thought it was pretty good. Next time though… I think I’ll leave out the eggplant. Hah.

Like this post? Share it with your networks!

This fairly large sunflower (it was actually a triple-headed sunflower) came up as a volunteer in my herb bed. I thought it was going to be a dwarf sunflower at first; I would guess that it reached at least 9 feet tall. The birds have been snacking on the seeds, and I wanted to save a couple to see if they produce similar plants next summer. Niko decided to investigate it after I brought it in.

Our sunflowers all ended up blooming 30 days *ahead* of schedule this summer, most likely due to the incredible amount of rain we received in July, and also really hot temperatures in June and July. It looks like we’re going to have to buy some sunflowers for the wedding this September, but hopefully we’ll still have a few to use from our garden then.

Like this post? Share it with your networks!

Today’s pick:

Our eggplants are loaded with beautiful white and purple fruits. The white eggplant is a variety from Monticello – apparently one that Jefferson grew, and has been passed down through the generations. They are good sized, long fruits – nearly 12″ long, and each plant has at least 8 fruits on it. What a great find!

Temperatures have been consistently reaching the 90s this month, with a few streaks in the 100s. Pair that with 2″+ of rain each week, and you have the perfect weather for eggplants and peppers.

For some reason, though, our tomatoes are not ripening. We’ve picked a few small cherry tomatoes, and today I picked a couple of nearly-ripe orange tomatoes (Amana Orange). They both have pretty big cracks in them though, and look like they could start to go bad soon. Torrential rain is not great for heirloom tomatoes; it causes them to grow too quickly, and then they crack and are prone to insects and rotting.

In other news, I picked a Hungarian Carrot Pepper and, not thinking, took a bite out of it. The description on the seed packet just said “Great for frying.” No mention of heat. FYI – hungarian carrot peppers are HOT. Right up there with cayenne peppers, but it’s a different kind of heat. I’m sure they are terrific for frying… and I’m curious to see if they are more tolerable when cooked!

Like this post? Share it with your networks!

We only have a few opening up right now, because we planted most of our sunflowers to bloom in September.

Sometimes I wish I lived in a warmer place, just so I could have these be in bloom all year long.

Like this post? Share it with your networks!

Our yard and garden (and the entire neighborhood!) is being taken over by crab grass this summer. The stuff is awful – it spreads through the roots, goes to seed quickly, and takes over everything.

Today I got sick of pulling it out of the rows in the garden, so I decided to smother it with black plastic instead. Take that, noxious weed!

I hope this works, and then I’ll plant clover in the paths. Or maybe I’ll just put down patio blocks and be done with weeding between the beds. (That’s a tempting thought!)

Like this post? Share it with your networks!

My favorite flower

We didn’t start planting sunflowers until mid-June, so the ones that are opening now are all volunteers. This looks like a Sunny Smile (F1) dwarf sunflower, about 3 feet tall. It’s a hybrid variety so I think it’s kind of neat that it’s producing a large head similar to the flowers last year. Perhaps I will save seeds from it and see what we get in 2012!

Like this post? Share it with your networks!