Boo Boo vs Tennessee Sweet Potato

Today we harvested the first of our Tennessee Sweet Potatoes. It was 18.25lbs, which weighed in more than Boo Boo. He thinks all melons, pumpkins and the like are new toys for him to play with so we let him be in the picture of our first fruit from the vine.

Day Trip

So this morning my neighbor came over with his two great danes plus the other next door neighbors dane. He had them all in the van looking out the window. There is a painting in here somewhere.
Then we went up to Kansas City to do some antique shopping. We came across this end table and the chair below. We needed a chair by the door to put on shoes, plus it was black so it goes with the studio furniture. The end table will fit in nicely with what we are calling Bohemian eclectic.

We found these things in a town called Clinton, Missouri. Most small towns in Missouri are nothing to write home about but this one is amazing. The whole town square is alive with antique stores and shops. The town keeps itself looking clean and nice. A few run down houses but for the most part historic homes that are nice. They also have Truman Lake and the Katy Trail, which is 200 and some odd miles of biking trail, which we are going back for right away.

Close Ups

Sweet Corn is almost ready. I was reading the best way to eat Sweet Corn is to boil the water then go and cut the corn off and run as fast as you can to the boiling water. Seven Minutes later you put it into your mouth.
We have several different peppers growing. I think this is maybe a banana pepper that will turn colors shortly.
The tomatoes are coming in now.

The cucumbers are doing well. Last year we didn't make it this far, but I have been going out to the garden several times a day with my dust buster/bug sucker.

We have four good size French Melons, which I hope ripen soon as I am tired of holding my breath.

Flowers for the table

My bride put this on the table today. Down the street the neighbors are gone for a few weeks. We had permission to go cut some flowers this afternoon.

The Garden Today

I love the fact that I cannot get the garden in one shot anymore. I also love the fact that the back room isn't red white with peeling paint and rotten wood everywhere.
This morning this sunflower almost seemed to be singing.
The Tennessee Sweet Potato got so big I had to cut it out of the stocking. Now we have used stockings like hammocks for it. I have read that this thing will grow to 15lbs but I think we are there already.

I have been pinching the watermelon flowers off since we have more than I know growing on the vine. They are at least 10-12 inches long and that much or more around. I have tried to count them but I come up with a different number every time. How many watermelons do you see in the photograph below? It's why it is so hard to count them.

Two cucumbers picked just this morning. I only killed 3 cuke beetles this morning. Which means we made it through the first infestation of the season. Two more to go . I will be amazed if we make it all season long. The cucumbers we planted are just regular 10 cent seeds. I do not even know the name of the variety. Last year we harvested one cucumber before the plant died because of the beetles. We did order County Fair Cucumber seeds, which will arrive in a week or so. I am going to build a new compost bed for them to grow in and we will be making pickles out of them. They say they will not be bothered by the cuke beetles and all the flowers are female. So we can net the whole plant and not have any bugs get them. You can't save the seeds however so we will have to order the seeds again next year. Every place online was sold out, but one.

Baker Creek Visit

Today we drove two hours east to Baker Creek Seeds. It is where we purchase our seeds for the garden. They have a village set up where a big festival happens every year. We didn't get to be there for that but basically had the run of the town to ourselves.We first went to eat at the restaurant. Food like my wife makes. It was awesome. Everything was right from the garden they have growing there which is huge to say the least.
Then we toured the town. Going into the open stores with no one in them. If you want to buy something you just bring it to the main seed store.
The seed store was great with hundreds of varieties, maybe more seed packets to purchase. We didn't buy everything but maybe twenty or so packs that we need to plant for the Fall Garden.
The apothecary store was fragrant as you might imagine. All those Mason jars lined up on the walls reminded me of our kitchen.
Then the main house we noticed the propane tank was painted like a melon. You just know we are doing this when we get back to the country.
Afterwards we went to go see The Laura Ingalls Wilder home. The last house she lived in until 1957 I think. Apparently the ground was just like our ground, rock and clay. They were gluttons for punishment too. It was nice to get out and see some local sights. We left at 10 am and were home by 5pm so it made for a great day trip.

Our 1st garden down here

When we first arrived down here for our Summer Vacation my bride wanted a garden. (these two photos are from that garden) So she took a corner in the back and planted some beans and squash and what not. I didn't have much to do with it as I was trying to get the house live able. In fact I thought we were not going to be here that long so why bother, but I didn't say anything. It made her so happy to do it so I just swung my hammer on the house and let her play in the dirt when she wanted to. I kind of shudder to think what if I would have been an idiot and discouraged her, all the joy we have gotten from gardening over the last two years would have been missed. In fact Summer time was always a season to get through and didn't hold much appeal for me. These last two Summers are the greatest Summers of my life and it is all because my wife and her desire to plant seeds.

If I was to give marriage counseling to a guy I would say, shut up and let her be. She will make your life better than you can ever dream.

I am amazed they grow

Last weekend we purchased a Japanese Beetle trap. They were doing some damage to the grape vine, apple trees and raspberries. I hung it up and instantly they swarmed it.
The trap has something to do with sex scent for them. Here is a close up of a beetle orgy, shortly before they die. Before the trap I had to use the dust buster to vacuum them up every few hours.
Yesterday I piled straw on top of the potatoes. I hope I did it right. I am told the harvest will be much greater. If I didn't do it right let me know, I would appreciate it so much.
Here are a few shots this afternoon in the garden. I am amazed everything is growing. The watermelon are doing great. At least a dozen 6-7 inches like this one and several dozen more smaller.
The corn is beautiful.

Today I spotted the first of a few cucumbers that are growing. Last year we got two before the cuke beetles killed the plant. I am holding my breath about all these plants because they have been hard for us to grow to completion.

One of four french melons alive. Maybe three weeks from harvest. I am told this is the most difficult plant to harvest organically. We have not lost one yet and maybe we might even get more. I would be thrilled to get one off the vine and find out if the two years of trial and effort is worth it.

This is the Tennessee Sweet potato growing in a nylon stocking to support it on the fence. The Squash Vine Borer has visited us and we lost one pumpkin plant.

The Vine Borer will lay it's eggs on the trunk of the plant. When they hatch they go into the hollow vine and starve out the plant making all the fruit turn to mush. Several gardens in the neighborhood have been attacked and all the squash is sitting there mushy and dead. The gardeners must take the plant out and throw it in the garbage as the compost pile will not kill the vine borers inside. To combat them we have used the dust buster on the adults that fly around the garden, put Cinnamon on the bases of the plants and I wipe the bases down everyday to kill and eggs that have been laid. This is one of several cooking pumpkins on a nylon sling we hope to bring to the table for pumpkin pie. Again, I am holding my breath as it is not an easy feat for us to win the battle against the bugs.

Finally the Pink Hydrangea Doublicious in full glory. We only have one bloom but I hope this little plant and the other two take good root this year and we have plenty of blooms next year.

Thyme on my hands

There is never enough time to do everything but this morning my bride found a way to get some more thyme on her hands.
This was out back (above) in October of 2008. I thought it was really nice compared to what we had when we first started cleaning the place up. Below is todays picture.
I see so many more things to do and I suppose there will never be enough time to do them all but it's fun to watch transformations take place. I guess if we had a normal house that was nice to begin with we wouldn't appreciate every battle we win. Not that I would want to do this process again mind you. If we did find 20 or 40 acres with a nice 50 year garden growing and just needed some care because the owners had aged and couldn't maintain it anymore and the house was run down for the same reason, we might be tempted. Buying a house that was used as a rental for 30 years however there is no way we would even consider it. Right now there is a slum lord that is losing 40 properties to the bank. You can buy a house for as low as $8000 if you want to do the adventure we have done the last two years. We went and looked in the windows of one that was selling for $15000 on our walk the other day. Everything I know about building, I wouldn't touch it if you gave it to me. It sold two days ago for much less than $15k I am sure. Across the street are five minted out Victorians that would sell at 150- 225 thousand. I think maybe they got together to buy it and have it torn down. At least that is what I hope.

The new bed is finished & other stuff

Petit Gris De Rennes is the formal name but Cantaloupe works for us. I had a few of these growing last year but as soon as they were about to ripen I lost them to the cuke beetles. So here we go for another attempt.
We also have the peppers forming nicely. Looking forward to having them in a couple of weeks.

Today we installed the cedar around the new beds we sifted a couple of weekends ago. Shallots are planted on the top bed along with onions and potatoes were planted at the last bed. We have two empty beds in the middle and we get to decide what will grow there. We never had enough space before, but I am sure by morning we will have something selected to grow there. We were able to do this the last two days. The temperature is 95 or above. We are amazed that we do not melt but have adapted to the heat. I recently watch a documentary about Harry S Truman. He was from Missouri and spent ten years as a farmer. I can tell you anyone who was a farmer from Missouri back then I would not want to mess with. They had to have endurance to be in this sun all day, every day shoving rock and clay around. I think it sad that now, most of the population in the part of Missouri we live couldn't last ten minutes in a garden let alone work a farm. I think the people who use to live here had to be some of the strongest stock in the country.
Harvey the watermelon gave us some pretty good seeds to work with. There are more than I know on the vines of the watermelon plants. Wouldn't it be something to have watermelon in excess like tomatoes. The neighborhood would love us.
Finally the raspberries did not turn red like we wanted but remained a pink color with a bit of a sour taste. So we ripped them out and went to the nursery and purchased these plants from Poland. They had some fruiting so we were able to taste before hand.

This is Charlie, named because he lives in the chard. He has a friend named Herb who lives in the herbs a few beds to the south. We discovered 6 baby bunnies living in a nest in Herbs bed about 30 minutes ago. They look like mice when they are that small. Something about having bunnies living in a garden doesn't sound right to me. They don't even pay rent, at least the toads catch the insects for us.

How the garden grows

This has to be the largest post I have ever done on the blog. There were just so many things I wanted to remember for next year and this blog kind of serves as a diary for the garden, so we know what works and doesn't work. First up is the 1st flower blooming on this Delphinium. My bride planted these from seed last summer. She saved three of the little boogers who never bloomed last year. We kept them in the window all winter and planted them this spring. So one year later we have two plants getting ready to explode with flowers. This one is red the other one we do not know what color it is yet.
Here is our Christmas tree from the last two years. We know it is a hibiscus but since it has to come in every year during the winter we make it our Christmas tree. Last year however we had a ton of gnats to kill every day because of the tree. This year it is going to a good home (besides ours) or it may be placed in the basement to winter the season. We have talked about enclosing the front porch to serve as a green house/three season porch. It could live there but I only have 4 or 5 months to make that happen before we need a decision made.
The left over bed frames we salvaged from the trash can have served well for the wisteria. Every time I say wisteria I can not help but think of Desperate Housewives because they live on Wisteria Lane. I found out that this plant is heavy so I am glad I have cemented the arbor in the ground. I also found out that this plant takes some time to bloom. Ten years on the outside I was reading. If we are here in ten years I guess we will see it. I read also last year that you should plant trees like your going to be here for ever and weed today like there is no tomorrow. A lot of the things we have done down here on our Summer Vacation will not benefit us but the next people who live here.
This is the Rose of Sharron that we planted last Fall, just coming into bloom. It's about 4 feet right now and I am guessing it will be 8 ' by the end of this growing season. I look forward to it being filled with the flowers for the rest of the Summer.
One of three Hydrangeas we planted last Fall. We hope they establish themselves this 1st year and next year they will be 4 to 5 feet tall loaded with flowers. We just have this one flower now.
Here are the traveling Artichokes. Last Spring we loaded three seedlings up along with tomatoes, peppers and such in the back of the Jeep. We then drove up to Minnesota & Wisconsin. We needed to water the seedlings so the traveled with us. One artichoke we left in Minnesota as a gift, these two made it home. It has been a battle to keep these guys growing but it looks like they are beginning to thrive. I don't even know if I like artichoke so I hope when all this effort comes to the end on the dinner plate they are wonderful. I have never had anything my wife has made that I do not like so I am sure it will be wonderful. If not these artichokes will come back year after year so they will also be for the next people who live here.
Last Summer we purchased three grape vines on close out at a hardware store. Buying plants at a hardware store is not recommended but we did. Two of the grape vines were just dead as door nails right from the start. This one made it through the Summer as it waited for me to build something for it to grow on. I did it finally and look at it go. I do not know if it will put grapes on the table yet. My bride believes it is a Fall producing plant and we should see grapes starting soon.

Seven watermelons started from seeds we saved from Harvey the Watermelon last year. I guess these are Harvey's kids. Last year I put the cantaloupes and watermelons together. The cuke beetles worked both over pretty good, so I split them up this year.

Cucumbers growing in the compost bin I made for it. We have only seen 1 beetle this year, but we know they are coming. This year I hope to defeat the little %#@* things. We only had one cuke to eat last year. I know I could buy chemicals to put on everything but then I might as well give up and go eat at McDonald's. The pendulum swings pretty fast in my head. lol

One Brussels Sprout at the top of this Broccoli bed. My wife planted it last Fall along with a bunch of other ones too late to produce anything. Under the bags of leaves they hid all winter. We thought for whatever reason we would try to save them this year. One lives here on life support. Each day we go out to pick off little green worms eating the leaves. Last night however we found 6 old issues of Organic Gardening at a thrift store. Inside was a recipe for brassica eaters to choose another food rather than our garden. We mixed the stuff up and I sprayed it everywhere with great hopes of having Brussels Sprouts on the table. It's another food that I don't know if I like.

This is the patch of Two Sisters. It's suppose to be three sisters but we had one sister there last year. The three sisters are corn, beans and squash. Because of the squash bugs last year we didn't plant it here again this year.

The corn is starting to tassel.

We also have beans and peas growing on the other side of the garden.

This is a Tennessee Sweet Potato that we have tied up on the fence. We will place the fruit in stockings to grow in the air.

The flowers of the TN Sweet Potato.

Two compost piles have the pumpkins growing in them. This is from the pumpkin my wife made the pie last Thanksgiving.

We had hundreds of seeds from the Naturism's last year. The edges of each bed have them growing now.

We picked up two raspberry plants in Minnesota two Octobers ago. Last year we had raspberries but they were pink like the ones we are getting this year. I thought it was the soil. So I made a new bed along the fence last Fall, dumping compost in the soil. I had hoped they would be red and sweet this year but it looks like we will be getting these bland pink things again. I am waiting a few more weeks and then I am going to tear the things out and get a local variety if we don't get good berries soon.

Swiss Chard and carrots grow in the bed above the beans and peas. Onions are everywhere of course.

The first of many sunflowers has bloomed.

The second crop of potatoes has popped up. This set of potatoes I will earth up with straw when the reach 6" or so. It will make a plant produce 40 - 50lbs of potatoes rather than 20 to 30 individual potatoes per a plant.

Finally shots around the garden on June 19th 2010 just to have a reference for next years crops and where they were this year.