May Gardens ~ Bringing Up to Date

 

I trimmed our lilac bush.  Last year a pine tree fell on it, and took half of the bush.  I did not cut any flowers this year, and the dead flowers have been trimmed, along with a few dead branches.  May is the best time to trim it, so it has all year to produce new growth.

Lavender mid-May.  I was too late with a spring trim.

Transplanted a few bunching onions that grew in areas they were not planted.  Same with chives.

Planted more perennials in the flower bed - more blue delphiniums, and a few tall dianthus (Rockin Red), and a few Astra Blue Balloon Flower.  I also added two new lily's - one yellow and one pink.

Note on perennials:  We had a conversation with a shopper about these plants, and she much preferred annuals. She said they bloom all season long, but perennials bloom once and are done.  It made sense with what she was saying, but I explained to my husband, that we have a variety, so we have different blooms all season long.

The start of our garden season has been brutal with unusual hot weather, but we planted two Eastern Redbud trees.  One was planted were there was an invasive honeysuckle growing.  It took longer to get that tree planted, as the ground was rock hard dry.  I had to water the area for 3 days, and then dig out the invasive plant, and then plant the tree.  

Also, the rain continuted to shift, and not arrive as forecasted most days, so we opted to plant herb plants this year vs. drop seeds.  I, of course, planted new rosemary plants, but I'm still determined to win in keeping them alive over winter.  I got a few tips from a friend, but it is a battle (as they do not survive winter).

I took this photo on 2-29-2024.  Also, my husband said he saw "several" sprouts when he was mowing.   We had several garlic starting to sprout above the soil.  We put them in waist high raised beds this year, and covered them with framed, half inch by half inch wire.  We had planned to remove the screens once they were all tall enough, but we went out last week, and these sprouts were literally gone!!  Zero.  I dug through the dirt, and found no rotting bulbs.  NO bulbs at all.  All of the garlic was gone!!  

Okay, so obviously, a large rodent can't be the eating it with the screens on the beds.  The soil was new, so we find this completely odd that a grub or bug ate them.   Scratching our heads, but we will not be buying garlic to plant, for at least two more years to find out the cause.   We've never had a problem growing it, but the last three years we have.  We may go back to planting it directly in the ground.

We had purchased the garlic from Territorial Seeds (music garlic).  Bad garlic?  We'll be buying ours from a farmer's market or produce stand this year (not for planting, but for eating and making homemade garlic powder).

What I planted - new spearmint, 2 basil plants, 2 cilantro plants, 2 rosemary plants,  2 parsley plants, and an extra peppermint plant because I accidently thought I was buying spearmint.

I have once again dug out all of the lemon balm and moved a bit of it to my "weed" garden.  I am forever reminded of making that rookie mistake at planting it in the herb garden.

I use spearmint primarily for infusing in our iced tea.  I learned to make it from my Grandmother on my Mom's side of the family.  Spearmint, along with all other herbs and spices, have medicinal benefits, and we absolutely love the taste of spearmint in our iced tea.

Sharing a few snippets from the flower beds.  It's not all of them, and there may be a few stragler weeds in there yet.  The second day after hanging new flower pots around the front porch, we were delighted to see our first hummingbird visit them.  We don't put out hummingbird food, we put out flowers and they love them.

We visited a tree nusery and looked at one more new tree possibility, and possibly fruit trees, but for fall or next year.  We also found out they also sell a ton of perennials.  There were green houses we didn't even go in.   We found creeping phlox, after searching in 3-4 places.  You can see that my husband picked out another flower to add to our flower beds.

Although May is not over just yet, we most likely will be planting the vegetable gardens into the first week of June.  Our mid-week rain never arrived, which gives us more days to plant, but then it also requires us to water.  I have purchased new hose sprayers this year, and a new sprinkler.

I apologize for the long post.  I'll try to keep them shorter in the future.

By the way, how did May go by so quickly???

May Gardens ~ Bringing Up to Date © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Anniversary Lunch ~ Rosemary Update ~ Back to the Grind ~ Garlic Fermented Honey Update

 

My husband and I had one last day to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, so we drove to the lake for an island lunch.  We dressed up for the occasion.   I will admit, it was a messy burger, but good.  The fries were "truffle" fries.  They are fried in mushroom oil.  I have never heard of that.  The garlic aioli was for dipping the fries.  The whipped feta hot honey dip is our favorite.  The menu was limited, as the larger part of the restaurant was closed at the time.  I wasn't a fan of the drink, but overall it was a nice lunch. 

We have planned a few hikes for the future, as we could not do them due to the muddy conditions.  

It's back to the "grind" as they say it.  December is a busy month for us, in the way of celebrations, and we are back on track with projects and regular good ol' housework.

I did my best to keep my rosemary plants alive, but one is dead, and the other is hanging on by a hair.  I cannot, for some reason, ever dig them up and keep them alive indoors for the winter.  Honestly, I should have left them outside, as our weather has been in the 50-60's this month.  Anyway, I tried.  I even used different soil for them.  On the other hand, the propagated rosemary is doing fine.  It's just not very big.

Although the weather has been much warmer for a winter here, it brought a lot of rain.  Any outdoor projects, including the new coop, are all put on hold until the rain leaves us.  I think everyone in the area is looking forward to the rain ending.

Are you doing anything just for you this busy holiday month?  I was gifted some shower fizzers, and have enjoyed the lavender.  I am now on the hunt for peppermint (septic safe) ones.  I think peppermint would be a nice pick me up in the morning.  Don't forget to do something nice for yourself every week.

Speaking of waking up, the garlic fermented honey worked great for recovering from whatever bug I recently had.  I can tell you if you grind fresh ginger, and steep your tea first, then add the honey and squeeze a fresh lemon, it goes down pretty well.  There is something about the lemon, that keeps the garlic from being to intolerable.  I was not able to drink it in other teas.  The garlic was too strong.  Anyway, this is my update on that.

Anniversary Lunch ~ Rosemary Update ~ Back to the Grind ~ Garlic Fermented Honey Update © Dec 2023 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Homemade Garlic Powder

 

The tool on the left is used for removing the garlic skins.  you place the garlic inside the tube and roll it with your hand.  The tool on the right is used to slice the garlic.

You put the top piece of the slicer back on top and twist the bottom as you press down the top. I have learned to not over fill this, making it much easier.

I know this is a repeat post, and I do make it yearly most garden seasons.  If you have never made garlic powder you can click on my post below on how I make it, after the garlic is dehydrated.  

My very first years making garlic powder, I would hand peel, and hand slice.  

How to Dehydrate Garlic and Make Garlic Powder

Tips:

-Use latex gloves.

-Rinse all the tools/knife if you are not going to do dishes right away.  Garlic dries rock hard, making washing things difficult.

-I only have 4 mats for my dehydrator, so I use parchment paper some times, so that I don't lose the very small bits of the garlic.  I do recommend parchment paper over simply using your trays.  It is much easier to un-stick the garlic from the paper, push it to the center, and fold the paper in half to slide it into your grinder.  It makes way less mess, and clean up much easier.

-Save your garlic skins to make broth or flavor other dishes.  Store the skins in a freezer bag.

Homemade Garlic Powder © Nov 2023 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Need Help Finding Organic Music Garlic!

 I normally fall plant our garlic, but once again it was eaten over winter (all 80 cloves!!!), and we believe it's the work of voles.

I need to spring plant garlic now, and I cannot, for the life of me find anyone selling organic music garlic seed for spring planting.  I can only find "fall" planting garlic.

I like music, but I would try any organic garlic at this point.  I'm so frustrated right now.  

(Source: Territorial Seeds)

Anyone?  I even looked on Etsy, and all that I see are pre-orders for fall.  Sigh.,....urgh...

By the way, we have moved the garlic grow bags closer to the house now.

Labor Day Events ~ Rain

 We had a very busy Labor Day weekend.  We had invitations for 3 birthday parties and a cook out.  Golly, all we wanted to do on Monday was get our kitchen and front porch in order.  I have to admit, it was nice getting up this morning to a tidy kitchen.  Although I still have tomatoes on the table.

I had to start bringing in the tomatoes to ripen on the table.  They were splitting outside on the vines.  Crazy weather this year.

I'm not the only one cleaning house.  Daughter E dropped off two boxes of yarn.  Her best friend's mother was also cleaning house, and had 5 people move back in, so she sent her yarn my way.  I will need to sort it, but it's out of the kitchen now.

However, there are tomatoes in my living room too. No kidding.  Like I said, the rain/soil situation this year was causing them to split if we left them ripen on the vine.

Before the rain arrived, I was able to fall plant 80 cloves of music garlic.  It's been raining here ever since, and woke up to more rain.

I'm frantically working on the tomatoes, pulling the garden for the year, and now clearing the living room to at least get that floor fixed before winter.  The only problem is that money doesn't stretch very far anymore.  Supplies are an issue, but I will be packing up the living room to prepare.  It is a must-do repair.

Granny J, I think I wrote your email down wrong.  Well first, I got confused and emailed another person (crazy busy weekend), and then my computer said I had the email incorrect.  If you are reading this ....I apologize, I wrote it down wrong.

Rain moving in.....

 

Well, here we are to the weekend.  The one and only perfect holiday weekend day to take the motorcycle out, and my husband left at 4am.

I have tomatoes to deal with, so that is happening after I down a pot of coffee and figure out a breakfast with minimal cooking.

I put up 22 1/2# of tomatoes yesterday, but here is the situation....I brought 38# back inside (bwahahaha!).  Oh my.

My husband is laughing, but I have no idea how I dealt with our 500# year.  I do need to freeze some tomatoes, can crushed ones, and make another batch of soup and pizza sauce (will gift the kiddos).

He joked "tomato fight" as the plants are literally almost dead, tomatoes falling off and some rotting as I try to keep up.  The summer heat waves were the cause of the late ripening.

I'm hoping to get my fall garlic planted.  Rain is moving in late Saturday and for several days (unless that changes).

Asparagus ~ Garlic....where did it go?!

It's going to be a warm, gorgeous day today.  We'll hit the 80's.

I picked more asparagus, so I roasted some last night with rosemary.  Oh my gosh!  Delicious!  So much more flavor than from the store.  It's been a year waiting for this bounty.

My favorite garlic to plant in our area is Music garlic.  The first year we spring planted, and every year after that we fall planted.

I'm so depressed.  I went out to the garden to start prepping for the year, and found all of my garlic eaten but 3.  My guess, from research, is that a squirrel (or more than one) was the culprit.  Never in all the years here has this happened. Rabbits, deer and ground hogs do not like garlic, so I am just guessing.  They have plenty of black walnuts to provide, so I am stumped as to why it happened, other than the smell of the dogs is not out there anymore (guess I'm gettin' a dog).

I want to now spring plant my garlic, so it cost me an arm and a leg to order some to plant.  I didn't record how many I planted last year for some reason.  I think it was a crazy fall due to my husband's sister passing away from covid, and Mom's health declining. 

I typically plant 80-100 cloves, so this is a tremendous loss with organic garlic.  It's just such a shock, because nothing likes the smell of garlic.  We toyed with the idea that I forgot to plant them.  I did not.  I remember planting.

We toyed with the idea that someone stole them.  Ha ha!  Actually, it's not such a crazy idea.  Every day for the last two weeks a car has been stolen in the city about 12 miles from us, and now they are breaking into chicken coops.  Seriously.  Stealing kids bicycles, and more.

I plan to pull the pea fence.  We didn't get any planted with this crazy kitchen floor repair, and we need to till that area as well.

I finally got the carpet spot cleaned from Daughter K's dogs being here, and laundry put on the line, but got zero painting done.

I believe it's finally time to call an exterminator, unless someone has a sure fire way to trap those big bumblebees (a LOT of them).  I've tried every year, and they get worse every year.  Yesterday they were swarming the doors of the house and porch.  I cannot for the life of me find the nests, but I'm guessing they are by one of the barns, by they way they swarm over there.

Garlic and other gardening

 

Two varieties and they are all pulled from the grow bags.  Some roots where 6-7 inches long.  Just need to top off the grow bags with more soil and put new cardboard under the bags.  

I tied up almost all of the tomato plants, and some already re-tied do to good growth.  Some tomatoes are already on the plants.

It was too hot and humid to stay out in the garden, even though there is one more flower bed to weed.  I managed to plant two parsley plants and one more rosemary.  One rosemary died for some reason, and it's getting watered.

I was walking on a small sidewalk we made between two flower beds, and I almost stepped on a slithering snake.  In my flip flops.  I am sure anyone driving by, got a kick out of my dance in the yard trying to avoid it.

How to dehydrate Garlic and make Minced Garlic

Peel several cloves of garlic.  You will need a garlic mincer to do this.

Line the dehydrator trays with parchment paper.

Using the garlic mincer, mince the garlic onto the parchment paper.  I use the tip of a knife to spread the garlic out.

Using the directions in your dehydrator guide book, dehydrate the minced garlic until crisp.  Once done, simply scrap the dried garlic off and store in an airtight glass jar.

The color will change as it dries.

Note:  I use this in my canned cowboy candy and any recipe that calls for minced (dry) garlic.

How to dehydrate garlic and make garlic powder

I posted yesterday that I was dehydrating garlic.  I realized I don't think I've made a post about making garlic powder with dehydrated garlic.  First, peel all the cloves, and slice thinly.  Place on dehydrating trays.  If your trays have larger holes, cover them with parchment paper first.

The holes on my trays worked fine.  Once the garlic is crisp (use the guide book that came with your dehydrator for temperature and time), you will remove them from the trays.  I did not use parchment paper, so I line my counter top with a sheet of waxed paper.  I gently push all the garlic off the trays.

I hold each side of the waxed paper up so the garlic goes to the middle and they can slide easily off the waxed paper and into a coffee grinder.  You then grind them until it turns into a powder form.

I am lucky to have a glass container that fits a canning funnel.  I pour the powder out of the grinder and into the jar.  It smells and tastes much better than anything you will find in the store.