The Apple of My Eye

Greetings!

Well, September is certainly flying along, isn't it?  I've been a busy little bee and even did some traveling in early September.  I went down to the Mother Land (aka Texas) to place my mom's ashes next to my dad's in the Ft. Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso.

It was a beautiful "ceremony," with just the four siblings, my brother's ex-wife (who I think of as a sister) and my significant other.  Each of us took a handful of dirt from the shovel and sprinkled it into the grave, then watched as they covered it up and raked the red gravel back into place.   Those of us who wanted to, said our goodbyes, shed lots of tears and went back to the hotel for a swim and to relax for a bit before heading out for a late lunch at L&J's Cafe (best Mexican food in El Paso, in my opinion) and some sightseeing.

El Paso is an interesting place, full of western history and one of the places we visited was Concordia cemetery.  John Wesley Hardin is buried there, but there is also a section for some of the Buffalo soldiers.  JWH was an unsavory character for sure, and met his end in much the same way as he meted out his peculiar form of "justice" - with bullets.

We also took a trip to Mesilla, New Mexico for dinner at La Posta on Thursday night.  Mostly for old times sake, since the food certainly was "eh" at best.  Still, it was fun being back there and seeing how much of a tourist destination Mesilla has become.  The best part of the meal were the sopapillas. Perfection.   Billy the Kid was captured in Mesilla, but apparently got away before they could dispatch him properly.

Dinner the next night was at Cattleman's Steakhouse.  It's a dude ranch and is as tacky as you would expect, but the steaks were awesome and the sunset was just breathtaking.

Back home again with lots to deal with.  We cleaned out my mom's house so that our tenant can move in on the 15th and put everything into storage.  We will have to deal with all of that when we have a bit more money to do so.

Next on the agenda was dealing with my garden.  I have to say over all, most of it was a bust.  Not sure what happened to my tomatoes.  They were off to such a great start, but petered out and I didn't get nearly as many tomatoes as I had hoped.  I ended up buying tomatoes to make sauce and spaghetti sauce.  There is a pot of homemade ketchup simmering on the stove as I write this and man, does it smell good!

The potatoes did okay.  I did get some nice ones, but it was kind of silly.  I planted three seed potatoes in each pot and most of them yielded three or four potatoes.  Not exactly cost effective.  I think next year, I am going to plant them in 55 gallon trash cans and see if I get a better crop.  They were really tasty, though.

Green beans did pretty well - but again, not nearly what I had hoped for.  I did end up with some for the freezer, but mostly we just ate what I picked.  The real bust was the peppers and squash.  They just sat there.  I think they are all pretty much the same size as when I planted them.  It's pretty weird.
The sweet potatoes are still going.  I did harvest the smaller container and there were a lot of tubers in it, but I should have let it go for another month because they are all real skinny.  I think they would have fattened up nicely if I had let them go until the first frost.  Now I know and I will surely let the big container sit until the end of October or the first frost, which ever comes first.

The big surprise and star of the show was the apple tree, which is a McIntosh.  Usually, it has a crop of inedible apples and early drop takes most of them.  Scab and insect damage galore took care of the rest.  Last fall, I dumped a whole bunch of cow manure, sprinkled in a couple cups of epsom salts around it and added a thick layer of mulch.  I also was religious about raking up and disposing of the leaves, as scab over winters there.  The tree has rewarded me this year with an amazing crop of beautiful apples.  There's still some insect damage and Jordan, if you're reading this, you should stop now.  I looked it up and it appears to be wasp damage.  Next year, I will place plenty of traps out for them and negate some of that too.

So far, I have four bags of quartered apples in the freezer which I will take down to my SO's place because he has a fruit press and come home with cider.  I also have 8 half pints of apple butter and six half pints of apple sauce put up already.  This was this morning's harvest for which I had to crawl out of my daughter's bedroom window and pick them from the porch roof because I don't have a ladder tall enough to reach even with the fruit harvester's telescoping handle.

These are destined for apple pies.  One for the freezer and one for dessert tonight.

In recap, the crops that did the best for me this year was the lettuce, which we enjoyed well into July, the green beans and the beets and carrots.  I planted a second crop of carrots and they are just about ready to harvest now.  The kale, collards, brussels sprouts, and cabbage were all victims of cabbage worms.  Next year, I will use row covers to negate that.

All in all, it has been a fun gardening season, even with the disappointments and I have plans for some improvements next year.  The little fruit trees I planted are all doing really well, as is the fig tree, so I have hopes that I might get a tiny crop from them next year.

That's it, folks - until next time!  Enjoy the season!

With Silver Bells...

Every year I begin my gardening adventure determined that this is the year that everything will grow like it does in the catalogs or Organic Gardening.  In my mind, my little back yard is neat and tidy, which a totally weed free path and lovely flowers nodding their heads in approval along the way.

Every year, just around this time, things just kind of get away from me.  There are good reasons for this.  I have a full time job so my time on the weekend is limited and there is always something to be done, laundry, cooking, etc... so when weeding becomes a full time job, I start to lose the battle.

Really, I should do something about landscaping the brick path so that weeds don't grow there, but I'm not really sure what I want to do there.

At any rate - I thought I would share what was working this year and what wasn't.

What's working - my strawberry patch and the sweet potatoes.  Both are growing like gangbusters!  I'm expecting a bumper crop of the first next spring and of the latter this fall!  I'm really happy with the strawberries, as this was the first permaculture bed I made last year.

NOM NOM NOM

Sweet potato (Georgia Jet, I think) growing in a trash can.

What's not working too well - well, interestingly enough - it's my cucumbers, peppers and squash.  They've never gotten bigger than about 5 inches and they are just sitting there.  I didn't even bother to take a picture, because, well... they aren't worth it. Maybe when they hear about this public humiliation, they will be shamed into bursting into fruit.

My little greens section has been doing okay, although it has been beset by cabbage moths and I've had to share the collards and kale with them.  The lettuce was a huge success, as are the carrots.  I've had marginal success with the beets, but I think it is because there is too much nitrogen in the soil, from what I've been reading.

The beans are starting to come in and I've harvested a few bags of decent looking potatoes.  I made smashed potatoes with them the other night and they were awesome!

the rounder ones are Lehigh and the oval ones are a variety called Nicola.  

The apple tree is still doing great - the apples are getting to be a decent size.  I hate to hope, but if things keep up the way they are, I might be making some apple butter from my own tree come fall.  This is the MacIntosh that I've been trying to rehab.  At first, I didn't think that many apples had set, but I looked up tonight and I'm going to have to buy one of those fruit pickers on the long handles.

The other fruit trees have had their summer haircuts and are putting out another flush of growth from the cuts, which is what I want.  Their next haircut will be in late February to take out any unwanted limbs and help them establish a strong framework with which to bear fruit.  Out of all of them, I have a feeling the only one to set fruit next year is the plum tree I picked up at HD for a song last fall.  I think I paid $10 for it.  It is growing like crazy and already has a couple of inches of new growth from the cuts I made.

The crazy plum!

Apricot Tree

Tomatoes... I have fruit set - Here's a pic of one of the Indigo Roses that I have been cautiously drooling over.  Still nary a ripe tomato yet though.  I hope they all don't ripen while I'm in Texas.

Indigo Rose Tomato.  When it ripens, it will be deep red with a blush of nearly black purple and oh, so sweet!

Well, that's about it.  My next blog post will be about my foray into the world of carpentry, but I'll leave you all with this pic of one of the happy girls roaming around, eating worms and bugs, dandelions and lamb's quarters to her heart's content!

With Silver Bells and Cockle Shells...

Hello gentle readers,

Know what is gross?  Potato bug larvae.  So very, very gross.  They are slimy and squishy too.  Which is good, because it makes picking them off of potato plants and disposing of them easier.  But... shudder.  blech.

If you have been reading my blog - first off, that makes you ultra cool - but secondly, you may recall that last year, I started building permaculture beds and taking steps to create a little "food forest" in my urban backyard.

I started by creating some sheet mulched beds with lots of good stuff.  So far, the results are pretty good.  My strawberries have been pumping out 2 to 3 berries every day.  Certainly, not enough to make jam, but they are tasty.  This is their first spring in the ground, so I imagine they are still getting established and hopefully, I will get a decent crop next year.

(Aren't my nails FABulous??  They're my new favorite obsession, Jamberry nail wraps.  These are Mermaid Tails mixed up with some regular old nail polish on the rest of my fingers.)

Secondly, the apple tree... I'm so happy with it this year.  It still needs a ton of pruning and shaping, but so far, there is no sign of scab on the leaves or the apples.  I also thinned the apples I can reach and maybe it is my imagination, but the remaining ones look so much bigger already!

This is my little salad garden.  Things that are doing well:  lettuce (two varieties) and the carrots look promising.  Also, I planted some dragon tongue beans along the back.  'cause... dragon's tongue... coolest name ever.  They're doing pretty well.

Things that aren't:  The collards are doing well but I'm sharing my harvest with cabbage moths; same with the cabbage; the kale; and the brussels sprouts.  I probably should have used row covers.  Next time.

Along the side of the house, in the driveway, I started a container garden and almost everything is looking really great although I have nary a bloom on a tomato plant yet.  I planted:  potatoes; sweet potatoes; tomatoes; peppers; squash; cucumbers; watermelon; and winter squash.  Most of them are in these new-fangled plant pouches which are supposed to be way better for the plants and prevent root bound problems.  So far I like them, but I am concerned they are not quite large enough for the potatoes.

Speaking of potatoes, I may have gone a bit overboard when I ordered the seed potatoes last year.  I have 17 pots of potatoes.  Apparently, I forgot I didn't live on a farm.

Alright you guys, that's about it for today.  Next time, I will show you how the dwarf fruit trees are doing, plus a little introduction to my new weed and bug control system.

Until then... remember -  Be kind to each other.