I finally got started working in the yard this week. I spent a couple of hours yesterday weeding boxes. Today Michael and I topped off and fertilized about 3/4 of the beds. I planted most of the handful of annuals for the herb bed, and we're still waiting to see if the curry and the pineapple sage come back. I got the native shade garden replanted ( Read more... )

-Tucker has been more active and social the last few weeks. He's been allowing some pets, playing, investigating the other cats, and generally exploring more of the house. I've woken up more than once to Callie growling at him and snarling at him to chase him out of her rightful realm. He also shows a strong affinity for the litterbox in my room ( Read more... )

I'm a bit behind on processing the garden produce.

The pumpkins were clearly ready.

Even though I'm getting more efficient at breaking down the pumpkins into pieces for baking and seeds for toasting, it always takes longer than I think it will. Since I can't can it (water-bath or pressure), I freeze it in small jars. It only took me that one ( Read more... )

I finished up the two jams for the canning competition in October. I'd already done the pickles a little while back - when I broke my first jar in the canning pot.

Frozen raspberries



for the Raspberry Amaretto jam.

Raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries cooking down

for the Deep Spice Berry jam ( Read more... )

I recently did a summer garden photo survey. Not super-fancy photos, mostly just to help keep a record of what we've got going in the yard. It's been helpful to track the edibles we've grown as well as keep on track with the backyard project ( Read more... )

I finally took some pictures of the spring garden. The backyard is slowly, slowly coming along.

I finally got some more work done in the garden. Between it being a beautiful day and not being a day full of "ZOMGMUSTGETTHINGSDONE!", we were able to get most of the long flower bed weeded, the new dwarf raspberry bush planted, the spinach starts planted, the birdbath fountain sorted out, and some peas planted. I might get the last of the weeding ( Read more... )

I've got four pallets around from when I thought I was going to use them to make a potato tower. Yeah, that didn't happen. Over the winter, I ran across the idea of making them into vertical planters for strawberries. Turns out, a couple of the pallets I have aren't all that great for doing vertical planting - no slats across the back or the slats ( Read more... )

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From this week's photos in the yard:


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