Hot, hot, hot
The latest casualty of the heat is my last big squash from last year; it is cooking out in the kitchen. Of course, I have cheesecake in the oven, too, silly me. Everything outside is holding up, so far, though I spotted a couple of radishes sending up flower stalks already - I will have to pull a lot of radishes when I get a spare moment. I had been savoring them a few at a time as I needed them for salad but I guess I'll have to bite it and bring them in.
One of the consequences of my new interest in local foods is that I'm starting to stop and talk to the people I'm buying my market goodies from. Every Saturday I talk to the man at Oink n' Gobble, giving him feedback on how we like things (and asking when he will have more...whatever I'm anxiously awaiting). I drop $15 there then head to the yogurt people and I commiserate there about our favorite radical gardening books (we both like "Food, not Lawns) as I pick up my big weekly tub of Wake Robin. I buy my apples from the same people that I get them from in the fall - only three more weeks, they said, and then we'll have to wait for the harvest. I bought two quarts of strawberries, peppers, another piece of insanely sharp cheddar from the Colosse people, potatoes. I splurged $10 on a bottle of red wine from a booth I hadn't tried - one where it's all grape-based, not other fruit. I treated myself to a flat of marked-down marigolds since my own are still pretty small and a potted second-year Latham red raspberry. This latter was from the herb people that I think are based in Granby. My strawberries came from Baldwinsville. I will forwarn that the local berries are running $4 a basket and I will add that they are smaller than the California ones. What makes it worth it, aside from the thought that they are local, is the flavor - much better. Sometime I'll have my own berries - there are currently green ones out in the front of the house - but I suspect that the critters will get most of them.
Had to take a quick break to turn off and drain the pumpkin and rescue the cheesecakes from the oven.
Other good things going on out in the gardens: a tiny rose that I discovered when planting the sunflowers seems to have transplanted well - it has releafed and perked up. I found it where I first put in the miniature roses I brought with me from our old house. I thought I had transplanted them all to a new bed below the stone patio we put in two years ago but I must have missed one. I had had success with sunflowers in this one spot on the east side of the house in a previous year but haven't had any live since - rabbits like them when they are tender sprouts. But lily-of-the-valley and periwinkle have grown up in this bed to form a wall between the house foundation and the lawn - it has so far deterred the munching of the bunnies. Rabbits also like zinnias but, so far so good - only a couple have had the leaves nibbled off. My front garden annuals include pansies, marigolds and zinnias, in that order from front to back. These replace the perennial bulbs that are currently dying back. I plan to move the daffodils that are in my back garden enclosure - they were the first things I planted when we moved in (imagine me out in the mid-November wind putting these in) out to join the ones in front later in the year.
I did find mulch for free at the city facility that is down off Midler, just across from the Price Chopper and next to the Salvation Army store. Of the seven buckets I filled the back of the Subaru with only about 2/3 of one is left after planting the marigolds and finishing up around the tomatoes and peppers. I will use that up putting in some more peppers that I bought - I ended up with space to spare and will fill in the back of that bed. If the new Amarillo peppers sprout I'm not sure where I'll put them but, then, all I have to go in the new bed I'm building are new perennial herbs that are still in pots on the porch. I didn't get any more work done on the digging - it has just been too hot for anything that strenuous. Today I also had to dodge two thunderstorms, one morning, one late afternoon, which rolled in and doused us good. That is fine with me - now I don't have to water until later in the week as it is also supposed to be wet on Tuesday, storming ahead of the next weather front. We should have cooler weather after that goes through, also.
Ah, well, getting sleepy, here and I still have to put everything I've cooked into the fridge, hook up the dishwasher and bring up laundry. Tomorrow is another day.
One of the consequences of my new interest in local foods is that I'm starting to stop and talk to the people I'm buying my market goodies from. Every Saturday I talk to the man at Oink n' Gobble, giving him feedback on how we like things (and asking when he will have more...whatever I'm anxiously awaiting). I drop $15 there then head to the yogurt people and I commiserate there about our favorite radical gardening books (we both like "Food, not Lawns) as I pick up my big weekly tub of Wake Robin. I buy my apples from the same people that I get them from in the fall - only three more weeks, they said, and then we'll have to wait for the harvest. I bought two quarts of strawberries, peppers, another piece of insanely sharp cheddar from the Colosse people, potatoes. I splurged $10 on a bottle of red wine from a booth I hadn't tried - one where it's all grape-based, not other fruit. I treated myself to a flat of marked-down marigolds since my own are still pretty small and a potted second-year Latham red raspberry. This latter was from the herb people that I think are based in Granby. My strawberries came from Baldwinsville. I will forwarn that the local berries are running $4 a basket and I will add that they are smaller than the California ones. What makes it worth it, aside from the thought that they are local, is the flavor - much better. Sometime I'll have my own berries - there are currently green ones out in the front of the house - but I suspect that the critters will get most of them.
Had to take a quick break to turn off and drain the pumpkin and rescue the cheesecakes from the oven.
Other good things going on out in the gardens: a tiny rose that I discovered when planting the sunflowers seems to have transplanted well - it has releafed and perked up. I found it where I first put in the miniature roses I brought with me from our old house. I thought I had transplanted them all to a new bed below the stone patio we put in two years ago but I must have missed one. I had had success with sunflowers in this one spot on the east side of the house in a previous year but haven't had any live since - rabbits like them when they are tender sprouts. But lily-of-the-valley and periwinkle have grown up in this bed to form a wall between the house foundation and the lawn - it has so far deterred the munching of the bunnies. Rabbits also like zinnias but, so far so good - only a couple have had the leaves nibbled off. My front garden annuals include pansies, marigolds and zinnias, in that order from front to back. These replace the perennial bulbs that are currently dying back. I plan to move the daffodils that are in my back garden enclosure - they were the first things I planted when we moved in (imagine me out in the mid-November wind putting these in) out to join the ones in front later in the year.
I did find mulch for free at the city facility that is down off Midler, just across from the Price Chopper and next to the Salvation Army store. Of the seven buckets I filled the back of the Subaru with only about 2/3 of one is left after planting the marigolds and finishing up around the tomatoes and peppers. I will use that up putting in some more peppers that I bought - I ended up with space to spare and will fill in the back of that bed. If the new Amarillo peppers sprout I'm not sure where I'll put them but, then, all I have to go in the new bed I'm building are new perennial herbs that are still in pots on the porch. I didn't get any more work done on the digging - it has just been too hot for anything that strenuous. Today I also had to dodge two thunderstorms, one morning, one late afternoon, which rolled in and doused us good. That is fine with me - now I don't have to water until later in the week as it is also supposed to be wet on Tuesday, storming ahead of the next weather front. We should have cooler weather after that goes through, also.
Ah, well, getting sleepy, here and I still have to put everything I've cooked into the fridge, hook up the dishwasher and bring up laundry. Tomorrow is another day.