RETURN FROM THE LAND OF GIANTS

02 Saturday Oct 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, National Parks, Travel, Vegetable garden

WE SPENT LAST WEEK AMONG GIANTS IN KINGS CANYON AND SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARKS (that’s the General Grant sequoia above in Kings Canyon NP) and returned home to a few giants in the vegetable garden like a four pound head of broccoli (below).

The variety is Marathon (seed from Johnny’s); I have grown it for many years. A few years back, I grew a head that weighed nearly five pounds!

WE MARKED THE PASSING OF SUMMER and the beginning of fall in Kings Canyon NP with a hike up to Cedar Grove Overlook. Unfortunately the view at 6,000 feet was very smokey to the south, west and east. To the north we were able to see the Monarch Divide. Warm days and cool nights.

This time of the year has a certain cool thread running through even a warm day and the lower inclination of the sun intensifies the color of pink flowers. The afternoon we came home the sky was lightly clouded and the pink of the Nerine lilies and Autum Joy sedum seemed to sing.

The anticipation of returning home is like a package waiting to be unwrapped. I always wonder what awaits in the garden after an absence of a week or longer. Our return on Tuesday did not disappoint— there was plenty to harvest in the vegetable garden. All of the cool weather here has been ideal for the brassicas but also just enough warmth for the tomatoes to continue ripening. The peppers are dismal this year and the pears too.

Here is what I picked on Wednesday.

The squash vines had pretty much withered, so the Buttercup and Delicata squashes came out of the garden and some of the zucchini that I did not pick before our trip managed to stay on the small side. I have grown the Costata Romanesco variety the last few years. The plants are large and the dark green ribbed fruits are firm, sweet, and crisp. I have two plants this year and try to keep them picked at under ten inches long.

Still needed to pick are a couple of heads of Graffiti cauliflower, below. I may pickle them for the novelty of color (they will be kind of purple after cooking). Regardless, the color is joyful.

The day before we left I turned twelve pounds of Akane apples into sauce (six pints), had another go at pickled green tomatoes (they were quite soft last year, but tasted great) enough to fill five pint jars and pickled three pints of dilled green beans.

Yesterday I put up eleven half-pints of Tomatillo Salsa from tomatillos purchased in California and three pints of bread and butter style zucchini pickles. This weekend I will deal with the Spartan apples. Hmmmmm, preserves or chutney?
Part of the fun of canning for me is designing the labels. I take a photo of the fruit or vegetable that will be going into the jar so I can incorporate it into the design. I print 2 inch and 2.5 inch labels on an Epson Photo2400. Here are some of the labels designed so far this year. (A bit of showing off.) My brand is Backyard Farm and I make a notation of where the contents are grown (by me or someone/somewhere else). (None of these items are for sale of course, just personal use and to give as gifts. I will, however entertain label design commissions.)

CHASING SUMMER’S END

09 Thursday Sep 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, Peppers, Summer!, Tomatoes, Vegetable garden

≈ Leave a comment

BY LATE AUGUST IT ALWAYS FEELS LIKE I AM CHASING SUMMER’S END, wishing for the prolonged hours of summer daylight and mourning the darkening dawns as we move towards falls’ shorter days. There are still bright spots of color in the garden, the canning of summer fruit, anticipating the bounties from my vegetable garden, and the joys of more travel to look forward to.

Seems like I barely settled in from our return from Glacier NP and September has arrived! We returned home from GNP on August 27th and the days after our return were spent canning peaches with one of my daughters and then preparing for our 19th Annual Farewell to Summer party that happens the day before Labor Day.

On our way home from Montana we stopped at two fruit stands at Thorp, just west of Ellensburg (WA) where I bought twenty-four pounds of peaches for $7.50! (Last year I bought very large nectarines for the same price.) Noel and I canned seventeen pints of peaches and I put up another five pints of brandied peaches and four saucy half-pints of what I am calling ice cream peaches. I also bought some Ginger Gold apples (a happy result of hurricane Camille). To me they taste like the best Golden Delicious I could imagine. Very tart, refreshing taste and a good bite.

Time for a little celebration of what is happening in the garden now. Most of the showiest flowers in the garden have shed their pretty petals and the vegetable garden and changing leaves get to shine.

How about celebrating the first bowl of tomatoes picked yesterday?

New Mexico/Anaheim type chile peppers.

The heavily fruited espaliered apple; Akane and Spartan varieties. They are ripening nicely and ready to pick. Unfortunately many of the top tier apples (Akane) are infested with the apple maggots. They are crisp and tart with a sweet note. Last year the apples were few in number, mostly due, I think to the weather at bloom time, which was cold and rainy–and bees aren’t in the mood to do their job the rain and cold. This year we had lovely weather for more than a week when the apple tree blossomed-hurray!

The Spartan apples, larger than the Akane variety.

A buttercup squash from seed that was probably ten years old. I ended up with two plants that are roaming freely through the garden.

I picked this head of Umpqua broccoli last week.

The blossom of eggplant Orient Express and the long, slender fruit below.

Perfect and near perfect Golden Ball turnips. Sweet and tasty!

I think this sunflower (helianthus annus) is Red Sun.

The savoy cabbage is growing nicely with a head of chicory ‘Galia’ peeking out from behind. Last summer I let a head of ‘Galia’ go to seed and this past spring and summer volunteers have sprouted and I have replanted them throughout the vegetable garden. Lazy gardening.

I love this tangle of squash vines. (Little chicory starts in the background.)

Nothing gives a sunny farewell to the end of summer like a sunflower.

MIDSUMMER’S BLESSINGS WITH HEAT!

15 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Summer flowers, Summer!, Vegetable garden

≈ Leave a comment

Lillium ‘Nippon’

AS OF TODAY, SUMMER’S PROMISE IS HERE with scorching temperatures, a good north breeze to make the heat bearable, loads of blooming lilies, ripening tomatoes and squash aplenty. The down side is the high probability of forest fires; we can see voluble smoke from the Mt. Hopper fire in the Olympic mountains.

I snapped some pretty nice photos over the last few days to share before we take off to Glacier NP in Montana.

This is ‘Rio Samba’. We first saw it in a beautiful rose garden at the foot of some steps leading to/from Coit Tower in San Francisco about twelve years ago. It has such an incredible range of color as it blooms and fades.

Pink sedum

The ‘flowers’ of eryngium yuccafolium with he dark red sedum telephium atropurpureum in the background.

About another six weeks before these Akane apples will be ready to pick–if they are spared the apple maggots!

Frilly leaves of a to-be- harvested-in-winter savoy cabbage.

A sunny and summer long blooming Sella d’Oro daylily.

Abuitilon ‘Red Tiger’ that I purchased at Chocolate Flower Farm in June. Isn’t it striking?

This turned out to be a nice color combination of begonia and echeverias.

Echinacea ‘Magnus’ just beginning to bloom. I bought seeds from Johnny’s about three years ago; they are easy to start and last for years.

Also from seed, a black colored hollyhock.

And, lastly, what could be sweeter than honeybees doing their job in your garden?

GARDEN TOUR, CROWS & CANNING

12 Monday Jul 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, Garden Wildlife, Vegetable garden

≈ Leave a comment

WHEW! I HAVE A LOT OF CATCHING UP TO DO. Since the Whidbey Island Garden Tour on the 25th of June, I have worked in the garden, pickled and canned cauliflower, taken a trip to the Long Beach peninsula for the Fourth of July, camped along the Oregon coast, and attended a niece’s wedding in Troutdale, Oregon on Saturday the 10th. No time for backyard notating.

THE PREVIEW TOUR OF FIVE WHIDBEY ISLAND GARDENS was delightful, informing and widely varied in siting, design, concept, and purpose. The weather was mild and overcast, not too bad for photos. Two of the gardens were decidedly devoted to vegetable and fruit gardening; one was quite formal with a sweeping view to the west and Port Townsend; one was highly landscaped with beautiful specimen trees and ponds and a small home available for events and getaways; and one took advantage of our northwest climate and towering evergreens, ferns, mosses, and other natives, creating a green retreat complete with fairy garden. Pre-tour, Betty and I went to The Chocolate Flower Farm nursery so I could purchase lobelia tupa and Abutilon ‘Red Tiger’. What I came away with additionally were two ‘Karma Choc’ dahlias and three ‘Kissed by Chocolate’ delphiniums that were developed by nursery owner Marie Lincoln (see the website); the pale whitish petals are blushed with strokes of chocolate brown. Quite striking.

All of the gardens were quite large covering two or more acres. A lot of ground to cover and maintain compared to my city patch! I found the gardens that combined vegetable gardening with ornamentals the most interesting to me.

THIS GARDEN was called the Gathering Place. The garden is mainly about growing fruit and vegetables. Ornamental plants lead the way down a gentle slope to the extensive vegetable garden, complete with orchard and chickens. This garden was completely fenced to keep the deer out.

A novel way to grow peas.

The orchard is separately fenced and doubles as a chicken yard.

THE LEWIS & BECKMAN GARDEN was also on a slope, bowl shaped, terraced and mainly devoted to growing food. Ornamental shrubs and perennials were nicely integrated. This was the most amazing garden space; it had good design, variety of plant material and took full advantage of its site. And, it was very large.

The rose above was a stunning climber that rose fifteen or twenty feet up a fir and was laden with slightly sweet, floral and citrus scented blooms; the fragrance was thoroughly intoxicating. I could have sat beneath is for quite a while. Now, I have to find out what it was, even though I don’t have room for such a large climber like this one.

Two views that I hope convey the size of the garden. There were so many views here.

Some really amazing vegetables and so early; makes my efforts look weak by comparison!

A whimsical garden bathroom, lots of nice little touches. I liked the sink and window box.

There were so many places to look around in this garden. It was clearly my favorite. Every advantage was taken in consideration of the site and slope, including the creation of a pond at the lowest point that collected water runoff.

CROWS! The resident groundskeeper takes great delight in feeding peanuts to the resident crows. These crows then feel entitled to introduce their young to the largess of the groundskeeper which in turn infuriates the gardener.

Despite my best efforts to prevent this daily event, the young crows indulge their curiosity by pulling the tags out of the ground wherever they can. I have taken great care to sink the tags as deeply as possible so that only the tiniest bit shows at ground level. But they are too clever. I can only wait until they mature and tire of this play.

THE CANNING SEASON is officially underway here. On the 27th and 28th of June I found cauliflower at a bargain price of 88¢ a pound! So, I pickled and canned 12 pints. I put up seven pints near the end of last summer and it went quickly given as gifts and additions to winter salads and holiday dinners. I found the recipe in Eugenia Bone’s Well Preserved. I added sliced garlic and a fresh bay leaf to each jar.

SUMMER IN SEATTLE, DAY TWO

22 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Peppers, Planting, Summer!, Tomatoes, Transplanting, Vegetable garden, West Seattle garden

≈ Leave a comment

ON THE SECOND DAY OF SUMMER THE WEATHER IS FAIR AND WARM! Out into the vegetable garden around 8:00 a.m. this morning to transplant the eggplant, tomato, and pepper plants into their summer homes. Watered them all in and I was done by 11:30 a.m., another chore checked off of the list! Now the waiting begins and hope for warm weather throughout the summer.

Now I can go to Whidbey Island on Friday with a clear conscience. My friend Betty has invited me to preview the Whidbey Island Garden Tour. Betty volunteers for the event and the volunteers have Friday to preview the gardens. I have looked forward to it since Betty first invited me three years ago. I get to spend a nice afternoon with a friend I admire and see other people’s gardens. And Betty’s evolving garden too!