SEPTEMBER BLOOMS

12 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Fall Flowers, West Seattle garden

Tags

cyclamen, dahlias, dainty bess, eucomis bicolor, gaura lindheimeri, limonium, pineapple lily, plants, roses, sedum Autumn Joy, September flowers

Dahlia ‘Kingston Queen’ from Heronswood Garden, 2003

WE’VE ROUNDED THE CORNER INTO FALL, with every morning a little bit cool, crisp. A snap in the air, clear blue skies. Some flowers seem to really shine with the change in light. So here are some snapshots of what is blooming the first two weeks of September in my West Seattle garden.

A mammalaria cactus I bought more than 25 years ago blooms every summer and winters over in the coldframe.

Limonium latifolium and sedum ‘Autumn Joy’. Belongs in the category of “I didn’t plan that”.

Wispy, delicate gaura lindheimeri blooms all summer long and into fall.

Dahlia, variety unknown; came from my mom. I tend to favor the simpler flower forms.

‘Bill Wariner’ final flush of blooms on a clear blue, not quite fall, morning.

‘Dainty Bess’

Eucomis, know as Pineapple Lily

Beautiful, deep blue salvia guarantica

Sweet little fall blooming cyclamen

Amaryllis belladonna flower stalks just now shooting up!

PLANTING THE FALL VEGETABLE GARDEN

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Planting, Vegetable garden

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Buttercup squash, food, lettuce seed, mustard greens, plants, radish, Rescue Pear, seedlings, solarizing soil, Spartan Apple, vegetable garden, vegetable seeds, volunteer seedlings

ANTICIPATION IS SOWN WITH EACH SEED THAT GOES INTO THE GROUND. With the first sign of germination is the hope that success and sustenance may be in the offing. No seeds deliver like those of the radish family, pushing up through the soil within three days of planting. Carrots, onions and celery on the other hand come with hand wringing and second-guessing since they can take up to 21 or more days to pop through the soil.

MY vacation from gardening now effectively over, soil prep and direct seeding began the first week of August as there is plenty of time here for late fall-early winter harvesting of many vegetables and many overwinter nicely around here.

When I put the garden to bed before our long trip I used heavy black plastic to keep the weeds from taking over. And so far, the only unwanted seeds that have sprouted are squash, melon and tomato seeds from the compost that I laid down for the fall garden. Weeds are blessedly absent!

Although it is really late in the season to see any productivity from these volunteers, I have left a few of the squash (melon? cucumber?) seedlings to see what develops.

The volunteer(s) 28 days later and still an unknown.

Arugula seedlings, like radishes up quick!

Carrot seedlings, germinating over a period of 8 to 21 days

Direct seeded: Beets (3 types), turnips ((2), carrots (3), radishes (5), fennel (2), kohlrabi, kale (3), chard (3), arugula, dill, Chinese/Napa type cabbage (2), radicchio, Asian type mustard greens (3), Walla Walla onion (for transplanting in February), and a big mix of a lot of lettuce seed that is anywhere between 10 and 2 years old (kind of my own mesclun mix to see what actually germinates.) In my experience lettuce seed seems to have the shortest viability of all vegetable seed.

Red cabbage start from the nursery

I also started a number of brassicas, some chicories (endive, escarole, etc), and a few lettuces in six-packs just now ready for transplanting. Thankfully mornings are cool this time of year, perfect for transplanting. I also purchased a six-pack each of purple cauliflower and red cabbage a couple weeks ago that had a big head start on my starts.

Buttercup squash

I planted some squash seeds when I set out the tomato plants and this buttercup squash is the only one to have germinated and survived in our absence. It is happily crawling up the tomato trellis and there are three squash so far. And the half-dozen tomato plants have produced tomatoes in spite of the lack of regular water and pruning for seven weeks. Hurray, all is not lost.

The vegetable garden, week five–anticipation rewarded!

Rescue Pear

The pears are lovely and large again this year even without thinning. The Akane apples are a total loss due to the apple maggot but we have lucked out with the Spartans which are sweet-tart, crisp and picture perfect!

Now all that’s left to do is harvest some tomatoes, apples and pears and plant garlic and fava beans next month.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH 20 POUNDS OF APRICOTS?

23 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, Cooking & Eating, Jellies & Preserves

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

apricot chutney, Apricot Jam, Apricot Lavender Jam, Apricots, BBQ sauce, Blueberry Balsamic Jam, Cherry Plum Preserves, cherry plums, lavender

AS WE LEFT WINTHROP ON THE LAST DAY OF THE BIG TRIP, I HAD TO STOP AT THE FRUIT STAND. I bought a twenty pound box of apricots and eight pounds of Rainier cherries. Hmmmmm…twenty pounds, really? What was I thinking?. Seven weeks of missed canning opportunities, perhaps? Thinking was definitely in order now.

Making up for lost time, I went into overdrive. Two days later I had put up 9 half-pints of Apricot Amaretto Jam (Well Preserved, Eugenia Bone);7 half-pints of Apricot Jam w/Lavender & Vanilla; 10, 11 oz. bags of halved apricots into the freezer;

5 pints of Apricot-Mango BBQ sauce. I started to make chutney but the apricots did not hold their shape well enough, so out came the immersion blender and the addition of bourbon and voila–BBQ sauce! 5 half-pints of Rainier Cherry preserves; 4, 8 oz. bags of pitted cherries into the freezer;

Big, beautiful, local blueberries were a good deal the day after we returned so I couldn’t resist them either. 6 half-pints blueberry jam; 4 half-pints of Blueberry-Balsamic w/star anise jam.

On Monday last week I went up to my daughter’s place in Snohomish and picked 17 pounds of Cherry Plums.

7 pounds went to Cherry Plum Preserves ( 11 half-pints). The remaining 9 pounds produced about 10 cups of juice which became two types of jelly: Gingered Cherry Plum Jelly (8 half-pints) and the same base with the addition of red Fresno chiles (9 half-pints). Think I’m done with canning for a week or so — the garden is calling!

SEVEN WEEKS – 5 DAYS – 9,720 MILES

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Camping, Summer!, Travel

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Acadia National Park, Badlands National Park, black hills south dakota, camping, lobsters, Mt Rushmore, Niagra Falls, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, vacation

Quoddy Point, Maine–the first place in the U.S. to see the sun rise

WE DID IT. WE LEFT SEATTLE ON JUNE 1st BOUND FOR MAINE. We finished our trip in Winthrop, Washington at the 25th Annual Winthrop Blues Festival and returned home on July 23rd. We traveled east through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and into Maine. On the return trip we tracked south through Maine to Massachusetts, turning back west into New York and along the southern shores of Lakes Erie and Huron then into Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. We camped along four of the five Great Lakes; two National Parks, one National Lakeshore, state parks, and National Forests. We saw well known attractions and some not so well known–at least not to us! We hiked in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Adirondacks (and kayaked), and the White Mountains of New Hampshire; we biked some carriage roads in Acadia National Park and kayaked on Lake Superior. An amazing, great trip.

A few highlights below. (photos for first leg of the trip at Flickr. I’ll update in a few days with more photos.)

Zoomed in on the Bear’s Tooth, seen from 10,000 ft along the Beartooth Highway, Wyoming

Mt. Rushomore National Monument, Black Hills, South Dakota

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Niagra Falls, New York

A swallowtail at Seventh Lake in the Adirondak Mtns. in New York

I tried out my new Sony A57 with my old Minolta lenses and caught this butterfly. I shot over 1200 photos with the new Sony, a Nikon Coolpix S9100 point and shoot and an iPhone – I’m a shooting fool! I’ve whittled that number down to less than half. It was fun to shoot with the phone camera and share in real time with family and friends.

A quirky roadside invitation to dine

The church where the signal was given for ‘One if by land, two if by sea’ in Boston. We followed the history of the American Revolution along the freedom trail through Boston, beginning at Boston Common.

Foggy morning on Cobscook Sound, Downeast Maine

Dinner on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Now that’s some kind of great camping! We bought fresh lobsters direct from the fisherman on two occasions. Turns out lobsters are in plentiful supply this year.

A small segment of the 48 miles of carriage roads built by John Rockefeller, Jr. on Mount Desert Island, Maine, now part of Acadia NP.

Two residents of the park

Grand Marais dune, Lake Superior, Michigan

We paddled through this arch on Lake Superior, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan. The water is crystal clear and surprisingly warm.

The supposed geographic center of North America (not really).

The spectacular raging water of the Kootenai River at Kootenai Falls, east of Libby, Montana. Awesome!

Big thunderstorm about to move through on the first day of the Winthrop Blues Festival. Weather cleared before the first act went on that evening. But tents and awnings were flying! Home three days later. Then back to the business of canning and gardening. (More on that in a few days.)

MAKING THE MOST OF THE LAST

16 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Vegetable garden

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

cabbage, cabbage flowers, Celery, Fizz kale, food, tomatoes

Red cabbage blossoms

LITTLE BY LITTLE MOST OF THE VEGETABLE GARDEN is headed for a long nap. Nearly all of winter’s plantings are gone now.

Only a few ‘Fizz” kale plants (above and really good kale), some endive, escarole, and volunteer lettuces remain. The garlic won’t be ready to pull until mid-July and we should be back home within a week or two after that.

Celery ‘Red Venture’

Last spring I planted Red Venture celery. The leaves have a strong celery flavor and were useful in soups, herby pesto type mixtures and a few leaves chopped and added to winter greens salads. The stalks were slightly bitter. Now the plants are bolting. When I cut the bolting stalk, it seemed tender and I sample a slice–sweet and tender!

I cut a few, peeled and sliced them and added to a salad. They add a sweet note paired with bitter greens and a robust dressing of garlic, anchovies and red wine vinegar. A revelation in that most bolting stalks of lettuces, etc. are tough and woody. Always something new to learn when you grow your own vegetables.

I have five Arrowhead cabbages just now maturing so have to figure how to use them. Not enough time to make sauerkraut before D-day, I think.

Our weather has been fabulously warm the past week so yesterday I planted the seven tomato plants purchase at the end of April at Christianson’s Nursery in Mt. Vernon. I pulled a whole row of fava beans to make way for the tomatoes and pulled off the string bean sized pods. Planning to cook them as green beans and see how the taste. That will be a first!

So that I will have something to look forward too upon our return I also stuck some squash seeds in the same bed as it will be the only one watered in our absence. And, I couldn’t imagine being without brussels sprouts this coming winter so I dropped some seeds in a few pots; with luck they will have germinated and be ready to plant before our departure. I had wonderful luck with these varieties last year: Roodnerf, Oliver and Bubbles, the best I’ve ever planted.