Canning Has Begun

The garden is doing really well. I put one photo of the main garden beds on this post but there isn't much new except things are getting much bigger. After seeing how big and thick some of these tomatoes get, I need to plant less than 12 plants in that one bed.























Anyway canning season is here. I have plenty of jam and dilly beans so this year I decided just to can pickles from the cucumbers I am growing. They turned out pretty well. I only did six pints to test it out but they look great. I also canned cherries off my tree which I gave away to my mother and mother-in-law.

I attached a few pictures of this year's canning so far and some of the other canning that I have done in years' past.

I'm not ruling out any more canning. My dad always has loads of raspberries which get turned into jam and I still might hit the U-Pick fields.

THIS YEAR SO FAR:





PREVIOUS YEARS:

Cherry Harvest: 12 lbs

I have two cherry trees left out back and one must be about 40+ feet tall. The problem is that the racoons, which can climb high, never get the ones on top that I can't reach. They go for the ones that I can reach in the 20' and under range. They are buglers for sure.

Today I decided to get what I could off the big tree before the birds, squirrels, and racoons get them all. I'll can them because last year people used them for pies, cherry ale, and other things.

I ended up with 12 pounds of cherries. I'm pretty excited. I've only really harvested the peas, cherries, and garlic but I have been getting good yields for being a cooler summer. The other veggies are going to produce a lot as well.

Honeysuckle and Hops

I'm the veggie gardener and Jen is the flower one and since I actually make all these posts, naturally there is a veggie bias. Today we move away from the veggie stuff and into flowers. Jen loves Honeysuckle. We bought two Honeysuckle plants today and put them near the trellis and hop plants to hopefully cover the trellis with the sweet smell of divinity.

The hops are going to Mr. Campbell since he knows how to treat the hops...with passion and kindness...the Honeysuckle, we'll let rip through the trellis and make with the good times.

11 Pounds of Garlic !

I pulled my elephant garlic today thinking I would get about 4 lbs but it ended up being 11lbs of garlic without the husks!

In it's spot I planted more peppers, carrots, and lettuce.

I weighed myself before holding the bucket of garlic and afterwards to find out the weight.

I also planted some hot poker lilies my mom's neighbor gave me. They are one of my favorite plants ever:

Growing Well in The Heat

The heat has finally turned up here so things are growing well. Peas are done for but zuchinni, cherries, apples, onions, rhubarb, leeks, brussels sprouts, beans, tomatoes, horseradish, peppers, garlic and cucumbers are still growing and doing well.

We cut down a plum tree that didn't produce in the last three years, moved the firepit over, and planted the butterly tree in the corner. We had a big "to-do" last week and started burning in the new location.

There are a lot of pictures so I just put them as thumbnails. When you click on the small images, you will see the larger one open up.