Tag Archives: raised beds

Spring into Summer 2024

Posted on July 28, 2024 | 6 comments

After I returned from vacation last spring, I immediately jumped into the many spring tasks requiring attention. The usual trimming and weeding. Building and adding a third raised bed. I really enjoyed gardening with those last year. Planting and spring cleaning.

I dealt with a very stubborn cardinal who kept fighting his reflection in the window. All day long for weeks, beginning at dawn and going until dusk. I drew scary faces of owls which helped for a minute. Finally, I hung some netting which covered the window reflections. Until I caught mama cardinal trying to steal the netting for her nest, I presume.

My son announced a visit in late June. Oh, and he’d be bringing a bunch of his California friends so they could see where he grew up. Whaaaa???? He and his girlfriend planned their trip to begin in Louisville where they showed them the sights with visits to distilleries and the famous Churchill Downs. Then they planned a day out here in the country. This led to weeks of preparation on our part, catching up on all those jobs which have been put off the past couple of years. Plus planning dinner for 12 or 14 people. Yikes!

The friends and family group dinner. Italian, of course!

We all had a wonderful day. My son arranged for his friends to do things that they can’t or don’t normally do in California. Go fishing. A hike in the woods. Shooting off fireworks. And trying out some firearms. They were a wonderful group of people. So glad I got to meet them.

Afterwards, my son and his girlfriend spent the rest of the week. One day boating on the lake. Anchoring in a quiet cove for lunch and swimming, then cruising to another cove. Uncle teaching my grandson how to swim and skip rocks. Just what uncles are supposed to do. (Not the “pull my finger stunt, either.”)

Cruising on Lake Patoka. What a lovely day.

Now it’s time to pick tomatoes and peppers, make some salsa. Revisit the weeding. Welcome more visitors. Take the grandkids to library programs and classes. And actually do some painting for upcoming shows and exhibits.

Summer seems to speed up and fall is getting closer.

And, finally, on a sad note. My precious cat Leo who had been experiencing some serious health issues had to be put down last spring. I am heartbroken and can admit that I cried buckets. I’ll get another cat eventually but I’m not ready yet. Someday.

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the remainder of your summer and can get outside to enjoy nature.

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Posted in country living, garden

Tagged california, cardinal, country living, friend group, indiana, kit miracle, Lake Patoka, raised beds

Garden update, June 2023

Posted on June 24, 2023 | Comments Off

It’s been about a month since my last garden post with the raised beds. Most of the garden was planted on May 6^th.

As you can see from the photos, the growth of the plants has exploded. We’ve been eating spinach and lettuce for a few weeks now. The netting has kept the plants very clean and bug free. I think it also supplies a bit of shade, too. When I planted the seeds back in mid-April, I thought that I didn’t have a very large spot for the leafy greens, but the small space has been more than enough to supply our needs. I also discovered that it’s better to cut the greens early in the morning so they’ll stay crisp. If I cut them later in the day, they tend to get wilty.

Also, in the same raised bed I have sixteen pepper plants (hot and sweet), a large basil plant and cilantro, and some sugar pea pods. The peppers are just coming in this week and I’ve been eating the pea pods every time I pass by so I couldn’t exactly tell you how those are producing.

The second raised bed has ten tomato plants and two eggplants. The first set of tomato plants that I planted in mid April were hit heavily by a very hard frost at the end of April. I just cut off the cherry tomatoes and, surprise surprise, the plants grew back. The others I pulled out and planted some new plants. We have Sweet 100 (cherry), Fat Mama (roma-type), Park Whopper, Pink Brandywine (a German tomato which was our favorite a couple of years ago.) They all are heavy with tomatoes so I’m sure we’ll be eating them in a few weeks.

The eggplants were only hit a little by flea beetles. We don’t use any pesticides and, as before, the plants pulled out of the attack.

Beans to the left. Squash and zucchini on the right.

The green beans are blossoming heavily so I expect we’ll have some beans pretty soon. And the two squash mounds are producing. We have yellow squash and grey zucchini which we’ve been eating for a week or so.

I’ve been watering about every other day depending upon the soil moisture. The ground cloth and the cardboard have been doing a great job of keeping the weeds down and the moisture up. No pesticides and a light feeding about once a week.

Today’s harvest. Went into stir-fry tonight.

So far, I’m pretty pleased with the new raised beds. So much less work after initial set up. But I’m going to miss fresh sweet corn and my cut flowers.

Stay tuned for future reports. Meanwhile, I’ll have to check out my zucchini brownies recipe.

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Tagged country living, gardening, kit miracle, pea pods, raised beds, southern indiana

May garden update

Posted on May 22, 2023 | 1 comment

We had quite a bit of rain last week but temps are creeping up and I think the rain is over for awhile.

Five varieties of tomatoes and two eggplants.

The raised bed frames that I posted last month in April are doing well for the most part. As I expected, we had a late freeze and lost some tomatoes that we planted too early. I knew that we were taking a chance but, oh, well, it’s fun to experiment.

The first set of tomatoes that we had planted were two cherry tomatoes and four Park Whoppers. They had time to get established so when the freeze hit, they were still viable below the ground cloth. I cut off the dead tops of the cherry tomatoes and pulled out the Park Whoppers although they probably could have made it, too. The cherry tomatoes came back and have made up for lost growth. We’ve added some more tomato varieties – Pink Brandywine, Celebrity, Fat Mama (a roma variety) and a couple more Park Whoppers. And two eggplants in that raised bed.

The second raised bed with peppers, peas, and a variety of vegetables.

The second raised bed has more variety. I planted spinach and two kinds of lettuce. I put some netting over it to keep the cat out of there and that is actually helping keep bugs out and provides some shade. Those greens taste as tender as butter. Then several varieties of peppers, cilantro, basil, and some climbing pea pod vines.

Row of beans and two hills of squash. The cardboard is to keep down weeds and to keep in moisture. And the wood is to keep the cardboard from blowing away until it gets really moist.

Then I had some space between the second raised bed and the asparagus patch. So it’s bush beans and two kinds of squash. I’ve added cardboard between the rows to keep down the weeds.

I’ve filled flowerpots and weeded. But there is always more to be done. Trimming bushes. Trimming back the lane. Trimming trees. It’s a never ending project but it sure racks up the mileage on my FitBit. I guess that’s a good thing.