Update: 2/16/09 Well, all of our birds that we had in January have flown the coup. Not a one has been spotted in my back or front yard. We've had food in the feeder. They stayed while we had all of the nasty cold weather and now it's been rather nice. I did see a few Canadian Geese and one robin while in town today. Less snow and more lawn showing. Hopefully if anyone participated in the bird count, you actually had some birds to count.

Great Backyard Bird Count

Take part in this year's Great Backyard Bird Count sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon. This special event is to take place February 13-16, 2009, so mark your calendars. What a great way to spend a winter weekend with your kids or grandchildren. Grab a pair of binoculars and a camera ... follow the directions here. Stop back and let me know if you participate ... I'd love to see your photos.

Photo Credit

A new twist to container gardening. Try turning an old hard plastic wading pool into the perfect large scale container garden. Check out the directions here. There are many other urban gardening ideas that I am going to try in addition to my traditional garden ... such as using old tires, burlap bags, etc. I just happen to have an old wading pool that is seldom used. This plan may yield my salad garden freeing up more garden space for larger crops.

Photo Credit

Plotting away ...

Things I'd like to grow this spring:

sweet carrots
green onions
mesclun mix lettuce
basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, mint, cilantro
tomatoes
green beans (on poles)
pickling cukes (on poles)
yellow crooked neck squash
radish
peppers, hot/sweet

sweep peas
marigolds
geraniums

I'm itching to garden ... but must wait, and wait. So while waiting, I'm researching a few new gardening gadgets to try this coming spring. This wall of water product (through Burpee) has piqued my interest! A neighbor of mine swore by them last year. She was the only one in our area with vine ripened tomatoes. While ours didn't even begin to ripen until late September ... early October ... picked green and stored in the basement.

Snow bound.
My garden is asleep under waist high snow.
I know where a beehive is hidden in my garden wall, now covered shoulder high with snow. Everywhere I look, the frost has a grip til the sun's rays can melt and give warmth to renew.
Drip, drip, drip. I want to see all of my home's roof 'neath the snow drape.
Still snow bound.

by: Mrs. Mac
January 1, 2009
A toast to all good things learned from tending my garden this new year!

Today I watched a rerun of a TV episode of The Victory Garden. It had a segment on composting and a veggie garden. The salad made by the host included just about everything from the garden and made my mouth water. My mind is already churning and thinking about what to plant when the snows melt in late spring. I can dream, and plan, and buy some seeds. That just might tide me over until I can once again work in the dirt.

Waiting for the first snow to fly.

This Saturday, we're supposed to be in for the first big snow storm of the season followed by frigid temps at or below zero degrees by early next week. We have taken advantage of the extended mild temps and hopefully have winterized the homestead. Gutters have been once again cleaned (third time this autumn) and outside Christmas decorations are in place. My new snow blower is gassed up and the four wheel snow plow is ready for business. There are snow shovels lined up in the garage for many hands to make the load lighter. Shoe "chains" are standing by and snow shoes purchased. There is nothing like being prepared ahead of time. I'm so glad Mr. Mac will be home to share the workload :)

My compost pile is still creating rich black soil even with much lower temps. I add to it about two gallons of green waste twice a week. Once the ground freezes, I plan on putting a large outdoor plastic trash can with a tight fitting lid near my kitchen door for winter use. This will be the first time I'll experiment with collecting green waste to hold over until spring.

This week in the garden I'm adding a top layer of leaves to cover the bare soil. This will help prevent soil erosion and redeposit nutrients back into the soil as they decompose. It should also help cut down on the amount of weeds that might take over in early spring.

All of our foundations vents have been closed, protective covers have been placed over the outside hose bibs, and all of our sprinkler lines have been drained to prevent the pipes from freezing and bursting this winter. My geraniums have been trimmed, re-potted and stored away. We have decorated the yard and front entrance with groupings of corn stalks, mums, pumpkins and a few scary spiders. The front windows have construction paper cutouts of bats and pumpkins that were made years ago from the wee hands of my children.

My only chores left before winter: put up electric heating elements in the gutters to melt ice, do some more raking and burning of yard debris, and spray the fruit trees with a home made oil soap.

With all of the grandiose of spring and summer, autumn puts to rest the labor of my hands; in the coming months, there should be time to plan and map out the garden for next spring.

Happy autumn!

Photo art: Summer is but a faded memory ... by Mrs. Mac 6/08

My friend, Pat, in Michigan said to wrap my ever so green tomatoes in newspaper to store away in the basement for a little while. Well, that method has worked beautifully for ripening them. I was able to use about six pounds of the ruby jewels to make a fresh-frozen salsa. Six pints of the delicious sauce awaits our enjoyment during the long winter months. To make it I followed Mrs. Darlings recipe below, omitting the cumin and using a jalepeno minus the seeds instead of the chili pepper. It's not too hot nor too mild. As Goldilocks would say, 'It's just right." I hope you will try it. We still have at least seven or eight pounds of tomatoes left in various stages of ripeness. Perhaps I'll make more freezer salsa next week.

I have to run to the store to purchase some tortilla chips. You can just imaging how hard it is to have this wonderful salsa and no chips :) Enjoy your day.

For salsa recipe, visit Dishpan Dribble's canning page here and scroll down to September 30, 2008 (I couldn't get a direct link to this one recipe ;)

Can, can: No not the dance ;) Being a person of frugal ways, I'm always on the lookout at the local thrift stores for canning equipment. My latest quest has been to find a large pot with a lift out basket that I can cook a huge amount of fresh green beans in all at once. This past summer when putting up the beans, I really could have used such an extra pot. It's necessary to have everything in order before you begin the process. Having to cook two batches of beans in a not big enough pot is a waste of time and heating fuel. When I shop at the second hand stores, I usually can zero in on exactly what I'm looking for and be in and out of the shops in a flash. Tuesday was a good find day. Here is the pot I purchased, including the basket, for $2.00. This could be some type of a fry basket/pan that has barely been used. It should work fine. Next quest, a kitchen scale for weighing produce.

Just because winter is approaching, you can still be an 'active' gardener. Well, perhaps not in the great outdoors, but how about in your minds eye as you envision what next year will hold in store for your garden plans. I placed a link in the sidebar to the Original Farmer's Almanac. This is a great on-line website that is free to use. You can easily become a registered user and customize some of the weather data for your specific zip code. Go ahead and check it out. Gardening that starts out small and grows a bit each year is a sure bet for success. I've already begun to fine tune what I'd like to plant for next year. Things such as winter squash, and some of the root vegetables that can take a bit of frost: parsnips, turnips ... even rutabagas. I'm even planning on perhaps a cold frame to extend the growing season for lettuce. The thought of buying a grow light has even crossed my mind. Lettuce is one of the prides of the garden and to go all winter relying on store bought ... well, let's just say I think I'll pass on salads for a while. Being spoiled with a bumper crop this year has ruined imported greens for sure! How easy would it be to have a small batch growing under a grow light ... or in a cold frame. This is something worth looking into. But, I'll take it slow. I don't like to buy equipment that might just sit idle after the novelty wears off.

It's not for lack of trying ... but my crop of tomatoes just didn't have the right mix of sunny days, summer heat, and a long enough growing season this year. Just last week our temps were in the 80's (F) and my hopes were high that the tomatoes would all ripen at once. As you can see, just a few took the time to ripen. Not sure if the majority of green ones will do much ... any ideas on aiding the ripening process once picked?

Weekend outlook: We could have a little snow ... but I'm not counting on it.

It's the end of the season this year for our veggie garden. Yesterday I made one last sweep of the produce, took down the deer fencing and heaped loads of clippings onto the compost pile. There were five gallon Ziploc bags full of different lettuce varieties, baby carrots, baby yellow neck squash, cucumbers, and loads of zucchini and basil. Today I'll make a few transplants of thyme into pots to bring in for the winter and snip the rest to dry. With all of the basil, I was able to make a few half-pints of pesto to freeze; summertime flavor to savor when the snow falls.

Being my first year to plant a veggie garden, next year I'll know not to plant as much zucchini ... it is prolific and takes up way too much space. Sow the seeds in early June, leaving a few empty rows to accommodate some later plantings. Use some type of either black plastic mulch around the base of the tomato plants ... or some type of water bag sleeves that radiate heat that my neighbor used. Soon I'll post a picture of my green tomatoes.

The best part of having a garden: Fresh food, fresh air, sunshine, working with my hands, getting dirty, tired sore muscles, eating food without pesticides grown about as local as you can get.

I'm embarrassed to say, I found these twin giants hidden under the zucchini leaves yesterday. Just what am I going to make? If they taste all right, some will go in the freezer for soups this winter ... some in bread ... some into fried zucchini appetizers ... some given to my daughter. Please send me your recipes ;)