It Was A Double Header Weekend

Oh yes... this past weekend was a full one. Not only did I spend a couple hours at the Park Ave Fest on Saturday, on Sunday, we packed a picnic, we rounded the (younger two) kids up in the car, and headed down to Fox Run Vineyard for this year's Garlic Fest. Route 14 on Seneca Lake is a place where you can usually find us in the Fall and this was our first summer visit to the lake. We have been wanting to catch this festival for a few years now. Ever since I was visiting one of my aunts and she had me smell a head of garlic that, I kid you not, smelled just like pepperoni. Garlic is one of our garden staples. Ron just loves it! Loves to grow it, loves to cook with it, and loves to gift it to visitors that admire the garden. Every year though, we seem to remember we want to go to the festival a week or two after it happens. Not this year though. Ron was determined.




The festival itself is rather small. Just a few of those big tents with vendors selling all manner of types of garlic and garlic what nots. Just a few minutes after arriving, the skies opened up and it poured on us. So, we headed inside the vineyard to enjoy a wine tasting. Oh how big Lauren felt getting to sip some water out of a real wine glass. And then later it was fresh popped kettle corn (with or without garlic) and homemade ice creams (a scoop of vanilla and chocolate, no garlic flavor available). The Corning Museum of Glass was there giving demos, there was live music, and lots and lots of people. Those big crowds had us heading out after just about an hour of garlic tastings. We had a few bulbs each of German White, French Red, Music, and Bogatyr garlics, so we were all set.

But, naturally, driving over an hour to get there, we didn't head straight home. We headed further down the lake than we ever have before! We stopped at a few new wineries that seemed to pop up on the lake over night. Er, I mean, over the winter. Me made plans to come back to the wine trail soon with friends (no kids, and a designated driver) so that we can take some time to really enjoy the new finds. And we will be sure to take those friends to the little jewel we stumbled upon just past the famous Watkin's Glen Gorge... but more on that tomorrow.

Around The Garden

(May)

(July)

I thought we would spend a little time walking around our garden today. You might remember a few years back when we first put in these raised beds. Since then we have added a few more and started growing lots of things we never would have dreamed we would have sprouting right outside our back door. And, for the first time ever, I have actually been remembering to take photos of the growth every month right around the same time!! We are into our second month of the growing season and things are bursting at the seams.

(brussel sprouts in May)

(brussel sprouts in July)

Those cute little baby lettuce heads, aka brussel sprouts, are one of my favorite veggies. This is our first attempt at growing them. I can't wait to harvest the first batch, but I think we are still a few weeks out and these. Sliced in half, tossed in Italian dressing, and roasted in the oven is heavenly.

(swiss chard in May)

(swiss chard in July)

Okay, okay, admittedly, this isn't an impressive shot of the swiss chard. That's because we have been eating it like mad. And the awesome thing about chard, you can cut it to the ground and it just keeps growing!! But next week, those center stalks will be steamed in chicken stock with a bit of garlic and on my dinner plate.

(broccoli & blueberries in May)

(broccoli & blueberries in July)

I think I planted too many broccoli plants... and I think I am going to have Ron buy a freezer for the basement so we can freeze this for many a sauce pan full of broccoli soup this fall/winter. Yeah. That's the plan. I know they are hard to see, buried among the broccoli leaves, but there are two blueberry bushes in this bed as well. Something is up with them... they never flowered. So I have been researching what I need to do. The branches are covered in healthy leaves, but not a berry in sight. Turns out the soil may not be acidic enough. So, every morning hence forth, I shall be dumping my coffee grounds around the bush's base to better the soil for next year.

(tomatoes in May)

(tomatoes in July)

We had a bit of a scare with the 20 plus tomato plants recently. We started to notice the leaves at the bottom start to yellow, covered in brown spots. We worried that they may have become infected the blight (a tomato killing disease). We took some of the leaves to a local garden store and we informed they actually have septoria. We left with organic Copper Fungicide in hand and are doing everything we can to save the crop. We are very hopeful.

I do have to confess, this garden wouldn't be as beautiful as it is without Ron's hard work. I am much more a garden manager than a gardener per say. I decide which plants we grow, I plant them, I weed once in a blue moon, then I leave the watering to Ron, only taking the reins back when it is time to pick the bounty he has brought to life. And with the weather we have had this year, he has had to water every single day. They said on the news the other day that this is shaping up to be the driest June-July on record... ever.  So far we have only had .05in of rain in July and there is no rain in site. So, Ron has been a watering fool.

It is so worth all his effort!!

You Should Smell This

I guess I don't have to worry about vampires for a while ;)

Homer & The Garden

There is a project that Ron and I have been working on since mid-April. I have held off on sharing it because I was waiting to have something in it to show. We woke up at an early 6am and the view out our bedroom window had us very vexed. So, it is time to show the project and get some help from you experts out in the world.

RAISED BED GARDENS!!!



I know, not very excited to some, but it us, this is project has been a long time coming and it is very very exciting. We have always had a veggie garden. Though, in the past, it hasn't been much more then a small tilled plot with a half dozen or so plants. The new house gave us the opportunity to change all that.

Our yard is a full acre and although we would like it to be all lush and green, there is a large area what is dead and brown. In 2000, when an addition was put on the old house, they brought in a ton of "fill" to raise the level of the yard. Instead of bringing in "clean fill", they basically put a parking lot under ground. It is all the gravel and asphalt leeching into the ground killing the grass (and the two big trees that used to call the backyard home).



A big dead spot is PERFECT for raised beds!! Ron did tons of research, took ques from our friends Lindsey & Lucas that have beautiful raised bed gardens, looked at photos on flickr and videos on PBS.com. He debated if we would use cedar or pine for the wood. Once we heard that cedar would be about $50 a board and we needed 12+ boards, it was decided that the $5 pine would be the way to go, lol. And NO, not pressure treated, that would be putting chemicals into the soil... not good.

It was a really brisk cold day when we set to building the beds. The weekend before Easter, if I recall correctly. The sun was out, but oh how we shivered! The fill for the gardens is free leaf mulch put out by our town every spring. This isn't mulch in the classic bark like sense that you are used to. Leaf mulch is rich and black, and so much better then dirt. It took 8 truck loads (Ron filling his truck each night after work) to fill the beds. And they could probably use more!



We set to trying to grow plants from seeds. And frankly, we suck at it. Our tomatoes are tiny, our onions are so fine their stalks look like strands of hair, lol, and our peppers barely came out of the soil. Now, I know some things are easier to grow then others, but come on. LOL. We put the plants in the beds anyway, and added a few green house bought ones as well. Moving from the east to west in the garden we have planted... strawberries (a whole square bed to themselves), about a dozen tomatoes, onions, peppers, carrots, peas, beans, broccoli, eggplant, squash, cucumber, and zucchini. My Mom has taken over one of the beds too. So add to that list... spinach, radishes (yuck!), beats, more tomatoes, more peas, more beans, and other things I can't remember.



Now... our veggies are in jeopardy!! Homer, the groundhog, is eating everything!! Homer lives under the shed in the neighbor's yard. We see him out in the yard every couple of days. He is a bold groundhog, coming up close to the house, yet he races away with so much as a click of the door unlocking. Damn thing. GRRRR!!!! He has eaten all Mom's peas and beans... he has taken an eggplant... and chewed up the tops of the tomatoes too. We started researching what to do. Some say mothballs, but that is illegal because it contains a known carcinogenic (who wants that next to their veggies anyway), some say animal urine, Lindsey says Milorganite, I have read about electric fences, and Mom got these little gray-my-bobs that are supposed to work (but don't).



Lemme hear it... what has worked for you gardeners of the blog reading world?!? Lots more photos in my Flickr Photostream!!