Dehydrating Zucchini

STUPID OLD GROUNDHOG!!!

I have a stowaway . He is sort of cute and furry and one of many creatures that seem to think my garden was put here just for their pleasure.

   He must be very big because he has been taking single bites out of the bottoms of my tomatoes and throwing them aside when he is displeased with their ripeness, or lack of ripeness in most cases.

   However now that we are getting some color in our beautiful babies he is no longer casting them aside. 

   Now he is knocking over the plants and their stakes!

   I had them all staked up like good little soldiers and he has knocked the majority of the plants over. 

Now that is enough to make any gardener grouchy!

My Bounty.

I have been extremely lucky this year in spite of the colder temps and abundant rain.

I have already harvested many items from my garden.

My peppers are large and numerous.

I have filled many buckets already with many things. 

I have kohlrabi bigger than softballs and cucumbers longer than my arms!

I have tomato and cucumber plants standing taller than I am! My cucumber plants are trying to escape to my neighbor's yard, thank goodness they are patient and accepting cucumbers as bribes.

 

I have started harvesting some tomatoes but most of them still need time because of the colder temperatures we have had this year. 

I am so excited to be this close to harvesting the majority of them it's difficult to wait!

Squash!

I have been so lucky with squash this year! It's been very rainy and cold and tomatoes just have not been very happy so far. I have lots of squash and cucumbers though. It has been difficult weather for Powdery Mildew and I have sprayed a fungi side  this year to help with all this damp weather.

My cucumbers and squash have just about pulled over my trellises! 

A tribute to Grandma, Mildred Mayer

   This is my Grandma Mildred. She died many years ago, but I think of her more and more often. 

   I think the  words that I would use to describe her  would be, capable, effective and resilient.

   All these years later as I know she crosses my mind more and more often for reasons I am not even sure of, because I never thought of us as especially close at the time, and she often made me help her do things she never made the other kids do, it was usually some sort of chore I didn't like to do so I always assumed she lived the other kids more. Now I see what I learned from those things she took the time to teach me and realize the value of those moments we spent together.

   She thought me how to forge for food and pee in the woods, how to grow and appreciate things and I hope after all the begrudging help I gave her nearly 40 years ago, I now hear her coaching me in my head frequently. I think she would have approved of my unconventional gardening ideas and my community garden. 

   I often wish she was here to add to my ideas or help me figure out what to do in the garden.

    Grandma had what she called a rock garden and always had hundreds of different flowers and bushes and trees.

I think she would have loved the bag garden and no dig beds.

Such a delinquent blogger!

I am so sorry I have been so delinquent on blogging. Our life here has been so full if the unexpected and unavoidable for the last few months. My husband has had to have 5 surgeries and was hospitalized for a few weeks and then released only to have home nurses and follow up appointments and another surgery... But u was able to get a garden in, although I was terribly  late at it.  But here is a few things I have been doing that I wanted to share.

This is one if my bag gardens, there are a few other unconventional things I am trying out. There is also a bottle garden I recently started behind the bag of zucchini as well.

This is more bag gardens and a pile if grass cuttings on a piece of cardboard made an unconventional no dig garden.

These are my no dig beds with a few unconventional trellises I use. Also at the bottom you can see all the wilted tomatoes are cuttings I pruned from else where. They are struggling but hopefully some will make it.

This is a watermelon bush I am growing in a bag. It was started very late but is doing well.

  

   The house we recently bought we affectionately refer to as "The Big Ugly" was previously a run down and abused apartment house. It still ugly but we are trying to improve it as we go and it is a work in progress.

   The previous tenants felt the need to have various fire pits in the back yard and there   are also some buried stumps in the yard as well so I have been working to do what I can to help these areas. 

   I did a no dig bed over a stump that someone was apparently trying  to burn out by making it a fire pit.

   It has baby watermelons in it now but may end up with more things added soon.

    I have been busier than it looks, with family illness and a home schooled child and a full time job and the community garden I'm trying to get off the ground, so far all the gardeners have disappeared except for 2 ladies. We started with about 15 people. They have all discovered that they are "too busy" a few wanted me to till their ground (and I did) and I have them free seeds and plants and tilled and they still couldn't be bothered to plant. So my garden for bigger and bigger! 

   I am hoping to get it going enough to catch attention for gardeners for next year. I don't want to be a quitter! I think gardening should be available for anyone willing to so it even with limited time or mobility. And it should

Make people happy.

   Except of course unless you are the Grouchy Gardener!

   

More Garden Drama!

Join The Grouchy Gardener Group on Facebook and share what makes YOU a Grouchy Gardener:    https://www.facebook.com/groups/471835862876763/


My green house has flying ambition!

Finally tucked back into place and with a sigh of relief I am able to move on to my next adventure!