The REST of the story.....June 2011

On the deck, I have St. Johns Wort, Thyme, Hyssop, and Cayenne peppers

On the other side of my steps, Jalapenos, Lavender, Cone Flowers, and

Stepping off the deck.....these are my hollyhocks. Right in front of them is my favorite rock in the world. We were at my mom's house on Mother's Day and my boy found it in a creek. Me, my mom and dad went down to the creek and dug it up and dragged it up hill......I love this rock, and the memory it invokes every time I walk by it.

More of Chrissy's marigolds!!

My rose bushes...



One of my new ventures this year.
Grape vines.
2 Concord seedless grape vines!!



Oh my raspberries. They have a zillion berries hanging on the vine!! I can't wait!!

On to the side garden......some bulbs that have not come up every, decided to come up this year!! I planted 3 pumpkins here too..

My INSANE 'volunteer' Holly Hocks!!

My red onions, and cantalope. I don't think the melons are gonna make it :-(

My watermelons and cucumbers.
And my funky home made trellis!!!

A walk around the garden, June 2011

This is where the compost pile USED to be.
I had to set it on fire.
Voles.
Voles, are from the devil.
These two empty beds are my last two to fill.

This is bed #13. It has 4 Beef Steak Tomatoes, 12 Cal Wonder Green Bell peppers, and one Lavender plant

Bed 12 has 22 Beef Steak Tomatoes

Bed # 11 has 22 Beef Steak Tomatoes.

Bed 10 is my herb bed. Sage (2nd year) Oregano (2nd year) 8 basil, 6 flat leaf parsley, 4 curly parsley, 1 lavender, 1 Lemon Balm, and 1 Rosemary.

Bed 9, Strawberries!! This is my first year doing Strawberries. About 30 plants.

Bed 8 San Marzono Paste Tomatoes, 20 plants

Bed 7 is Chrissy's bed.....Garlic, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and padi pan squash!

Bed 6, also Chrissy's. Green Beans!

Bed 5, 20 more San Marzono Paste Tomatoes

Bed 4, 20 MORE San Marzono paste tomatoes

Bed 3, Texas Super Sweet Yellow Onions, about 40

Bed 2 Summer Squash and Zucchini. And 2 pickling cucumber plants. The Stupid Voles ate them, so I had to re-seed.

Bed 1 16 more San Marzono Paste Tomatoes, and 2 more pickling cukes!!


Close up of the pickling cukes the voles DIDN'T eat!

This is my super fancy cucumber trellis.
Chrissy planted some Marigolds and Snow peas and Blue podded peas.

More peas!!

This is the garden from my bedroom balcony. It's in, it's done.......I am so very blessed!!!!

The Flood of June 2010

This is the most western third of the back yard. It rained for 2 days, about 6 inches of rain.

This is just south of the above photo. This flood water goes from the property line on the west almost to the concrete pad by the back door. This is the worst flood in the 8 years .

The water is so deep by the propane tank, that Milo was SWIMMING!! Full dog paddle because she could not touch the bottom!!
The dark brown color on the right is the driveway.
The smell was HORRIFYING when it started to dry......gross.
It took about 6 days for all the standing water to go.....but man, the smell!!

Dehydrating Onions

With my new Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator, I am going to take about 75 onions, dehydrate and store them. I have my onions. I have a cutting board. A OOBER cheap mandolin (gets the job done) .
This is one of 9 trays I will load today.
Oh yeah, and my scale!
About 6 lbs of onions.
Ok, now we are outside. I can't hack that much onion smell in the house!! I also set the dehydrator outside, on the front porch. It was cool, mild, no humidity. I sliced the onions pretty thin.
I did 'crowd' a little. The first load, no onion touched his neighbor. Everything was right, just could have done more had I 'crowded' a bit more.
This is my 9 tray Excalibur fully loaded.....Again, outside or the whole house would STILL smell.
145 Degrees for 12 hours
Yep, that's the same tray as above. SIMPLY amazing how much water is in an onion. Now they smell like funions. They are not rank, but they almost have a sweet smell.....for an onion. Oh yeah, they were Texas Super Sweet onions. Bought the onions in sets at a local hardware store. Super hardy. No bugs or diseases.
This is my mini food saver. Got it for a song. It was on super sale, I had a coupon, and it had a rebate. All in all it cost me about 5.00.
Again, super simple to amuse here. When it sucked all the air out....I was amazed!!
The one on the left shows you how thin it is. The one in front shows you how flat they get!!
Each bag contains about 2 onions worth of onions!! 35 bags later (All fit in a plastic grocery sack) I will have fresh, organic, home raised onions......all winter this winter!!!

Can I just say this is addictive. I wanted to shrink wrap the dogs!! This is just so much fun!!