September Garden

Our first watermelon!

We were able to keep most of our garden hydrated enough to survive Texas's hottest summer on record. This is one of our watermelons that we noticed this week, growing outside the fencing of our garden!


Here is a quartet of canteloupe that I photographed about a week ago...

It has taken advantage of the extra growing space on the fence around the garden.

Here they are today ~ getting a little more ripe!

Eggplant blossoms!



A couple of canteloupe that I picked this morning.

This one is one of the large ones that have grown this summer. One thing about our 100 degree plus temperatures: canteloupe seem to thrive in it! But so do the weeds, with all our irrigation.

It was too hot for too long for our seven tomato plants to even set blossoms this summer. One of our larger tomato plants completely dried up and died. The rest have struggled to stay alive, but also to make a comeback, but come back, they have! I saw lots of blossoms out there this morning.

Next, I need to concentrate on our pepper plants and give them a good feeding with Howard Garrett's liquid molasses plant concoction. I will shoot some photos of them later.


How does your garden grow? Are any of you planting a fall garden now? I have misplaced most of our seeds whilst getting things organized for the new schoolyear. But I will be replanting more cool-weather greens as soon as I find those seeds!

Javamom

~ August ~

August
by James Whitcomb Riley


A day of torpor in the sullen heat
Of Summer's passion: In the sluggish stream
The panting cattle lave their lazy feet,
With drowsy eyes, and dream.

Long since the winds have died, and in the sky
There lives no cloud to hint of Nature's grief;
The sun glares ever like an evil eye,
And withers flower and leaf.

Upon the gleaming harvest-field remote
The thresher lies deserted, like some old
Dismantled galleon that hangs afloat
Upon a sea of gold.

The yearning cry of some bewildered bird
Above an empty nest, and truant boys
Along the river's shady margin heard--
A harmony of noise--

A melody of wrangling voices blent
With liquid laughter, and with rippling calls
Of piping lips and thrilling echoes sent
To mimic waterfalls.

And through the hazy veil the atmosphere
Has draped about the gleaming face of Day,
The sifted glances of the sun appear
In splinterings of spray.

The dusty highway, like a cloud of dawn,
Trails o'er the hillside, and the passer-by,
A tired ghost in misty shroud, toils on
His journey to the sky.

And down across the valley's drooping sweep,
Withdrawn to farthest limit of the glade,
The forest stands in silence, drinking deep
Its purple wine of shade.

The gossamer floats up on phantom wing;
The sailor-vision voyages the skies
And carries into chaos everything
That freights the weary eyes:

Till, throbbing on and on, the pulse of heat
Increases--reaches--passes fever's height,
And Day sinks into slumber, cool and sweet,
Within the arms of Night.

God Meets Us In The Garden

"Where earth and spirit mix, God and man meet."

This is a quote from one of my new favorite authors, Vigen Gourian. I was blessed to get to see/hear him speak in person and buy some of his books. I say "see and hear" because he is fun to watch speak, quiet with animated, happy facial expressions. But he can also be firey if he feels he needs to be!

Another good quote: "We are created in the image of the Master Gardener."

This being so, we can take in the full delights in our gardens as the Lord delights in his creation, and in us.

This was after I cleared out most of the aged, squash-bug infested squash plants in early July. Now the cantaloupe plants and watermelon plants have plenty of room to stretch out.

In this shot, you can see how the extreme, constant 100 plus temps are affecting the garden.

Notice how the cantaloupe has trailed up and across the fencing.

These cherry tomatoes sprung up on there own. I let them continue to grow just in case. What a delightful surprise!

The cantaloupe are LOVING this crazy, constant, dry heat.

This was last weekend. I picked the ripe one on Monday and the other one ripened by Tuesday eve.

washing and rinsing ~

Kale

Some of our early July harvest

Cantaloupe picked between 7/23-7/26

Have you met God in the garden recently? It restores the soul. But if you are a gardener, you are already keenly aware of that!

Happy Harvesting,

Javamom

Tomato plant care 6-25-11

A friend recently asked some details about tomatoes, so I am sharing these photos with her in mind. The summer is flying by and I started this post about tying / staking up tomatoes a month ago! These plants have more than doubled in size now. However, it has been a busy summer, with lots of hands-on care needed in the garden, and lots of reading, study, and decluttering the house in my 'free-er' time, to get ready for the fall school term.

We use jute or twine to 'weave' among the stakes between each tomato plant.

Next, we wind the twine around the stake and tie it (no knot, though, unless needed. These wooden stakes hold the twine just fine, no slippage) before stretching it on to the next stake.




The twine gently supports the branches of the tomato plant, providing some 'give' as it grows outward and upward.

You will notice how the plants have grown in my next post about the whole garden in general!


I wish the garden was larger, but this is an extremely hot year to try and keep it alive and growing. In fact, it has been too hot for some of our tomato plants to set their blossoms.



Hope you are enjoying summer tomatoes from your own (or a friend's) garden this summer!
There's just no comparison to grocery store tomatoes.


Javamom

what a difference three days makes!

First, I'm going to post the herbs that I didn't post a few days ago, then you can see some veggies that I only mentioned in passing in my last post. :-)



Spearmint

Cilantro

Sage

Thyme

oregano

Dill

first zucchini

Snow Peas!

and last but not least, ripe grape tomatoes

More that are almost ready!

pear shaped tomatoes. These will ripen a rich, yellow shade

Not sure what this will end up being. It came from the compost soil, and wasn't seeded by me. I call it my zuchamelon!

Tonights dinner consisted of sauteed swiss chard, onions, and a yellow squash that I picked this evening. These were served up alongside veggie-twirled pasta with just a touch of vidalia onion pasta sauce. No cheese necessary.

Keep your garden photos and stories coming! Most of you post on Facebook comments, but feel free to click the link to see this on my blog and comment there :-).

I am simply thankful for God's provision.

Javamom

Yum!!

Garden progress ~ May 30

We are transitioning this year from just organic gardening to also buying heirloom seeds. We started many of these plants ourselves. Hopefully we will locate and purchase all heirloom seeds for our next garden.

This shot was taken before our son mowed and ran the weedeater around the edge of the garden. It looks much neater as of yesterday!

Notice all the greens on this side. We planted red and green swiss chard, collard greens, and kale. We planted spinach, as well, but it did not come up.

heirloom tomato

red swiss chard

green swiss chard

bell pepper (one of a few)


yellow squash (one of several!)



I'm pretty pleased overall with this year's garden. The snow peas are coming up well and attaching themselves to the fencing. There are a few pods out there, too!

The green beans are growing, but not very full just yet.

How does your garden grow? Show me some of your photos!

Javamom

Best laid plans

We always hold our plans loosely so that we are not thrown off or so disappointed when things 'happen' to thwart those plans. We've had the excitement of a burned-out car, hubby wrecking his knee and going in for surgery, and yesterday, our only daughter was hit by a car (while commuting by bicycle) on her way to work. She lives out of state, so she called me up today [which is actually July 13] and gave me the skinny. I might post her pictures later, but I don't want to put her on the spot. She has her own life now, with her sweet Hubby. We never stop being a parent, though.

So to say we've had an exciting summer of surprises would be an understatement.


On Father's Day, our 17 yo son experienced his father's car catching on fire while he (ds) was driving it home from church. We are so very fortunate to continue to acknowledge how blessed we all are that he was not hurt in the incident. All he lost was his ipod and hubby's music cd's. Everything melted and burned away, including the seats! The only inaminate objects that survived were some tools and our really awesome camping/sleeping bags that were in the trunk. The fire department made it just in time to put out the flames before they hit the completely-full gas tank. Kudos to them.



He was pretty close to home, and some of our friends could see the dark smoke filling the sky.

The next day, which was also my 46th birthday, Hubby found a good, used car to replace it, and it is economical and cute. It was a very good deal for our budget, and a good commuter car for hubby. It will be weird having a car payment again, though, since both of our cars have been paid off for a long time.

Right around that same time, Hubby messed up his knee overdoing it on some major yardwork for his Dad. He got in to see a surgeon, had and MRI and consult, then surgery. He is reuperating slowly, but progressively. He does much better when he stays off his leg and keep it propped up high. He is getting better each day, though he relapsed yesterday from too much work with me on our bathroom repairs.

The surgery stopped our front bathroom tile replacement (from termite and water damage) cold in its tracks, though we are almost done! Just need to touch up some grout spots, seal the grout, and call it finished and good.

This also threw off my planning, bookbinding, and writing schedules, and removed the possibility of speaking to a group of Moms and Dads that are new to homeschooling. It is just not the season for hardly any of those speaking events these past few years. I am okay with that, as long as I still have some opportunities to be with my friends, share and glean ideas together from time to time.

I decided to cancel participating in a solar car race as a judge this year. I've so much to catch up on here at home, so I'm not too disappointed. It will be a good father-son trip without me there to change the dynamic. I will get to have my own mother-son bonding with the big, strong, 17 yo son still at home. Maybe we'll have all his friends over and have a party and some football in the backyard.

But for now, it's back to work on:

~ getting the laundry room organized

~ Getting Spanish lesson plans re-organized (they are already written) for fall classes. Toss old materials that can't re use. Continue to esearch products, update wish lists. Organize resources for first lessons.

~ Weekly sauna treatments, while I organize little bits of the attic at a time. Hey, it is healthy, and FREE.

~ Work in bookbinding studio (restoration of old books and bookbinding is my part-time work).

~ read and research any new needed techniques or products in bookbinding and Spanish, or even things for Charlotte Mason Bookclub~ work a little bit on Fall syllabi in multiple classes

~Weed that garden!

:::sigh::: Pretty boring, right? I am very content, though. And blessed.

There are always going to be things to do, and rest assured that I am good at working in my own fun and free reading time. I just need to keep re-focusing my *work* efforts every day.

I think I am looking forward to a mini-vacation with my Sweet Hubster to New Mexico soon.

Javamom