What's new in my garden

I have been so busy getting Andy ready for school that I haven't had much time to post. I have taken a few pictures but haven't gotten around to doing much. I'm hoping that now that Andy is in school (school started yesterday) that I will have time to catch up on a few things and find a new job. I am happy to report that Andy had a great first day of second grade yesterday - and rode the school bus for the first time since PreK.


Have a lot of bell peppers in your garden? Make some stuffed bell peppers. I cut my the long way in half instead of stuffing a whole pepper since they were so huge (portion control!) and they turned out wonderful.


Time to start a second batch of sauerkraut. This time I am using red cabbage - it sure looks pretty - I wonder if it will taste any different. I've never made it with red cabbage before. Here it is sliced up and salted (3 tablspoons of salt to 5 lbs of cabbage).


You want to weight down the cabbage so the water is pulled out and comes up and covers it. I find a plate weighted down with a mason jar full of water works well. I have it in one of my stainless steel stock pots to start with - within a few hours it will be compacted enough to transfer to a small crock.


A day's harvest of cucumbers. Dan will eat a few but Andy won't touch them and I can't eat this many every day. The neighbors have started hiding when they see me coming with cukes in my hands so I have started giving them away on freecycle. Freecycle is a great way to get rid of excess garden produce and plants that need dividing, etc - or to find some. Check out your local freecycle if you aren't familiar with them.


The fall raspberries are now coming nicely. Here is yesterday's harvest.

Free Trees and Plants

Here is a website that I have had bookmarked for quite some time: http://www.freetreesandplants.com/index.html

I have never ordered from them, but I have "friends" (internet ones not IRL) who have and say the site is legit. They just never have what I want at the time.

Anyway, if you are considering putting in any trees or shrubs in the spring - you really should check it out. You just pay for shipping and handling for the plants ($7.95 per unit I believe) and they provide work for disabled people and keep unsold nursery stock from going to waste.

If you do order - look at the unit carefully. I had one friend who ordered a maple tree (which she loves) and was surprised when it came that it was two trees (I think for most of the trees and shrubs, they all come in pairs - not sure about the other plants) and she didn't have room on her small suburban lot for two trees. She posted on freecycle (http://www.freecycle.org/) and found a home for the other tree. Maybe a friend or neighbor will split the shipping cost with you and each get a tree.

Anyway - since it is the time of year for planning and dreaming of the spring - I just thought I would throw this affordable alternative out there. Anyone who has priced trees at a nursery knows that they can get expensive very quickly.

A good gardening morning

I love that it is getting cooler over night - the mornings are nice to garden now before it gets too hot. Yesterday I finally found time to get to the garden center without a child and had time to really shop and spend my $25 gift card that I had gotten for Mother's Day back in May. With end of season sales, I got a lot more for my money than I would have gotten in May. I got 2 day lillies - "Happy Return" and 2 coneflowers - "White Swan" as well as a bunch of seed packets for 10 cents each - I got some cool weather things that I can still plant this year like lettuce and radishes. This morning I planted the day lillies and coneflowers. I dug up some purple coneflowers (and offered them on freecycle - great way to get rid of excess plants - if you are not familar with freecycle, go to http://www.freecycle.org/ for more information and to see if there is a group in your area), weeded the perennial beds and cut back the grapes out of my neighbors yard again - not a bad morning. Tomorrow is my 48th birthday - a very good age to be!