Not yet ripe...

I have been feeling a bit anxious lately - having a hard time waiting and being patient for much. I've already been getting handfuls of ripe cherry tomatoes daily, and a couple of zucchini and cucumber. But, looking at the clouded sky, a sense of rain in the air, and a very long and emotional day at work behind me...I wandered around the yard with a hose in hand to add liquid life to the things that need it to grow. My roses and other perennials were parched but still budding. I wanted to cut a few branches for a vase, but the buds were so tightly closed that I just need to let them relax and open on their own time. Again, I hate waiting.

My veggie garden has continued to be completely neglected. Perhaps I'll get out and weed them today. Thistle, crab grass and clover have taken over the veggie patch, and is hiding the climbing cucumber vines and zucchini...and providing ample cover for the amphibians and insects that have created new homes in this protected space. Yup, time to move them out.

As I watered the potted herbs and the little perennials I have yet to put into the ground, I took another look at my veggies, and half the soil was sloppy and damp, and the other half was thirsty and dry. How is that? I water them the same? Perhaps the soil is different in that area? Anyhow...as the clouds continued to cover the sunset that evening...I battled the blood-sucking itch provoking insects that find my skin attractive, and pulled off the vines what I thought were 20 or so very ripe sweet olive & sweet 100's tomatoes, 3 tennis ball sized early girls, 2 green peppers, a jalapeno pepper and and a cucumber. A couple of little zucchini looked ready to pick, and so I began to imagine how they would taste with our dinner.

A quiet evening with my husband, kids over at grandma's house for a few hours,  and I brought in the veggies to wash and prepare with our meal. I looked again. Are these the same tomatoes that I pulled from the garden just now? They don't look ripe at all! They're actually more orange than red, and a bit of yellow still on the tops! Really!?! I could have sworn they were so ripe that they'd taste like sugar going down! Man...what a disappointment. These lovely beautiful things sitting here, and they're not quite ready to eat. Boo. Even the zucchini was very firm as I sliced it up for the grill. It still tasted good, but perhaps I can wait for them to get a bit bigger next time. Not too big...but wait for enough to feed more than just me.

Last summer the tomatoes that came from my organic garden were the best things I've ever tasted! Even my mom complimented on how sweet and full of flavor they were, because we left them to ripen on the vine in the hot sun, and they really were better than anything I've ever grown before. Okay, I had never grown anything before - but they were better than anything we bought at the store or the farmer's market. So...I was pretty proud of my tomatoes. Having 6 plants last year, we thought they'd make plenty of sauce for the winter...but I wasn't able to can anything, because we ate them all - just at the peak of flavor, right from the vine. So I planted 9 this season. And yet, it's the end of July and the tomatoes are still green. [...sigh...]

It seems to me that so many things in my life are this way lately. I think it's ready to pick, but it's not ready to eat! It think it's waited long enough for the sun, water, and soil to do the trick...and yet I have to wait a little while longer. I think I'm ready to move on toward something new, to get started already, but the job is not ready, the people around me are not ready. It's not like I don't have anything else to do...because I have a long list of things to do...but I'm more interested in getting the fun part started! Let's eat already! I'm starving! No - I don't want to eat that - I want dessert! Red, ripe, tomato dessert! [...sigh...]

Timing is everything, I know.

Lightning

Lightning - www.eplorefaith.org

We've had a few storms in this area the past couple of weeks, that have brought with them intense light shows of fire and electricity. The stirring up in the clouds, caused by heat on one side of a front, and cold dry air on the back side of the front...is similar to some things that feel unsettled about my house and garden - well - okay - about my life. Unsettled is definitely how I would put it. Stirred up, mucky, diverse, mixed together, floating debris, all of life converging together in one place.

Hmm...and then the lightning strikes and clears the air - and brings more lightning, and energy to whatever is moving around. Frightening to imagine the power of that lightning. And yet, reassuring that it will come and the end of the storm will come, and the stuff that was stirred will once again become settled.

So mulch to do...

Last Sunday...yes I'm just getting around to blogging about it today (Thurday morning just after midnight)...I had a little time to work in my garden. I haven't touched it in about four weeks other than to grab a few little ripe tomatoes occasionally and set the sprinkler so they don't dry out completely. I also haven't added any new fertilizer to the soil, other than the original Miracle Grow organic garden soil that I used when I planted the veggies back in late May. I planted a couple of cucumber plants, and only one has survived. Actually, it's climbing up the side of the fence. I wish I would have purchased a cage for it.

I really want to get on some seed catalog websites this winter and consider starting from seeds. I've never done that - well, except for the Jack in the Beanstalk green bean plant that came home from Kindergarten orientation this spring. That's actually still producing beans...and my son is pretty excited to eat the beans raw from his plant.

I barely remember what my veggies looked like last year - thank goodness for this blog that I can remember electronically. I took intense care to the garden last year, barely allowing weeds to surface, much less take deep root. But, this year, the weeds in my veggies tower over the zucchini and reach halfway up the side of the tomatoes. My green peppers and beans were buried...but I found them anyways.

I spent a good 3-4 hours on Sunday afternoon in the garden. (We took a Sabbath rest on Saturday at the lake) I weeded the completely untouched perennials that line my veggie garden - moved and split a beautiful bright pink coral bell plant, pulled amazing amounts of crab grass, foxtail, and thistle, and laid down some Preen, and several 2 cu ft bags of brown mulch. I was so proud of my work, as this is something I wanted to get done the previous year, but time constraints and choosing family priorities prevented it. I still have about 3 bags of mulch left - and most of my garden is completely covered. But, I know I will just add additional mulch to the same area after the next rain when it settles into the spots that didn't really have enough top soil. I didn't addend to the soil, as the flowers (siberian iris, and daisies) are still doing so well. Maybe next year if it continues to sink deeper. I even mulched around the rhubarb that I have in the front corner of the same section. I did NOT lay down any black fabric to cover the ground before we mulched...and perhaps I should have. But, I'm hoping that the minimum 3 inches deep mulch will just do the trick and keep me from needed to weed much in the next couple of weeks. Besides, the green peeking through is so easy to grab and tear out now - so much more visible.

I did pull most of the surface weeds from around the tomatoes and peppers, and that cute little orphaned green bean plant. I even laid down some newspaper to hopefully keep a few weeds at bay around the path between my tomatoes. Who knows if it will work. The newspaper was originally going to be shredded and go into the compost pile - as "brown" stuff we really need to blend. But, since it's biodegradable, and the inks are soy based...I thought I'd see how it does in the pathway of my veggies. I'll let you know if it works or not as a basis for mulch - not covered in mulch and not blowing away in the wind so far. The other half of the large veggie garden is still completely covered in weeds at least a foot or foot-and-a-half tall. I really need to cut down all the onions and chives before they spread again, and before insects continue to choose that area for a home.

But, oh my aching hamstrings and inner thighs from bending, swooping, and squatting to pull weeds and lay down mulch. I need to get out there and do it way more often...not only for the benefit of the garden, but for the benefit of the body as well.

P.S. - handfuls of Sweet 100's and another variety of mini tomatoes have been ripe pretty much every day. So far, only one Early Girl sits on my counter awaiting its turn to be sliced. Last night we ate 3 small zucchini from the garden, which we coated with olive oil and cooked on the grill. :) YUM!!

THE PROJECT

We moved into our home last year, and although fell in love with the porch and deck...knew that something would eventually need to be done. It's much too big - yes, I said too big - 20 ft by 24 ft finished with some inexpensive lumber and scrap end lattice. The previous owners removed their above ground pool, which had a deck around it, and then finished off the deck to complete what we now call the monster of a project.

Last summer, my husband spent a little time trying to figure out how to secure the railings onto the deck a bit tighter - as the original (or should I say "fixed") construction was damaged and not done with the best of practices. How it passed city inspection is beyond me...but it did. It's three-toned job of finished wood and unfinished wood was hard to look at, and we knew it would take some time to refinish the deck. We set a goal for the next summer, and the time has finally come to dig in.

I really do love the size of this deck, but there is much to be desired about the quality of wood. We started by asking my brother to borrow the power washer. He gave us some instructions, we set aside a week of vacation when the kids would be at daycare and summer program so we didn't have to worry about them underfoot. We planned to take it one step at a time. And, I think we also decided we'd learn a lot from doing it ourselves. We will only do the main large deck this year. Perhaps we'll be able to refinish the screened in porch next summer if we have energy to do it. Much less square footage, but probably just as much work as it's completely enclosed with screens that will need to be cleaned, and furniture that will need to be removed.

A visit to Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards...all of the "experts" told us NOT to use the power washer. Because of our particular project...they said it could damage the wood, embed debris and unwanted particles into the wood, and also may not remove all the stain we wanted to remove with the variety of wood that we were sure we had. The best bet for a quality job that would help the stain we choose to stay on longer and cleaner, and remove the old color stain would be to use a stain stripper. With the desire to use a semi-transparent stain so we could still see the beauty of the wood grain beneath it...we chose a couple of bottles of stain stripper and began to spray it on with a deck sprayer, brush it with a stiff bristled brush, and rinse it off with water. After both my husband and myself sustained chemical burns to our bodies, we decided to try a different route, and perhaps we'd have to settle for using a solid color stain that would cover the imperfections. We then chose a less caustic deck prep solution that could be diluted with water and spent the next few days scrubbing, rinsing, and massaging kinks out of each others' necks and backs. But...the results were well worth all the effort and the negative messages between us.
BEFORE:

DURING:
In preparation for laying down chemicals, we set a tarp out over my hostas - which didn't survive the heat under the tarp by the way...and as I looked under the deck a blue piece of yarn was hanging there. One tug and I realized it was attached to this...which unfortunately had to be moved. The momma robin definitely didn't like us, as she was dive bombing my husband most of the first day of this project.

AFTER:

I couldn't visualize what the deck would look like with a stain on it, especially since we were originally hoping for something somewhat transparent...so we purchased four different color samples. I eventually chose the top one - the russet color - a dark brown.

We were able to purchase a beautiful solid stain from Behr at the Home Depot with a military discount and a paint/stain rebate for the 4th of July sale...and the next few weeks  - whenever it's dry and not too hot - we'll be putting our brushes into brown weatherproof wood stain and hoping our cleaning efforts don't need to be repeated as we move into the weather of a Minnesota summer. More photos to come when it's completely ready to reveal. :)

Green hope for July harvest

I'm almost a little embarrased to show photos with so much overweeding in my veggie garden...but we've been working on "THE PROJECT" that has obviously taken a lot of my time. Besides...I'm enjoying my family and my work, and my new fun job more this year so as not to fret about crabgrass in my veggie plants.

Photos of "THE PROJECT" will appear here soon, I promise, just as soon as I can get some stain out from under my fingernails.