The Little Red Hen

When I had the day off on Monday, Captain and I spent some time in the garden pulling weeds.  We had gotten a nice rain the day before, so the quack grass and lambs quarters came out easily.  Usually this is a job Captain ends up doing by himself as I am working.  He has compared himself to the Little Red Hen who does all the work and then has to share the bounty. 

Don't waste much sympathy on him because I do my share of the work later in the process when it's time to do the canning and preserving.  I don't get off Scot free by any stretch of the imagination!

Individual work ethics aside, our garden is doing very well this year.  We were worried about the green beans as they got spritzed with herbicide when Captain sprayed the soybeans, but it looks like they will recover from the minor damage. 

For some reason that no one is quite sure of, we have seven cabbages planted this year.  Contrary to popular belief (including mine), Captain says he is not intending to try and make sauerkraut again.  Thus, we have gotten a freezer coleslaw recipe from his mom and will try that once. 

Last year we had volunteer spaghetti squash everywhere in the garden.  This year it's a cherry tomato plant that sprouted from last year.  We also planted six or seven new tomato plants so we'll have plenty of those to make juice, chili sauce, and salsa.  I'm going to show a couple of friends how to can tomatoes this summer if our schedules all work out. 

Our little lettuce patch was overtaken by weeds this year.  I think next year we may do that in a container to keep the weeds and grass out of it.  Mike's mom is the one who uses that the most so we'll find a pretty little deck container she can have right outside her door. 

We finished off our row of radishes already.  When it gets more into August we will plant another row as they don't like the heat of mid summer. 

The beets are just starting to be ready.  We have enough for a meal tonight...greens and all.  It was an adventure picking them because our dogs decided to do their business right on top of the row of beets.  Thanks, Dipstick.  I'll remember that the next time you want a num-num. 

I am most excited because the cucumbers are starting to really ripen so I can make pickles pretty soon.  My favorite project of the summer!

Then of course there are the giant pumpkins.  We have counted 14 of them so far...9 on one vine alone.  This is bad growing policy for giant pumpkins, as the literature says to have one pumpkin per vine if you want them to get to be a half ton.  Since we don't truly want one that big, we'll leave the nine on there and get some that are several hundred pounds each instead.  This is Cubby's favorite thing to look at when she's here.  "Gramma, they are HUGE!"

On the flower front, the war I have been waging against the ditch lillies is over and I am victorious.  It was a vicious and bloody campaign, but I prevailed.  Take that, ditch lillies!  I will have to divide some of my hostas this fall as they are getting slightly out of control.  Lucky for me it's almost as hard to kill hostas as it is to kill ditch lillies. 

The mutant whiskey barrel has some volunteer pinks from last year's Old Fashioned seed mix I planted plus two others that I haven't identified yet.  There are also the zinnias I planted out there this year.  I am thinking I will never have to seed that pot again; these will just keep coming back year after year.  Nothing wrong with that. 

My dill patch didn't survive from last year.  I'm thinking it needs to be in a container rather than in amongst the quack grass along the corral.  I'm glad I have friends who have established dill gardens that I can pilfer!  Will trade pickles for dill!!

The hollyhocks (a biennial--grows every two years) two years ago got a rust infestation and only two or three of them survived.  I have a white one and a magenta one.  I have seeds to replenish the flower bed, but I can't plant them until next year as the germination time is 365 days!  Next year's hollyhock crop--which was not affected by rust last year--will be all white and pink. 

I love this time of year when the potential of everything is just beginning.  Ask me again how I feel about it when I've been on my feet canning six nights in a row!


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