The Garden, the Beginning and the Middle...

August 4 early evening light...

I pulled the terra cotta planters out the day after we said good-bye to The Girl, which as you can see/read, continues to be a reference point for me. It was the last week of May, which is 'on schedule' for 'planting on or before Memorial Day'. I knew it would be therapeutic and I am not a newbie to planting, so the timing could not have been better. It was a group effort. The Boys, once again did all the heavy lifting with the many cubits of soil we bought, to the large burlap bag full of mulch we picked up at Whole Foods for free, along with  the emptying out of last years soil from the 3 tiered raised garden bed. It was allot of soil! The many many many decisions later of what to plant, which  I found out yet again, carries the high possibility of things changing once everything is in the soil. For example, squirrels eating the strawberry flowers, or moving some plants around before rooting, etc., during those first critical couple of weeks. We have a wonderful garden center near us called Tagawa Gardens. This year, I actually counted, and they had 13 varieties of basil alone!! I bought 5 varieties, all with the goal of filling up the freezer with pesto (last year I had 61 4oz. containers, some of which we are still using!!), while enjoying the fresh plucked herbs, basil well included, with the flat leaf parsley and cilantro for summer salads. I found 3 varieties of thyme as well, thinking ahead to lentil soup for the winter months. I planted 3 or 4 varieties of tomatoes, eggplant, acorn squash, cabbage, curly kale, sweet red, although the one which popped was green, peppers, and strawberries. I am not sure if the strawberries will ever happen because the cabbage leafs/leaves are so ginormous now, they get absolutely no sun. I am watching the tomatoes pop and it is amazing because it has turned into a veritable jungle. The tomatoes are strategically planted in the 3rd tier, where the soil is at its thickest/highest, so the roots can go deep to grow sturdy stems. The bamboo stakes I use are taller than me, and you can barely see them now, as the tomato vines grow taller and taller while I sleep. I am agog!! My concern lies with the eggplants, as they are flowering, but then the flowers are dying and not producing any eggplants. Last year I planted white eggplants and they were clearly eggplants by this time of 'the middle'. This year I planted the 'normal' purple variety, so, hmmmmm, jury is still out on what might happen. I am keeping a close eye on them. Anywho, it is my joy and delight to take care of the garden, pray that everything actually produces vegetables, hopefully have some food at the end, which I am more than happy to share the come harvest time. (Wish some of you lived closer!!!) Each year is different, as it should be, and I remain grateful to get my hands dirty, all the while, sacrificing manicures for the cause...

May 28

June 2

June 24

July 6

July 20

Eggplant flower...having issues, hmmmm..

Cabbage leafs/leaves... 

This first one I spotted, there are many many many popping!!

Early on, cabbage leaf after the rains..

Acorn squash blossom...

July 26

This morning, daisies, monsoon season in Colorado..

'And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.'     Isaiah 58:11

And for a post script, we have made a visit to a really beautiful animal shelter in Castle Rock, which is about 25 minutes south, to sort of kind of start looking for another kitten/cat....sort of kind of ready...

Summer Skies and Stuffs..

May 31

Late Spring. Summer into Autumn are the best times of the year for me. I have planted my garden, which is flourishing, I have built 4 Adirondack chairs, which now sit in the front of the house. I also built a new desk! I bought 4 chairs which had to be built from a kit we found at Home Depot. It took some figuring out with the first one as the instructions were hard to follow, but, I got it, and the next 3 chairs took about 1/3 of the time. Two coats of polyurethane on the natural wood, along with some felt pads on the bottoms of each leg finished them off really well. Thrilled, and, they're comfortable. They are not perfect, but, that works for me. I have been using our old dining room table as a desk since 2005 and I had been searching for a real desk for many months, it seems. We saw this one at The World Market, very utilitarian, I thought, it has drawers and some shelves. That might work. So, finally after much looking around, I decided to buy it, but, it too, had to be built. It weighed a ton and most thankfully, the Boys did the heavy lifting. After making the chairs, the desk was easy. Thrilled with the desk too, and yes, it is totally utilitarian!! The garden was planted the week after we said our goodbye's to The Girl, and it has really been so therapeutic, just to be able to take care of 'something', (still toying with fostering...) along with the great hope of watching it grow and having food with no question from whence it came. It has already exceeded my expectations! Cabbage, strawberries, curly kale, butternut squash, sweet peppers, eggplant and 4 or 5 varieties of tomatoes, along with (not shown) 5 varieties of basil, flat leaf parsley, cilantro, 3 varieties of thyme and lavender are growing beautifully as well! There will be a freezer full of pesto come harvest time, and I will share along the way! Swimming and kayaking are all on the table as well. These are all things I love doing, along with taking pics of the gorgeous Spring/Summer (for now) skies. So, again, for those of you not on social media, here is a snippet of my summer in Colorado, (not chronological...but, close enough!), and it's only July 13th!! The sun sets behind the 2 trees in Cherry Creek State Park, so, they are the subject of many of the summer pics!

June 22

June 26

June 11

The Marina, early evening drive around the lake, June 24

July 1

July 6

2 days ago!!!!!

Lined them up for the pic, 2 on either side...

Happy with the new desk, drawers and shelves..

June 3...to many sunbeams to possibly count..

June 5th... 

'Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.

 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised.

The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.

Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high..' Psalm 113:2-5

The Garden, Beginning, Middle and End...

2 things. Wow, it has been a month since my last post and I did not post anything on the blog about this years garden. To close the gap a bit, the last day of the outdoor pool could not have ended any better given the perfect weather that day, and taking in all the hundreds of laps I clocked in by the end of the season, I was grateful beyond words. As one of the lifeguards said, 'You have just been a swimming machine this summer!'. Best thing I could have heard. So, to back track, to around Memorial Day. I bought a 3 tiered raised garden bed KIT. I had to build it. Seemed simple enough, but, as has been stated here before on many other projects, it was more work than anticipated...and it took a ton of soil. With the help of our neighbors, drilling some drainage holes on the floor board we bought to keep the soil in place, and the brand spanking new palettes we found outside of a shop, whose owners said, 'Please, take them off of our hands!' I was on my way.

 I bought small heirloom tomatoes, white eggplants, green peppers, strawberries, 6 varieties of basil for eating all summer and then to make pesto to take us to next summer, flat leaf parsley, which we have also been enjoying all summer as well, and dill. The strawberries died almost immediately, replaced them with something else (I forget), and it died, then replaced that with cucumbers which had blight, so that little corner never happened. 

That said, I have never had tomatoes grow so fast and with such strength in their stems. They are still blooming, and I have hundreds of them. The white eggplants were beautiful to watch bloom and grow from a lovely purple flower to a baseball sized eggplant. I cut back 10 of them just yesterday and cooked up some eggplant parm. There are ALLOT of seeds in these small guys, so, they can border on bitter. But, the Boys enjoyed it, along with the fresh basil and pesto made from scratch included in the ingredients. It was a great moment in the kitchen, and I froze 7 healthy portions!! I am in the process of dismantling, the large, beautifully weathered terra cotta pots of basil, making pesto like a machine. Last summer I froze 58 4 oz. containers, and so far, as of today, I have 41. The nights have been cool, so time is of the essence. All in all a great garden, yielding a bounty for us as I harvest the haul. I am a grateful little gardener, still busy busy busy, just like the bees who have graced us with their presence all season....

It is hard to imagine what will happen..

...but in a short amount of time, THIS!!!

The whole gift giving plants and herbs...

Strawberry leaf which never took, but so pretty..

White eggplant showing herself...

Strong and tall, still blooming...

Cut back bouquet of 6 basil varieties for pesto...

Last but not least, just yesterday, 10 of these babies...more still growing!!!

'Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce.'

                                                           Jeremiah 29:5

Post script: By days end, there are now 51 frozen 4oz. containers of pesto!!!

Wordless Wednesday...

Édouard Vuillard,

 (French, 1868–1940). 

Garden at Vaucresson, 1920. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Dreaming yet again....

The Harvest, and Some Lessons Along the Way

Mini-Cuisinart, faithfully, doing her 'thing'..

 Pesto in 4 ounce containers...

...and more

...and more

...around 40 containers...that's alot of pesto!!!

Some of the dried lavender...love love love..

So, here we are nearing the end of September. The holiday of Sukkot, is a celebration which includes food related to the autumn harvest and is commonly called 'season of our joy.' I seem to be right on schedule as far as the harvest goes, and I am rejoicing in what looks like a good harvest, considering what the garden endured this season. Planting was a little later than last year because of the cool Spring, then there were 2 hail storms, which chewed up some of the more delicate leaves from the purple basil. I swept away alot of growth, yet the garden lived on. A miracle, I thought, that anything survived. Then while we were away for a few days, yet another hail storm. I did not know what to expect when I came home. Again, some more losses, but the garden still lived and was yielding plenty. The tomatoes did not stop growing, the basil, although much was lost, much was still there, the oregano was not phased. (Cilantro, dill already cut back and the peppers were still growing, even now, still flowering, the lavender has been harvested all summer...ahhh, the lavender!!!). Then, a week of heavy rains, which produced massive flooding, the size of the state of Connecticut, hit Colorado. We started the Summer w/ the Black Forest fire and ended w/ this enormously destructive and deadly flood. The life lesson, obvious to me.  There will be storms which will test and try us. We are not sheltered, like greenhouse plants. Hopefully, our roots are deep enough to withstand the storms, which will most definitely come, and we will be like weather beaten oak trees. Okay, a little dramatic, but, true, nonetheless.

All that to say, I have been making alot of pesto w/ the basil. I have been harvesting a little at a time and freezing it in 4 ounce containers. I know from last Summer that it will do very well in the freezer for a year, as was proven by the last batch from last years' haul. Still so delicious. (Now, let's see if the dry ice shipping 'experiment' will work!!) I remain the grateful little gardener, enjoying sharing, and eating the fruits of my labor!

' For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven. 

A time to be born and a time to die.    
 A time to plant and a time to harvest.'

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

Wordless Wednesday

Large tarp to hopefully keep the garden from getting totally washed out...

From underneath...kind of cozy!

Monsoon (code word for heavy thunderstorms) today in Colorado...really??? Make-shift tent over the garden, just in case...oy!

The Dog Days of Summer...

 Just a bit of catching up as Summer rolls out of July. The skies, with all the drama of afternoon storms, hail, thunder, lightning (which one day I will be quick enough to capture), continue to amaze and inspire. I post some of the pics on Facebook, but, for the archives, I continue to post the majority of pics on the blog. It works for me. The garden has 'suddenly' filled out and feels like it is in full bloom. The plum tomatoes are heavy, but still green. The heirlooms are yellow striped and small, but sweet, and the peppers are coming in as well!  But, this year, having learned my lesson from last year, I have started making pesto now. Honestly, it is to die for, and so simple to make. I love the prep time, and then seeing/tasting/sharing. I have started drying the Greek oregano and the lavender!!! I was wrong about the bees. There were a couple @ the beginning, but there are no bees and it is a concern, as the garden should literally be humming w/ activity. This is a world wide problem. Here is a link to an article posted in the NY Times from May 2, of this year.

'And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not'.
Isa 58:11

NOTE: The last pics of the garden were from July 3...you can really see the growth from today's pics in comparison!!