The Lamium, Penstemon, and foxglove is blooming and looks good.  This is a limited time look.  After the blooms fade, the Lamium gets patchy, the Penstemon and Digitalis brown and die – big YUCK!  The newer Lamium still looks good into September but I’m sure that won’t last.

The daffodils and tulips are dying back and look ugly.  The Peony, Echinachea (not blooming yet), and the Rose start picking up color and bloom but the rest of the bed is a mess.

Cleaned up under the magnolia.  Need to get newspaper and mulch down before next spring.

Working on cleaning out under the Japanese Maple, but I’m waiting for some rain to soften the ground.  Hopefully, now that its September and we are getting some rain I can get to it before the ground gets too muddy.

The magnolia in the corner looks pretty good after its severe hair cut.  I’ll probably actually take off more next spring.

Side Rose Bed – lovely right now

I might add some Alliums sp. I’ve heard they may help fend off aphids (curses, curses, curses) and they look great together.

Not Photoshopped.  It really is THAT bright.

Veggie Bed

The garden on the left, hastily created dirt mound for the gifts of garlic and Walla Walla onions on the right.

From the other side.

The potato condo.  Unfortunately about two weeks after this photo was taken the potato plant croaked for totally unknown reasons.

Baby 8-ball zuke front left.  It produced a perfect amount for me.

The peas…

…are sooo yummy!  I could have used more of those.  A lot more.  I may have eaten them all standing in the garden, by the handfuls.

Tomato buds!  These have lost some excitement now that I’m actually harvesting those buds.  BLT anyone?

Pepper plant.  Chewed up, but they recovered nicely and produced.

The lemon cuke turned out great.  Loved the flavor, it was prolific, and easy to grow.  The straight 8 I tore out.  It tasted bitter even with young, peeled cukes.  It may have been random chance but I did not like it. I may give it another chance but I doubt it.

The turnips were ready to harvest.

Baby melon – it didn’t end up growing though.  Bummer.

Beets.

Lettuce, just got my winter crop started about I week ago (in September).

Spinach.

I harvested one Kincho melon (in August) but it wasn’t ripe, but I have at least one more on the vine.  I am cautiously hopeful about these.  They are a Japanese melon that are eaten out of hand.

Basil.

Swiss chard.  I grew way to much.

Parsley – I couldn’t believe how well it did.

Butterfly Garden

Side Yards

This is a beautiful single bloom climbing rose that I love.

Snowball bush in process of a haircut.

Strawberry bed that is sooo overgrown, its scary.

But still producing strawberries.

Heavy shade + under the eave drought conditions, what do you plant?  Calla lilies, they do better and better each year with total neglect.  You have to love that.

The Jungle

It’s pretty but completely overgrown.  The honeysuckle has a divine smell but is almost a nuisance because of how well it grows.

Roses

Backyard

The butterfly garden.

Notice the goldfinch in the feeder.

Yep, that’s the sweetie-pie’s hand right next to it.  There was something wrong with it and it died shortly after.

The cherries were just beginning to show.

Voodoo lilies.  They smell like death (rotting flesh) but they are striking.

The basil came back.  Yay!

Shade Garden

I need to get mulch down, the weeds are starting to get thick back there.

Plums starting.  I didn’t pick early enough so I didn’t get much of a harvest.

Pesto!  I tried many pesto recipes this year, and my favorite? A very nutty and cheesy pesto with beautiful color and a splash of wine.  The recipe goes something like this:

2 cup (packed tightly) basil leaves

Enough olive oil to get it to the consistency you want (probably at least 1/4 cup)

1/4 cup of wine (pour yourself a glass, drink half, and assume the remainder is about right).  I prefer white for this, but red is good too

4-5 cloves of garlic

A dump of (around 1 cup) Parmesan cheese

A handful or two (around 1 cup) of TOASTED pine nuts

Blend using hand blender with the chopper attachment. I use a KitchenAid hand blender because that’s as close as I get to a food processor or blender in my kitchen, and I love it.  Note that there is as much cheese and nuts as basil, so if you are a true basil-lover this might not do it for you.  Also, the pesto stays greener with the wine.  Instead, you could add lemon juice for the same purpose, but I don’t like the flavor as well.

More fresh carrots, beets, and turnips.  I have decided my favorite way to eat root vegetables is by broiling with some olive oil and s&p.  It always brings out the sweetness and increases the flavor.  Sunita’s favorite carrots are Maple-Dill Carrots.  They are really good, just not really good for you all smothered in sugar and butter.

Yum!  Green beans. Hubby’s favorite way to eat green beans is with butter and salt, nothing else.  I’m competing against memories of Grandma’s house anytime I try anything different.  I have tried at least one other recipe (and there have been weeks where we have eaten them many a night).  I used a recipe out of Everyday Food but it was basically just adding toasted almonds and a little olive oil.  Either way, fresh green beans are sooo good.

I did get out to a family blueberry farm to get some blueberries but I didn’t make much with them.  Mostly those get tucked into the freezer for a blue burst of sunshine in the middle of winter.

There was much more, but considering I’m more than a month behind…this will do.

Buying

This month I “had” to pick up a few basil plants, which cost me $5.98.  OK, I could have passed them up but my plants were still small and I wanted to make pesto right away.  I should know better, now about 3 weeks later, my basil planted from seed is thriving and the store bought basil is just starting to grow.  O well, I don’t think you can have too much basil.

I also needed some cilantro since my seeds didn’t sprout at all.  In my world, no cilantro is like no garden at all.  So I willingly gave $2.50 for two plants.  Luckily, the community garden I’m a part of is growing cilantro, so 2 plants should be enough for the here and there pickings I’ll need and I can harvest out of the community garden when I need bunches.

I also bought 3 blueberry plants for $23.97.  This year I expect very little harvest (if any) but hope to see it pay off in the coming years.

I also had to buy pumpkins ($1.50) and watermelon ($1.99).  Ours were inadvertently trampled.

Finally, because I dared to look at the edibles at the store, I caved in a bought yet another pepper (an Ancho) for $1.50 because I heard they grow well here.

This puts the total spent this month at $37.44.  Of that, $35.00 was a Mother’s day gift from my parents, so the cost to me is $2.44.

Harvest

It’s the beginning of summer, and that means the garden is really taking off.  I probably spent four hours working on the food garden, almost all of which were harvest-related (if you can consider standing there eating peas for a half hour “work”).  I’ve done virtually no weeding.  My good husband spent probably an hour total on picking cherries.

As our harvests begin, I just want to reiterate that I compare cost to what I would buy if I wasn’t growing it myself.  I would almost never buy organic (if you want to know why, see this), even though our home grown is mostly organic.  Occasionally I will compare to u-pick prices at local farms but only if I would use that method.

Those ground rules established, here’s our harvest for the month of June:

• 3.87 pounds (1.76 kg) strawberries @ $1.50 per pound = $5.81
• 2? pounds (.91 kg) snow and sugar snap peas @ $0.60/pound (frozen from Costco)= $1.20
• 11.79 pounds (5.35 kg) cherries @ $1.34/lb (for sweet cherries, I can’t find a place to buy sour cherries) = $15.72
• .63 pounds onions @ $0.68 = $0.43
• 2.66 pounds endive @ $2.50 (couldn’t find in the stores around here so looked online for a average price) = $6.65
• 1.54 pounds spinach @ $3.98 for 24 ounces (1-1/2 lbs) = $6.13
• .1 pound (1.6 oz) basil @ $1.98 for .75 oz = $4.00
• 1.15 pounds lettuce @ $1.98 for 21 ounces = $1.73
• 1.89 pounds swiss chard @ $1.78 = $3.36
• .73 pounds beets @ $1.98 = $1.45

Summary

Time spent: 5 hours (as always, an estimate)

We have spent:  $2.44 this month

TOTAL SPENT $145.44

Harvest of: $46.48.  Again if we subtract what was not purchased this year (strawberries – $5.81, cherries – $15.72, onions $0.43) that leaves us with $24.52.

TOTAL HARVEST $55.38

If you substitute the cost of fresh berries into pie filling and jam then the earnings go up substantially.  Next year I hope to do a cost analysis of the canning I do at home.  I don’t have a pressure cooker so I freeze quite a bit.

Note: We have an established plum tree, 2 cherry trees, 2 apple trees, a strawberry bed, a bunch of walking onions, a TON of leeks, and a whole lotta seeds already.  I will include the “profit” from these, but I will try to note this.  I will also do some seed swapping and this should be the last year of buying trellising, (hopefully) compost, and more than ten dollars (I think I need to take that back) worth of seeds.

Strawberries fresh from the garden, straight to…

…yummy desserts and…

…freezer jam.  I so love this jam, the strawberry flavor really shines and the sugar (compared to canning) is minimal (4 cups fruit to 1 & 1/2 cups sugar).  The only pectin I’ve ever found that uses this little sugar is Ball’s No Cook Freezer Jam packets as shown below.

Husband also picked pounds and pounds of cherries for me this month and I got some rhubarb from a friend, so there was also some canning to be done.

Cherry pie filling in the back, rhubarb jam in the middle and cherry jam in the front.  The rhubarb jam is new for me and I LOVE it.  I tried two recipes, one with ginger, one without.  The one with ginger is OK for chip dip (especially spicy chips) or good for jam if you really, really like ginger (recipe here).  The cherry jam is a new recipe (seen here) as well.  I find most jam and jellies use way too much sugar and it ends up masking the fruit flavor.  The new rhubarb recipe left enough of the true flavor of the rhubarb for me and the cinnamon added a nice touch (recipe here).

Veggies from the garden thinly sliced for veggie fries.  But I think I made them too small or too thin.  I tried half in the oven and half in the microwave.  I coated them with oil and salted them.  Most of them turned out too burnt or too floppy, but a few were perfect.  The candy cane looking rounds were Chiogga beets, the white was Oasis turnip, the red was Bull’s Blood beets, and the orange is Purple Haze carrots.  I’ll try it again but I wish I had a mandolin to use.  It is a very easy thing to do and if you have an abundance of veggies and like chips this is a must try.

I also have some basil in the fridge for pesto.  I know this is going to be a yummy month.

First harvest
We harvested our first spinach and leafy greens in May.  So far I’ve harvested

• 1.02 pounds (.46 kg) spinach
• 1.19 pounds (.54 kg) lettuce
• 3 bunches arugula, I forgot to measure this so I’m guesstimating it was around 4 oz
• .77 oz (.0218kg) basil
• 2 leeks
• .4 oz beet greens
• 1 small turnip, which went straight from the ground to the mouth

The season is still getting started and I was a little late on planting.  I could have harvested much more arugula, leeks and onions, but didn’t have the need.

The spinach we would buy is $3.98 for 24 ounces (1-1/2 lbs) so our small harvest was worth $2.71.  Lettuce was $1.98 for 21 ounces, so our harvest was worth $1.80.  The arugula is hard to price, because no stores we shop at had it for sale.  And in fact I can’t find a price for it anyway.  The closet thing I’ve found is in California the is an 11 oz container for $0.99 which would make me profit around $0.36.  My suspicion is that it would be much higher in cost around here.  Basil is a money maker.  If I were to buy it at the store it costs a whopping $1.98 for .75 oz, meaning this month (and in the continuing months it will only increase) we made $2.03.  The leeks (and I kid you not, we have a never ending supply of them) are also not sold at WinCo (our typical grocery store).  At Fred Meyer they were selling at $3 per lb.  The two leeks I used weighed (guesstimation again) around a half pound, meaning we profited around $1.50.  The beet greens and turnips are not going to be counted for two reasons, 1) I didn’t check for prices at all and don’t want to, AND 2) they were gobbled straight up and were really just the “testers”.  I took all my cost based on what we would buy if we didn’t have the garden.  My garden is organic, because I’m lazy and I don’t mind if the bugs and slugs share.  I don’t look at the store organic price because we wouldn’t buy that.  (I welcome advice and debate over this methodology, by the way — I don’t actually know the best way to compare prices.)

In total, we harvested $8.40 of food from our garden this month.  If you subtract the leeks, because they weren’t a cost we incurred this year, we profited $6.90.

We have spent (these are rounded off at dollars):

$0 this month

TOTAL SPENT $0 (Woo!)

Time spent: 4 hours (very much an estimate)

We have made:

TOTAL THIS MONTH: $8.40

Note: We have an established plum tree, 2 cherry trees, 2 apple trees, a strawberry bed, a bunch of walking onions, a TON of leeks, and a whole lotta seeds already.  I will include the “profit” from these, but I will try to note this.  I will also do some seed swapping and this should be the last year of buying trellising, (hopefully) compost, and more than ten dollars worth of seeds.

I’d love to know any of your favorite ways to use them. You’re welcome to leave recipe links from your own blog in the comments section. Thanks for the help!

I tried a leek/arugula soup today.  It was ok, but bland.  I’ve made leek tarts, which I liked but the rest of the household wasn’t crazy about them.  Of course I’ll try a leek and potato soup.  After that, I’m out of ideas!

The front bed is overgrown with the dying tulip and daffodil greens.  I am looking for ideas to hide it.  I’d like to cover it with something big, leafy, and with purple foliage.

The Japanese maple finally got its first haircut of the year.

Columbine Aquilegia sp., – note the bee on the right?

Edible Garden

The potato condo.  Supposedly I’ll be able to harvest many, many pounds of potatoes this way.

An overview of the edible garden.  We will be putting in another raised bed or two within the next year.  In the meantime I (as of 6/1/09) have just dug a trench and made a dirt mound row for the walla walla onions and elephant garlic I was given.  First off, how can I say no to either plant?  Second, they were both given by neighbors, and it would be sooo rude to say no to them – right?  So, here’s to growing more than I have room for – for the nth time.

The peas are very nicely climbing the trellis my dear hubby made me.  Some days I swear they grow a foot!

The melon trellis still looks bare, but I’m hopeful it will be covered in green by the end of June (which may be a bit ambitious).

The snowball bush is also due for a cut.  I’m hoping to take off about the top third and get it a little more bushy.  Right now it is really shading my strawberry bed (on the left).  We can’t have that.

This is a basil that I’m hoping will come back.  I think it got sunburnt.

Butterfly Garden

The catmint is blooming and the bees are swarming.  This is the beginning of one of my favorite seasons for this garden.

The yarrow Achillea millefolium and Nicotiana sp. look stunning together.

On the Side

Red rhodie.

The roses are beginning to bloom.  All of these roses are part of the jungle (several rose bushes, a rhododendron, ivy, a GIANT honeysuckle smothering everything, and a few blackberries for good measure, all grow and bloom wildly on the north side of the house).  I’ll post pictures soon, but they won’t do it justice.

Calla lilies, which despite being run over by bikes every year, eaten by slugs, and completely starved of water come back beautifully and faithfully.  How could I not love such a carefree plant?

And they are starting to bud!

Backyard

The apple and plum trees have been pruned up to mow under them, but still need help in the heights.

The pink rhodie you can see in the picture above, underneath the apple tree.

The sour cherry tree – we have no idea what kind of cherries they are, but it looks like the tree is loaded again this year.

This was a volunteer cherry, again no idea what kind.  It’s later bearing and less prolific.

The other apple.  This apple tree is desperately in need of the tender touch of pruners.

Shade Garden (this is under the apple tree, next to the pink azalea)

Lamium and Penstemon mostly

Totally overgrown Japanese maple, hopefully it will be cleaned up by next week

Potato that is to be put into a potato condo

Peony

Penstemon sp. “Husker Red”

The deciduous azaleas are blooming

Lilac (Syringa sp.) – my favorite are these dark purple kind

VEGGIE GARDEN

You can see the leeks in front

Chives (garlic and regular) in front, tomatoes (“Oregon Star”, “Oregon Spring”, “Willamette”, “Yellow Pear”, “Celebrity”, “San Marzano”) in middle, peas in the back

Peas (“Oregon Sugar Snap”, “Oregon Sugar Pod”, “Early Frosty Bush”)

Carrots – “Thumbelina”, my “Purple Haze” haven’t sprouted

Turnips “Oasis” almost ready to be harvested

Lettuce (Anuenue – hasn’t sprouted, Black Seeded Simpson – doing well, Buttercrunch – doing well, Parris Island Romaine – following tradition this one isn’t performing well, Red Flamingo – not so good, Red Sails – very good – seen on the left, Royal Oak Leaf – excellent! – these are the patch of dark green on the right of the photo, Salad Bowl – good, in the center)

Arugula left, spinach center, basil right.  I’ve been harvesting leaves from the lettuce, spinach, and basil already.

Swiss Chard “Neon Lights”

ON THE SIDE

Snowball bush (Viburnum opulus) - way overgrown tree

Close up

BUTTERFLY GARDEN

Left to Right: Daylily (Hemerocallis sp.), catmint (Nepeta), Sedum sp. “Autumn Joy”, Coreopsis sp. “Moonlight”

Left to Right: Butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii), Spirea sp., Lavendar, Nicotiana sp., Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

I think this is a black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta) coming up.  I put some seeds in last year but thought they were duds, but hopefully the were just late!

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) coming up

Catmint (Nepeta sp.) starting to bloom

Volunteer Chocolate Mint growing in hens and chick (this is why you contain mints)

The tomato bucket, azalea, and poppies

Close up of the tomato, this is a san marzano.  They are indeterminate, so I’m not sure how it will do in this bucket.  It was an extra seedling, so I thought I’d test it and see if will trail over the edge…or, you know, fail to thrive (die).

Row of poppies (Papaver sp.)

Close up

Deciduous azalea

Azalea bud

BACK YARD

Row of Flag Irises

Close up

True Iris

Beginning of cherries

SHADE GARDEN

Yellow columbine and brunnera

White bleeding hearts (Dicentra formosa) “Luxuriant”

So pretty

False Solomon’s Seal (Smilacina racemosa)

Jacob’s Ladder  (Polemonium caeruleum) “Snow and Sapphires”

Hosta sp.- “Patriot”

Hosta – “Wide Brim”

Hosta – “Sum and Substance”

Hosta – “Francis Williams”

Hosta not pictured: “Albomarginta“

Fern

Columbine

Close-up

Astillbe “Diamant”

First harvest
We harvested our first spinach and leafy greens.  So far I’ve harvested

• 1/2 head of miscellaneous lettuce and spinach

We have had tiny one person side salad with the baby greens.  The romaine we typically buy at the local grocery store is usually $1.98 per bag, which contains 3 “hearts” of romaine.  So our harvest was worth about $.50.

Time spent: 7 hours (includes the trellis building time)

TOTAL THIS MONTH