Late last September I planted a bunch of garlic cloves in one of our raised beds. We used the end of our harvest from last year’s crop of garlic.

 

A few weeks ago, we pulled up what grew and built a “drying rack” for the garlic.  We ended up with 83 heads of beautiful, wonderful, tasty garlic!

We let it dry for two weeks and then I cleaned off the heads and trimmed the stems.  I didn’t get a chance to tie them together to hang, so they got to spend a few days in a bucket in our basement.

Once I got around to tying them up, it didn’t take very long and now we have some of the best tasting bulbs in the world hanging in our utility room.

 

I can hardly wait to get next year’s crop in the ground!  I’ll have to wait until the tomatoes that are in the bed are finished producing.  They are just starting to produce, so I’ll have to wait a little bit.  Actually, I have to wait until late September, early October anyway.  That is when you are supposed to plant garlic.  I’ll keep you updated!

Until then, we are keeping the vampires at bay!

Dig it!

Posted under Summer

Last week was the Benton County Fair.  The Youth Garden kids picked some of the Garden produce and entered the Open category of the Fair.  They did pretty good for their first time.

 

They got second for one using six to nine items in a display….

….and they got first for five items in a display.

 

Way to go, kids!  We’ll enter even more displays next year!

Dig it!

Posted under Youth Garden

‘Tis the season for ripe tomatoes.   Normal people can even take tomatoes that are not quite ripe and leave them on the counter to finish the process.  We, apparently, are not normal people. (Insert comment here)

 

We are not permitted to leave tomatoes on our counter to ripen because we have a Louie.  “What is a Louie?” you ask.

THIS is a Louie…

Louie loves tomatoes.  We are pretty sure he loves them more than catnip.  Our first controlled experiment (putting a bowl with tomato next to a bowl with catnip) proved it, but we will be attempting this experiment many more times to make sure of the accuracy.

When we leave tomatoes on the counter and turn our backs or leave the room, this is what happens….

The first time we found out about this obsession with tomatoes, we had three romas on the counter to ripen.  I came back into the kitchen the next morning and there were only two tomatoes left.  Only the stem of the third remained to let us know there had even BEEN a third.  No skin, no guts, no nothin’!

The boy is insane.  Since we don’t put our uncut tomatoes in the fridge and we don’t want to leave them outside, we had to find a safe place to put them.

Behold!  The Tomato Safe!

To you it may look like a microwave, and, yes, it can be used as such in an emergency.  But to us, it keeps the tomatoes safely out of Louie’s paws (and mouth).

Louie gets plenty of lycopene, though.  We give him little chunks of tomato.

This is part of the tomato he already laid claim to….

I don’t let him eat too much and he hasn’t had any adverse reactions.

Louie can sure get insistent, though, whenever we go into the kitchen.  And he knows when we come home with any sort of tomatoes.  One of our neighbors had given us some cherry tomatoes in a non-see-through, plastic bag.  Louie knew the second I walked in the door that there were tomatoes.  I am always amazed.

Louie sure loves his Solanum lycopersicum fruit!  He’ll also munch on green bell peppers, too.  He’s not too keen on the red ones.  But at least he is eating his vegetables.

That boy ain’t right….

Dig it!

 

 

Posted under Summer

A year and a few days ago, Lori, one of our volunteers, and I were discussing how great the garden looked. A few days later, 110 mile per hour winds blew through town.  Needless to say, we have agreed not to mention how nice the garden looks this year.  I’ll let you decide….

The west veggie bed has tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon and gourds

The raspberries ended up below part of the neighbors tree.  It didn’t even phase them….

The vining plants are doing well, but I have no idea which ones are the zucchini and which one are the pumpkins.  There are some watermelons and gourds in here, too.

Oh… and then the extra tomatoes… We should have plenty!

We planted popcorn again, although it got in a little later than last year.

Here is a shot of the mulch that I sweated half of my body weight helping to move….

…and, no, it didn’t stay off.

The eggplant…

Martha and the kids did the planting while I stayed out of the way and pulled weeds, so I don’t know what this is.  I think it’s cucumber…

These, I know… pole beans growing on last years’ Our Iowa magazine’s tall corn contest stalk.

Brussel sprouts…yum!

They are a little bug-bit, they should be pretty tasty….

The broccoli is already bolted…

The peppers are coming along nicely…

The cabbage leaves are getting huge!

I’ll guess pumpkin….

We have two different “beds” of potatoes.  One in the raised bed…

…and some in a container…

Basil…

The kids learned that they need to pull off the flower-head to promote the growth of the basil plant.  It will make it more bushy.

I was told this batch of parsley had a swallowtail caterpillar on it a couple of weeks ago.

This bed has bush beans along with a rogue tomato plant.  It is growing from seeds from last year’s tomatoes. This bed had been under the top of one of the pines for a couple of weeks.

Beets!

The peanuts got eaten down and they don’t look like they are coming back.  Although the pigweed looks like it is enjoying the soil.

After the peas were finished, Martha and the kids planted some Dragon tongue beans.

They were given to us by an AmeriCorp volunteer at the beginning of the year.  Melissa is spending much of the summer helping out in Southern Iowa.

Kohlrabi

The flowerbeds… the hostas need shade, so we planted some cannas around some as an experiment:

Not sure it is working against the heat, though.

Small mum already blooming.

The peonies are keeping our flamingo company.  His companion took off in last year’s wind storm.  We have yet to get a postcard…

The City put in the faucet this year!  It has been fantastic being able to put on a sprinkler instead of hauling five gallon buckets over half a block.

There is always the weeding to do.  The picnic table area had some unwanted trees growing.

I left the coneflowers….

…and the toad lilies…

It looks a LOT better now, although we still need to straighten out the frame.

We have a “friend” living in the yard, too.  A groundhog hole appeared within the last couple of weeks.  A live trap will hopefully work to relocate him.

The apple trees are small, but still alive!

…and we even have a couple of apples!

We are using this….

..to keep the weeds down here….

That’s Phil in the above photo…. He is a huge help with the weeding.

Lori, Nash and Martha planted Cilantro

Of course, then you have to water.  Check out Nash’s solution to getting water in the sprinkler can….

…Lori moved in to cut off the sprinkler and help him fill the can.

Cali and Carol (mom to Cali and Nash) are taking a break.  I’m sure they are talking up the garden.  Maybe they’re trying to get more volunteers to help weed!

We meet Monday afternoons (2:30 when school’s out, 3:30 during the school year) and it has been mighty hot this year. I make sure I have the most important “tool” for the garden filled in my truck every week.

The Benton County Fair is coming up in a couple of weeks and the kids are going to submit a plate of five vegetables in the Open category.  It will be submitted on Wednesday, the 25th and the Fair goes through Sunday, the 29th.  Come out and check their entry.  And while you’re in town, swing on by the Garden and check out their hard work.  Feel free to take a complimentary weed home with you, too!

 

Dig it!

 

Posted under Youth Garden

Not that there are any weeds growing.  Unless I am watering them, they aren’t gaining much ground in the garden.  It was way too hot to get out into the garden last week, but Dwayne and I finally got out there yesterday afternoon.  It was warm and muggy, but at least we managed to get some stuff done before we got heat stroke!

 

The garlic was ready to pull.  Last year we dug them up, I cleaned off the dirt, cut off the roots, tied them together and then hung them in our basement. Since then, I read that they should be laid out to dry for two weeks before I tie them up.  So we made a couple drying racks to dry the 83 heads of garlic.

We used four two by fours we had around the house and some wire Dwayne got at the hardware store. The stapler worked well enough to attach the wire to the wood without too much cussing.

We also put stakes on the peppers that didn’t have them (the still needed watering here)…

…and added some stakes to tomatoes that needed more.  Some of the Early Girls are starting to turn color.  Louie, our tomato-eating cat, will have a homegrown snack soon!

The daisies got a haircut to clean them up and, hopefully, produce the next round of blooms.  I saw one bud all ready to go.

Dwayne finished adding the edge to our “hill”.  He found different colors of rocks in different places.

The Japanese beetles sure had a good time in Urbana this year.  Everyone was saying they were worse this year than last.  A friend of ours in Cedar Rapids said that she didn’t think they were as bad this year in her yard.  They must have headed north.  They certainly took a toll on the vegetation in our yard.

 

The cherry tree took a hit.  Dwayne keeps complaining that it’s dead (which it isn’t) but…

…it looks a lot better than the serviceberry.

The serviceberry is one of the Japanese beetles favorite foods.  They also love linden trees, raspberry bushes, grape vines and roses.  There are still some green leaves on the bottom of the serviceberry.  I hope that is enough to keep the plant alive.  I also hope it is able to put out some new leaves now that the bulk of the beetles seem to have died or moved off.

We still have some, though.

While they love the rose bushes, the plants are already putting out new growth.

Japanese beetles like to eat over 400 different types of plants.  I haven’t seen any on my lilies this year, but they are suffering in the heat.  And then I went and bought two more that Dwayne planted last week in the heat.  (Thanks, honey!)

The yellow asiatic lilies in the front bed don’t seem to be affected, either.

Nore do the mums.

These two probably need to be separated to spread the yellow around!

While wandering around the yard I did find a surprise among Bill’s roses.

It is probably loving the extra shade the roses gave it.  At least until the Japanese beetles ate the leaves off the rose stems.

Hopefully, now that we’ve “cooled” into the upper 80s, we will be able to get more done outside.  At least the heat is good for the tomatoes.  Louie is counting on it!

Dig it!

Posted under Summer