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

‘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

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