Wordless Wednesday

 

Homestead Happenings

Welcome to Homestead Happenings,

where we share what's been going on 

here on our zone 8A Piedmont homestead.

The gazebo frame is being covered in morning glory.

Unfortunately, the loofah that I had planted (twice),

never took off.

We'll try again next year. 

The garden is a bit of a mess at the moment.

The temperatures here have been blistering,

as in much of the country,

and motivation to be outside has waned.

With this weekend being a little cooler,

I am hoping to give some attention to filling the raised beds

with adequate growing material.

There have been several disappointments this season.

This Seminole pumpkin that I had great success with

the last two years, has not produced even one gourd.

I think that it is too late in the season to expect 

any recovery, so another thing to look forward to next year.

I guess it's not surprising,

as even the nasturtiums,

seen here in the bed next to the round strawberry bed,

have withered in the heat, despite hand watering.

The Red Ripper beans never disappoint.

They are starting to take off and dry on the vines.

These red beans have a mild flavor,

and are great for using in chili, sloppy joes,

and anywhere you might use meat.

These store amazingly well, and, in fact,

I recently just finished last year's harvest.

Some things currently growing are green beans,

leeks, okra and turmeric.

Fall seedlings will be started soon.

Although their timing is a bit off,

these volunteer pumpkins did exceptionally well,

despite the scorching heat and humidity.

These three were harvested yesterday and brought inside,

and are absolutely beautiful.

There's no way they will make it until fall

left outdoors.

As I don't know the variety, I was planning to keep them

for decorating the front porch.

We'll see how well they do.

The morning glory is vigorously adorning the compost area.

For some reason, it seems a lot of folks in this state

don't care for it.

The heart-shaped leaves alone are so pretty,

and the purple flowers just add to it.

There are a number of orbital spiders residing here.

It was mesmerizing to watch as this gal

turned this moth into her silk to trap it.

Nature is fascinating.

A few of these yellow fuzzy caterpillars 

were found on the baptisia this week.

It may be an American dagger moth caterpillar.

I'm so grateful that critters can find a home here.

Our neighborhood groundhog (?)

has been visiting the garden as of late.

I wonder if s/he could be the culprit

eating one of the green bean plants?

Something not as welcome are the bag worms,

which infest our persimmon tree every year.

These insects are a true menace,

and can defoliate and destroy many types of plants.

Just look at the inside of one of the sacks.

It is best to remove the entire bag

and dispose of it in the trash, not compost.

These gluten-free almond flour muffins

were made this week.

I tweaked the recipe just a bit,

and they turned out great!

This will definitely be going into

the family recipe file.

You can find it here.

There is some good news to report.

All of our girls are together again,

enjoying ranging time as one unit.

The two chooks who were broody,

despite our efforts to dissuade them,

broke their broodiness all on their own.

It's such a blessing to see them all 

hanging out together again.

~~~~~

For those of you who were thinking about our son C,

his surgery was a bust and he is scheduled to see

another oral surgeon next week.

Fingers crossed that these folks will be 

 able to help him.

He's been so patient through it all.

We are looking forward to having it behind us.

Homestead Happenings

 

Greetings from the Piedmont of North Carolina!

Thank you for visiting our Homestead Happenings post.

We've had summer-like weather with warmer days

and a few afternoon thunderstorms.

We get out when we can and attend our garden chores.

Last weekend the garlic was harvested.

We ran out of room for the 2-week curing process,

so we are using the front porch as a secondary drying station.

Any visitors to our front porch get the aroma of a pizzeria!

A few red onions were pulled up too,

although I don't remember planting any!

Any success with growing onions is welcome,

as I have not had much luck in the past.

Chamomile was also picked,

with the help of Buttercup.

This is being dried for future use as a tea.

This plant for us has been prolific!

It is a wonderful splash of white

that breaks up the mostly blue/purple garden.

There are a few pumpkins starting to grow

on our mostly volunteer plants.

It's always exciting to see the gourds form,

and not being sure what you'll end up with.

This trellis is lined with pumpkins that were all

volunteers last year, and used for our fall decorating.

It's so easy to save seeds from these crops.

I may never need to buy pumpkins again!

The front porch bed is filling up with color!

Here we have calla lilies, salvia, sedum,

coneflowers, rudebekia, a sunflower,

and lamb's ear all living harmoniously.

The bees absolutely adore it!

The canna lily forest is sharing space with

the milkweed.

We have so many pollinators enjoying the blossoms,

and there is a constant hum of activity there.

The turmeric is rejuvenating itself

near the chook runs.

This plant lives in the garage during winter,

and then comes back to life 

when the heat of spring and summer hits.

lily

Some time was spent this week

examining the blooms on the elderberry.

These delicate white snowflake-type petals

are absolutely magical.

Another bee magnet, the comfrey

gets plenty of visitors daily.

What a blessing to have these amazing critters to watch.

Looks like something has been having its way 

with the red cabbage.

Most likely moths got underneath the netting

and laid eggs on the leaves.

Ah well, the leaves will be just fine for the girls.

With the ample rain we've enjoyed,

it was a great time to replant this border.

The lamb's ear was taking over the front porch bed,

spilling onto the sidewalk,

and so I transplanted it here along our woodland bed.

The last time I did this, it wasn't watered enough,

and most of the plants didn't make it.

With abundant rain expected over the next 10 days,

it should get just what it needs.

The garden is exploding in color right now,

and I have to say,

it makes the thought of the upcoming heat of summer

almost worthwhile.

Maybe I'll complain less about the temperature

if I have some lovely flowers to look at,

and bring into the house.

How's your spring garden coming along?

Wordless Wednesday

 

Garden Friday

 

 

cactus zinnia

Welcome to Garden Friday,

where we share our Zone 7b Piedmont garden.

 

Our bed of sweet potatoes is doing fine,

now that we've had some steady rain.

This is one of the easiest plants to grow,

with little pest pressure

(I hope I'm not jinxing myself),

and double the food.

The roots are edible once harvested,

but until then, the leaves can be eaten as well.

 

The melons are enjoying the wetter weather.

A few of these netted bags were added to the larger fruit,

so that they will not break the vines if they get too heavy.

The bags are repurposed from citrus, potatoes and onions,

and are tied onto the cattle panel trellis.

There are SO many lil' melons out there!

 

The okra has grown by leaps and bounds,

as okra is prone to do with any sort of attention.

The straw bales had to be propped up a bit,

as they were collapsing from the moisture.

Making frames for the bales will be on my winter task list.

 

The cukes are consistently giving us food.

I've made refrigerator pickles with some,

and others are added to my daily salad.

The flavor is good and the skin is thin,

which makes for good eating.

 

The basil (you say BAY-ZIL, I say BA-ZIL),

will be used for savory dishes, but also for something new.

I heard about making basil tea on a YouTube channel called

"Roots and Refuge", and can't wait to try it.

 

Meet my dragon's tongue bean.

The only one.

As soon as I noticed this beauty,

the next day the plant dried up.

Ugh.

I will be planting more this weekend,

along with bush beans and a few other goodies.

 

Speaking of unexpected surprises

(and not in a good way),

our first pumpkin patch just decided to die on us.

I was diligent about watering,

before all this rain came our way,

and I even remembered to fertilize it when it flowered,

so I'm not sure what happened.

Haven't spied any bugs on it,

so who knows.

 

Our second patch is doing better.

This one was planted a few weeks after the first,

so I'm crossing fingers that it makes it.

I've always wanted to have my own personal pumpkin patch.

Maybe Linus Van Pelt himself will show up!

 

The mystery squash still shows no signs of slowing down.

It also doesn't show any female flowers on the stem.

The bees are all over it all day long,

but so far, I think it's going nowhere fast.

Ah well, it's a nice vertical statement in the garden.

 

Our carrot crop is still working on going to seed,

although I think it's getting closer.

These are two plants in the same bed,

but notice the difference in textures.

I didn't realize it took so long for this process

with this particular crop.

I have other carrots growing, so that I can harvest as needed,

and I will most likely succession sow some more.

It just makes sense to grow carrots, potatoes

and onions all year long.

We are blessed with a long growing season.

 

The veggie garden is getting fuller by the day,

and after this weekend, it will be maxed out.

Until something else is harvested,

and then it all begins over again.

 

On the flowery side of things,

our pollinator bed is already bursting.

This is one of the beds from the original garden location,

and placed here specifically to encourage pollinators

to work their magic on the veg garden.

When we had to relocate most of the garden beds,

this one stayed put, as there was no contamination issue,

since these were all ornamental plants.

We have a mixture of candy tuft, coreopsis, daisies, 

rudbeckia, sunflowers and zinnias growing here now.

 

 

The front porch pots are filling out nicely.

I love this combination of the fountain grass 

and the pop of color from the calibrachoa.

There is also a sedum in there,

but it has been overtaken!

I'll find another pot for it.

 

 

 These balloon flowers have grown taller than expected.

They have a home in the pollinator bed near the mailbox.

I've had to prop them up because they refused to stand tall

without any support.

They were given to me by a friend,

and I think of her each time I enjoy their beauty.

Gardening friends are the best, don't ya think?

The new chooks are settling in to the routine.

The divider between the two sets of chooks 

has been removed, and they now all mingle together.

I can't say it's been a peaceful transition,

but it sure is nice to have a few more sweet souls to tend to.

And we are getting 2-3 dozen eggs a week.

Bless their little egg-laying selves.

Here's some video shot yesterday during our downpour.

Don't you feel cooler just watching it?

Ah, nothing spells relief from the heat like 

R-A-I-N!

Hope you are blessed with what you need this week!