Category: Gardening

Spring is trying to gain a foothold here in Pennsylvania. The piles of snow have melted away leaving grass trying to perk up and mud everywhere. We’ve had some 60-degree days, but the nights often dip to the teens. Still too early to even think about messing in the garden!

Garden preparations are still in a holding pattern, but it doesn’t mean we can’t plan! The tomato seeds have been started in the shop:

The seeds have been purchased and the garden diagram has been sketched out.

The raised garden planter has been sealed (with a sealer that had a brown stain included by mistake!) and is ready for lettuce and radishes.

Bert added two patio planters for my spinach and radicchio.

I invested in a set of stacking pots for strawberries like this one:

Finally, I made a list of all the plants we anticipate growing so I can figure out what kind of garden markers I want to make.

Last year I used old wine corks and wood skewers, but they didn’t last very long and were hard to write on. The skewers were too skinny and would fall over when it rained. I needed them to identify the colors of the echinacea flowers when I was collecting seeds and the markers were on the ground and almost unreadable. Not helpful!

This year I’m thinking of making something out of polymer clay. We’ll see! Another project to keep me entertained until it’s time to plant! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Right after Christmas the garden catalogs started to arrive. With the snow on the ground, it was easy to start dreaming of the garden of 2022.

This is the time to reassess what worked and what didn’t last yer. The plants in one of our garden beds closer to the house seemed to have trouble all summer…no matter what we planted. Years ago, that bed held strawberries. The first and second year they were terrific. After that, the soil did not cooperate. We had a year or two of great cucumbers, and then we couldn’t get anything to thrive in that bed. We might have to stick with flowers there.

We’ve decided to stay with the Burpee Company for seeds. It is a Pennsylvania company and hopefully, seeds will be appropriate for our area. Their catalog featured the SuperSauce tomato that we grow each year. It has been great for slicing and cooking.

So many beautiful pictures of vegetables!

Then we focused on the seeds we had decided did well in the past for us. The beans were prolific, the lettuce was yummy and the last of the carrots stayed in the ground until Christmas. We still have some in the refrigerator! We’ll try cucumbers someplace else in the garden and hope they do well.

Yesterday I had a chat with our son-in-law Steve, to see if he could make us another raised planter. It worked so well for the lettuce and radishes. I’d like to add a few other greens, like Swiss Chard, Spinach and Radicchio for salads.

And then he mentioned he was going to try to make a strawberry planter…and I love strawberries…so I ordered some plants too. Hopefully, I can figure out a place to plant them if his planter doesn’t work out!

Dreaming of the future garden is a great way to spend a cold January day! Enjoy!

As always, please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Sad as it is, our gardens in November look very similar to how they looked in the early spring (see https://marykisner.com/homestead-tour/). Of course, we had snow on the ground then, but who knows…it could snow this weekend!

Bert has almost everything tidied up except the partial row of carrots that we will probably dig up next week. Here’s how things look now:

So, the next posting about the garden will be next spring. Maybe I’ll have to share snow pictures for all you folks in California, Texas and Florida…just to remind you what you’re missing! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

The weather is finally feeling like fall and our garden tasks change from production to preservation and clean up. The only food item left in the garden is carrots, and we’ll dig them up as we need them. Take a look at things today:

So that’s the end of the adventure of the Kisner’s garden for 2021. This year we tried to grow only what we will eat or at least are willing to weed and preserve! Who knows what the seed catalogs in the spring will entice us to try? Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Fall is in the air! The garden is winding down, the evening dusk is coming earlier every day and school buses have started to roll by. The last of the garden produce is ready for harvest. Luckily, the echinacea flowers are still spectacular and the lavender flowers are going strong, so the garden doesn’t look abandoned.

Here’s the latest tour of the garden plots:

First, the raised planter still has one batch of lettuce growing well. The last radishes are in the refrigerator ready for the next salad. The lettuce on the left was cut a few days ago, but the roots are still there. We’ll dump the whole bin shortly.

The spearmint is in flower and the bees are busy.

The cucumbers are long gone but just a month ago Bert planted a lemongrass plant, just to see how it would do. Pretty huge now, but I know it won’t survive the winter.

On the left the chamomile is pretty flat, but I was able to harvest some of the flowers for future use. In the center is lemon balm and on the right is stevia. Kind of got out of control with the heat, but the bees are loving the flowers.

The red and green basil is crazy too. On the right is thyme. Time to cut it all back. The thyme and rosemary (hidden behind the basil) should come back next year if I mulch it over the winter.

Up in the garden on the hill, the row of lavender is beautiful. I am cutting stems of flower buds to dry. The row next to it is carrots. They are pretty much done growing but we’ll leave them in the ground for another month or two. We’ll dig them up as we need them.

This section had two rows of carrots and two shorter rows of beans. We pulled the beans last weekend and dug up most of the carrots. (Remember that carrot cake I wrote about last week!)

This section is green beans just beginning to flower. They were planted in late July and I wasn’t sure they would make beans before the first frost. We’ll see!

These two sections had tomatoes and early beans. Last weekend we pulled the tomato plants. A dozen tomatoes are on the kitchen table. We’re eating them every day. Delicious!

And the beautiful echinacea are blooming their hearts out. They should reseed themselves and come up next spring.

Another hint that fall is coming is the furious feeding frenzy of the hummingbirds. Usually they disappear around Labor Day, so each day we see them is a gift. Just as we were excited to be anticipating gardening season, something about the change of the seasons seems just right. Fall has its own beauty here in Pennsylvania. Time for pumpkins and apple butter! I’m ready to have cooler nights and fall colors. Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

August is the month when the garden comes to fruition! Yesterday, the kitchen was hopping…and warm! Time to process the last of the beans and deal with the pile of tomatoes that are ready now.

Luckily, the carrots have just begun to fill out. We’ll munch on these for a while and let the rest get bigger.

Lavender

The lavender is finally flowering so I’ve begun cutting a few of the stems. A tray of lavender will be sitting around for the next few weeks as they dry. When dry, I’ll rub off the flower buds and let them dry some more. They’ll be useful when I make lavender-infused olive oil.

Dehydrating Beans

This was the last picking for this second planting of beans. We pulled the plants as we picked. I snapped the beans, blanched them and chilled them in ice water.

Then I laid them out on the dehydrator trays. They filled 4 trays.

And 10 hours later…

It always amazes me how little space dehydrated beans take up, compared to putting them in the freezer. Since I use them mostly in soups and stews it’s a very efficient way to store them.

Cooking Tomatoes

We have eaten the first tomatoes to ripen. This larger batch of tomatoes will be cooked enough to soften them but I won’t put them in the food processor to make them smooth. I’ll use these in vegetable soup.

The tomatoes are washed. I cut the tops off to get rid of any ugly stems. Then I turn each tomato over and cut an X on the bottom.

Next, I bring a pot of water to a boil and drop a few at a time into the boiling water. In less than 1 minute the peel starts to split and separate from the tomato.

Then, I quickly transfer them one at a time to a big bowl of cold water with ice cubes. That helps loosen the peel.

Then, I stack them gently into a bowl until I’ve done them all.

Now, I sit down at the kitchen table and take each tomato, remove the peel and cut the tomato into smaller pieces. These go into a pot that will go back on the stove to simmer until the mixture is soft and some of the water is boiled off. The time depends on if I’m going to run them in the food processor or not. I like a chunky mixture for my vegetable soup. If I’m making spaghetti sauce, I’ll cook them longer uncovered and let more water boil off.

This is how much I put in the freezer yesterday…and the tomatoes are just starting to ripen! It’s going to be a busy August!

More Beans?

The next planting of beans is still pretty small, but they look good. I’ll be watching the weather in early September to see if we get any beans before the first frost.

So that’s what’s happening in my kitchen the second week of August! I know I’ll appreciate it in the winter when I want to make soup! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly with questions at marykisner@comcast.net.

The Echinacea plants in the garden are looking very pretty, especially because we have several different varieties. Three plants I purchased at a local plant sale. Bert started the rest from seed indoors in the early spring. A friend asked if I would save some seeds for her so I decided it was time to research how to do that.

I found a wonderful site online where the author walked through the steps to saving the seeds. It even had an embedded video clip of him putting the dried seed heads into a coffee can and shaking them hard to loosen the seeds! I won’t try to embed videos in my blog, but I will post a link to the article I found helpful.

Step 1 said to cut off the seed heads when the blooms have faded and turned brown. Already I could see I would have a problem, because I have several different colors…when they are brown how would I know which is which?

So first, I went out to the garden and took some close-up pictures of the plants. Then I numbered them on the picture and made markers to put beside the plants. In the fall, when they are all brown, I should be able to keep the seeds I collect separated by color (theoretically!).

The markers I made out of skewers for the grill and wind corks we had saved. I wrote the number and color on the cork with a marker.

Then I went up to the garden and placed the markers beside the plants. I did not mark every plant, because the way we planted them and where the picture shows them along the fence should be enough.

Anyway, at least now I don’t have to remember what color is where. When they start turning brown, I’ll continue with Step 2!

Step 2 said to store and dry the seed heads in a paper bag. Great…I’ll have to go get some paper bags…maybe lunch bags??

Step 3 said to knock the seeds off the heads. The author did this by putting several seed heads into a coffee can and shaking vigorously. This should release the seeds from the seed heads.

Before storing, the seeds should be allowed to dry another week or so exposed to the air. They can then be tossed gently in a strainer to separate out the chaff that gets mixed in.

Step 4 said I can then store the seeds in an envelope for several years.

The only issue is…I don’t know if the original seeds we bought were hybrid seeds, in which case they will not necessarily reproduce the same plant when grown the second year. If they don’t, oh well…at least I’ll know how to do it for the future!

So, while I’m waiting to continue this process, I’ll just enjoy the colorful flowers in the garden! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions at marykisner@comcast.net.

The garden is going into production mode! With over 6″ of rain this month so far I’m just grateful the garden drains well and the sun comes out once in a while. Time to show you how things are growing.

First, we have the row of lavender and the first row of carrots. Hope you can see the lavender buds ready to pop. I’m so hoping the whole row will eventually be in bloom at the same time. I have memories of the lavender fields in California that were so impressive. Plus, I can dry the buds and use them in my soaps and skin care products.

The second planting of carrots are doing well. The end of that row has a few late green bean plants. That’s where we tried to grow beets, but nothing came up. Must be the seeds. Oh well…I can buy beets at the Farmers’ Market.

I couldn’t resist pulling a few carrots just to see how big they were.

This section had two rows of green and wax beans. My California granddaughters helped me pick them and we ate them right away! Very tasty!

The extra beans went into the dehydrator and now fit in this little bag. Storage is easy and they are ready to toss into soup anytime.

These two rows were the second planting of green and wax beans. Yesterday I picked the largest green beans. Today, the largest wax beans were picked. By Monday many more will be ready to pick.

We have lots of tomatoes…only one was ready to pick.

The echinacea is finally making flowers. Who knew we had such a mix of colors? I hope the bees enjoy them.

As I walked down the hill, I passed the cucumber plants and peeked under the leaves. Surprisingly, the few plants that are left are making cucumbers!

So, this is my early morning harvest today! There are still some hot days ahead this week so things will start ripening faster.

We do not have a huge garden this year, but it is fun to check it out each morning. If I really want a quantity of produce, the Farmers’ Market is still my best choice. At the end of each season, I can usually get large bags of cucumbers or tomatoes to make into relish or spaghetti sauce for a good price. Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.