Garden time!

Did you bring your work apron?? I've got mine on, phone and camera in the pocket, so let's roll! Meet me down at the gate!


Wow, just inside the gate, take a look at those beans will ya?? Taking off they are!! We've picked off them several times but never enough to 'put aside', but always enough for dinner! That's what counts! The big garden is where we have the rest of the beans for the 'putting aside'.

I'm getting ready to do a second bean planting here in a few weeks. In the long long summers of the south, we can get double crops on many things. Of course, a long summer means not only more crops, but more bugs, more mosquitoes, more heat, more heat..and more heat. Ohh I said that once didn't I? :)


Well, here we are at the tomato's. Lots of green ones still, and plenty that I could probably pick for some of those fried green tomato's ..but I'm hanging in on that a few more days... gotta make sure the 'maters' aren't rock hard!

This first photo is the middle of the 4 rows, between the boxes. I have two rows in each box, on either side of the fence pieces that we use to tie them to.
I came out earlier this week and did some major pruning to these guys. They were just getting too wild and wooly for me!



I pruned back some of the non bearing limbs and found a few sucker limbs. I just gave them a good hair cut. You have to do that once in a while. It has helped them produce even more! (which is always a good thing for the canning jars!)
The second picture is on the backside of the second box, the 4th row. Lots of green gems in there too and I could probably trim these guys back a bit more and may do that tomorrow. We'll see what kind of gardening weather we have.

I went to the garden very early today and worked for about an hour or so. They are calling for 90 degree days here for the next 3 or 4 days, so my gardening chores have switched mainly to the early morning hours. It's a good thing really, but has it's bad points too. Good in that it's not so hot, but bad in that the mosquitoes are usually out and about at that time.
We had a heck of a series of storms move in the other day. Rained hard on and off for two days. That does NOT help with the mosquito population!

The banana peppers are coming right along. I am going to have to treat them I do believe though. They are starting to get spots on their lower leaves, a type of blight for the peppers. It comes from infected seed actually and the only treatment to get rid of it is a copper sulfate. (sigh) They haven't started producing yet, so if I decide to treat, them now is the time to do it. It may or may not work, usually it wont go away. It will reduce the yeild of the pepper crops and I'll have to watch the pods as they come along to make sure they don't start getting it. If they do, I'll have to pick them early and let them finish ripening in the house.

I strolled about the garden yesterday doing a bit of harvesting. I gathered about 5 or 6 cucumbers and about the same on squash. There are more cucs on the vines still, but they can wait a few more days before picking. They are producing a good bit now, so soon I'll be putting some pickles aside for the year. I've got enough to do several jars now, so I may get into that today too! There are plenty of blooms still on the vines with more to come!




The Jalapeno's are doing great. Funny how no bugs ever seem to get to them! LOL..I wonder why??









The okra is coming right along. This is the second box of okra, and the last box on this side of the garden! Let's go in and have some iced tea that I just made and we'll continue our garden and yard walk a little later. I've got a few surprises I want to show you!
Make sure you meet me back here at the garden gate later today, we'll finish the up!

We had a visitor the other day

Scary thing when you see one of these sitting in your driveway when you come outside isn't it?? Imagine a knock on your door and you open it to find an uniformed officer, sidearm and all waiting! OHMY!!

NAHHHH!! It's only my nephew Dennis. I've got two nephews on the force here in my county. Me worry?? NOT EVEN!

Today, was Maya's day though. She was putting in a job application for the Colleton County Police K-9 unit!! Just kidding!, but since she is a shepherd, and she loves to 'ride' in a car, we figured..eh..why not?!

She jumped in ready to take off! Mr. Officer even took her round the property! She came back just as proud as punch!

Ohh but my my my, she enjoyed the ride! It was like "MOM, MOM! He even put the siren on while I was in!! Can I do it again!"

She can be such a ham sometimes!!

Do we love our critters or what??

Maya didn't make the force of course..we were just playing...Aww, onto bigger and brighter things!

Want to see the 'doughbowl' that I bought when I was in Pigeon Forge?? A pride a joy for me, hand carved even. We had to bring it home and do the final finishing sanding on it, so hubby finished it for me the other day. Now, I've got to season it with some mineral oil and lots of use, and that is exactly what I plan on doing! I've had a few people stare aghast at me because I plan on using my bowl, but 'tut tut', I don't buy things that I don't use!!

It's called 'collector issues'. I only collect stuff I'll use. Baskets, movies, a doughbowl, etc.

So what do all our Sagewood Bloggers collect? Tell me about your collections. Do you use them or keep them for looks only?

See ya next time, down on the farm!

It's days like this...

That I wonder how in the world my Grandmother kept it all together!

I've been busier then a one armed paper hanger for the last two weeks it seems and this week have been having to run just to keep up ....not catch up!
WHEW!

Let's hope that next week is better! I've got a list of stuff that hasn't been done yet!
I'd like to hear from all you Hedgewives out there, tell me what you do when you 'get behind' cuz we all do.
How do you catch up? Do you double up on the work or do you just go at it again like normal knowing you'll catch up in a week or two?? Let's hear it, share your ideas, hints and tips so other Hedgewives can read along and learn!

Usually when I get too far behind (like I did these past two weeks) I just go at it again on my normal schedule, but I'll make sure I take some pen and paper with me and jot down special things that need to get done, that may have been missed or forgotten about. Then, I'll set aside 1/2 hour every day and start on the list, for the appropiate room I'm working in.

Like, right now I need to put the 'dark curtains' up in my bedroom. (I transfer curtain types depending on the weather/season..heavier lined type curtains for the winter..keeps the heat in, lighter curtains for the spring and fall..makes the house feel fresh and renewed then dark curtains for the summer..keeps the heat out!) Before I change curtains, I usually wash the windows. So this is something that needs to be done in my bedroom area. Instead of taking 'extra time' out of another work day, I'll just wait till that room day and add an extra 1/2 hour to my schedule and do it then. That extra 1/2 hour doesn't have to be done when the 'cleaning time' for that room is slotted either, as long as it's done during any 1/2 hour of that day, then it works for me.
So tell me Hedgewives..how do you best 'catch up' when you get behind?