Garden Update Aug 2011

We had a little bit of summer weather and I'm getting excited to start eating out of my garden!  Of course it's the first weekend in August and I'm wearing a sweater and drinking hot tea at 11am on a Sunday (when I should be pulling weeds and doing my household chores).  But, as you can see, I do have a few things to show for the nice weather.  Earlier in the summer and spring I had strawberries, peas, spinach and romaine.  The lettuce has gone to seed and I'm hoping for another round later in the year. 

It's almost time for blackberries!

I have a nice batch of jalapenos!

A sugar pumpkin, although I thought it would look different.

those little curly cues try so hard to find something to cling to!

zucchinis are ready!

House Tour

My mom wanted to see pictures of my garden, so I thought I'd do a tour of the whole house.  Outside.  There are flowers, my garden and general views of the house from different directions.  In the back yard you can see the greenhouse Ken made for me, our chiminea, compost ball and the garden beds. 

Lilies in the front, 2 kinds

Zucchini and a sugar pumpkin

Strawberry and Snap Peas

garlic, mint, spinach and romaine

Romain, zucchini and a full size pumpkin

Roma tomato, started from seed from a store bought tomato!

3 romas

Jalapeno

cherry tomatoes and left over romaine

Front door, that's our bedroom window

view from ken's parking area

backyard view from side of house

wild peas growing along the alley

vines growing along the alley

Side of the house, door leads to kitchen

blueberries

from the sidewalk. 

Ivy is taking over the space between houses

from across the street. tall trees out front

Iron Creek Campground

July 2-5, 2011 IRON CREEK CAMPGROUND
Off Hwy 131 (Forest Road 25) 10 miles south of Randle, WA
***** 5 stars
98 campsites in 4 loops well spaced
Pit Toilets, potable water, firewood for sale at camp host (overpriced)
$20/night for single site. $10/night per extra vehicle $38/night double site
Sites can be reserved ahead of time
nearest services in Randle, or 15 miles east/west in Morton or Packwood

Campsites have great privacy and there are multiple pit toilets and water spouts in each loop. All parking pads are spacious and paved and could easily fit 2 or 3 cars. However, the tent spaces were very small at most sites, and rather lumpy. Even many of the double sites didn't have room for more than 1 or 2 tents. Loop A is close enough to the road to hear most traffic. Parts of loops B-D have quick access to the river. We stayed in B40 which had room for 3 tents right next to each other on lumpy ground. The pit toilets really started to stink towards the end of the weekend, but the accessible ones were more bearable, being more spacious.

The 1 ½ mile loop trail around the campground is beautiful. There were view points and small access “beaches” to the Cispus River as well as markers for two 600 year old fir trees which were 8 feet in diameter. Along the river the trail is well maintained but other points required scrambling over fallen branches or entire trees obstructing the path. There was also a foot bridge that was out during our stay. Seeing the river at sunset was spectacular, and sitting on the beach during the sunny afternoon was a perfect escape to the mosquitoes hovering in our campsite.

There was a nearby hike to Covell Creek Falls and Angel Falls off of FS road 28. The hike is supposedly a 2.75 mile loop, but we weren't prepared for creek crossing and turned around before we got to Angel Falls. The trail is “moderately difficult” being steep, narrow and rocky. There were several downed trees to scramble over or under as well. The trail leads behind Covell Creek Falls (which is the downhill right fork). To get there, just past the Cispus Learning Center on Rd 23, turn right onto FS 28 (dirt road). The trailhead is 2 miles further, just past a school crossing sign. It is also a trail head for Burley Mountain. There is a small parking area (one or two vehicles). FS 28 had a road closed sign, and some hikers started at the Cispus Learning Center below.

First BLOG

Gardening and Potato Pancakes. That's what's on my mind right now, but there seem not to be enough hours in the day to accommodate my To Do list.
After discovering a thriving colony of bugs in the last bit of my pancake mix I abandoned the craving for blueberry pancakes and opened the last packet of potato pancake mix. I've never made them from scratch, but even with a mix it's taking the better part of my morning. But cooking is fun, almost as much fun as eating! After taking The Dude out I'll probably park myself back in the kitchen to make a quinoa salad for later.
The weather isn't very ripe for gardening anyway. A storm is coming, and while it's not raining yet, the clouds are pregnant with water from the heavens.

I need more discipline in my gardening. The first garden I had was all in pots on my back porch when I lived on Decatur. The summer was long and warm and I dare say it was a small success. I had tomatoes, broccoli, tssai, garlic, oregano and potatoes. The broccoli plants were plagued with aphids and small heads, the tssai (I can't remember how to spell it) was also sacrificed to the pesky bugs. The potatoes were small but cut in halves or quarters made a great breakfast one Sunday morning.

I had paid little mind to fertilizing and when to plant, but I mothered the plants daily. I watered them when they were thirsty, washed the bugs off when I found them, and moved the plants around as the sun got too hot or the nights were too cold.

Since we've started growing our garden directly into raised beds, I've put a lot more effort into the beginning of the process; double digging the soil, fertilizing, making sure the soil is warm enough to plant, etc. But once the seeds or seedlings are in their new home I tend to neglect them for weeks.

While we got a nice crop of radishes, some lettuce, and few handfuls of snap peas and several small and medium heads of garlic so far... I can see the result of my neglect. My second planting never sprouted. The tomato plants, narcissistic as they are, have nearly overrun one bed AND my compost bin had half a dozen pepper plants and a hearty 2 foot tomato plant growing in it! The carrots are bigger than last year. We have a couple baby cucumbers. The strawberries get eaten before we can pick them though.

The most interesting thing, I think, is our potato crop. We had some success last year, but most of the potatoes were so tiny we couldn't use them. We dug through the dirty picking out as many as we could but eventually just left the bed until this year. Before we even started planting much in this bed, we noticed things growing out of it, a bushy, leafy plant that we could tell was not a weed. Wait... those look like potatoes! So now we have a dozen small potato plants left over from last year's crop. Who knows how they'll turn out. Some of the larger plans are starting to die so we'll probably start digging soon.

Well, the morning is nearly concluded, and my first blog completed. Even though I never actually explained the topic at hand.

Ah well... ramblings.