Wow, where did the time go? So sorry I’ve been neglecting this blog. I started it so that I would have an online journal of when I planted things, which recipes work best when I have an overabundance of an herb or vegetable, and a place to record some of the crazy meanderings of my mind while weeding a garden bed!
Nope, didn’t happen quite as planned this year. But then, when do things ever happen according to plan? I won’t bore you with details but once again health issues and family obligations got in the way of my blogging ambitions. But not to worry, just because I wasn’t writing about gardening, doesn’t mean I wasn’t gardening! And frankly, most days I either had the energy to write about gardening or take care of my garden. So mostly, I took care of the garden although this years Fall garden was pretty much a failure. I did get in 200 garlic and 100 onions. As soon as I finish searching them out from under all of the weeds, I’ll let you know how they are doing! And the 36 kale plants I started and never got around to putting in the ground became slug food. One day they were there happily growing in their tray and a few days later, slimeageddon! LOL
Last year I also started gardening a new section where I had previously been slow composting for the past 10 years. It was growing great – pole beans, kale, chives, a couple of volunteer cherry tomato plants, and a few wandering herbs. Then our air conditioner died and that little bit of yard I had reclaimed was laid waste by the air conditioning crew traipsing back and forth to remove the old unit and put in a new one. Sigh . . .
The good news is that the area is cleared up and I’ve started replanting. I’m looking forward to harvesting significantly more green beans than I did last year! And remember the cucumber overload? The garlic dill slices I made last year have been a huge hit! I will definitely be planting too many cucumbers again this year as well as increasing my Egyptian Walking Onion Beds. The dried onion powder is the absolute bomb in my spice cabinet! But there were also a few failures. I’ve made garlic powder in the past and thought it was too much work and not worth the effort or electricity. This year I read about roasted garlic powder and thought that might take less time in the dehydrator and be tastier than store bought garlic powder. Nope. Definitely cheaper to buy garlic powder in bulk than to make it myself. The roasting before dehydrating didn’t magically transform the process. So, I continue to live and learn. Projects planned for the next few months of 2019 include:
- Finish pruning the fruit trees.
- Downsizing and replacing my Jerusalem Artichoke beds.
- Removing the raspberries and replacing them with more sweet potatoes.
- Finish my ornamental sitting area in the back corner of the yard. (It’s too shady to grow anything edible in!)
- Find a dedicated area on the back patio for my tropical fruits!
- Trying to limit my plantings to things/quantities that we can use!
It’s good to be back chatting, planning and hopefully, tracking my progress! Here’s to a very productive New Year!