Harvest Weekend

It was a weekend of harvesting alliums! For my dinner Saturday night, I ending up pulling my first two "Camelot" shallots and my first "Candy" sweet onion. The "Camelot" shallots certainly do have a beautiful red/purple skin. 

Today I trimmed and cleaned the "Russian Red" garlic that had been drying on the rack in the shop. Boy these are big bulbs! I planted 15 cloves back on November 3rd and today I harvested 16 bulbs. The total "Red Russian" harvest came in at 6 lbs. 12.32 oz. ! The largest bulb was 8.28 oz and the smallest was still 5.44 oz. The average bulbs size was 6.77 oz. As I did last year, I will save the largest bulb for my cloves to plant this Fall. "Russian Red" has been described as having a very unique, complex flavor so I am excited to start using it in the kitchen.

Hand Pollination

The female blossoms on the Winter Squash are starting to open. In some years, when the first few female blooms open, there aren't any male blooms open at the same time. While this happily isn't the case this year, I am still not seeing many pollinators around. So I have resorted to hand pollination. After arriving home from work the last two nights, I have been cutting off some male blooms and using them to hand pollinate the open female blooms. This task would ideally be done by noon-time, when the pollen is fresh and plentiful. But I can only do it on weekdays after I get home. I will know within just a few short days if this was successful. If they weren't pollinated, the immature fruit will quickly turn yellow and fall off. But if I was a good stand-in for the bees, the fruit will soon swell and start to grow. Above, a "Butternut" squash and below, a "Guatemalan Blue Banana".

The Twins

It had been a while since I had seen our mother doe and her two fawns. As I was walking down to the dahlia garden Monday evening, I stumbled upon them. They were busy grazing in our first meadow, close to the creek. This is a fairly damp and shady spot, so the grass is still a bit green. The twins are growing but I was pleased to see that they still have their spots.

Visitors to the Ali Baba

We have three bird baths around our house, as well as two fountains. The birds enjoy using the fountains every bit as much as the bird baths. This little "ali baba" fountain is on our back patio. All day long the finches, and an occasional jay, perch on the fountain to drink. Sometimes they jump in the middle for a refreshing bath.

After the sun goes behind our hill, I enjoy sitting out in the evenings and watching all of the action at the fountain.

Must of the time its one of our regular feathered friends stopping for a drink. But once in a while, a thirsty  visitor of another kind enjoys the fountain too!

The First Dahlia Blooms - Sort of!

Last year I bought a tuber of "Stillwater Plum", a Mignon Single Dahlia. I planted it in my pretty burgundy pot and it did quite well its first year. I didn't remove it from the pot last Winter and was very pleased to see it come back strongly this Spring. It has doubled in size and today the first two blooms have opened. It is such a vibrant shade of purple and has a glowing red ring at the base of the petals. I am not a huge fan of Mignon Single dahlias but I certainly will keep growing this variety.

The Blackberries

All over the property, the blackberries are growing like mad. The canes seem to reach out into the road overnight. After taking a walk, I noticed that we currently have berries in all of the various stages. In the deepest shade, there are still clusters of lovely pink flowers.

Out in more direct sun, the petals have dropped and the green berries are growing. Each year I am always able to pick the first ripe berries down on our road, right were it crosses the creek. Already, some clumps in this area have their first red berries.

Garlic Harvest #1

This afternoon I harvested the first garlic. I  noticed that most of the leaves on the "Russian Red" garlic had turned completely brown. I read last year that you should harvest when 1/2 of the leaves have turned brown. Well, I am way past that point with this variety! You will also notice that I never got around to cutting off the garlic scapes. Oh, well. Such is the theme of this year - running a bit late!

I planted this garlic on November 3rd. It was garlic that I had brought back in my suitcase from Maine and had the biggest cloves that I had ever seen of any variety. Upon my initial digging, I discovered that those big cloves made some very large bulbs. And the roots on the bulbs were well over 5" long. They were some very impressive plants.

I had planted 15 cloves back in November and all of the cloves produced a nice plant. One clove did split in two and produced two connected cloves, so I ended up harvesting 16 bulbs today. I gave each bulb a gentle cleaning with my glove and then brought them into the shop to dry. I made a temporary drying rack and laid out each plant. In a few weeks I will cut off the stalks and peal off one layer of skin. Then I will weigh each bulb and see what the "Russian Red" harvest for 2013 totaled.

Rabbit Damage

 

Today, when I was down in the big garden, I discovered yet another dahlia plant that had been eaten by the rabbits. I am now up to 5 plants that have been ruined by the bunnies this year; one "Red Velvet", one "Lismoore Peggy", one "Stillwater David" and both "Hilltop St. Charles". All of the eaten plants have one thing in common - they are all planted in the front row or the back row of the garden. Thus, they are all next to the lawn. I am so glad that 80% of my dahlias are now tall enough that the rabbits won't be able to do more then chew off a lower leaf. I guess that's another reason I planted 233 dahlias - I do have a few to spare. But it does hurt when the bunny eats both of one variety!

Squash Blossoms

When I was watering in the kitchen garden tonight, I noticed the first few open squash blossoms. Both the "Guatemalan Blue Banana" plant, pictured above, and the "Delicata" pictured blow, have open male flowers today. I have always particularly admired the pretty star-shaped "Delicata" blooms.

It will be a while before I start getting any fruit set. As I studied the vines tonight, I found tiny, immature squash on both the "Butternut" squash, below, and on the "Guatemalan Blue Banana" squash, above. It will be a few weeks before the female flowers on the vines bloom. But until then, the open male flowers will start to attract bees to the area. Then, when the female flowers finally do open, there should be a good population of pollinators available.