Harvest Monday AND Garden Blogger's Death Day

How coincidental is it that harvest Monday falls on the same day as this month's Garden Blogger's Death Day.

Let's start with the life: While watching the man cut down the tree yesterday, I got a little hungry, so I went to the garden for a snack and pulled out a carrot.

I can officially say that I can grow carrots. This thing was a monster and fed both me and the man. Look how the end is bowed from where it reached the bottom of the bed and ran into the hard ground. We didn't even have to peel it. I just washed it in the spigot and it was good to go!

As for the death, they're not technically 'dead' yet, but the cayenne and banana peppers in the pots on the front walk have got to go this week. We never ate the banana peppers like we should have and I have more cayenne peppers than I know what to do with, being that I've never used a cayenne pepper in my life. I've dried them, hung them, and stored them....now they sit. They sure are pretty, however.

So, enjoy this iconic day, for the harvest is the soul of the garden that death can delay or take away , but never diminish its wonder.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

The Felling of a Giant

****ADENDUM**** When my brother-in-law came back this afternoon to fetch the remaining wood, he showed us where the tree had already split straight down and was ready to fall. We had no idea it was already split. I'm glad we didn't give it the chance to fall.****

Having a nemesis can be a great thing. It fuels your ire, thwarts all your well honed plans and jumps up and bites you when you least expect it.

When your nemesis is below you on the Chain of Being, you may just have a chance.

Back in April I posted about my nemesis, a massive oak that overhangs the garden, and, subsequently, the house. There's one limb in particular that fuels my ire because it overhangs the garden and delights in dropping bushels of acorns on my beds which must be primed to sprout and dig in for glory as soon as they hit the earth for those suckers sure do root fast. This same limb thwarts all my plans for garden design since shade is a fierce antagonist to growth. Well, we saw the limb's ante and raised it the full tree, for as you see below, the tree was growing out from behind another large oak, just reaching for the sun,


and the sun just happened to be in the direction of the house. So, the story goes that we had a dead pine in the forest that needed culling, and my brother-in-law knew a good tree climber who took care of it right quick.


We pointed him in the direction of the offending limb, and it went the way of the pine.

However, once cut, we could truly see that it was the tree, itself, that was the danger to the house, so down it came.

And now there's a blank spot where the beautiful oak used to be.

When we moved into the house, the oak was one of our favorite things, yet we've had numerous trees fall all around us and knew this one to be a danger in our soil. Yes, it's straight Georgia clay, but with all the rain we've had, the oaks are toppling one by one. It's better to be safe than sorry. I'm thinking it may have granted the garden a half an hour to an hour more sun....that is if it doesn't do as a good nemesis should and bite me in the end by giving the other trees more room to spread out and hinder the sun if not as much, then certainly more so than the original branch did. You know, I'd almost be disappointed if it didn't.

Until then, we've got a cool little two tiered stump from which the kids can play, "King of the Hill."

I'm thinking our holiday cards from now on will be taken right here, in honor of my nemesis.

Trains, Templates, The Continental, And My Father

My dad's a neat guy. He's knowledgeable about just about everything and can build, create or remodel anything you give him. He rebuilt the basement as an apartment for my sister, installing an entire kitchen and laying tile in some intricate patterns. It looks fantastic.

By profession, my dad was/is a graphic artist. He drew this train for the boy when he was born:

Yes, that's all hand drawn. Isn't it fantastic?

He's also fun-loving and does the best impression of The Continental that I've ever seen:

Ok, so he's the only loon I've ever seen dress up as The Continental, but who's counting.

So when I called him about making a template for the square foot/raised bed garden and showed him a picture of one from someone else's blog, he went ahead and made me one. It's just fantastic! I'm spatially challenged, and this willy-nilly planting I've been doing has me irritated. This is going to make things so nice and neat next year.
I think he's going to do a 16 hole one for radishes and carrots which will be equally amazing. We tossed around the idea of hinging four of them together to either fold together to use as a single square or unfold to make a 2x2 planting block. Now THAT would be awesome since most of my varieties are planted in large blocks like that.

A few weeks ago, I posted pictures of him cutting up his black radish. When I took the picture of the template, he made the comment about always being the hand model, so here he is in his full glory.

Thanks, Dad!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Day!


Hopefully you got to spend time with your families as we did. It's been a long day and even a longer night. The girl is so over tired she can't settle down. Right now, she's pitching a fit on her floor. Hopefully she'll fall asleep there and I can move her to the bed in an hour or so.

I pulled some of the kohlrabi from the garden. More came out than I needed. Because of the close spacing, when one came from the soil, it invariably brought another with it. Dan was completely right! It tastes just like a cabbage with a small finish of light radish. It was really good sliced raw and dipped in some ranch. Here's a picture of the veggie tray, made completely from veggies from the garden. It's so nice to see it all come together like this.

We also had a curry chicken ball as an appetizer. I loved it, but I'm thinking curry is something you either love or hate, even if it's in small doses.

Instead of making a sweet potato casserole or souffle, I took all the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and marshmallows and made individual casseroles right in the potatoes themselves.

I tried to get a picture of the turkey, but by the time I got to it, it had already been carved.It was a wonderful night.

Actually, it was even better because of something my father made for me. I was so crazy-excited I jumped up and down, and what's better is that it's garden related! I'll post about that tomorrow.

The morning comes early...and even earlier now that it's already 10:53 and the girl just fell asleep. Sweet gardening dreams.

Kohlrabi Is as Ready as It Ever Will Be.

I know they're not large, but they're as big as any I've seen in the grocery store recently, and I'm not thinking they'll be destined to grow much larger based on the crowded conditions. I really planted too many of them too close together.

I went back and looked at Dan's old posts on his kohlrabi and he says he uses them in slaw and they have a nice, almost radish like taste...so...Could I serve them sliced and then raw with bit of ranch dressing?

I have a HUGE fear of the cheese grater or any grater for that matter. I sliced off almost an entire knuckle once and don't relish doing it again. If I could slice them and serve them raw, they'd go good with a raw veggie tray for Thanksgiving.

Sound plausible?

Missing Person's Report: Jack Frost

Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but it's just rather odd. We had some cool nights in October, but they were nothing to write home about. Then for these past few nights we've hovered in the 37-39 degree range, but we're far overdue for a real frost if not a freeze.

Note, now that I've said this, we'll have a freak freeze, but so far, we're looking good even for the next ten days.

I wonder if this will really be a nice and mild winter, or if we'll catch up in the end. Easter weekend is usually our last frost, and it has been a doozy in the past.

Lettuce and broccoli are loving it!

I actually just might be able to put my own veggies on the table for Thanksgiving, something I wasn't able to do last year because of heavy frosts. That will be very cool.

Thanks For the Props, Peeps!

Many thanks goes out to Dan from Urban Veggie Garden Blog for the "Best Blogs Award" he passed on. Dan takes some of the most amazing photographs of his garden, harvests and all of his beautiful surroundings in Ontario. Check him out!

Like Dan, several weeks ago I was tagged by GrafixMuse's Garden Spot for an "Honest Scrap Award." She's doing great with her garden that she resurrected from disuse by a former owner of the house.
I'm thrilled and kind of tickled that people come around here to see how the corner yard is faring. Seriously, who sits around reading garden blogs.


Wait. I sit around reading garden blogs. HA!


Both awards state to pass them on to 15 or so garden blogs I keep up with, but since we run in the same circles and read much of the same blogs, I though to see if it was 'blog acceptable' to ask YOU to tell me what new garden blogs I need to keep up with. Can one ever really follow too many garden blogs?

What I look for in a garden blog:
Plenty of photographs to follow along with
A TRUE account of gardening where strengths and failures are reported
An honest sense of humor can't hurt


So leave a link to YOUR favorite garden blog, or shoot, even your own blog and I'll be happer than a dead hog in the sunshine. I'll put the list together for the next post and fulfil my obligations to the awards.


Thanks again GrafixMuse and Dan!!!