Mister Stripey

The weather seems to have changed abruptly around here and I think we'll be harvesting the last of our tomatoes in the next week. Hard and soft neck garlic, and shallots will be in the garden soon.

Nothing To See Here

The tomato seeds have been started for our 2014 garden. I always wonder what passersby think when they see the round the clock grow lights in the window.

a vegetable garden mystery.

i'm not sure what exactly we are doing right this year to make our tomato plants so robust and productive. maybe it's adam's diligent feeding of seaweed and bat guano. maybe it's the extra sun from having torn down that super awful fence. or maybe it's just the steaming hot summer we have had. regardless, most of the plants are at least five feet tall.
but here's the weird thing - something came through the garden recently and grazed the top greenery off of some of the tomato plants. i tried to show this in the photo below although i realize it's a bit hard to see. whatever it was had to be tall enough to eat the leaves only off of the top of the plants.
i thought that tomato greens were poisonous? any ideas on what could have done this?


*update: we have found the culprit!!! the sneaky fella was properly disguised. it was a tomato hornworm and a big guy indeed.

fingers crossed for strawberries.

i got a new camera this week. it's completely tiny; smaller than my phone. it takes bigger pictures than my dslr-over 16 mega pixels. the best part is that it takes photos underwater! yup, it's completely waterproof!

supernova sauce.

what's a girl to do with an overwhelming harvest of habanero peppers that happened to all be ripe at nearly the same time? how 'bout make a hot sauce that is so extremely, ridiculously spicy that it will take a year to use!

supernova sauce

(makes approximately 12 ounces)

20 fresh habanero, stemmed and seeded
10 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water or orange juice
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon agave nectar

•preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
•roast the habanero and garlic for about 20 minutes on a baking sheet. toss occasionally to prevent burning.
•place the roasted habanero and garlic in the food processor or blender with the remainder of the ingredients. blend until smooth. feel free to add more or less liquid to achieve your desired consistency.

a saturday in photographs.

what's blooming.

put your feet up.

the memorial bouquet to our now gone lilac pair.

this weekend we said a final farewell to the gangly, out of place lilac trees. two days of chopping, tugging, dragging and digging has successfully taken down multiple trees, dismantled a dilapidated fence and dug up monstrous growths of grapevine and virginia creeper. we are utterly exhausted, but is there anything better than gazing on a successful yard project...perhaps with a delicious beverage and a comfortable chair?

a rare quiet mind.

i have the blissfully empty mind of someone who has spent the day doing quiet and meaningful things.
i woke, found a sunny spot in the house, and began reading a new book. (extremely loud & incredibly close, by jonathan safran foer if you are curious.)
after a time, the sun was too wonderful to not experience outside. i raked, dug up, split perennials and replanted them. there is now a new sunny area for beans or squash or whatever vegetable is lucky enough to earn its place there. the hosta have been repositioned in the sandy area around the garage. i hope they survive, not because i particularly like hosta but because it will deter the sneaky neighborhood cat from doing his business there.
the raking has my hands burning the way they always do after an extended season of soft labor.
it's a good feeling.

fifty eight degrees.

it's nearly spring and the yard work has happily begun. the smell of fresh earth, the first brave green shoots and ambitious landscaping plans are invigorating for the soul. it's hard to believe it's possible to tolerate so much time spent indoors, cooped up in our man-made spaces and shelters during the cold winter months. 

so many seeds.

the countdown to last frost begins!
we officially started the first batch of vegetable garden seeds in our greenhouse spare bedroom.
adam set up the tables, hung the grow lights, mixed the starter soil and planted the onions. i created the schedule for when to start the rest of the vegetable seeds, when the transplants can go outside and am trying to plot outdoor container locations.
we didn't grow vegetables last year and the permanent bed is suffering for it. much compost and sweat will have to be poured into that soil as the weeds have taken it back over for their own.