Last Harvest of the Season

We had a freezing evening last week and I forgot to harvest everything in my garden. However, it wasn't that bad because my peppers are still fine, along with the lemon grass and ginger.

This was the rest of the lemon grass, washed, cut, and straight to the freezer.

Here are the live lemon grass and ginger. Ready to be brought inside the house.

Their new home is right next to my desk in our classroom. That's all the sun they get. Hopefully they can survive until spring.

I left the parsley, lavender, hyssop, and peppermint in the garden. I'm hoping to see them growing in the spring. Last year I brought them inside, but they wither and I had to buy more to plant. We got so much leaves outside, when it gets a little warmer I will gather some and cover those plants I left to keep them warmer.

Utilizing Our Yard Harvest 2015

These are some of my harvest from July to October. I forget to take a pictures sometimes. So, it;s not all here.

I freeze all the left over.

I gave most to the lady who gave my MIL a bath twice a week.

I made cream corn from these.

I even freeze chopped tomatoes, even if they look not very appetizing. I just cut off the bad part and the freezer they go. The big tomatoes you can see here are left on the ground from last year and grew unexpectedly. I'm glad they did because grape tomatoes did not taste very "tomatoey" for me when cooked. Adding other type of tomatoes tasted better.

 And yes, my freezer is stuffed with fresh vegetables. I will be eating them through the winter.

I had plenty of eggplants, broccoli, and okra. And everyday I have cooked fresh vegetables.

7/1/2015 Update of My Garden

Hyssop, give me reason not to plant this? DH is suffering from mucus and congestion at night. I will sure try making tea tonight for him.

Indian/flint corn. Hopefully I can eat some this year. I can't wait.

Broccoli, I'm hoping to finally harvest some this year.

Loving my spinach that took forever to grow, but look at them now.

The same goes to my sweet basil. I thought I will be looking at them with a magnifying glass all year.

Onions, I put onions on everything, hahaha. I bought a $0.50 worth of onions. Hopefully they flowers and drop on the ground for an early start next year. I planted them in-between everything. Where-ever there's a space.

Starting to Green (6/9/15)

Indian corn

Okra

Peanut, I wanted my children to see how they grow.

Cayenne pepper

Sweet bell peppers, will try canning these.

Cherry tomato, only one kind this year.

Sweet potato. I will cover this with fall leaves. I'm hoping I can harvest bigger sweet potatoes next year.

 Broccoli, second year planting them. The first one did not made it during very wet spring and early winter.

Sweet peas, I didn't realize I only got 12 seeds left. Hoping they all fruit for my next year batch.

Two kinds of lavender and rosemary.

Happenings

May 27, 2015
Poor DH got all the hard work in our three days weekend. The first was very nice, it was a working nice day.

The second day was above, hotter than before but not too bad.

The third day, DH was putting the fence around my small garden. The big garden will not be use for vegetables. He change his mind because our children keep asking for a swimming pool. He will get a permit to put it up in the lower part of this yard. We have to run electricity and water there. Of course the township will need to come inside our house to see how we connect them.

Small blueberries bushes, however they already have fruits.

Bigger blueberries. Rain is very stingy this time of year for us. The ground is very dry. I have to water my garden and fruits trees every day.

This vine is a red grape, I have another one that is not in the picture.

Close-up of blueberries. I forgot to take a picture of the apples and peaches. The deer almost finish one peaches leaves, they even ate the small fruit on it. Hopefully DH can put the deer netting this afternoon when he gets home early.

The Veggies

Still not planted yet. I am waiting for DH to buy me some fencing. However, I think I am going out today to pick some sort of fencing. I grew very impatient. Yes, he will do it, but there is a chance I will be planting these on the ground around June.

The above photos are bought from my local farmers market. None of them are heirlooms. Last year I was able to buy a few heirlooms, but no luck this year.

Indian corns.

Okra, long beans, spinach, & peas.

Two Spots

May 9, 2015
Yap, I am going to have 2 gardens this year. One for big plants and one for small plants like herbs and strawberries. I'm not sure if I can plant strawberry this year but I am looking forward to it next year.

Above was already mix. We are planning on putting an above pool there last year, but out neighbor being neighborly told us that we will get fined by the township if we do not get a permit to put it up. We don't want to get a permit and until now no pool for the children and I am taking the spot for some vegetables.

This one is not quite done because our tiller is being temper-mental again when DH started mixing it. This is where my chives and onions can be found. I will be adding strawberries and other herbs here. That's all for today.

A Surprise in my Garden

Here they are. I am very happy my chives came back. I didn't brought it inside the house for the winter, and I am glad because 80% of what I brought inside died within a month. I think this one was an heirloom.

They already have buds, so more chives for next year. I'll just let the seed falls on the ground. I wish I can do this to all of my herbs. I heard lavender will more likely to survive. I will try it this year. I will cover them with a lot of leaves from our trees and hopefully the lavender can survive our harsh winter. I'm pretty sure my chives will do even better because here I didn't cover it. I simply let it withered. However, they have bulbs, lavender doesn't. I'll find out next year :).

These onions I was really surprise because I thought I killed it last year. The leaves just vanished and I didn't bother checking the ground. And look are they now. These ones will be my very first harvest for this season. I bet they will be big enough at the end of June.

New Fruit Trees

May 6, 2015

Yes, I can't believe it either that we left those trees in our old property to be chopped down by the buyers. Oh, well. We got the bad deal on that sale. We got force out because we did not made any deals, well we thought they were nice. Yea, that was the last time. We learned our lesson, and the next time (if ever) we sell another house, we know better.

This time we only bought, 3 apples, 3 peaches, 6 blueberries, and 2 grapes on Friday May 2, 2015. I like plums but the Japanese beetles did not live it alone. And I am not very fond of pears, so no pears either. The blueberries, peaches, and apple already have flowers. I'm hoping to get a taste, even one on each this year.

I will add the picture as soon as we put all of them on the ground. Oh, yeah, I started my garden this week. I will be buying little plants just like last year. The warm weather sneaked up too fast, I sowed some seeds on Saturday, but only Okra sprouted so far. And today we barely made it to 60 deg F and very cloudy. I'll find out soon enough if any other will sprout.

Winter is Not an Issue

Anymore, Yeah! DH bought a used 4x4 F350 diesel truck with a plow for our driveway. Yes, his been wanting one since we move here at Chestnut Ridge Farms a year ago. Having our first winter with a lawn mower plow was pretty hard for him. At one point we were almost snowed in, but luckily the snow forecast change to nothing that time.

He got it all inspected at our local garage and it looks like he made a good deal buying it. There are some things needs fixing, but they are minor to him. He's pretty happy with the purchase. Plus my whole family can fit in it. I can't wait to take to Long Island Beach Park in NJ this summer. We can finally drive straight to the beach. No more walking carrying all the things we need. O yea, we like to beach when there is not much people around us, so we goes to the farthest part of the beach.