Ravenwood Cottage

Back to the Garden

Still very sore from working in the garden Thursday but if I am going to get the onion plants in the ground I better get cracking. Our area was excepting high clouds today but most of the time I worked it was sunny. I was finally able to crank the tiller and finished turning over the raised bed. I screened a small wheelbarrow of compost and spread it over the soil, added organic fertilizer and a bit of 10-10-10. One of the therapists at rehabilitation said to add more fertilizer than I thought I needed for onions as they are heavy feeders.

Rather than run the plants in short rows through the bed, I planted them in long rows close to the edge of the raised bed, I want to be able to keep them weeded and well tended. I have never been able to successfully grow onions. I have such happy memories of walking with my Grandfather out to his kitchen garden, pulling spring onions to take in and eat fresh with our dinner. Mother says Papa never saw a child enjoy onions as much as I did when I was young.

I needed a break after that and moved on to a less demanding job. I weeded one side of the blackberry vines. It wasn’t grass so much as small lanky weeds which pulled up easily. I raked out old leaves and saw several damaged vines that need trimming. I also noted a few vines coming up outside the row, these need to be dug and planted back in the row of vines as I have lost a couple of the vines originally planted. I have an old shower chair that I drag along with me so that I don’t have to bend over while weeding or planting things, it certainly affords me the opportunity for rest as needed.

I really wish I could find someone who loved to garden that would work reasonably and perhaps have a vegetable garden on some of this good land I steward to help me. One always sees the old faithful garden man in the English productions with a magical green thumb that seems to grow anything effortlessly. Open invitation for dedicated plantsman, apply here.

Lastly I set up the sprinkler to water the bed I planted as it is a bit dry due to the warm temperatures we have had the last week. I can’t remember 80 degrees plus in April; I hope this is not a prediction of the summer! Anything over 78 degrees and it is too hot for me

Day One in the Garden

Sunny today and our high temperature was 88 degrees! I knew I had to make myself enter the garden and plant the lettuce, broccoli and onions plants I eagerly purchased a week ago. Old man Sol can certainly lure us to dream of easy harvests when the warm rays of sunshine begin after such a winter as we have had. On my way home from Physical Therapy I could not resist stopping at Ace Hardware for a few plants; plants I should have started from my own seeds but didn’t.

It did not take long turning the soil with my spade; naturally the Mantis tiller wouldn’t crank, to make me remember why I dislike spring so! So much work to do; mowing, weeding, pruning, planting, spraying, and on and on. I turned over 8 feet of the 16 foot bed, added well rotted compost and a generous sprinkling of organic fertilizer. Nine broccoli plants, five lettuce and a bundle of sweet onion plants; I slipped in one of the heirloom tomatoes just to try to get a jump on the season.

With a breaking back I pulled myself onto the mower and mowed the yard and fields for two hours. Still not quite dead…I weeded the perennial bed at the back gate and raked out all the leaves. Imagine my surprise when I saw hosta shoots peeking up through the soil and the astilbes and heucheras well along! I thought for sure the astilbes were dead. Still awaiting the lily-of-the-valley plants to break dormancy.

By now both knees ached and I came in the house and showered and barely had strength enough to put some chicken and a hash brown potato casserole into the oven for our supper. Sure wish I had garden help, I like to garden but each year it gets harder and harder.

Late October...

Another glorious, rainy and dark October day here at the Cottage. Some find days like this depressing…I find them so restful. It is as if Mother Nature lies back on her harvested bounty and sighs with contentment as she prepares to enter into a time of repose and refreshment. I suppose that is how I feel as well. The garden in except for the sweet potatoes needing to be dug and cured, the fields not burgeoning with grasses to be mowed and the ever present task of pushing back creeping noxious plants toward the clearing I call home.

From my desk I can hear the pop and crackle of a newly lit fire that takes the chill off the main living rooms. The sweet smell of burning oak that stirs my collective consciousness of memories of ancient man huddled against the forces of nature for warmth around the hearth. How blessed I am for a warm dry home in which to live! The days have rolled into weeks and months and I can hardly believe it will be November soon. My garden is still producing pimento and green peppers and I have some late planted ‘Brandywine’ tomatoes struggling against the cooler than normal temperatures we have had this fall. I could have safely predicted another month of growing season but this has been the coolest October on record in our area.

My oldest cat is ill again…probably bitten by an aggressive stray male cat. She has surely used up many of her nine lives this summer. She has come back from infected glands, a neck abscess from a bite and now trying to recover from a bite on her back leg. Poor dear is such a sight as she drags herself from the basket I outfitted for her convalescence. I can hardly maneuver in my tiny bathroom as it is, but now with absorbent pads covering the floor, her basket and a dish of water I must do a ‘twister’ dance to enter there. Today she finally ate some solid food, the first in 4 days. Lucky for me she loves a dish of half & half for that is what has fought off dehydration.

Beth and I had a fun time last night at our weekly scrapbook crop night. It is a 25 mile drive one way to meet up with Marsha and Loretta, but oh so worth it! We can chatter a mile a minute or all sit quietly working on our projects and we relish this time for ourselves. Beth is cutting out triangles and squares for a lovely fall colored ‘Bear Paw’ quilt, Marsha creating a Christmas gift album for her sister with childhood photos of family and Loretta is assembling another album containing zoo photos. We are all amazed at how much she loves to visit zoos…and takes hundreds of photos of the animals. I confess I would only be able to create a double page spread on a zoo visit and then be done with that topic. We good naturedly tease her about her love of zoos.

I think it is time for a second cup of tea…and perhaps a slice of the pumpkin pie Mother made last night. Sort of my version of ‘elevensies’ that the British observe. Have a pleasant day readers.

Tomato Harvest Time...

Taking a short break…trying to gather up enough energy and enthusiasm to can some fresh picked tomatoes from the garden. When I purchased my plants this spring they were supposed to be an old favorite ‘Rutgers’ variety. Not sure what I actually received as I even have a yellow tomato plant in my garden. Most of the tomatoes have been so small it is almost like trying to process the tiny cherry tomatoes Mother wanted the first year she moved into the Cottage with me, ha ha.

It is so dry! We desperately need several days of good steady rain. I sat the sprinklers up on the garden after I picked about 3 gallons of tomatoes, I am sure there are as many more remaining to be picked. Gretchen has gone to Atlanta for a few days and the Cottage is pleasantly quite even though she is always a quite resident. We miss her while she is gone, but life with two old grannies must get tedious at times. Mother is having a lie down and I am enjoying a steaming cup of tea and almond biscotti, yum. I suppose that will be my lunch.

What an adventure I had last night on my trip to Sam’s Club and then onto the Monday night crop. I decided that I should drive the newer car; the one Chrissy gave us, as it had been just sitting for a bit. It has been parked under the shade of a pecan tree on a grassy spot. When I stopped for gas and moved my cropping tote to retrieve my purse…hundreds of ants were on the back seat! They must have been nesting under the seats and the movement stirred them up. Marsha kindly brought up her can of ant spray and I gave the trunk and car a good spray and rolled down the windows. Later when I checked back I did not see any ant activity. We surely will have to take the car for detailing now to be certain all the ‘illegal residents’ are gone.

Hard to believe it is almost the first of August, this year is speeding by. Naughty me just procrastinates doing things that have a real need to be done. A bit worrisome is the forecast of the H1N1 virus looming upon us this fall and winter. Marsha has a relative that has been diagnosed with the swine flu and is not doing well. I do hope the vaccine that the Center for Disease Control is working on will be available and prevent widespread illness.

Well, the tea is cooling and I can no longer postpone pressing on with the canning of the tomatoes. Will attempt to post a photo of my harvest in the next day or so…Oh and by the way, my corn is tasseling. Hope I can get a few good sweet ears of my first success with growing corn.

Garden and Yard Progress

The weather has turned really hot!! Temperatures in the upper 90’s this week and moderate humidity makes for some pretty miserable days. The only consolation is that the wheel is turning towards fall day by day. Already the days are minutes shorter and the sun sets earlier and earlier each evening. Not that I like the darkness, I just dislike the sultry summer days this time of year. It makes it hard to breathe at times.

 We have had pretty good rain this summer compared to the dreadful drought last year, but still stand in need of more rain. The one or two tropical storms that hovered off the Florida shore didn’t come inland and give us a share of rain.

I finally was able to harvest a good mess of green beans. They had been hiding under the foliage and I almost didn’t find them. Mother and I spent a quite hour or so popping them and I cooked them with a bit of rendered bacon and onion. Fresh hot cornbread, creamed corn and sliced tomatoes from our garden made for a real summer supper feast. I hope to get in a fall garden in the next few weeks as I can grow things till well after Thanksgiving usually.

The saga of the mower has continued this summer, thought perhaps not as bad as last year. My forearms constantly have bruises where I wrestle with the mower belt when it slips off, which it does when the machine is hot and I stopped the blade for some reason. Drifts of hay like grass lie behind the mower and I have been raking them up and using them for mulch. The blackberries are all but done for this year. The fruit trees have weathered another spring and summer with only ragged leaves to show for their battle with the bugs. I can hardly believe that the ‘Montmorency’ Pie Cherry seems to be doing the best of all the trees. Can it be that one day I shall be needed to can cherries or make cherry preserves? Only time will tell.

Friday, July the 25th the new X-Files movie is due for release. I don’t really like to go to the theater but will be there with bells on to see David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson re-create their roles as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. I don’t think the movie will be shown in Griffin so I will probably have to drive up to the Jonesboro Road area to see it. I can hardly wait!!

Can You believe it is already July??

Will try to share a few thoughts before the day gets off to a roaring start...Yesterday’s weather was just wonderful! I don’t know where the cooler temps and dry air came from, but oh how I wish it would stay. 58 degrees in the mornings with a breeze...Heavenly. Worked about 3 ½ hours in the garden yesterday. Weeding in the other half of the bed where the sweet potato slips are planted. They are looking pretty good and seem to have settled in well thanks to the shade cloth I put over them when I set them out. I planted 3 hills of yellow squash, a bit of a late start but should do ok if I keep my eye out for the moth that lays squash borer eggs.

Picked about another quart of blackberries, they are beginning to dwindle down but I have gotten 9 quarts off them. Next year I should be swimming in them. I have a cantaloupe about the size of a large lemon and lots of blooms. The ‘Blue Lake’ green beans are loaded with blooms, but strangely few beans yet...hum will watch that. I sprayed the tomatoes with the Rot-Stop calcium supplement and after the fertilizer I added last week, they are looking pretty good.

I did a bit of weed whacking till the string wouldn’t extend anymore. I could not get the knob off to adjust the string, guess I will have to drive over and let the repair man, Sammy, remove it for me. The earth was so nice to work in; the ground was soft from the nice showers we have received and the weeds slipped out easily. I did get dirty beating the soil from the roots of the weeds however. Just when I would feel I was going to get too warm, a lovely breeze would come and refresh me. Why can’t it stay so nice?

Gretchen went to Atlanta this afternoon to spend a few days with her friends while she has a school break and her workplace is closed for the week of the 4th. It will sure be nice not to have to run a taxi service for a few days.

By 1 pm the sun was so hot I had to quit and come in for a shower. Garden work pretty well saps me for the rest of the day, I was too tired to do any scrapbooking later on. Nothing good on TV although Mom and I did watch Nature on PBS. The topic was ‘Can animals sense impending disasters?’ Off to bed for me at 9:45 and I was asleep in less than 5 minutes. Slept with the window up and no air conditioning...on the first of July, unheard of. Well, I have almost finished my morning cuppa so I should get moving. Today includes a trip to the grocery for staples and to pick up a library book. Hope you have a good day readers!

Gearing Up for Spring...

This week I have been cleaning garden beds of debris I really should have disposed of last fall. That foot surgery put me behind. My daughter was kind enough to surprise me by cleaning off the worst of the dead foliage on the large garden spot, that really helped me feel that I wasn’t hopelessly behind. I pulled out the ‘going to seed’ collards and tilled the soil and planted some beets, spinach and radishes. Grass mowing time is surely here and with all this good rain, things are really popping.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

I am sure most of you remember the old Walt Disney movie where Mickey puts a spell on the broom to carry his pails of water inside for him. Unfortunately the young wizard had not learned the words to stop the broom’s labors. I feel sort of like that with my summer squash plants. I planted 4 plants and three weeks later 4 more...I am sure I have harvested at least 20-25 pounds of squash from them as of now! Everyday my mantra is ‘time to pick the squash’.
Please don’t think me ungrateful, far from that. I am thrilled to have so much squash to eat now and some for freezing for winters’ use. Mom joking told me that she has never been able to afford to buy enough squash from the store to fill her longings even if she could have found nice squash to be purchased. She admits...that this year she thinks she will get full of squash. We usually sauté a sweet onion in a little butter and then add the sliced squash and allow it to simmer in its’ own juices till tender. Ah...sheer ambrosia. Hope everyone’s’ gardens are doing as nice as mine.

May Catch-up and Photos to Share

Would that I could write and post daily...but it seems by the end of the work day I am just too tired to compose journal entries with much enthusiasm and manipulate photos for posting; so on odd days I must cram a lot of activities into one or two posts. Sorry dear readers...
May has been a growing month for the vegetable garden. The every other day watering that I had been doing was just not enough for any growth of the vegetables. I kept hoping for rain...it hasn’t come. So I have begun watering deeply every 4-5 days and the difference is remarkable.


This is a shot of the main vegetable area on May 2nd and the second photo is on May 31st. What a difference a few short weeks makes! I have already harvested two perfect summer squash and in another day shall have enough for cooking. The tomatoes are loaded with baby fruits and the red and green peppers as well. Only a couple of handfuls of strawberries this year, but their fragrance and flavor were wonderful. The darlings are sending out runners in all directions and I really need to put little pots of soil under them so they can root and be transplanted this fall.

A New Arbor for the Garden

Construction of the new compost bin and arbor went very smoothly. I was surprised how quickly Handyman was able to assemble it. How grand it looks from the window of my sewing room. I chose a cool gray stain for it and Mother says it will weather delightfully and look splendid in a year or so. I plan to plant a Clematis paniculata to climb over the structure this fall. I shall pre-order it from White Flower Farm very shortly so I won’t be disappointed when conditions are optimum for planting again.

Thursday, May 24th I loaded up the car and took the recyclables to the recycling center. It is a job I am not too fond of, but consider it very important to do my part to recycle as much as I can. I even run the aluminum cat food cans through the dishwasher so they are clean and add them to the soft drink cans I recycle. I have been using Mom’s daily newspaper as mulch next to the ground and then adding pine or wheat straw as a topping.
I gave my poor old vehicle a good washing this day too. It was so dusty since the pine pollen and dust of the dry spell had settled on it. I chuckled that maybe by washing the car I could seduce the ‘rain Gods’ to let a storm come and dump several inches of rain on us. No such luck. But anyway the car does look much better.

A trip to Home Depot for some small item always gives me excuse to wander through the garden section and see what is fresh and inviting to add to the Garden. While there I discovered a gorgeous pink lace cap hydrangea I absolutely had to have. A coordinating variegated Tiarella, some burgundy ajuga and a trio of red veined Heucheras provided a nice composition for a shade bed near the gate to the Cattery. The Heucheras were rescued from a much neglected bed in the front of the house and now seem happy in their new location. Pardon the ragged appearance of the Liriope outlining the small bed...I like to clip mine when transplanting it. It will fill out quickly and be blooming by August.