Canning Season ~ Beans, Beans and More Beans !

 It is canning season and we are beyond abundance ( is there such a thing as beyond abundance ?) in beans !

 My husband is an amazing gardener and tends his vegetable garden well.

 He planted, grew, and tended beans quite successfully this year. He grew some yellow beans along with green beans. The yellow beans taste the same as the green beans so I was excited to can the yellow beans along with the green beans because I think the jars of canned beans are pretty with the yellow.

 These are quart jars of primarily yellow beans with a few green beans ~ however, most of my quart jars of canned beans are green with a few yellow beans in the mix.

I have canned about 60 quarts of green / yellow beans thus far. It is a good thing my husband & I love green beans, and no doubt we'll eat them all. Now onto carrots ....

Canning season is the time of year I  love and dread. The abundance of produce is a blessing but it all comes at once leaving me no time to do anything but can and preserve the harvest my husband has worked hard to provide during the hottest time of the year. That is where we are at here at Laughing Dove Farm ~ preserving our hard earned produce. I am thankful ( but tired) for all God has provided ~ praise Him !

A Riot of Wildflowers

 This bed of wildflowers riots in front of my husband's orderly vegetable garden.

 Last year this was a pumpkin garden but the pumpkin vines boldly invaded his veggie garden and he had to deal with pumpkins taking over his patch of order and productivity.

 This year we've planted our pumpkins in a portion of our front pasture, taking care to fence the pumpkin patch off from the sheep. (Now that the pumpkin vines and baby pumpkins are growing lush, my sheep are tending to lean against the protective fence and longingly gaze at what they want but cannot have, but the fence won't stop them from trying !)

 We planted 2 packets of wildflower seeds in 2 previously pumpkin patches and what a difference in the result. One bed is chock full of these beautiful poppies with forget-me-nots, sweet alyssum, yarrow, and another as yet unidentified flower sprouting, blooming, and filling the bed. Look at this poppy !

You can see our Miss Winnie travel trailer in the background and I think the riot of poppies and other wildflowers compliment her very well. ~ (Miss Winnie is not only our travel trailer, she is our guest house too. I will post about her later~ I love our Miss Winnie !)

"Oh , Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees that half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees." ~ Rudyard Kipling

" Flowers always make people better , happier, and more helpful. They are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul." Luther Burbank

Spring Has Arrived, Mostly

 The tulip bulbs I planted in pots last year are ready to bloom, but all the plants I have to put in flower beds and decorative pots are still not planted. We've had below freezing temps overnight the last few days. The water in our fountain was ice, and some tender plants left outside froze. ( It was 22 degrees Monday night.) As you can see, these plants are still waiting to be put into pots.

 I bought these herbs 3 weeks ago on the first warm sunny day. I was so excited to begin planting my herbs. They've been growing quite well in an over-the-sink colander for now.My excitement over warmer spring days was short-lived. Oh well, it has been convenient to snip them off for cooking right here in the kitchen.

 This is my husband's honeybee shelter. The winters here are extremely cold and were not kind to the bees we brought here with us from our previous home. With the deep freeze and the hordes of yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets that reside here, our first hives were devastated. My husband works hard to get our honeybees to thrive here, and that includes not only shelter from scorching sun and freezing weather, but some insulation in the hives and feeding them over the winter. ( You can see this honeybee shelter from our front porch.)

 This planter is made of old hive boxes my husband would have burned if I had not begged him for them to use as planters. He is working to eradicate any disease that compromises our bees and these are old and well-used hive boxes.

 The hive box planter is in front of our aviary which can also be seen from our front porch.

 Here is a picture of the honeybee shelter and the aviary, both in the front yard, in full view of our front porch. Beyond the aviary and honeybee shelter is our front pastures, then the gravel road that runs in front of our home, and beyond the road are hills, mountains, and woods.

 Our front porch. My husband is currently working on the flowerbeds in front of our home. When we bought our home the beds were planted with very hardy roses . The roses grew large and wieldly, and the thorns proved dangerous while pruning the roses and weeding the flower beds. We transplanted the roses to a place they could grow and big and wild as they're able and I am so happy with how my husband has chosen to plant our front flowerbeds. I will post updates soon.

A box of annuals I am waiting to plant. According the the weather forecast I should be able to plant them all next week. ~ " Then God said , "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed , and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind , with seed in them, on the earth"; and it was so." Genesis 1:7

My Man is a Super-Gardener !

 Just look at this garden with fruit trees on the side. My husband planted all this since this past March. We had snow and deep freeze until early March, our new veggie garden is now situated and planted on ground that was previously used as parking space and hard as pavement. My husband also prepared the ground and soil for our fruit trees shown here ( right of garden). They were also planted on ground previously hard as pavement.

 This view shows the garden from my sheep pen. Look at what my amazing husband has done with this piece of land ! ( Our house is in the upper right of the picture.)

 You can see my sheep grazing in their pasture on the other side of our new veggie garden, and further away you can see our woods & forest.

 Radishes ready to pluck from the soil.

 Squashes and pumpkins are flourishing and threatening to take over the veggie garden !

 It is hard to believe that only last year this piece of our new land was barren except for weeds and hard-packed soil. My husband has already turned the barren wasteland into an abundant vegetable garden ! Fruit trees are already providing fruit, vegetables enough for us , our family, and to sell at the local market....

 ...pumpkins, squash and corn ready to take over the garden plot,

 harvests covering our counter-tops , filling our fridge and begging to be eaten and preserved.

 Guess what, my husband even decided to can his hard -worked -for produce. He started canning !

Took this picture this morning of my husband standing in his garden. Look at the sweet corn , it's taller than him and the corn will soon be ready to pick.You can see our pasture and woods in the distance. Yes indeed, my man is a super-gardener !

Last Of Autumn Splendor ~ Thursday in the Garden

Another update on the gardens , pond, and woods around Cedar Pond. Hawk, our Vizsla prefers napping in the sunshine on the porch. He's getting old and craves warmth to ease his old bones.

Mushroom growing out of the trunk of a dying alder at our pond's edge.

The day after I took this picture we had a 3 day down pouring of rain ( almost 3 inches ) that washed the bright leaves right out of this Japanese maple tree. This tree is showing the last days of autumn splendor. Soon we might see the bare branches adorned with the icy crystals of late fall and winter.

A baby fennel plant has sprung up at the edge of one of the paths in my herb garden.

Rose hips on our Rugosa bushes in the herb garden are so bright and cheerful.

Mallow plants that escaped my weeding are blooming in the front garden under an ornamental grass. I have two kinds of Mallow growing here and they are hardy survivors , seeding themselves far and wide around Cedar Pond. The honeybees love them.

Our burning bush ( don't recall its real name ) has scant leaves but is full of berries the birds are plucking quickly.

One of my granddaughters snapped this photo of me as I was burning almost 5 months worth of storm debris down by our pond. After the big rains we can safely burn , and I had a very big burn pile going for 2 days.

My huge burn pile is now a cozy fire near our special spot at pond's side. The wood neatly stacked behind the fire is ready for future outdoor fires by the pond. ( All that wood is from trees the storms brought down around and into the pond.)

Sometimes our fall and winters bestow upon us a rare sunny day. On many such days we wrap ourselves in warm clothing ,build a fire in the fire pit by the pond and sip hot coffee or cocoa as we take in the beauty of the season. ~ " Instead of the call of the meadowlark, we hear the sharp call of the busy nuthatch as he probes tree trunks for juicy beetle-steak hidden in the cracks of bark. The November wind scurries fitfully and the cold rain falls in a leaden sheet across the brown fields."  ~ 'The New England Butt'ry Shelf Almanac' by Mary Mason Campbell

Our Pacific Northwest autumn splendor is giving way to November's late fall palette, preparing us for winter damp and dark, a beauty all its own.

I am thankful for my faithful dogs, my entertaining cats , our pond, and ever-changing weather .

Thursday Tea in The Garden ~ My weekly garden journal.

 It has been an unseasonably hot and rain free spring , we're not used to so little rain and so much heat this early in the year in the Pacific Northwest. Our gardens are not either. The grapes are already out of control and there are many clusters of growing and ripening grapes on the vines.

 Our kiwi vines are finally producing shade over their arbor and we now have a place to sit in the sun in our large front yard without need of a sun umbrella. Maybe next year the kiwi will produce fruit .

 A red rose we planted almost 20 years ago blooms prolifically in spite of neglect. She sits in a hot dry space against the southern exposure of our house. She has to be watered by hose because the rain rarely falls on her . She is a survivor. I think these are the best kinds of roses ! I am sure if I dig around her base I'll find the metal tag proclaiming her pedigree. She is sweetly fragrant and reminds me of the high hopes we had for a big rose garden when we built our home and dug the first flower beds.

 A pink rugosa has taken over a fence line and we work hard to prevent this bush from strangling a nearby hydrangea. Who knew when we planted both tiny bushes they would grow so large ? ( not us .)

 White rugosa bushes fill a whole corner and gateway in our herb garden, our Blue Bottle Garden. The rugosas fill our property with their sweet scent and attract many hummingbirds and honeybees. Mallow (left ) and Lady's Mantle grow under the rugosa on either side.

 My husband's veggie garden also abounds with strawberries and raspberries. Look at how high most of his veggie beds are ! The strawberry beds are front left....

 ...and guess what's for dessert ! Whipping cream is chilling in the fridge.

 There are a lot of snap peas but they rarely make it to the stir fry pot because I eat most of them as I pick them , and snack on them raw at night. I also add them raw to salads. They're sweet and crisp.

Tea in the garden is ICED peach tea , refreshing after a day of gardening.

 

Although this is not a linky party I think you'll thoroughly enjoy visiting these two gardening bloggers ( who've inspired me ! ) and seeing what's going on in their gardens . Judith * at Lavender Cottage and Flower Lady Lorraine * at Flower Lady's Musings. I hope you're taking time to sip some tea and enjoy the flowers this summer even if your summer does get too busy,is too hot, and seems too much work . There's always time for tea !