༺ Weeds Be Gone ༻

If you hate to use nasty chemicals to get rid of weeds coming up in walkways and patios, I have a great alternative method. I found a recipe that creates a spray to help keep grass, sunflowers, dandelions, and other weeds from filling the cracks in your walkways. I used it recently, and can say "It Works"!

Here is the recipe:

• Vinegar - Two Cups
• Liquid Dish Soap - One Tablespoon
• Salt - One Tablespoon

I found an old jar, doubled the recipe, and mixed it all up. Then I found a simple spray bottle to pour the mixture into (I used a funnel). Next, I took the spray bottle outside and gave those unwelcome weeds a nice soaking. It was easy and I felt good not having to buy or use more serious chemicals on areas where my dogs and I hang out.

The results were pretty fast. Within a few hours I saw the weeds starting to turn brown. I resprayed tough patches of grass to be sure they got a nice covering. Soon, the weeds were very brown and shriveled up. Success!

This is one recipe I want to keep on hand and use as needed.

What's Happening in the Yard?

Besides lots of watering, here's a sample of some sights in my backyard.

First, much to Barney's annoyance, our Western Meadowlark friend walks boldly about catching miller moths.

He enjoys catching bugs and in the process always gives us a nice show. I think there is a nest or two nearby in the grasses. I love the strong yellow color of this bird. He really has an attitude!

Barney sits in front of the window and talks to the birds. Sometimes he slaps the window, letting the birds in the yard know he's watching. One time we were outside and the Meadowlark was visiting at the same time. Barney walked close to him and the bird hopped away. They kept doing it this for a few jumps until the bird flew away. I guess he wasn't too scared of a dog not much bigger than he is.

Our other bird adventures involve chickens. We got a few chicks earlier this spring, and now they are starting to lay eggs. The early eggs are quite small but soon will be larger. Here's a picture of the third egg we found.

Finally, here are some pictures of the flowers in the yard. The clay pot has one basil plant, still recovering from the recent hail, and some zinnea flowers just sprouting up. I love zinneas and collect their seeds each fall to replant the next year. And who could forget the wild Black-Eyed Susan flowers. We have them in abundance and let them grow where we can since even weed flowers are good for bees and other creatures.

Hail is Cruel

It could have been worse. They were predicting winds of 60 miles per hour. That would have erased the poor garden plants completely. Instead, we just got the hail and a little bit of rain. While the moisture was welcome, the hail did a fair amount of damage to the young vegetables in the garden. I hope they can recover !

I think the tomatoes got the biggest beating. Their leaves got ripped to bits! The pepper plants lost the pods they were developing. We were able to collect some that weren't too torn up.

While I was snapping these pictures, a nasty red ant got into my shoe. I haven't been bitten by our ants before and will plan to wear socks and sneakers next time I venture into their world! Ouch !

If only the storm had done something about our Miller Moth infestation. This year is the worst we have seen. Luckily they don't bite!

Spring is always interesting on the plains. Next to arrive are flying ants and mosquitoes !! I think I'll stay inside and crochet !!

On a more cheerful note, Barney the chihuahua is all grown up now. He'll be two in September.

One of Barney's favorite pass times, besides hanging out with me, is looking out the patio window and fussing at the birds in the grass. I guess he considers the yard his domain !!

Here is what Barney looked like before I gave him a spring haircut:

♪ Settling In for Winter ♪

The days are shorter, the temperature is colder, and the garden is done for the season. Carla and Oz, our doberman dogs, enjoy sitting in the sun, dreaming about chasing bunnies and warm summer days.

Oz is red, Carla is black. They are brother and sister. The little birds right outside the window fascinate them, but bunnies are really their favorite to scout and chase.

Snow settled on Colorado this week. It didn't mess around either. Our area got about 6", while neighboring towns got up to a foot. Our oak tree had already lost its leaves, but other local limbs fell on power lines, impacting electricity and internet connections for a day.

So it is time for pumpkin bread, soup from frozen vegetables, and hot drinks. The chickens are still trying to figure out the new temperatures. They don't seem to want to lay many eggs when it is cold. Hopefully they will get back to it again once they understand the situation.

For me, I think it is time to start knitting hats and crocheting decorative snowflakes. I'll add these items to my etsy shop in the coming weeks. I hope to see you there ! Stay warm everyone.

༺ Garden Treats ༻

Besides having cantaloupe everyday, we are eating, freezing and canning bounty from our garden. One favorite is salsa, which I make from garden tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers. Here are the tomatoes that will go into the next batch !

My 15 plants are just starting to produce. At the same time the tomatoes were turning orange, I had a few days of struggle with hornworms.

Each morning, as I was watering, I had to search the tomato stems for worms. These fellows can strip the leaves off the plants really fast. Luckily, they seem to be fewer in number now, so my tomato plants should thrive for the rest of the season.


The nights are getting cooler, the plants are getting crunchier, and the horn worms are moving on! Yeah for Summer Bounty!

༺ Zinnea & Violin ༻

As the long hot days of summer continue, I'm active with gardening as well as learning to play the violin. It isn't unusual to have a daily salad this time of year full of goodness such as fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots. The cantaloupe and watermelon are getting ripe too ! In addition to the vegetables, I also planted some flowers. The bees enjoy them and so do I ! Here is a picture of some zinnea flowers that I grew from seeds I saved last year.

Later in the day when it is too hot to be outside anymore, I turn to the violin. I get music ideas from a few online violin tutors I follow. Recently I heard about a song called "The Lover's Waltz".

I decided to try playing it after hearing how lovely it was. YouTube is a great resource, and here is one version of this piece that is a good one to follow along with. The melody gets stuck in your head, so listen at your own risk !!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer season.

༺ Spring is For Growing ༻

This spring has been about the nicest one I can remember. The cool sunny days and ample moisture are turning all my plants so green ! My zinnia seeds are sprouting, soon to bring lots of flowers for the bees.

Another favorite flower in my garden is the gaillardia. Here is a dew drenched first bloom of the season.


Here is an update on the asparagus I planted. I watched and watched, hoping the tubers would produce something. One day I even dug up a tuber to be sure it was still there. It had roots sprouting, so I replanted and waited some more. Well, a few days ago I was weeding the area and was happy to see a few delicate asparagus ferns.


They grew really quickly ! I love the bright green color and the soft look these asparagus have.

What's growing in your garden this spring?

༺ New in the Garden ༻

This year Spring has been slow in coming. Colorado has been chilly and windy. However, on the days I could get into the garden, I've planted a few seeds and these wonderful new plants: Asparagus !

These plants involve a commitment, because it takes a few years to get the bed established. I needed to dig a trench in the row, place the crowns, then cover them lightly with soil. As they grow this year I'm supposed to continue covering the young sprouts. By season's end the original roots are supposed to be about 5" below grade. So they require some pampering to get started, but if all goes as planned, in years ahead we'll have tender asparagus sprouts to enjoy each spring.

My other garden focus has been planning to get this &*%*&*# tomato plant out of the house. As you have read, we experimented with bringing a potted tomato plant in for the winter. Well, it was an experiment I probably won't repeat.

While we did get a handful of little delicious tomatoes to enjoy, we also got little bugs in the deal. The plant sits in front of a south facing window, and the little flying bugs congregate on the top of the window on warm days. I have to use a rag to capture and remove the little devils. Whew, I'll be glad to get this plant into the garden soon. I think I'll be fighting the bugs for the summer, but it was worth it to have the fresh tomatoes on cold snowy days. Next year I hope to have an outdoor greenhouse to run the experiment in !

It is nice out today, so I'll head out now to water the rows and add a few more early seeds to the beds.

༺ Thinking About Gardening ༻

As the sun warms the days, my mind is turning to thoughts of the upcoming gardening season. I reviewed my 2010 notes, remembering when I started planting, the wind and hail that took tender early crops, and the successful pumpkin vines. What will this year bring?

We are still enjoying food from last year's efforts. I cooked up the last two pumpkins yesterday, creating roasted pumpkin seeds first, then using the steamed pumpkin to make quick bread. Today I used last year's cucumbers in a pasta salad. The juice they were stored in gives the salad a nice zing. Salsa continues to be enjoyed, and the dried hot peppers bring spice to life! We recently ran out of onions and frozen carrots. Hopefully the 2011 season will allow us to put as much food by.

The garden has a new coating of compost, which gave me something invigorating to do on warm winter days. Shoveling, turning, and carrying heavy shovel fulls of compost is actually a pretty good workout! The rototiller stands ready to turn the soil, which is a sure sign that plants will soon be enjoying the garden soil.


I'm ready to get outside and put on gardening gloves. Last fall I planted some garlic bulbs, so I keep walking by the garden looking over to see if they are popping up yet. It is windy today, which warms up the air. I think I'll go take a peek at the garlic row right now !

༻ Fall Colors ༺

Fall has lasted a very long time this year, so a number of flowers are still tempting my camera. Here are a few shots from around the yard this week.



I'm not going to complain - another day with flowers is certainly a good day.

Be watching for my next posting. I have begun a new adventure: making homemade goat's milk soap !! The first batch is curing on the table beside me and in a few minutes I'll remove them from their molds and take a few pictures. Details next time !

༻ String It Up ༺

The garden produced a lot of peppers this season, so I strung them up into Ristras. First I pulled up the plants and hung them upside down in the garage for a few weeks, then indoors for another few weeks. Finally I cut them off the plants and used a needle and thread to create long lines of peppers.


I put about 5-6 dried red peppers per string, then tied a few pepper strings together into one long group. These will be pretty to look at and make handy pepper dispensers when we need them for cooking. In addition, some peppers were frozen earlier in the season, and maybe we'll chop up some of the dried ones later to make a pepper spice. Hopefully they will last through the winter and help us create some delicious meals.

♪ Don't Cry About It ♪

Ever find yourself weeping while cutting up onions?

Here is a quick post to share a few simple, yet effective onion chopping tips. As I started another batch of salsa this week it occurred to me that maybe I should do some research to better prevent my garden onions from making my eyes water so much. What I found was very helpful, so I thought I'd share:

- As I cleaned the outer skins and greens from the onions I did the work in the sink with cold water running on them.

- It was recommended that the onions be cold, so I popped them in the refrigerator before I chopped them.

- For the actual chopping, I lit up my favorite scented candle right behind the cutting board. Since the onion creates a gas when cut, I read that a candle would burn the gas before it gets the chance to irritate eyes.

- I used a sharp knife, which helps reduce the creation of onion gas.

Using these techniques made a dramatic difference ! I recommend these tips !! If you have other methods, please share them in the comments.

༺ Garden in September ༻

Today's harvest looks like a little salad !

The cute little yellow fruits are actually tomatoes ! They are shaped like little light bulbs. The pods are black-eyed peas. Here is a cute sight - a cucumber with a little flower on the end:

My latest challenge is to to figure out what to do with the eggplants I'll soon have. I counted today and I have 10 healthy plants, just starting to make eggplants. If you have some ideas, please leave me comments !


This picture shows pole beans, iris, tomatoes, cauliflower, eggplant and onions. It has been a good year in the garden. The grasshoppers would probably agree !!

♪ Garden Notes ♪

Gardening season is racing ahead and I can barely keep up ! What a strange year this has been for us in Colorado. Wet. We aren't used to that ! Today we even got a new batch of mosquitoes. They kept me swatting as I dug up some new potatoes, which made for a nice potato salad.

I got cheesecloth put on the sunflowers to see if that helps keep birds away from the seeds. I tried a t-shirt first, but that was pretty heavy and made the flower droop.

Here is my first ever batch of fried okra & hot peppers ! DH said it was good:

Here is the raw okra, along with some black-eyed-peas (which I discovered were not quite ready):

The corn is in too. I froze about 3 dozen ears last weekend. I also made some refrigerator pickles from cucumbers, since I can't keep up with eating the fresh ones:

And of course the beets are still coming in:
I have frozen some hot peppers too. The remaining peppers will be used to make salsa, once our onions and tomatoes are ready. I'm planning to can the salsa in jars, so stay tuned for my posting about that adventure !

❤ Sunflowers Open ❤

As promised earlier, I got my sunflower pictures fixed up. Now I can show a series of pictures that illustrate how my 10 foot sunflower plants look as they bloomed this year. Their sheer size is so amazing, then on top of that grandness, big lovely flowers pop open over a course of a few days. Here is my series, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did watching these beauties:













Continued vigilance will be needed if I'm going to get the seeds before anyone else. Hopefully I'll do a post in the future about that process. If the birds get them, at least I know the seeds will be going to a good cause though.

♪ Garden Goodies ♪

My sink was full this morning - check out the day's harvest !!


The turnips (I had about 8 more like that one) got frozen, as did the hot peppers. The kohlrabi was used in a stir-fry for dinner. Tip: did you know that if you get hot pepper oil in a cut or in your eye, that washing it with milk relieves the pain? Even soy milk works.

A few days ago I made some refrigerator pickled beets. I found out that you shouldn't replace the sugar with Splenda. That batch came out too acidic and I had to compost it. The other jars were made with sugar, and those are delicious !

Such a pretty color !
All the efforts in the garden are paying off this year. Despite some busy Colorado potato beetles, the produce is turning out nicely. Next I need to get ready for the corn !!

༺ Garden Pictures ༻

We enjoyed our first tomato of the season this week. I grew this one in a pot on the patio, so it stayed a little warmer I think. It was sweet and delicious ! The ones in the garden are still green, but look out, when they are ready I'll have to be doing some serious kitchen time.


I also have some nice interesting plants in the garden this year, including okra, eggplants, musk melons, and this cutie - a kohlrabi ->


I should probably pick this one and try it in a salad soon.

The Colorado potato beetles have moved from the potatoes to the eggplants. What a damaging little bug these guys are ! I have to be diligent with picking them off every day, or else the plants would be stripped.

The sunflowers are getting really big, and the bees are really enjoying them. I need to work on my pictures, but soon I'll write a post showing the stages of the sunflowers as they open up. I found this fascinating to watch.

ↁ How's Gardening Going? ↁ

Plants, both desired and undesired (weeds) are growing well in my garden this summer. I'm expecting to be very busy in August, and here are some pictures to explain what I'll be doing.

The sunflowers are about to bloom - I'll need to figure out how to get to the seeds before the birds harvest them all for me:

These plants are so tall that the sweet corn plants behind them look tiny ! I guess we don't grow corn like they do in Iowa, right Mark?

I also have some cucumbers and melons coming in. I enjoyed a salad with these garden items for dinner tonight: cucumbers, beets and lettuce (which actually grew in a pot indoors by a window).

Finally, since I'm all about flowers, I have to show a picture of some zinneas I grew from seeds. Notice that one of our honey bees is also a fan:

Let the freezing, canning, and eating commence !! How's your garden growing this summer?