finished!

my wonderful raised bed garden! i'm very excited and looking forward to working with it next spring.


a big little patch job my dad did for me on the house foundation.

the previous owner had used some kind of rubbery/plastic-y concrete patch stuff that was falling apart. i thought it'd be just a quick little patch job to use up some of the leftover mortar. my dad had me knock away the old patch job and it ended up being quite a big hole. two holes actually, right into the center of the block. my dad suggested i fill the holes with some styrofoam that i happened to have on hand, and bits of newspaper to make the holes easier to patch over. he did the fine patchwork, using an obscene amount of mortar to fix the crumbling block that had started out looking like just a little patch would be needed. i wished i'd take a picture of the gaping hole(s). trust me when i say it looks MUCH better now.

making a cinder block raised bed garden

today dad came out and helped me put together my raised bed garden.

just a few blocks (66)


and a pallet of peat moss, composted manure, and sand


getting ready, i hauled those blocks out over the previous two days with my trusty green wagon.


the first layer (and my dad) resting on the layer of sand to level them out. glued together with weatherproof construction adhesive for concrete


mixing up the mortar in the dogs old kiddie pool that had a leak


the second layer, mortared to the first


the third layer, as far as we got before we used up all the mortar we had mixed up


we'll get to the remaining blocks another time. lifting that many blocks was hard work and we were more than ready to be done.


i'm very excited!

final pictures over in this entry http://s2.photobucket.com/user/yesididit/media/house%20projects/9-19-10103.jpg.html

we have a pear!

The first (and only) pear is here!



Its on the luscious pear tree, which is the biggest and healthiest of the four varieties I planted this spring. It was also the first to set flowers this spring, and is closest to the front steps. I'm going to let it grow because I figure one little pear cant stress the baby tree too much.

vegetable garden pictures

the garden


potato plants


corn and beans


carrots, onions, and radishes


zucchini, watermelon, and cantelope


first zucchini of the year


garlic is starting to turn brown, will be ready to harvest soon


brussel sprouts, broccoli, and celery (with tomatoes and potatoes in the background)
\

broccoli


baaaaaby brussels sprouts forming


attack of the tomato plants!


raspberries


raspberry bushes, they arent putting out much fruit. i dont think they get enough sun. i'm considering moving them next spring, but then i'd have two places to battle the spikey plants.


they're taking over!


columbine and stevia


potted petunias (theres more out front)


decline of the peas


they're dead (they dont like the heat)


peas are gone. nasturtiums and clover will take over


soybeans for edamame


black eyed peas (i'd forgotten which i'd planted where, but now that they've gotten bigger the soybeans are fuzzy and the black eyed peas are not)

pear trees

the luscious pear tree is doing fabulous


the parker pear tree started to lean, and has been staked


the leaves on both trees look great


however the bark on the trunk of the parker pear tree appears to have split


some guys came around the neighborhood and offered to grind up my tree stump for cheap


the summercrisp pear tree is doing good


but whatever is on some of the leaves has not improved despite the spray i bought


the undersides of the leaves look even worse


the patten pear tree isnt doing so hot


the lower part of the tree is practically bare


and nearly all of the leaves look like this






i think another visit to the garden center might be a good idea, as well as removing all the infected leaves.

canning cherries and cherry jam, from july 3rd

saturday july 3 i canned cherries and made cherry jam from juice with my mom.

start with a sink full of cherries


a hand held cherry pitter helps things along


wear gloves or else you get purple hands for a few days


try to keep the pits in the sink


end up with 2 cups of pits


cherry splatter gets everywhere


stove setup: sterilized lids in back, syrup on left, canner on right


for the jam we used cherry juice my mom picked up i think at trader joes


the smudge in the dish was where we checked that it was the right consistancy, the funnel is a huge help


end up with this:


4 bags of cherries from rainbow made 11 pints.
syrup was 8 cups water, 1 and 1/2 cups sugar.

jam was 32 oz of cherry juice, 1 package low/no sugar pectin, 1 1/2 cups sugar, made 3 1/2 jelly jars.

picture of last years cherry canning: