Gone Feral In Idaho

I got the old pump going again this year. The dwarf lily pad is still going strong and needs to be re-potted again this year. I still have to add more water plants and some fish that this fall will go into a fish tank hopefully before becoming part of the food chain for some bird I have yet to identify. All the wires and tubes will be hidden from view. I can't wait to do this project on a much larger scale.

We harvested the first two of our rouge vif d'etampes pumpkins. The vines had been badly eaten by squash beetles and were drying up. We finally started getting cucumbers and zucchinis. These are heirloom sweet zukes, deliketesse cukes, and another I don't remember the name (good thing we write this stuff down).  Some salsa peppers, strawberries, black cherry toms, a super steak sandwich tom, and some of our burned sweet peppers. None of our sweet pepper plants are doing well. They are producing well, but all the fruits are getting burned in our intense sunlight.  Here we have jalapenos and sweet cherry 100 hybrids. The sweet cherry plants have not done well this year.  Hope for the future- the Christmas pole Lima beans are starting to produce.  This year's melon, and early Minnesota variety are starting out well.  Rosa Bianca eggplant is ripening. The thorn less Triple Crown Blackberry plants got trimmed back. The new lat...

This little gem is a yellow wonder alpine strawberry. They are creamy white with yellowish-green seeds and creamy flesh. No wonder you can't sell these at the market. They are so soft, they melt in your mouth. I bet they would turn brown quickly with bruising. I've read that they have a bit of a pineapple taste, but this one was deliciously tart with a creamy mild aftertaste. It is definitely a strawberry and was worth all the fuss of growing them from seed. It looks like we'll have just enough to snack on all summer unless they don't like the high heat.  Here's one that is almost ripe. The Sea Breeze strawberries are going nuts! I wonder if it is because we grew borage next to them last year and there are a bunch of borage volunteers growing up with them this season. Apparently the birds don't notice the yellow wonder alpines, and I can see why; they fruits grow on perfectly down-turned stems that aren't visible from above.  I helped Kyle build a strawberr...

I harvested rhubarb for the first time and am in the process of baking my first pie ever. Since I used vegetable shortening, I think it would even qualify as vegan. Hopefully it comes out of the oven OK and tastes good. The first black krim is looking great. Kyle helped me put in the tree branches that the christmas lima beans will climb. I also planted dragon's tongue bush beans. I'll plant more herbs in this bed as well.  One of the brandywine tomatoes has produced flowers. The stock tank area got some new plants and fish. Here's a fuzzy photo of the dwarf lily pad sending up three flowers, we only had one last year. Garden Huckleberry doing it's thing. At least the peas like the cool extended spring.  I decided to add an egg wash, but should have added some water to the egg yolk. As you can see, it tasted pretty darn good. I used this recipe for the filling, and this one for the pie crust. I'd never made either before and it turned out great. The ...

A loosing battle with severe environmental allergies has sapped my get up and go, including my blogging. Luckily I have been taking photos, so I'll try to drag my but to do a garden update post. beware: rabid dog the quinalt strawberries are doing really well in their third year brandywine transplanted with homemade wall of waters tomatillo, looking great the pondtainer got some new plants, I will add some native plants as soon as I figure out what to plant gratuitous pic of the dog and corkscrew rush ground cherry random tomato bloom last, but not least, the first tomato of the year is a black krim.

I finished mucking the pondtainer today. It was warm enough to get it done with out freezing myself and early enough in the year that I hope to maintain some clear water before the warmth really sets in.  Here is what I started with today after draining the big stock tank via siphoning. After bailing  a few inches of mucky water out I was able to tip the whole thing on the side and used the pressure wash setting on our water sprayer.  I blasted out the gravel a bunch and worked a lot of dead organic debris that made the water so black that you couldn't see beyond an inch in depth. During that time I found the last fish, deceased most likely due to lack of oxygen in the thick leaf litter that collected in the bottom. This fall I am putting covers on both to avoid the same amount of mess and to keep the water habitable for a few fish.  I also scrubbed out the sides to get the gunk off, and started refilling which promptly resulted in a ton more organic debris getting ...