Gardening time

[K1P1quebec]

I spent today planting wave petunias along one end of the pool and just got some monarda to plant at the other end. We have lots of hanging plants around the deck and plant things that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. I am getting ready to try a new vine--cardinal climber that attracts hummers, I hope!!! I prefer to work outside and really hate cleaning house!!!!!!

I have monarda in two different colours (hot red and fuschia), and the hummingbirds love them. They also love my wiegela bush (also bright red flowers). A word about the monarda.... it grows like mint! You might want to contain it early on. I much prefer my tour around my yard at the end of the day in gardening season to cooking and cleaning!

[K1P1quebec]

I'm just grateful that my parents still have a garden. I can go there all summer long to get tomatoes, squash, okra, and cucumbers.

That is the best! Especially if you don't have to do the maintenance! I would love it if someone would call me up and say, "Do you need any tomatoes, strawberries, etc.? There are scads of them I need to get rid of!" I love growing and eating....and harvesting.....but it's a lot of work to prepare for canning or freezing at the exact time the fruits or veggies need to be processed. They seem to ripen just when I'm busiest!

[Leejoyce62]

What if... I hang the tomatoes... above another plant? Then they'll water the plant beneath it! If I remember to water the tomatoes, of course

Tomatoes do better outside. Need alot of sun, also the plants tend to have a strong smell.

[Leejoyce62]

That is the best! Especially if you don't have to do the maintenance! I would love it if someone would call me up and say, "Do you need any tomatoes, strawberries, etc.? There are scads of them I need to get rid of!" I love growing and eating....and harvesting.....but it's a lot of work to prepare for canning or freezing at the exact time the fruits or veggies need to be processed. They seem to ripen just when I'm busiest!

Do you have a garden co-op you can join? I have been part of one for years. You either show up and work for your share or you pay in. Every week you get a bag or two of vegetables and fruit as it comes ripe. The best organic veggies with little to no work- except the canning and freezing.

[Leejoyce62]

That is the best! Especially if you don't have to do the maintenance! I would love it if someone would call me up and say, "Do you need any tomatoes, strawberries, etc.? There are scads of them I need to get rid of!" I love growing and eating....and harvesting.....but it's a lot of work to prepare for canning or freezing at the exact time the fruits or veggies need to be processed. They seem to ripen just when I'm busiest!

When harvest season came at my parents, all the relatives would show up with coolers of ice and their gas grills and all of their canning/ freezing equipment. All set up outside, we would all pick, clean, peel, cut, chop, blanch, cook, pickle, bag, bottle, etc. This would happen several times a season and were the BEST times I can remember as a kid.
Try something like that with family and friends, nothing like sharing the work.

[Shandeh]

That is the best! Especially if you don't have to do the maintenance! I would love it if someone would call me up and say, "Do you need any tomatoes, strawberries, etc.? There are scads of them I need to get rid of!" I love growing and eating....and harvesting.....but it's a lot of work to prepare for canning or freezing at the exact time the fruits or veggies need to be processed. They seem to ripen just when I'm busiest!

When harvest season came at my parents, all the relatives would show up with coolers of ice and their gas grills and all of their canning/ freezing equipment. All set up outside, we would all pick, clean, peel, cut, chop, blanch, cook, pickle, bag, bottle, etc. This would happen several times a season and were the BEST times I can remember as a kid.
Try something like that with family and friends, nothing like sharing the work.

Smart!

[K1P1quebec]

That is the best! Especially if you don't have to do the maintenance! I would love it if someone would call me up and say, "Do you need any tomatoes, strawberries, etc.? There are scads of them I need to get rid of!" I love growing and eating....and harvesting.....but it's a lot of work to prepare for canning or freezing at the exact time the fruits or veggies need to be processed. They seem to ripen just when I'm busiest!

Do you have a garden co-op you can join? I have been part of one for years. You either show up and work for your share or you pay in. Every week you get a bag or two of vegetables and fruit as it comes ripe. The best organic veggies with little to no work- except the canning and freezing.

Yep. It's à little far though to get to thé big pièces of land out in thé country and I don't havé quite enough free Time yet to devote, so in the meantime, I am growing bits in my home garden and support a kind of à coop in our area that regroups all types of small organic farmers.... From veggies and fruit to herbes, chicken and duck, bison and wild boar, several wine and honey producers, cranberries and even fresh trout! And not to forget goat and rabbit and lamb. Thé goat and sheep producers make lots of good cheese and even sell yarn that they spin and dye themselves. We even havé an herbalist who makes soap and skin care products, and à producer who makes eco-friendly laundry and cleaning supplies. I lové doing m'y internet order every week and then go pick up m'y stuff on Thursday nights. They always havé things to try and you can meet thé producers in person. Sorry for all thé accents.... I havé à French keyboard and autocorrector and sometimes get fed up removing all that stuff!

[K1P1quebec]

That is the best! Especially if you don't have to do the maintenance! I would love it if someone would call me up and say, "Do you need any tomatoes, strawberries, etc.? There are scads of them I need to get rid of!" I love growing and eating....and harvesting.....but it's a lot of work to prepare for canning or freezing at the exact time the fruits or veggies need to be processed. They seem to ripen just when I'm busiest!

When harvest season came at my parents, all the relatives would show up with coolers of ice and their gas grills and all of their canning/ freezing equipment. All set up outside, we would all pick, clean, peel, cut, chop, blanch, cook, pickle, bag, bottle, etc. This would happen several times a season and were the BEST times I can remember as a kid.
Try something like that with family and friends, nothing like sharing the work.

That IS thé best! I remember making grape juice and pickles in early fall, but mostly thé summer trip each year to my grandparents' farm, where we would do a huge family project like that but to butcher chickens - enough for each family for an entire year! It grossed my sister out and she would hide in thé house with another cousin. It took à whole day to get from à live chicken to nicely wrapped little labelled packages ready to go in thé freezer.

[Shandeh]

Sorry for all thé accents.... I havé à French keyboard and autocorrector and sometimes get fed up removing all that stuff!

I like those accents! Makes me want to read it all with a French voice! Makes me sound like "Lumiere" from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast"!

[K1P1quebec]

Sorry for all thé accents.... I havé à French keyboard and autocorrector and sometimes get fed up removing all that stuff!

I like those accents! Makes me want to read it all with a French voice! Makes me sound like "Lumiere" from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast"!

They drive me crazy sometimes when I'm trying to express myself in English, but it's worse having to go put them all in, since I mostly live and work in French up here. See how much better "lumière" looks now! maître d'. There, I did it again! Doesn't that just look exotic?