garden Archives

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Barb — 6 Comments

Our Outdoor Hour: Crop Plants-Pumpkin Time

From last year….fields of pumpkins not too far from our house….taken as we cruised along in the car.

Pumpkin is one of our favorite ingredients for goodies in our family. Pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie are all partaken of year round. We started our pumpkins at the start of the Crop Plants Challenges but although the vines look healthy, there are plenty of blossoms, I fear we will not have a pumpkin crop from our garden this year.

It is a very good thing that Grandpa has been growing pumpkins right from the start and has been sharing his plants with us as they progress.

As part of our pumpkin study, we decided to make a pumpkin pie totally from scratch. This meant a phone call to Grandpa to ask if we could have one of his pumpkins from his garden. He responded quickly, “Of course!” He even delivered it to us and we got started.

Cutting the pumpkin was done with a big knife.

The guts of the pumpkin were scooped out first with a spoon but eventually that was set aside and bare hands were used. Lots of gushing around was done, seeds spilled on the floor, and strings stuck on the counter but it was ready to be cooked. We used a baking pan and the microwave to steam the pumpkin which took about 15 minutes at high.

Afterward we us used a food mill to smash the pumpkin and measure out exactly three cups of gorgeous golden pumpkin puree.

My youngest son actually made this pie all by himself…..crust and all. He used this recipe.

It took us hours to make the pie by the time we cut the pumpkin, cleaned it out, steamed it, pureed it, mixed up the crust, mixed up the pie filling, and baked it to perfection. Was it worth it? Absolutely! My son now has a great appreciation for how much work goes into a pumpkin pie from scratch. He also learned a lot about the structure of the pumpkin. Lastly, he was so proud of his pie and dished it up for dessert with a big smile on his face.

Great job Mr. B!

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Barb — Leave a comment

Tomatoes: Our Outdoor Hour Challenge

We have been enjoying fresh tomatoes from our garden for quite some time now. There just is no comparison between homegrown and store bought tomatoes. I actually don’t like the store bought ones very much. It wasn’t until I grew my own tomatoes that I learned what a tomato really should taste like.

We did a bit of research into various kinds of tomatoes. There is a farm near our home that grows a variety of heirloom tomatoes that are amazing in color and shape. We are inspired to give a few a try next year. Does anyone have any experience with a particular variety? Source for seeds?

We completed our study with a few tomatoes from the garden, closely observing the seeds and flesh of the tomato.

The notebook page was filled out and filed away in the nature notebook.

But as usual, most of our time was spent outdoors in the garden looking at the plants, blossoms, and ripening tomatoes. There are quite a few blossoms on each of our two remaining tomato plants. The weather is still pretty hot and I think we have a good chance of having tomatoes at least until the end of the month.

We noted the smell of the tomato plant when you rub it and how it makes most of us itchy after working in the garden. This year is the first time we have pruned our tomato plants as they grew and it seems to have helped in two areas. First, we seem to have larger tomatoes and secondly, the plants don’t bend and break so much.

We use a wire tomato cage around each plant to help support the branches but before trimming, the branches still try to get really long and scrawny. We trim those off as they start to stick out over the path.

Tomatoes are a great crop to grow in your garden. If you didn’t get a chance this year, make sure to plan to grow a few in your yard next spring and summer. You will not be disappointed.

Posted on September 6, 2009 by Barb — 5 Comments

Trip to the Nature Center: Birds, Butterflies, and a Sundial Bridge

So yesterday was our big day trip to Turtle Bay. The weather was perfect which was a big relief. The city of Redding is usually scorching hot this time of year but there were a few high clouds in the morning to keep the temperatures down.

We started off with the outside exhibits at the nature center just in case it warmed up and the aviary was first on the list. What a racket these birds can make! You are given a little stick with some seeds on it to attract the birds down to eye level. This was a great way to spend extended time close-up to these colorful birds.

These Rosellas preferred to sick up high and watch us instead.

This pair of cockatiels posed for me and they never did come down to snack on the seeds.

After the aviary, we visited the butterfly house. We didn’t see too many butterflies this time but this Julia on some sedum was the prettiest one that I captured in a photo.

After lunch we went outside to explore the botanical gardens. What a display of plantings that will grow in our climate! I did not realize that this place had so much information and now I need to go back when I am fresh and the sun is not so hot. We became members of the nature center so we can get in free for a whole year and this will make it easier to go back just to look at the gardens and get some ideas for my yard.

We are going to be pulling up our lawn and replanting with drought-resistant plantings and the display at this botanical garden will help us pick things that will flourish and be beautiful without so much water.

This is the famous Sundial Bridge which doesn’t look much like a bridge from this photo because I took it from the gardens. Believe me, it is a very large bridge over the Sacramento River that connects the nature center with the botanical garden. Follow the link above to see the whole thing in a photo.

The bridge really is a big sundial. I took this photo of the shadow at 12:47 and you can see on the rock that it says 1:00….what a great way to teach about the sun and telling time.

One more thing that I loved about this nature center is the way things are so open to explore. This shelf is just what I want in my living room to display all our collections and nature stuff. I might have to have my son take a look at it and see if he can design something similar to fit my space.

It was a very long day with a long drive to get there and back but all of us agreed that it was a fantastic place. We all found something to be excited about and interested in. What more can you ask for?

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Our Strawberry Study: Outdoor Hour Challenge

“Red, shiny, green leaves and yellow spots. It is oval in shape with a bulge on top. The leaves are short with small black lines. It is cool to the touch and slightly fuzzy. It is extremely sweet.”
Quote from my son’s journal page

I didn’t need to do much encouraging to get the boys to participate in this nature study challenge. They are always eager to help in the strawberry box. In fact the box belongs to my middle son and he keeps it well tended.

Funny thing is that many times he comes up into the house empty handed….wonder where those berries go between the garden and the kitchen?

Pick, wash, eat….you can’t get any fresher than that!

We used the lesson ideas in the Handbook of Nature Study to focus a little on the strawberry and to see what we could learn. Then we went out to our garden to investigate our plants. We have two varieties of strawberries: June berries and Everbearing. We have a big crop of berries that we harvest early in the summer and then we have plants that keep on producing a few berries all summer long.

We observed the blossom and leaves.

We saw this little berry where the petals of the flower had just dropped off and the berry is just starting to poke out and be seen.

We found a little bit bigger green berry to compare to the others.

Here are some berries growing large and pink. Look at all those seeds on the outside of the strawberry.

Like I said, not many berries end up in the kitchen but we did manage to bring up some to complete a nature journal page before they were gobbled up as well.

Here in California strawberries are a popular crop and you don’t have to go far to find a roadside stand selling fresh berries of all kinds. My husband has been working down in the Monterey area and they have strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries growing commercially there. He is loving the fresh fruits and promises to bring some home when he is able. He has been working on the Lockheed Fire since last week and we are missing him terribly. He is our hero though and I know that he doesn’t mind doing his job when the need arises.

Hope you enjoy your strawberry study soon and don’t forget to share your blog entries.
Crop Plants Notebook Pages – Companion to the Crop Plants Challenges

Custom made notebook pages for each crop plant challenge. I have designed simple to use pages that will complement each challenge and will be an easy way to start a nature journal. Each of the eight notebook pages is in full color, but they are just as great in black and white. These notebook pages can be purchased for $2.50.

Posted on August 18, 2009 by Barb — 5 Comments

Summer Hummingbird Surprise

This guy decided to sit and let us get a very good look at him the other day. My son was quick with the camera and snapped this photo for me.

We have had an amazing amount of hummingbirds in our yard this year and the feeders are humming all day long. They also love the butterfly bush, the trumpet vine and the crepe myrtle.

The garden is starting to look like mid-summer and not at its prime but the birds, bees, and butterflies are still daily visitors.

The daily rhythm is changing up a bit and soon the harvesting will be complete. Already the evening comes quickly and the nights seem a little crisper. There isn’t much that we can do to delay the progress towards autumn so I will try to enjoy the changes as they come.

Take some time this week to note your neighborhood and talk a little with your children about what they see out the window or as you take a short nature walk.

I have started a list of things that I would like to do this autumn for nature study and I will share it with you all very soon.

For dinner today, it will be another round of fresh bruschetta from the garden….tomatoes and basil are still coming daily. Filling the birdbaths and watering the roses will be done in the cooler evening hours. Tomorrow we are hoping to harvest the plums.

Enjoy the tastes of summer….a feast for the eyes and a feast for the belly.

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Barb — 8 Comments

Sweet Blackberry Days of Summer

The time is here! Blackberries are ripe and we picked a bucket full for jelly making. My dad has an area down by his creek that is full of blackberries. He even trimmed up the bushes to make the picking easier.

I had a helper who wasn’t afraid to get stuck with the thorns and that made it go really fast. My arms are scratched up from leaning over into the patch but that is where all the really juicy ones are, of course.

We brought our berries home and made six pints of jelly and now they are sitting on my shelf just waiting for some homemade biscuits. I love opening a jar in the middle of winter and remembering the sweet blackberry days of summer.

Next up in the canning department…plum jam! It will be here pretty soon.

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Barb — 7 Comments

Beans! Outdoor Hour Crop Plant Study

We grow beans every year in our summer garden. There is nothing like freshly picked beans to complement a summer dinner. It is one vegetable that everyone in our family loves.

My dad is a big time gardener and he has a *ton* of green beans this year. He picks them every day and has a full basket. This is a photo of a part of his garden. In the foreground are his pumpkins, then zucchini, and in the way back…green beans and tomatoes. On the right side he has okra, chard, and eggplant.

You cannot see it in this photo but he has an electric fence around the garden to keep out the deer. He still had trouble with gophers so he had to dig up all his garden beds this last winter and put mesh in the bottom of every single box. The gophers still dig in the garden but they can’t get up into the veggies.

The variety of beans that we are growing, in the photo above, has a pretty little flower and the bean itself has a purple/blue tint to it. They don’t get as long as the beans we usually grow but they are tender and sweet

Speaking of a pretty flower…how about this eggplant blossom? My dad is growing a row of Japanese eggplant. I hope he shares.

He was willing to share this zucchini that became a monster. 🙂 I regularly get zucchini and green beans from him since his plants are producing earlier and with more vigor than those in my garden for some reason.

Our garden is a blaze with colors and it is such a joy to sit outside and enjoy all the growing things and blooming things. The gladiolas are not blooming yet…they are something new this year so I am anxious to see how they do.

We did not sow any bean seeds this week as part of the challenge but we did soak some and then cut them open and look at the parts. This was the subject of our nature journal.

Did you eat green beans this week? We did!

I wasn’t so sure when we started these Crop Plant Outdoor Hour Challenges that I was going to enjoy them, but now that we are into the study I think my whole family is learning more than we thought we would….focus, it is all about focus. 🙂

Crop Plants Notebook Pages – Companion to the Crop Plants Challenges

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Barb — Leave a comment

Blackberry Time of Year

We are now into the blackberry season in our corner of the world.

You will frequently find me with blue fingers and big smile.

I couldn’t find the blackberry in the Handbook of Nature Study, but I did read about the wild strawberry last week. I love this quote and I think it applies equally to the blackberry as it does to the strawberry.

“Of all the blossoms that cloth our open fields, one of the prettiest is that of the wild strawberry. And yet so influenced is man by his stomach that he seldom heeds this flower except as a promise of a crop of strawberries. It is comforting to know that the flowers of the field ‘do not care a rap’ whether man notices them or not; insect attentions are what they need, and they are surely as indifferent to our indifference as we are to theirs.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 608

We are partaking of both blackberries and strawberries right now as well as figs. The figs are huge this year and very juicy.

In the evening, after dinner last night, we were sitting outside and enjoying the cool air and I notice a Scrub jay sitting and having his meal of figs. There are so many figs this year that I don’t mind that they take the ones from the top of the tree that I can’t reach to pick. Sharing the fruits of the garden is all a part of the fun of it.

I hope everyone is enjoying the season and finding joy in the fruits of their gardens.

Posted on July 4, 2009 by Barb — 1 Comment

Garden Update: Early July

This week’s garden update includes some new munchies from the garden. The poppy above is probably going to be close to one of the last that I have for the year. I love the texture of this blossom, so delicate and papery.

I went ahead and picked the last of the lettuce. These are little mini heads of lettuce that taste so sweet and nice, almost like butter lettuce.

This is the final crop of mixed leaf lettuce. I don’t really care for the bitterness of these varieties. I think we will plant a different kind in the fall….some that aren’t so strong.

Banana peppers….I can hardly wait!

The hydrangeas are awesome this year. I love the purpleness of this one plant.

Our experimental mullein is blooming. For the first time we left the mullein growing in several spots in the yard and it is now showing us its more beautiful side. The hummingbirds have been investigating it as well. 🙂 The empty feeder is a normal sight in our yard lately. I have a hard time keeping up.

Here is another angle of this section of the garden on a different day. The sunflowers are really tall now, way over my head. See how tall the mullein is too?

I don’t think that I have shared my milkweed’s progress yet. I sent away for some milkweed seeds from ButterflyEncounters.com and I started some of the seed in pots. I am a little nervous about transplanting it into the garden so I got a bigger pot and I am going to still keep a careful eye on it over the summer.

Amanda’s coneflowers are blooming and the bees are buzzing happily. If you look carefully in the background of this photo, you will see her zinnias have started to bloom as well.

Well, that is a quick trip around our garden this week. Just to a note to myself=We planted bee balm and salvia this week, hoping it will grow now that the weather is hot.

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Barb — 5 Comments

Exploring with Pollen: Black-Eyed Susans

We were out working in the garden this morning and the topic of pollination came up. We were talking about the different ways that plants pollinate and as if to illustrate one way, this spider obliged us with his example.

We were really examining these black-eyed susans and their pretty pollen spots and we realized that this very yellow spider was sitting right there in front of us. Isn’t he pretty?

I ran inside and gathered a few things to use in exploring the garden and its pollens. I brought out a few Q-tips and a hand lens for gathering some pollen from the flowers and looked at it up close. We also found that many of the flowers and veggies that we observed had ants crawling in around the inside of the flower. Pollination.

Pollen on a day lily

We took a few minutes more to look at various ways that plants hold their pollen and watched a few bees at work and then we came inside.

Pollen on a petunia

It was a short nature study but the best kind……stemming from curiosity about something we had close at hand.

Category: garden