Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Garden Safari

The potato plants are blooming!  Now what?  Any suggestions from experienced gardeners?  When can you dig up new potatoes?


And the pea vines have lots of peas.. I think I need to let them get more full before picking, yes?


One of my Double Delight roses that is open and pinked by the sun.


The tomatoes are getting huge.. the plants not the fruits.. in fact I can't see any baby tomatoes in there.  Hmmm.



Lychnis, aka Rose Campion - it self-seeds here and there but I don't mind as I love it.  My blog friend Helen Philipps showed her garden and I saw she had white and pink Rose Campion so I ordered some from.. where else.. Amazon!


Lychnis Angel Blush 200 Seeds - Perennial - these arrived yesterday so I will sow them and see if I can get some started.


The view from our back door, flower baskets!


The Petunia basket hanging on the lamp-post on the deck.



Oh how I love this time of year.  Everything is green and colorful.



The Pink Yarrow is thriving.



The back of the farmhouse.. it's where we enter the house.  Where do you enter your home?  


I'm so impressed with our leaf lettuce plants, we've plucked the outside leaves for salads and still more leaves grow.  



I have to say, the potato plants are HUUUUGE!  We need to find out when we can start digging new potatoes.



Our dinner on Monday evening.  I can't believe I just discovered the joys of frozen shrimp which you can use at a moments notice.  It was delish



I bought one of Helen Philipps patterns on her Etsy shop and have ordered the supplies via email from Craft Warehouse.  They just called and have all the items at the front counter for us to pick up!  I will show you more next post.  I'm just inches away from finishing the purple on my shawl and am now agonizing over which color to use next for the lacy edging.  Pink or medium blue?  I want to use pink but am not sure.  Your thoughts?  

I hope you are hanging in there.  We're trying to live as positive as possible.  Which to be honest, is quite a challenge.  I just want to make it through to the other side of this so I can see my grandchildren grow.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)  

18 comments:

  1. Everything looks so lush and pretty. I would do a test dig of your potatoes...see if there are ones to harvest. I like them best when they are still tiny. Roasted alongside chicken they are devine - or do them in a grill basket. Peas depends on what kind you are growing. Again - do a test. Are they like sugar snaps where you eat the pod and all (they look ready), or are they peas you will shell? Your garden efforts have certainly been a success this year Teresa - bravo to you and Dayle!!

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    1. Thanks for the advice, Vera. The peas that we will shell. I am excited about making creamed new potatoes and peas just like my mom did. :-)

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  2. Your garden is so lush and healthy! My rose campion failed to return this year. Not sure what happened. Yours looks so pretty. I was not aware it was any color but dark pink.
    We enter our home through our breezeway. So do most folks that visit. We very seldom even open the front door!
    These are tough times, but we'll make it through, my friend.

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    1. I forgot to mention that I also ordered white Rose Campion. I hope I can plant all three colors together. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  3. I agree with Vera's gardening advice. Suggestion for the tomatoes, try pinching off some of the smaller vines so the plants can concentrate on producing fruit. Thanks to you documenting the gorgeous flowers and prolific plants bring joy now and will be cheery to revisit in more dreary seasons. My Sugar Snap Peas are climbing and producing more blossoms. The last two days our parking driveway has been cleaned, resealed and lines repainted. It looks so much better! Now I am cleaning the dirt off my blossoms, chairs and patio that they blew off the driveway! 😮xx

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  4. I look forward to seeing your spiffed up driveway someday soon. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  5. The garden looks great. From what I understand, waiting until the foliage dies back would be the time to dig up potatoes. But I'm not an expert.

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  6. Fantastic veg growing Teresa and Dayle 💙💖 I use frozen prawns all the time so easy and yum. We enter house through front door as big gates block off back door. Here in Victoria Oz numbers are rising unfortunately. Miss being able to see friends and family......just safe as can limited ☺☺

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  7. Hello Teresa, (and Dayle too). I'm so impressed by your beautiful gardens. The life in your farmyard is amazing to behold. I agree with Vera's advice too.
    I agree with pink next for the border. Then blue. I can't wait to see it.
    We usually enter our house through the garage. We're considering selling it this summer and living in our trailer for a couple of years at an RV park close to town. The only thing really stopping us is the virus. I'm afraid I won't have room to stock up on food and of course, I would have no freezer. We have some big decisions to make in the very near future.
    Take care my friend.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  8. You have worked hard on your great vegetable plot, the fruits of your labour is the reward for all your hard work. I would cut some side shoots off the tomatoes and do a test dig for the potatoes to see what size they are. We mainly enter our cottage through the side porch which we use as a utility/boot room.

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  9. Hello Teresa your new potatoes should be ready once they flower. Once they flower, dig up one plant to see if they are the size you want and then you can decide whether to keep them in the ground longer or not. If you dig the whole crop try to store in either a hessian or paper sack. With regard to the peas, if they are sugar snap peas they look ready but if the peas you shell they need to be nice and fat. With regard to the tomatoes. It is still a little early for outdoor tomatoes but if you pinch off the little side shoots this will encourage all the strength into the fruit rather than the plant. Hope this helps.

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  10. What a beautiful plants you have! You must have a green thumb. My mom had one but I can't seem to grow much of anything without some sort of drama. Araignee

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  11. We have Rose Campion all over our property as it self seeds. I will go to Amazon and look for the pink and white ones. Our house sits oddly with our driveway so no one ever knows which is the front door. But overall we use what is technically the front door as it is closest to where we park.

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  12. Blog hopped and found you, what a delight to read through your blog and view your beautiful garden and those shrimps looked delicious.

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  13. Oh your flowers make me happy Teresa. I have no potato knowledge. Irish, half though I am. With the tomatoes, I can tell you from experience that it helps to cut off the shooters that are just taking energy . That way the tomatoes get the energy not the leaves. I just googled Empress o f Dirt and know I have some reading to do. Apparently , all suckers are not necessarily energy sappers. I'll get back to you. I wonder if you have a determinate that is going to blossom and produce all at once. That seems to be the case if you have no flowers yet. I'm happy to check this out and report back. My Giving garden has 5 tomato types and I did do some pruning on the cherry tomatoes yesterday. Yikes, now I wonder if I did the right thing.

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  14. Your flowers are so beautiful Teresa, so perfect! I think you will not go wrong with any color you pick as long as it is not dark like the purple. Good luck my friend!

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  15. I didn't grow potatoes this year, but new ones are delicious. My tomato plants are big! Plenty of green tomatoes, so I watch and wait. Harvesting lettuce, Swiss chard, yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumbers, so far. Waiting for watermelon, canteloupe, kale, radishes, and butternut squash. I always enjoy seeing your flowers. You guys have so many!! Thanks for linking up and have a great week.

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