Flowers in the Garden ~ Nightshades

I may be showing my age by saying this, but when I was in school, I was one of the nerds. I think today the equivalent term would be geek. (Or is even that old school now?) Anyway, age has not changed me, and I now apply my nerdiness to gardening. Well, I thought it would be interesting to compare the flowers in my garden based on plant families. I’m sure I’m not the only Gardening Geek out there, so I’m going to share my comparison photos with you in a series of four articles. Today, we’ll look at the nightshade family.

Sanctuary Gardener Update ~ 11/11/13

It’s definitely cooled off in my garden this week. We had one night that the temperature got down to 36 degrees. Thankfully, my garden did well. However, this week the forecast calls for two nights below freezing. It’s time to pull out the drop cloths to see if I can keep my peppers ripening for a little while longer. This weekend I harvested so much that I’m going to share my harvest pictures with you in my next post.

Sanctuary Gardener Update ~ 10/21/13

Well, it’s been another week without rain. We had a bit of a spit on Saturday, but it didn’t even measure in my rain gauge. I am not looking forward to my water bill! But the gardening must go on. Although I didn’t accomplish all I wanted to this weekend, I still got a lot done. Besides the harvesting and weeding, I planted more Scarlet Nantes carrots and Early Wonder beets. I also planted five kinds of lettuce: Tom Thumb, Buttercrunch, Black Seeded Simpson, Red Romaine, and Red Sails. I put up a quart of green beans (ate the rest!) and about five pounds of green bell peppers in the freezer, dehydrated three pounds of Pink Lady apples and 140 lemon drop peppers, and made two batches of hot pepper jam. Busy farmer weekend, for sure. It may be autumn, but the homestead is still hopping.

Sanctuary Gardener Update ~ 6/17/13

This past week has been extremely hot here in the Charleston area! For example, on Thursday, the temperature reached 99 degrees with a heat index of 107. And I had to harvest cucumbers, peppers, and beans in that heat. I literally had sweat stinging my eyes as I rushed to finish and get back into the blessed air conditioning. Thankfully, a cold front came through that night (minus any rain, unfortunately), decreasing the humidity and cutting the temperature by 15 degrees.

It was perfect timing because Friday was my son’s birthday cookout. I set up the tables beside my fire pit, near my berries and artichokes, then spread the table with some of my garden produce – bean salad, quick pickles, lettuce and onions for the burgers. It was very nice to share my garden as part of the celebration. But the best part was overhearing my son’s response to a friend’s comment about me, the garden, and the food; he said,”Yeah, I know. She’s amazing!” Aw…! Okay, before I tear up again, come see what else is happening