Picked the rest of my hot peppers. Combined the jalapeno, serrano, and santa fe peppers I grew with sweet peppers I didn't. Canned some Cowboy Candy that won't knock me off my saddle. 👀 how purty! Purists goes crazy for the 🍑 kickin' jalapeno only version. Me ... I'm a wuss. 🌱 #gardening #cooking

Phew. Seed garlic is not a cheap proposition but the heads are nice size. Lotta prep work to make sure these cloves deliver at the.end of 8 months. Anyone else growing?🌱 #gardening

Patient, thirsty, curious Therapods.

Guess the new native plant bed needed some tweaking. #nativeplants #gardening

A precious rarity. Safe travels. I, and my ramped up milkweed population, will be waiting. Bring your friends!

*UPDATE* Welcome to the world! Help yourself to the buffet. Look closer for the tiny monarch cat on the bud just above, slightly to the right, of the new arrival. 🌱 #nativeplants #gardening #bugsky

👀 what hubs found hanging from our garage doors eave! So happy we replaced our front beds with native plants. We provided, they came. Ever so thankful one of them allowed us to witness, up close, this next stage. 🤏 to see. #nativeplants #bugsky 🌱 #gardening

Ok, this is going into my garden again next year. Heirloom German Pink. But, I will plant for canning. Totally beats the Roma I planted. If you preserve, spare a spot for it. 🌱 #gardening

One of life's simple joys. #gardening 🌱

The gods took pity on us and we are grateful. #nativeplants #gardening 🌱

I thought I saw the beginnings of some tomato hornworm damage. Turns out, I was right. 🌱 #gardening

Know what this gardener's fav reality show is? The Doppler. Has the same teasers, lies and disappointments. Lately, I've waited for Rainfall to make more than the briefest appearance. Watched as it marched toward our dot on the screen. Then ... Rainfall vanished. We've been ghosted. 🌱 #gardening

My mouth is watering. Decided to give hot water bath dills another shot. Tried a simple, old timey recipe that used these granules vs lime and kept spears sliced thick (I halved) to keep as much crunch as possible. My 🌭 is waiting. #gardening 🌱 #canning #harvest

Been mulling what to plant in late summer/fall. Landed on seed 🧄. Ordered 1# Chesnok Red and 1/4# Music. Ships mid to late Sep. Plant in Oct. Harvest in Jun. I love 🧄 but never grown 🧄. I have big plans for this 🧄. My kids and my mother have big plans for this 🧄. Should be interesting. #gardening 🌱

So, more of the same, but kinda not. 8 more pints of blueberrries canned. Same French Blueberry Jam recipe ingredients. Except, when I used the immersion blender, I left some smaller blueberry chunks. Hence, the name on the lid to indicate 'preserves'. A little bit juicier, too. Both still awesome!

Time to make the sauce. #gardening 🌱 #canning #harvest

Today's haul hurriedly picked before the (not) thunderstorm.

The milkweed has a couple monarch stages living on different floors. Found a lone stranger sharing the space and discovered it's a milkweed tussock cat. Across town, the swallowtail cat is living it up on the dill. I am one happy landlord! #nativeplants #gardening 🌱

Never canned a fruit anything. Behold my French Blueberry Jam! Turned out better than expected but was prepared to accept less. Made one change. Leave skins in or go for totally smooth? Opted to keep for some texture but used the immersion blender. Tastes very gourmet and mouth feel is on point!

100+ y.o. clawfoot tub growing Spotted Bee Balm ready to be planted. From a Chicago demo years ago. Pride of place on my patio ever since. Has grown herbs, wintered over clearanced nursery finds, held pollinator friendly flowers and more. A most favored gardening tool. #organicgardening #gardening 🌱

Tonight's bounty. Black Krim, Moneymaker, Arkansas Traveler. Picked 3 red, disgustingly 🤬 small Romas, ALL had BER. OTOH, Opalkas are mighty and green. Pickle vines showing age but still green and flowering at the top. ❤️🥒Spacemaster 80, Picklebush, Homestead. #organicgardening #gardening

Signed, sealed, delivered. Picked early the past two 95° days, canned 6 pints of 🥵 Jalapeno, Serrano, and Santa Fe relish and 19 pints of Bread 'n Butter Pickles. 1 pickle in my frig, 1 to my mother. Only left pith and seeds in the Santa Fe. A teeny bit goes a long way! #gardening #organicgardening

Doubly blessed after having given up hope.

Think the pickles are trying to tell me something? A bigger and better bed is theirs next year. While I was rooting around under the canopy, it was crazy how much activity was going on. The bees, of course, politely ignored me as I collected the fruits of their labor. #organicgardening #gardening

Slowly working my way through yard 'zones'. Time for the hazmat suit. Sorry birds, no can do. #gardening #organicgardening 🌱

1st pickle harvest. Tons of flowers, pollinators and small fruit hanging. Will ferment some in my large crock this year. Did a small amount last year not knowing result. Amazing! Crunchy, tart, pure. Put the pucker on my plate! For the near future, it's fresh eating. #organicgardening #gardening

Been chomping at the bit to pick something, anything. Hot peppers showing up ... and showing off!

Delayed planting these winter sown Green-headed coneflower plants. Aggressive colonizing native but beneficial. I have Silphium varieties with tall yellow flowers but these are rhizomatous. Anyone have, do you like? Zero clue what to do. Can't let 7ft+ monsters oust other natives. #nativeplants

Glad I tied up my lanky tomato plants. Getting some nice, steady rainstorms. Lots of green tomatoes and flowers but, I need to control myself w/next year's starts. I planted way too many tomatoes. Hubs thinks I need to get more raised beds. You know, just feed the beast. #organicgardening #gardening

95 97 99 93 90 91 90 Nope, not playing the lottery. These are temps for Sat-Fri 🥵 May have to use portable umbrellas to shade the raised beds and maybe throw a cover over the cucs' arch during the hottest part of the day. Tomatoes should be ok, cucs planted from seed, still too tender 🌱 #gardening

HoneySUCKle warriors: Clearing out (no poison) a wooded corner so we can plant natives. Neighbors uninvolved. Any hope our natives will eventually thrive and overtake honeysuckle regrowth? We're keeping the tree snags and would abut an open sloped area to be naturalized. #nativeplants 🌱 #gardening

Meet our 20 yr old lady of the house who is mostly blind and deaf. She does, however, like to close her eyes and sniff. 🌱 #gardening

Can anyone familiar with these 'weeds/natives' help ID? If pollinator friendly, they stay. Obviously, this colorful unidentified 'couple" likes the purple flowered one! Purply - horsemint? White - milkweed? #nativeplants #gardening #weeds

Don't laugh. I was in some kinda mood 🙃 Buried this in the new front bed in anticipation of all the hungry and maybe thirsty pollinators. Lots of additional water sources throughout the yard for those on wing and foot. #nativegardening #gardening

A reworked front bed. Bergamot, Ironweed, P. Coneflower, Butterfly Weed, Whorled Milkweed, P. Prairie Clover, Pale P. Coneflower, Spiderwort, Columbine, VA Mtn Mint, Rough Blazing Star, Prairie Blazing Star. Doing their thing before I add or plug in a few grasses for sway. #nativeplants #gardening

Went to a native nursery to see plants in nature and potted to buy. The FIRST thing I notice are masses of the same plant popping in my hill. Owner said it's Solidago canadensis, weediest of them. Very beneficial. Guess I have to quit giving it the stink eye and just keep an 🧐 on it. #nativeplants

🎼 Lonely days. Lonely nights. Might sow cucs on May 30. Rain that day and next but warmer days and not 50s at night. 32" H beds, so warmer than in-ground, hopefully 🤞 🌱 #gardening

Pulled this bright green, sprawling, sticky weed from one of the front beds. Gallium aparine aka Cleavers. Supposedly has medicinal/herbal/edible uses. Did not know what it was so had gloves on and it clung like a tentacled burr. Won't be adding to my dinner plate or whatever either. 🌱 #gardening

I'll be dogged. Pinched a tomato flower off a Moneymaker tomato plant as I brought them back in tonight. Change of plans. 30s tonight, 40s tomorrow, 50s/60s next several nights. Going for broke on Monday. Poor things are screaming to be buried up to their waists in a big ol' raised bed. 🌱 #gardening

Jack Frost is not done with us yet. Planning a visit in the early morn. Making sure everyone is tucked in. #nativeplants #gardening 🌱

😃 Winter jugs opened for air under patio umbrella. I am ok with my 1st time. 26 jugs, 5 no go. B and C, nada. Clumps of green in 4 jugs are Vernonia fasciculata and they showed up for mama! Some are very sparse for seeds sown but I'll take it. All have a lovely home waiting for them. #nativeplants

Who, besides me, is looking ahead to their soonest plant date? Mine is May 8th and BOO, the 8th and 9th, 70-deg days and 50-deg nights. Nights are too cold for the 'maters and peppers I'm putting out. Definitely too cold to seed cucs. Hoping I don't have to wait as long as I used to. Getting antsy.

Ok, straw, camel, back 😠 Lots of tomatoes last year charred and frozen. Fresh sauce in ❄️ But, digging through umpteen bags, to find anything else is 💩 Granted, I also have frozen soups and pickle juice for reuse. Canning from now on means less chance of me saying, 'F' it and dumping the lot. 🌱

Time to come back in kids!

😠 Installed new 17" raised beds I will plant herbs and tall tomatoes. 32" beds for other stuff. Guess rabbits eat anything but won't jump more than 2'. We have t-posts. Do you fence and what works for you? I could plant onions or garlic in one. Do they eat tomato plants or just the fruit? Buggers 🚫🐇

Prepping relocated raised beds. Hubs made wooden supports for the cross rods because they were bending and breaking under decomp and weight redistribution. Caused exterior long walls to bow inward. 6.5 ft bed got 2 and 5 ft bed got 1. Can't wait to plant and make the farmer in me very happy! 🌱

Looked down to the relocated raised garden beds from an upstairs window, making sure placement is visually pleasing and aligned. Noticed bare ground under trees at the side-yard. I want Carex pensylvanica but will it play nice with ephemerals interspersed, for pollinators? Thoughts? #nativeplants

Jug watch Apr 11, 2025. Welp, underwhelmed. Hoping open tops and moving to warmer spot is too good to resist. 50s today and low 60s for next 3 days.

🥊ing the urge to buy natives at the land conservancy. Some winter sown seeds are peeking thru very slowly. Might have to hedge my bets. Local sales are online now for some I haven't sown and in person in a month for others. I'll know more by then. This jug planting thing is angsty. #nativeplants

Still hopeful warmer days might entice these although they may naturally be slower to start -- Monarda bradburiana, Liatris aspersa, Asclepias sullivantii, Parthenium integrifolium, Lupinus perennis, Asclepias hirtella, Asclepias tuberosa, Rudbeckia lacinata, Allium stellatum. 🌱 #nativeplants