The garden

Well Fall is here, and it seems like it showed up overnight.  The temps have fallen to "absolutely perfect", the monsoon rains have ended, and the humidity is approximately 0%.  The summer certainly was eventful, especially in the garden.

  Some plants had a rough start in the spring because the winds were just nonstop.  The cukes never really did get going too well, but I still managed to make 3 jars of pickles, and two plants look like they might revive a bit for Fall.  At first I thought the beans wouldn't be able to recover from the wind damage, but by late spring and early summer they were going strong and I've harvested more beans than ever before.

  We blanched a whole bunch of them last month, and will probably be able to do a second batch in a few weeks.  I only got a few beets, and the onions (planted nearby) didn't fare so well either- many of them have been rotten.  The monsoons were absolutely intense this year and one half of the garden (where the beets, cukes, and onions are planted) got flooded more than once even though the garden is higher than the surrounding area and has great drainage.  Then there was the hail with the one storm which tore up most of the leaves on the Butternut squash, zucchini, and yellow squash.

  It looks like we'll still have a pretty good harvest of Butternut squash though since the hail came after most of the veggies were big enough to handle it.

  We got a good crop of the zucchini and summer squash earlier in the season and were able to blanch and freeze enough of those to take us through winter.

 By the middle to end of the season though, the plants had just gotten too much water and the roots were rotting.  And of course the squash bugs took advantage of the weakened plants and further damaged them.  A few weeks ago I pulled up the ones that were too far gone, leaving just a few that may recover enough to give us at least a few more veggies.  Luckily tomatoes like rain and can handle some pretty tough conditions.  All the varieties we planted (yellow, pink, and 2 varieties of cherry) have done well, although they are ripening more slowly as the nights turn colder.

 The Bell peppers and mini Bell peppers are doing really well, as are the carrots, so I should be able to make at least one more big batch of my garden fresh pasta sauce (I basically throw in all the fresh veggies and herbs I can harvest and cook it low and slow all day long).

 The Japanese eggplants have just recently started producing, but they seem to be doing well.  I made a mouthwatering eggplant Parmesan the other night ;) 

The herbs and salad garden have fared quite well and I've had fresh salad every night for months now, along with plenty of fresh basil (made tons of pesto!), parsley, chives, scallions, oregano, and rosemary.

 Oh, and for the first time I got several REALLY good cantaloupe.

  Although the season is coming to a close we should have another couple of months before the first frost, so I imagine I'll be harvesting tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, salad, Swiss chard, carrots, and herbs at least until Thanksgiving.  This was my first year gardening in Arizona (I'm originally from Ohio) and while it has it's own unique challenges, I love this place and this was the most successful garden I've had.  Of course I've been saving seeds from everything I can (flowers included), so I won't even have to buy seeds next year.  Right now I'm planning on what to plant in the greenhouse.  I put the garlic in last week and some of it has already sprouted.  It takes hard work, dedication, and lots of sweat (especially when it's 115 degrees!), but nothing beats fresh herbs and veggies, grown organically and nurtured by your own hand. =)

~Michelle of CreativeCritters

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Staying cool during the Dog Days of summer

This week has been a hot one, and there's no doubt that we're well into the Dog Days of summer.  You know those hot and humid days that just make you want to melt.  Here in Ohio this week has officially qualified as a heat wave.  We've had temperatures at or above 90, with plenty of humidity to raise the heat index near 100 or more.  Like so many people, I do all I can to save money, and try to avoid running the air conditioner any more than absolutely necessary.  To keep the house as cool as possible I keep the curtains (which have thermal backing) closed during the day to block out the hot sun.  I also try to avoid adding any extra heat to the house, especially during the hottest part of the afternoon.  Unfortunately I no longer have a grill, so I can't do my cooking outside, but I do try to cook as little as possible, and use my electric skillet rather than the stove or oven.  The skillet uses less electricity and generates less heat than the oven.  Not only am I concerned about excess heat in the house, but I don't want to use more electricity than necessary and add extra stress to the grid.  When too many people are using a lot of electricity (think running the AC, cooking, pool filters, fans, etc.) you can get brown outs like we did yesterday.  The system simply can't supply all the power that is being demanded and large areas can lose electricity.  Ours was out for 4 hours yesterday.  To keep cool the cats and I stay down in the basement (which is partially finished).  I workout to exercise videos late in the evening downstairs, and if it's really hot that's when I'll turn the air conditioner on for a few hours.  At that hour fewer people are using electricity and the AC is more efficient and doesn't put as much of a strain on the system..  I also avoid doing anything that will add heat to the house, such as washing dishes or clothes.  I'll wash dishes at 1am, and sometimes even do my cooking  (enough for at least a few days) then.  I'm up at that hour anyway, so it's not that much of an inconvenience.

Of course the garden needs more water when it gets this hot.  I'll use the soaker hose either very early in the morning or late in the evening to minimize evaporation.  To conserve water the flowers get watered with rain water I save in buckets, or gray water from rinsing the dishes or the final rinse when I wash clothes.  The vegetable garden gets a deep soaking about once a week, depending on how much rain we get.  For me, conserving electricity and water has been a way of life for years.  Do what you can to beat the heat and stay cool!
-Michelle of CreativeCritters

My garden

It's been a rough spring for my vegetable garden, but those plants that survived the cold and wet weather are now thriving in the summer heat.  My cucumbers are doing quite well, loaded with pretty yellow flowers and little baby cucumbers.  I think this is the best year I've had so far for cucumbers.  Most of the plants survived and are now producing vegetables.

 

Eggplants are slow growers, and only about half the plants I started with survived.  The survivors are getting bigger now, and their flowers should start opening in the next few weeks.  Even if this plant didn't produce a delicious vegetable it has beautiful purple flowers and large soft fuzzy leaves.  Like many garden plants, you could grow it for looks alone. ;-)

 

I'm also starting to get tomatoes.  As usual, once the temperature warmed up the tomato plants grew like crazy.  For me there's no such thing as too many tomatoes.  What I don't eat fresh off the vine I turn into tomato sauce which I use in recipes all year long.  When I harvest more tomatoes than I can eat I wash them, place them on a baking tray, and stick them in the freezer until they're firm.  Then I seal them in plastic bags to store.  When I want to make sauce I thaw them out and the peels slip right off .  I think it's the easiest way I've found of preserving tomatoes.

 

The Bell peppers are also growing nicely and will be getting flowers any day now.  These seeds were mixed colors, so I could be harvesting, red, yellow, orange, and purple peppers soon.  I don't care for hot peppers, but I do love a nice crisp sweet Bell pepper.

 

 

And this is the first baby zucchini of the season.  I spotted a few more little ones today, and should have some yellow squash mixed in too.  Most of those plants look pretty good and they all have lots of flowers.  Zucchini and squash plants are usually pretty tough, and one plant can produce many vegetables.  I've got all sorts of delicious recipes for zucchini, and I enjoy it fresh from the garden in a salad.

 

 

And I just harvest some of the garlic I planted early last fall.  Like many bulbs, garlic divides and spreads: each of those little cloves can become an entirely new bulb of garlic.  I started with just a few bulbs several years ago, and this is what I harvested the other day.  And this isn't everything I planted either- I left some of the bulbs to grow larger, and may have another harvest again in the fall.

 

 

And I would have beans right now if the bunny hadn't eaten every single bean plant in the garden!  But it's hard to stay mad at anything this cute.

 

 

So I just fixed the holes in the fence and had a stern talk with the little rascal about not eating my vegetables.  The beans are actually getting leaves again, so I may get a small late season harvest.  

This is always the time of the year when the results of all my hard work in the garden start to show.  These fragile plants I started from tiny seeds are now big, strong, and vibrant.  I'm still amazed that huge plants like tomatoes (mine will be taller than me soon) start from a tiny little seed.  These resilient vegetables have battled harsh weather: rain, wind, hail, and frigid temperatures, insect attacks from bean beetles, cucumber beetles, slugs, and more,  and animals stripping their leaves from the stems.  And yet they continue to grow and most will produce nourishing vegetables until the first frost of fall.  A garden is so much more than just some dirt and plants- it's a life and death struggle, sometimes on a microscopic scale.  I can get lost in the beauty and magic of my garden.  Thanks for stopping in and sharing some of that garden magic! ;-)

-Michelle of CreativeCritters

My Polymer Clay Flower Garden is complete

I completed my Flower Garden sculpture and  listed at CreativeCritters.  In my last work in progress post I had finished sculpting and placing the roses, Hydrangeas, daffodils, tulips, and Irises.  The pink, white, and blue Hyacinths had been sculpted, but hadn't been "planted" in the garden yet.  I chose to group the like colors together in a semi-circle in front of the tulips.

After the Hyacinths had been "planted" I decided to add some ground cover for a bit of added color and texture.  I don't remember what the plant is called, but Gramma has an evergreen groundcover with little blue flowers that grows vigorously in the flower beds.  It's just loaded with tiny blooms in the spring and summer months!

I sculpted vines, leaves, and flowers underneath the tulips, daffodils, and Irises, and had a little bit creeping under the fence.  It does like to try to escape the beds whenever it can. ;-)

I also sculpted five tiny little polymer clay butterflies in shades of blue and red.  I used Lisa Pavelka's foils to add a beautiful shimmer to the clay before cutting out their wings.  After baking I sealed the butterflies with high gloss glaze.

The butterflies are perched on the roses and on the white picket fence.   This little flower garden invites you to take a closer look, and discover all the tiny details it hides.  This is the kind of scupture you're meant to get lost in.  Thank you for joining me on this creative journey!  To view this listing in my shop, simply click on any of the pictures.
-Michelle of CreativeCritters

Happy Easter!

I just want to wish everyone a happy Easter and share some of my flowers with you!  All of my daffodils are bobbing their sunny yellow heads in the spring breezes now.  Really these are Gramma's daffodils and the bulbs are about 40 years old!  I divided them last year because they were so cramped in the bed behind the house and the bulbs I moved into the front beds bloomed this year.

Such beautiful flowers!  Once my daffodils start blooming I know it's really Spring- no matter what the temperature is!  And then there are my Hyacinths, one of my favorite flowers.  I love the way they smell.  I planted them on either side of the front steps so Gramma could smell them when she stood at the door.

 

And the bees like my Hyacinths too ;-)  And another early Spring bloomer is my Lungwort.  This plant is really cool.  I just got a small clump from my aunt's garden a few years ago and it's spread enough for me to divide it and put it in three other beds.  I love the soft fuzzy leaves with their silvery spots, and the flowers are beautiful shades ranging from pink to blue to purple.

And those are the first flowers to show their pretty faces in my garden.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I do!  Have a happy Easter! =)

-Michelle of CreativeCritters

Compost tip

I just wanted to share a tip for heating up your compost pile quickly.  This time of year it can take longer for the compost to heat up (and the faster it heats up, the quicker it decomposes).  I don't know about you, but I never seem to have enough compost.  However, when I want to give the pile a boost, I've found that adding fresh grass clippings, and mixing them in well, gets the pile hot very quickly.  I live in the suburbs, and use a Compost Tumbler.  I compost weeds, food scraps, leaves, grass clippings, and shredded newspaper.  Our temps have been in the mid and low 60's all week, and the pile I started several weeks ago wasn't heating up the way I wanted it to.  One day after adding several bags of fresh lawn clippings the pile was steaming hot.  In the cooler fall (and spring) temperatures this is a good way to speed up the process.  I also turn the bin every few days, as well as fluffing it with a pitch fork.  This helps break up the material and evenly incorporate everything.  Before the snow flies I plan to spread the compost on the garden, then cover this with more grass and leaf clippings.  By spring everything will have decomposed completely and will be ready to be worked into the soil.  I'll probably start another pile before winter, and just let it sit until spring.


-Michelle of CreativeCritters

Andrus Garden Quilts- floral inspired art quilts

Sue Andrus, the very talented lady behind Andrus Garden Quilts, is inspired by gardens, flowers and the beauty of the world we live in. Surround yourself with the calming joy of nature with artwork large and small that will fit any home. Sue says "A degree in horticulture, and working in that industry have greatly influenced my art. Most of the fabrics I use in my original designs are hand painted and(or) sunprinted by me to achieve colors and textures that can not be found in stores. Sunprinting on fabric can give many surprising results- the paint never dries the same way twice (It really can be fun to watch paint dry), and my gardens supply me with the many flowers and leaves I use for the sunprints. My photos of flowers and more from gardens or in the wild, are now finding their way into my art after I print them onto fabric. The beauty of this earth we have been given to live in, with it's flowers, gardens and rock formations is the inspiration for my fabrics and art. I also produce my own Reproduction Prints and Note Cards of my quilts on quality papers with archival inks."
You can also find Andrus Garden Quilts on Twitter,  Flickr, andrusgardensquilts.com, and her blog,
Below is just a sample of some of the gorgeous work available in her shop.  She has a lot more where these come from, so be sure to stop in and browse all she has to offer!
  Let me tell you, it wasn't easy choosing just a few items!  Sue has so many beautiful and unique items in her shop, and it was an absolute pleasure spending time browsing (and adding things to my Christmas list)!
-Michelle of CreativeCritters

Been doing some work in the garden

My garden harvests this season weren't very good, due in large part to every critter in the area deciding it was an all you can eat buffet.  At ground level I've got mice and voles, midway up I've got a very large groundhog, which had babies this year, and at the top level I've got deer.  My pitiful, patched together 3 1/2 foot high fence was not doing the trick.  So I decided to take down the old fence, renovate the garden a bit, and put up a 7' tall deer fence for next season. 
It took most of the day, since some parts  had several layers of fencing to peel away.  This is what the animals have been doing to my veggies!

I 'm still in the process of making a path around the outer perimeter of the garden.  I've discovered that it would make life much easier if I can get at both sides of the garden rows.  Hopefully the new fence won't be too hard to put up.  I'll probably wait until I can put the garden to bed (take all the dead plants out, add compost, leaves, and grass clippings) before putting the fence up.  I'm thinking things out a bit more this time, and planning based on the problems and issues I've had in the past.  I'm planning my planting chart this Fall as well.  Last year I didn't do that, and just sort of planted things all over.  So, the tomatoes ended up blocking the sun for the zucchini and squash, and the lettuce got too much sun and set seed faster than it should have.  I've been doing some pruning as well, making sure the garden gets as much light as possible.  The evergreens behind the garden have really gotten out of hand, and the Snowball bush seems to creep closer each year.  I'll try to keep you up to date on the yard and garden.  Hopefully if I do a little extra work now, it will pay off in a bigger harvest next season.
Happy gardening!
-Michelle of CreativeCritters

Fall is in the air

 
It's starting to feel like Fall already.  In some ways I really love Fall: I love the way air smells, and the beautiful Autumn colors, the way the bees are grabbing all the pollen they can get.  And in other ways Fall makes me sad.  I know it means winter isn't far off, and winters in NE Ohio can be downright depressing- cold, gray, and bleak for months on end.  Fall now makes me think of my brother Jeff, who died in October.  It's been a few years now, but I still miss him.  Usually my creativity ramps up a few notches as Fall approaches as well.  I end up spending more time indoors as the weather cools (and I finish my garden chores for another season).  This year I'll be moving my craft area upstairs, and will actually have a room dedicated to my crafts.  Things are certainly very different this year.  Gramma passed away in May, and I'm still cleaning and sorting through her things.  It's not an easy job, but it needs to be done.  Yes, change is certainly in the air.  I saw a sign at a nearby church that read "Life is change, growth is choice".  Very true.  Sometimes I find it hard to believe just how much my own life has changed in the last few years.  I choose to grow with those changes though, and try to become a better person.  For me, Autumn is also a time to look back.  For the garden, I look back over the season and try to see where I made mistakes, and where I made good choices that resulted in healthier plants and a better harvest.  I tend to do the same for other areas of my life as well.  I know a lot of people make their big changes and resolutions in January.  For me, Fall seems to be when I start making changes, and do some serious thinking about what needs to change.  Yeah, a lot of deep thoughts going on over here.
-Michelle of CreativeCritters