chocomouse
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The deer have not been a huge problem on our property. However, after gardening here for 35 years, two years ago we put up an electric fence, after deer ate all our beans and most of the carrots. We have 3 cameras set up, and have not seen anything except birds and squirrels inside the fence. Right now we have a nice looking 4 point buck eating the drops from 2 of our apple trees. I think the deer prefer apples over beans, and they will be here every day until the apples are gone in Nov. They do strip the lower branches of all apples as they ripen, but that leaves plenty for us in the upper branches. We love watching them, and sometimes we have 7-8 deer at one time, at just 2 of our trees.
A cranberry bog! That will be fun! Something new and different to learn about. Do you have a natural wet or boggy area, or will your husband need to fix up a mini-bog for them? I know nothing about growing cranberries, but have read a lot about harvesting - the old hands-on methods and the machinery that is used today. I wonder if it takes years to establish a planting? I need to do some research - not that I'll ever try growing them.
This was my deck last week. Those are bush beans in the large planter (4 ft x 15 in), although they appear to be looking for a pole to climb. The smaller planter (3 ft x 15 in)on the railing behind it has beet greens, and white plastic flatware, placed to keep the squirrels and chipmunks out, although it hasn't been real helpful this year. Stored underneath the planter are two 5-gallon pails - one holds aged horse manure from a neighboring farm, and the other has aged compost from my pile. At the end of the big planter are 3 large pots, one has 2 cucumber plants, another 2 summer squash plants, and the last has 2 zuchinni plants - which will all soon be trellised with string up the railing. The other planters on the floor have a variety of herbs. At the far end of the deck, not in the picture, is a repeat of those 2 waist-high planters, with lettuces, spinach, and scallions, and room for more succession planting of beans and beets. I love gardening on the deck. The main garden has more plants, but also is host to a bobcat, bears, fox, coyote, deer, racoons, skunks, and possums, who visit at various hours of the day and night. Everything is behind this year (except the weeds!) because the weather has been so weird - it's either raining nonstop for several days, or the temps are in the upper 80s to 90s.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.Dinner tonight was leftover salads from a potluck with family yesterday.
I've never been able to figure out how to put the cabbage into my Cuisinart to make nice shreds or slices. I've had that Cuisinart for 41 years now, and every once in a while I try again, but I always end up with mangled pieces of cabbage. I just use a big knife. I have 6 cabbages in my garden, medium size now - it looks like we'll be eating a lot of cole slaw!
Mike, the insert is 1 13/16". The opening that it covers is probably about 1". The actual opening is a little less than the diameter of the base.
BakerAunt, I've read most people saying you should not freeze cheesecake, but I do it a lot, and they are fine. Of course, they don't stay in the freezer for eons! You could sub Neufchatel cheese, etc. And I think there are any number of goodies that could be made in this pan. I'm thinking of a little brownie batter, and after it is baked, top it with ice cream and stash in the freezer.
I made mini-cheesecakes. They are vanilla, but I swirled some home-made raspberry jam into the centers. I see that KABC is no longer selling this mini pan, with the pop-out bottoms. I love that pan, and have made several different kinds of mini-cakes in them. I was thinking about buying another one since it makes only 12. I think I will search on Google. I now have another batch of crust and filling waiting to be assembled and baked. Does anyone else have this pan and use it for other goodies?
For dinner tonight, I have made a rotini-veggie salad with home-made Italian dressing using fresh herbs from my deck, and also a crabmeat salad. Savory rolls from the freezer will be a nice side.
BakerAunt, do you remove the skin from chicken before cooking? There's a lot of fat in the skin, but I find that sometimes removing the skin changes the flavor profile and texture of the meat significantly.
Tonight we had rigatoni with tomato sauce, hot Italian sausage, green peppers, onions, and parmesan.
Nice looking hubbard, Jamie! It'll be a real project to cut it up.
We ate grilled chicken breasts, steamed beets, and smashed potatoes.
Thanks for suggesting that, Mike; it's interesting to see all the choices available now. Back in the early 2000's, the use of greenhouse shade cloth by home gardeners was a new concept.
BakerAunt, a word of caution about bird netting for the blueberries. For about 25 years, we used tobacco netting; until it wasn't big enough to cover the row (10 plants, 50 ft row) and we couldn't find more to buy. So we tried bird netting (and also used it on our cherry trees). The holes in the netting are big enough to allow the netting to slip down over the berries - so the berries and some leaves get tangled/caught in the netting, with the berries on the outside, easy to be reached by the birds! We ended up getting greenhouse shade cloth through a local nursery. It was cut to our specifications (it comes 18 feet wide, and we bought 70ft), the edges were bound with heavy tape, and grommets put in every 10 feet so we could stake it to the ground. Then my husband built a simple structure, using metal fence posts topped with slats to drape the netting over. The bushes are now 6 ft tall, so is the supporting structure, and I can stand up under it to pick. The shade cloth we chose lets 70% of the sunlight through it, and is what nurseries commonly use over their greenhouses in summer to limit the sunshine. We put the shadecloth up just before the berries ripen (will do it this week) and take it down to store in the garden shed as soon as we have finished picking. It was expensive, but has been an excellent investment. If you don't have so many bushes, maybe you could look at a craft or fabric shop for some kind of netting, or tulle, or ?? If your only option is bird netting, I highly recommend some kind of structure to keep the netting off the bushes. I'll try to post a picture of ours this week.
Gardening is very discouraging this year. We are/were in a drought, for months. This past week, we had 3 days with temps of 89, followed by 4 days with temps of 90, followed by, so far, 2 days of constant rain, over 2 inches, and more predicted for tomorrow. I had lettuce, now beaten down by the rain, but think I can still harvest some. The beans are growing, 10-12 inches high, so should flower soon. The flowers we had on the tomatoes and peppers fell off with the heat, but more will grow. The weeds? Oh, yeah! they love it. But the gardener doesn't pull weeds in the heat or the rain. I'll try to get some photos next week.
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