Where I work

 I used to have the time to post on a more frequent basis. Since my return to the greenhouse and nursery as manager, my time and energy have have been redirected to a very full-time career. I had the opportunity to get a bird's eye view of our location last summer and took a few shots while above it all. I hope you enjoy a look at the facility from a seldom seen vantage point.

Pickle time and cherry bounce

It's pickle time in our part of the world. I planted enough pickling cucumber plants this year to make it worth my while. I have been using "The Pickled Pantry" by Andrea Chesman since finding a copy of her book at the library several years ago. My daughter's purchased a copy for me that same Christmas. Pickles are not the only thing that make this book my go-to for pickling. Check it out and you will see why.

The thing about pickles is they go really well with dill. The thing about dill is it is ready well ahead of the cucumbers unless you remember to plant successive crops which I don't. I came up with a solution to my problem and that is I pickle the dill as it is ready. I have a half gallon Ball jar in my fridge that I fill with dill heads and vinegar when they are ready. I use fresh heads as long as they keep coming. When the cucumbers outlast the dill, I just pop some of the pickled heads into the jar with the new batch of pickles I am working on. Sometimes I will use a bit of the vinegar to boost of the flavor as well. The dill keeps for a very long time like this, well into the winter so I also have dill vinegar in winter.

NorPro Deluxe Cherry Pitter with suction base

I am also fermenting cherries for a delicious cocktail mix in. I never saw my mom do this, but my oldest cousins remember her having this on hand during one of the family get-togethers. I found various recipes in German cookbooks and it was also published in our local paper also published a version of it. After looking over the options, I came up with my own version of proportions which are a bit easier to remember. I also don't want raisins in mine.

Cherry Bounce
2 pounds of pitted pie cherries
2 cups of sugar
1 qt of moonshine or other liquor
Mix the pie cherries with the sugar in a large jar (mine is one gallon). Cover with screw on lid and mix well. Keep jar on the counter out of sun and swish the cherries and sugar around once or twice a day to keep it well blended and the sugar dissolving with the juice. 

After a week to ten days, add the liquor to the jar and mix well. I seal mine with a bit of plastic wrap as well as the screw on lid. Set the jar in a cool, dark place for two months. You can put it in smaller jars to share or store. Enjoy on its own or in a cocktail.

Seeing work in a different light

 I live where I work.  It is a municipal facility, but my position as manager is a residential manager job.  It is 24/7 except when I take a vacation.  I never thought that I would take to living where I work, especially not my own business.  When you get involved and love your job, it does become your own.  As a result, I get to see this place in a different light, figuratively and literally.  These are just a few of those moments that I got to enjoy outside the regular work hours. 

July garden pics and tips

One hill of each summer squash (not 3) this year. Four varieties are framing the okra in the center which is on a 10" spacing between plants and about 2' from the squash plants.

We are so dry it was time to get out the soaker hoses.  I have cabbages and other cruciferous veggies in a raised mound. Peppers, eggplant, and a few tomatoes are sharing space with radicchio, fennel, and kale in my 3 wooden beds.  Mulch surrounds most of the beds, wood chips while rotted straw is around plant rows.  The soil isn't what I would want, but it will build with time.  

I have a 6x6 patch of onions (Alisa Craig and Copra on kitty corners) alternated with Ambition Shallots and Lancelot leeks.  I have watered them regularly to keep them well hydrated but not wet.

Pole beans and  bush beans are sharing the same space.  I pulled out the netting with twine in the centers to give me more room as my tepee was closing in on my for picking.  I got my first handful of baby beans on Sunday.

My fencing is hardware cloth around the base with a nylon mesh to bring the total height around 8'.  The rest of the garden is at the mercy of what surrounds us.  I hope for the best every day that I see the woodchucks running around the nursery.

The Swiss chard has gone gang busters on me this year.  I planted so few, but boy did they grow!  I don't think the carrots that are interplanted stand a chance.

The garlic ended up in the enclosure because I didn't have anything else ready last fall.  It is almost ready to pull and dry.  My lettuce crop bolted, so the dino kale has been liberated.  The adjacent carrots are loving the space and will really appreciate the garlic leaving their south exposure open.  I tucked a row of fennel plants next to my pea trellis.  I am letting the peas dry down again this year as the seed saving worked out so good last year.  Peas are self-pollinating so they came true from seed.

I am done hilling the potatoes for the season.  There is about 18" of dirt, compost, and rotting straw around the plants. Winter squash was put in at the head of the potato area.  Yukon Gold and Molly purples are my varieties this year.  I miss my Norland reds.

I went with 18 tomatoes this year.  I have a single stake method with twine corkscrew twisting around plants and stems to hold them up.  I put the tags at the top of the poles this year as I couldn't find them in the foliage last year.  Soaker hoses wind through tomatoes and potatoes on mostly separate lines.  I am trying a French variety of rhubarb Glaskins, from seed in the corner of the garden.

Nearly full greenhouses

Spring is coming on in a slow and steady fashion.  All the trees are harvested for planting and shipped out.  Just a few remain for a summer vacation above ground in anticipation of fall planting.  The nursery liners have all arrived, so now we get the ground turned for planting in the nursery again.

The greenhouses have nearly filled up.  We are down to the final plugs that put on growth so quickly, it barely takes a month to get them ready for planting out.  There are crops ready to be moved to the outdoor holding areas to take the slow climb into late spring.  So much is happening at once.  Here's a peek at all that is happening inside our greenhouse walls.

The first spring crops are in my garden.

Leftover plugs that will find a new home in community gardens

The last of the plug propagation, marigold and vegetables

Shade plants, a sea of begonias and coleus

Thousands of geraniums, round one and round two

Supertunias and other 4" pots

Americana Geraniums, gallon and 6"pot crops as well as 100 Milwaukee Peace Project hanging baskets

Cold sensitive crops of Salvia, lobelia, and others

The 4th house is always rotating crops.  Growing the Alyssum from seed up front right now

An experiment in pushing plant growth.

Tropical in so many ways. A sea of Colocasia

Empty now but not for long. Exterior holding area for those cold tolerant crops is the best growth regulator

Hanging baskets coming to a festival grounds near you.  Petunias, petunia, and more petunias

This is really a sea of petunias because they are all Waves

Hardening off the early order

More of the early order that like it just a tad warmer

A few spring shots

Recent rains put us up to our endloader axles in mud.

Our 4"pot crops are filling up one house.

6" pots occupy another.  Some are on drip irrigation systems.

Hanging baskets wait until it is time to move to their irrigation home.

Colacasia take up one house with very little room to spare for others.

The pansies have moved to the cold house in anticipation of planting in a couple weeks.

The first pansy bloom.

Our west coast lilacs came in ready for spring.
They will have to wait for awhile in our unheated
hoop house until the cold weather passes.

We have been very busy in the greenhouses and nursery.  Everyday is several gains and a couple setbacks to be righted.  Rain has made our digging operation a challenge, but we keep slogging through the mud.  We are trying some things for the first time (pansies) and working on perfecting how we do things to serve each one of our customers in the best way possible.  Working at a nursery and greenhouse is long days and hard work, but I couldn't be happier in my work.