HOPS HARVEST (FBF)

The hops monster. The heart of the hops monster is a nest of black wasps.




Tonight one harvester sports a fat lip and another three fresh welts, one in the armpit. Good thing there were fresh onions growing nearby - the alkalids neutralize the sting. We harvested around the wasps.




This is our first time harvesting. Air-drying on a window screen, then planning to offer them to beer-making friends.

AUGUST FARMETTE UPDATE

Beans! The rattlesnake beans are bearing great in the front yard, and making a green fence between our yard and the neighbors'. We'll definitely do this again next year.

Love-in-a-puff. Bought it in a 4-inch pot at the Nampa farmers market a month ago. Love the little paper lanterns.

The morning glories were transplanted from Mom's yard and do a nice job of dressing up the compost bins. Both the love-in-a-puff and the morning glories are climbing the panels recycled this spring from our broken deck canopy.

More recycling: the old bbq, filled with cannas. Funky, fun and easy to wheel into the garage for the winter so I don't have to dig up canna bulbs.

Something's weird about my squash. It's dwarfed. But at least it's finally bearing.

Several plants in this bed have dwarfism. I'm pretty sure I should be feeding more.

Kellogg's Breakfast - Mom started this beauty from seed.

Beans on the bedframe.

Emily's cabbage. She got the plant as a school project at the end of last schoolyear. I think we're supposed to send a photo somewhere to enter a contest, but not sure...

Had extra cannas this year so I tucked a few in the garden.

Emily decided to "help" the pumpkin ripen.

Soybeans from starts Joanna gave me. These suckers really bear!

The tomatoes are looking good but taking their time to ripen. It's over 100 degrees again and I'm withholding water, so we should see a blush soon.

Pretty pumpkin. This year I planted a pumpkin in each bed so that as I pull the other plants when they're done bearing, I can convert the bed into a pumpkin patch. By October I'll have mostly pumpkins.

Garlic chives transplanted from Mom's garden. The bees love these blooms! Click to enlarge the photo and you'll see at least three types of bee. Even the wasps got in there. Next year I'll put more garlic chives here and there to attract my pollinating friends - and namesakes.

(My name means "honeybee".)

The girls! The chicks are all grown up and ready to give us some eggs any day now. My favorite part of the morning is stepping out the back door with a cup of coffee. The girls flutter down out of the plum tree where they roost for the night. I open the back gate and they follow me into the garden. Then I sit and drink cofee and watch them scratch around for tasty bugs.

After awhile they head over to the compost pile and take a roost-rest between the morning glories.

Note that they are all poised to poop into the compost. Good girls!

Ferniba the araucana. Can't wait to get her green eggs.

Of course the thing about chickens is they tend to do this. When they're done in the garden I have to rake the mulch back onto the bed.

Bean blossom.

First bean on the bedframe.

When we moved here 7 years ago, this easement along the canal was just dirt and weeds. We put in a garden and soon our neighbors on both sides planted grass and gardens, too. This spring the neighbor across the canal joined us guerilla gardeners. So far this season we've seen beaver, muskrat, heron, kingfishers, crawfish, quail, countless songbirds and the occassional opsrey rising from the canal with a trout in its talons. Though this canal easement isn't technically our land, it has been a joy to cultivate, to make food and habitat and a little place to sit in the shade with a few chicken buddies and cup of coffee.