Happy Snacks

Isn't this a happy looking snack? Especially given that it is freezing out and snowing - again!
These are watermelon radishes - adequately named in my opinion. They look like miniature watermelons, right? So I marinated them in rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, minced ginger and some crushed red pepper. Measurements were all "eye-balled" a dash and pour, and pinch, you know, whatever I felt like. It tastes really good, but smells awful! I brought some to work yesterday and was told by one woman that she will tell me when she is pregnant so that I never bring it with me because the smell is so bad. Honestly, radishes do smell, even when I cut them up and add them to salads they still have that pungent smell to them. So word of advice - save the radishes for home consumption only : )
We have even more snow today - will it ever stop? I know that this is New England and winters can be brutal but enough is enough. This is exactly why I travel to Barbados twice a year - December and March. I just can't stand winter here. And to keep us warmer or to at least imagine that it is warmer here is a picture from Barbados.

Record breaking weather (again)

So it hit 67 today - December 3rd! Can you even believe it? It has been way too long since I updated this - bad blogger I am. The gardens have all been cleared out and cleaned up and I planted my green manure in my garden and Tom and I covered the Victory Garden with newspapers and cardboard in the hopes of keeping down some of the obnoxious weeds that grew feet in seconds all summer long. Although it was 67 today we have had a few frosts overnight so I thought I would dig up some of the parsnips.

and as you can see I still suck at growing root crops. The seeds were put down in mid July and should have been ready by mid October clearly these are not edible. Hairy, forked and REALLY pliable. I guess there is always next year.
Oh and because of this unseasonably warm weather we have been having my giant hyacinths and daffodils are now sprouting. I am hoping that they come back again in the spring when they are supposed to! They are a good 2 inches up already. I don't think mulching will help at this point. I also found some more asparagus spears growing yesterday. Those suckers grew from Spring till now. Fingers crossed that I get such a big harvest next year too!

A Disappointing Harvest

So the weather this Spring and Summer left a lot to be desired. It was AWFUL! Rainy Spring and cool Summer doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for the crops I was attempting to grow. Let's see...in a nutshell:
Corn: was eaten by city critters. I'm placing my bets on raccoons. Not that the ears were bigger than 4: anyway. With all the rain in we had it drowned out the seedlings.
Delicata Squash - 1 squash per plant does not a harvest make.
Spaghetti Squash - none bigger than the size of a small bowling ball. And here I thought they were supposed to be oblong!
Onions - lost some to I have no idea what and the ones I did harvest were small, small small. But useful for a single size serving w/o having to store it.
Carrots - lets just say root crops aren't my thing!
Potatoes - they got so darn big they fell over and died prematurely so the harvest was small as well.
Lettuce - the seeds were devoured by the birds
Asparagus Bean - not nearly as plentiful as last year. But maybe it was because the seeds were a year old.
Zucchini - usually I can't get my neighbors to take anymore from me because I have such a huge crop. This year maybe 3-4 per plant - and I planted 6 plants!
The success stories are few:
Kentucky Blue Wonder Pole Beans - 12 seeds must have produced at least 5-6 pounds, if not more of beans. My neighbors are officially sick of beans! And I still have new flowers coming every day.
Sweet 100 and Bonnie Grape Tomatoes: WOW!!! That's all I have to say about those.
2009 wasn't the best of years but there is always 2010!!!!!

How do geraniums bloom in the dark?

Now that is the question!?! Every year I dig out the geraniums, shake out the excess dirt and hang them upside down in my basement. For the past 5 years all has seemed normal. In the spring I take them outside and cut the dead branches until I reach live, green growth, put them back in their pots and watch them bloom all summer. What is going on with these geraniums?

You can see the new green shoots, some new leaves and of course blooms! They have not seen more than 1 hour of daylight since October, have had no water and they aren't growing in anything. Crazy I say!
Oh and speaking of crazy yesterday while out walking Max I saw a forsythia bush already in bloom! We had a foot of snow on Monday, yesterday it was 60 degrees - it's no wonder the plant world is in a state of confusion. Typically I put down my corn glutton when the forsythias bloom but that is hard to do when you still have several inches of melting snow covering the lawn.
I did notice this morning that the tulips are now coming up along with the daffodils/jonquils. There are a few crocuses peeping up too. I planted over 40 bulbs last fall but forgot to squirrel proof them with chicken wire so I lost the majority of them but thankfully the naturalize pretty quickly so all is not lost.
It is expected to be another 50+ degree day so hopefully the rest of the snow will melt and I can get back to the butterfly bush and hack it to the ground!

In Like a Lion!

So much for Spring coming! I bid a heartfelt RIP to my daffodils (or jonquils). We got pummeled overnight with over a foot of snow. The picture shows the view into my backyard from the porch. This is the lull in the storm. It is expected to snow again around 3pm. The snow had just melted out of my yard too! I was able to get to my garden yesterday to get exact measurements for the raised bed but I guess that won't be going in anytime soon!
Not sure what is going to happen to the sedum, dragon flowers and columbine that were experiencing new growth too. All because of this crazy weather! This photo was taken a few weeks ago at 7:30pm! Unheard of conditions in February in New England!