Gardens Home & Garden

Tally has a salad after her lunch - to make her feel more full without adding the inches.
She has strips of firm white cabbage, sweet potato, red pepper, cucumber and a tomato. I try most of what is in season, and though lettuce is a No, Chinese leaves were a hit! She finishes off with a carrot and a piece of broccoli or cauliflower stem, for crunchy satisfaction and to keep her teeth clean. She likes cider vinegar, (the cloudy one with the mother in it), which I shake up with her salmon oil supplement. A large cucumber is a lot for one small dog so I'm now wondering whether she would like it pickled! I may well give it a try.
Years ago, when Eddie started with ulcerative colitis, (which later became cancerous), Azz suggested that I tried him on fermented foods. We had fizzing jars in the kitchen for a few years, and giving my dogs a salad owes a lot to those days. Maybe not for all breeds, but Beagles love it! Tally's visiting Border Collie friend is a little more cautious.

It could be a good treat. Cut them into chips. In the fridge they will last a good year - even opened. Since she likes cider vinegar, she should be good with the taste. Maybe leave off the spices.

Could you sterilize the jars in a microwave?
I don't have a dishwasher. I remember that years ago my Mum used the oven, but I cook with halogen these days and use the oven for storage!

You just need to wash them. By hand is OK just use as hot of water as you can stand. That's the great thing about refrigerator canning - you don't have to worry about sterilizing like you do with traditional canning. No water bath after filling either.

My aunt used to store hers under her house and my dad stored them in our garage. Mine are all in the fridge - I don't have a cool storage area like that (garage is hotter than outside).

For cucumbers, look for kirby, persian or pickling - those make the best pickles as they stay firm. The others work but may not give Tally the crunch of a good pickle.

I don't think there will be a choice of varieties - unless I grow from seed. Organic or non organic is the only choice I'm used to.
Thanks for the info about the jars.

Very sad about the Trump shooting. What a horrid world it is these days. So much cruelty and hate.

If you have a farmer's market they might have some named varieties.

Unfortunately, Trump has created this atmosphere of hate and violence. It's always been a question of when someone would attempt it rather than if. And even worse, there will be a question of whether it was done by someone who hates Trump or someone who wants him to become a martyr.

Just to see, I gave Cat-dog and Tornado-dog each a small pickle spear.

Cat-dog sniffed it and walked away. Tornado-dog gently took it and carried it away. I offered it to Cat-dog again and when she saw me eat one she took it. She decided she really likes the pickling brine. She licked that pickle spear to death and then left it. Tornado-dog just set his down and never touched it again.

So, Cat-dog says pickling brine is good, but cucumbers are worthless to both dogs...

Haha. Tally's BC friend didn't eat any fruit or veg before she started calling. She now eats chunks of our big supermarket cucumbers, carrot, sweet potato, raspberries, apple and strawberries. She chomped cauliflower stem, but decided against the Chinese leaves. Tal loves courgette, (zuccini), and avocado too but they are too expensive to allow her more than a taste. Nearly all our veg is twice the cost of last year, and the caulis have been very small. i'm glad I'm not feeding a family.
I feel sad that the most productive land round here, (I am on the border with Cheshire), is being covered with large housing estates. I know folks need quality houses, but why must they build on prime topsoil? As a war baby, I remember being mocked at uni for saying that a country should be able to feed itself.
Re. the shooting. So sad that someone has lost their life by merely attending the rally, and I hear two more were critically injured. We will never know the reason why the 20 year old shooter chose to forfeit his life.

I agree. Our smaller farms have pretty much all been bought and subdivided into housing. And of course, it's never affordable housing...

Re the shooting. I am sorry for those who got shot. I have no sympathy for Trump.

I asked the neighbor if he'd be willing to split the cost to have an arborist come out and inspect the massive oak tree in his yard that leans towards my yard. My concern is that if it falls in a winter storm, it will fall across my entire yard destroying my pool, patio AND onto the roof over my bedroom.

Instead he decided to just have the tree trimmed. So I scheduled an arborist myself to inspect the tree from my yard for yesterday 12-4 pm.

Wednesday afternoon (after this was scheduled), the neighbor said the tree trimmers would do the job sometime in the next two weeks.

Yesterday morning, there are two men wandering around my driveway. I go out and ask them what they want. They are here to trim the tree and need access to my yard to move things. There is nothing under the tree in my yard that can be moved - it's my berry bushes and my new very small trees. Then they say they need to go in my yard to pick up the mess, I tell them they can let me know when they are done and I'll let them in to clean up. They get mad and walk off.

After texting with the neighbor about it, he says he's having the boss call me. The boss texts and says they need access to do the job safely. I pointed out that they said they wanted access to move things and that they can't drop the branches in my yard because of my baby trees. He says they'll be careful.

After that interaction, the guy cuts a branch and drops it on two of my baby trees. When I go out back to stop them, one of them has jumped the fence into my yard. I tell them they need to use ropes and pull the branches to the other yard and if they need to come in my yard they need to let me know.

I go back inside. A few minutes later their boss texts me and says they left because they can't do the job because I told them they couldn't come in my yard. I told him what I said. He comes out. It's not their boss - it's the neighbor's partner. The guys are not even a bonded tree service.

I show the partner my yard and explain that there is no where to drop branches in my yard safely - they HAVE to be roped and pulled to the other yard. He gets it and says he'll sit there and watch them while they work. Then, he realizes that there are cars parked in the lot behind me that are in the direct path of dropped branches. I suggest he call the landlord of the cottages and have him get the renters to move their cars.

Then the arborist shows up. As I bring him around back I tell him about the morning. As he walks into view of the tree he says "Toedtoes, they just need to use ropes. It's not difficult.". Thank you! He looks at the tree and how they plan to cut it and says that will work and it won't be at risk of falling on me.

With all that, the partner decides to stop them for the day and come back in the morning.

Today, they have a different guy cutting. He uses ropes tied to the branches to control their drop and pull them to the other yard. Not one branch needed to fall in my yard. And wonder of wonders, they did it ALL without ever needing to go in my yard.

Sheesh. They made it out like I was being unreasonable simply because they wanted to be lazy. Thankfully my two little trees survived the dropped branch (thankfully it was more leaves than branch).

I'm sorry you have had all this hassle over someone else's tree, and I'm glad your small shrubs haven't been permanently damaged.

I was going to post on this thread tonight as I have read that if you hand a ripe banana from a tree, it will attract hummingbirds. Are you still having hummingbird visitors?

Thanks. My granite honey myrtle got the brunt of it. He's a tough little guy.

They still come but usually before I'm outside in the evening.

I've heard of putting out fruits and jellies for various birds, but not specifically for hummingbirds. For me, I already have the plum trees and mulberry tree dropping fruit and attracting flies all over so I haven't bothered putting other fruits out. I also planted the two pineapple guava trees and the four berry bushes, so there will be plenty of fruit for all. I have the two bottlebrush trees that will feed the hummingbirds along along will all the other perennials.

I do plan on taking down the mulberry tree and replacing it with something more reasonable. The arborist suggested putting in a bubba desert willow. He said it grows to 20 feet which is within my size preference, but I worry it will overhang into the other neighbor's too much. She pruned the mulberry, removing everything that hung over, so I don't want to grow something else that she'll want to be rid of. I'll give her review rights of my final short list.

I thought a garden update is warranted. The front garden is still doing great. Everything is getting big. Right now the fuchsias are blooming. The hummingbirds come daily. The other day I saw a juvenile Anna male (pink throat but no pink cap yet) and an adult (his dad?). The female(s) comes daily and will hover and say hello if I'm out there.

The scrub jays have forgiven me for cutting down the privet tree and are outside daily. I wake to their screeching. I put out peanuts for them and they are starting to watch for me.

I lost a lot in the backyard during the last big heatwave. Most of my container plants. And my cane's hybrid bottlebrush tree just failed out of nowhere.

I'm going to replace them at the fall plant sales. Have about 22 plants on my shopping list right now. I'm going to move things around a bit. I've had all the containers on the patio in full sun. But it seems that they retain enough hot moisture in pots to create problems. It's not wet, but the root balls are a good 5-10 degrees warmer (and humid) versus the soil further out.

So, I'm going to move them all to the porch for the first year while they get established. It will be a bit more sheltered (but sunny) and I should be able to water less to prevent the humid soil. I'll also amend the soil with vermiculite to increase aeration.

I'm going to try some new plants:

Changeling monkeyflower
Eleanor monkeyflower
Prostrate emu bush
Mingenew Gold emu bush
Aztec pearl mexican orange
Pink eyre australian fuchsia
Double take peach flowering quince

I'm also going for a few prior ones:
Bicolor butterfly bush
Cliff maids (this time the Elsie's variety)
Poker plants (mango popsicle and orange vanilla popsicle)
Woodland strawberry

I got 3 arbors for free, so I am putting one out front with a possum purple passion fruit and two out back - one with the possum purple and one with California wild grapes.
I'm putting a lion's tail where I haven't had any luck with anything else.

Then I'm going to order some chocolate mint, orange mint, and a echinacea kismet pink lemonade, echinacea sweet sandia (should be called watermelon tourmaline), and barbeque rosemary.

I'm hoping with the fall plantings and new location as they start that they will do better than my prior.

My guava pineapple trees are doing great. The front one is almost 2 feet tall now and quite bushy.

This fall I am going to prune back my two surviving butterfly bushes a lot as they look a bit spindly now.

My three turk's cap are doing nicely - they like the shadier spot that everything else hated.

P.S. of all my pickling and jamming, I will announce my absolute favorite:

Sliced sweet mini peppers pickled in honey white balsamic vinegar. The vinegar is very mild with a sweet tang that pairs nicely with the peppers. I add the peppers to salads, omelets, tuno (veggie tuna) sandwiches, BLTs (veggie B), and grilled cheese sandwiches. So good!

I've never heard of veggie tuna.
Spotted a recipe for Carrot Bacon online - I am going to try that when I spot smoked paprika in the supermarket.



Your garden plan sounds very colourful. My pots are dying back somewhat now. A double Fuchsia has produced black 'cherries' which I recently learned were edible - I found them a bit bland but Tally seems to enjoy them. My white and tricolour heathers are looking well against the grey slate. I think I'll get a couple more for the autumn colour, and another Irish Bell-heather for the Winter.
My two tomato plants are heavily laden but show no signs of ripening. I had a similar problem last year - weeks of tomatoes sitting on the window sills - some ripening, some rotting!

The tuno doesn't really taste like tuna, but it's got the consistency of a tuna or chicken salad. I mix it up with mayo, champagne/chardonnay mustard*, and lots of relish and it makes for a nice sandwich on hot days.

That recipe sounds interesting. With most meat substitutes, I prefer the soy-based ones as they have the closest texture to what they are replacing without changing the taste drastically. For bacon my go to is Morning Star Farms - it's got the best consistency and the texture and you get a bit of the fat texture of real bacon. It also separates best when frozen so easy to just cook up a couple pieces. But the carrots I think would taste good as air fried or sauteed carmelized carrots in their own right. And thinking on it, switch the carrots for sliced mushrooms and YUM!!!

How annoying with those tomatoes! Hmmm, edible fuchsia berries - interesting. I've never heard of them producing berries. It's good Tally likes them. I worry a lot about Tornado-dog eating a plant part, so only plant non-toxic ones, but he hasn't done more than a quick sniff.

I'd love to add some heathers but we're too hot for it here.

I'm hoping to get some nice fruits in a couple years. I put a soaker hose to the blackberries and raspberry bushes on a 3-day watering cycle and they are really taking off. Once it cools down, I need to add some trellising to the planter to get them off the ground. I have the planter fenced because a certain someone uses it to get closer to his arch nemesis, Squirrel. Then I have the two guava pineapple trees. Add the wild grapes to the mix and the passion fruit. And I stillcurrently have the two plum trees and the mulberry trree (next year I may try making mulberry jam).

*I really love the Olive Tap champagne dill mustard, but the French's dijon mustard made with chardonnay is an affordable option for everyday use.

As I type all this, I can hear the girls racing up and down the hallway playing. For such silent hunters, they sound like a herd of elephants. The boys (and Tornado-dog) are sleeping on the bed ignoring them.

My veggie go to is Quorn - do you have that in the US? The sausage is yummy, the dark mince makes a decent Bolognese or lasagne, and the pale chunks are very chicken like. On the downside it is highly processed, a flavoured blend of fungi and egg white I believe. My meat eating husband said that he would have Quorn anytime, and he didn't like soya substitutes.

We have quorn. I enjoy it but it is not at many stores so I don't get it as often.

I haven't found a "sausage" that I like yet.

Impossible steak strips are pretty good.

I missed lasagna. The vegetable ones just aren't the same with their chunks of broccoli, etc. And the cheese lasagnas add a different overly sweet tasting cheese that I can't stand. I finally found frozen Michael Angelos manicotti. It's a meat lasagna without the meat - just what I wanted.

We don't have your brands over here.
The entire Quorn range is available in all supermarkets over here. I'm not keen on the cold thin sliced sliced versions though. I think it's the texture that puts me off. I don't buy any just veg. products - except for pies and pasties - there's so much more flavour when you do your own.

I get bored cooking. If it takes more than one pot/pan or longer than a 5 minute prep, then I rarely make it myself.

I also tend to not like re-heated food so cooking a large pot of something and freezing portions usually ends up with me never pulling the frozen portions out to eat.

I love cooking but unfortunately I have a pescatarian daughter and a meat eating son that will only eat certain types of meat depending on what mood he’s in, I sometimes have quorn with my daughter when I make her a lasagna, but I’m not to keen on the looks of the chicken looking bits or the sausage as they look to dry for me even in a toad in the hole. Today I made first time lemon curd which set lovely, so tomorrow I’ll be making lemon cake to use it in and a request from my sister in law to make her one to do I’ll be busy. I did grow 5 lemon trees and 2 orange trees from seed , I’ll be surprised if they will fruit if I can get them to a decent size or if the survive but we’ll see.
Picture of the lemon curd I made today