What a resourceful idea for your tomato plants, fantasia.

Ahh, coracle, I planted poppy seeds the past 2 summers: such pretty flowers! I don't have any in this year, but hopefully another time. I did put in some sunflower seeds again this year, but I think the squirrels have been attacking some of them. I have got to get bloodmeal out there today yet!

Yay for your garden, Bella! It sounds lovely.

Yep, what a satisfying feeling it is to have completed planting, eh, fk? We are not getting a full veggie garden dug this year: there are enough new ventures to work at around our new home, so the larger plot for vegetables will wait until next year. Sure glad we have a couple of great Farmers' Markets in town.

However, I could not live without home-grown tomatoes, so planted 2 Brandywines and 4 Cherry tomato plants, which are all thriving. We used our pool fence at our old place for support, as they grow quite large, and here we are using the side of our back deck. Plus I put cages up to help. But the plants always grow taller than the cages, so, yeah.

We have dug a couple of perennial and annual gardens in the backyard, and filled them full of beauty. Now for a perennial garden at the front up along one side of the driveway (it's a long drive, so we're starting up halfway up), then curving around to follow the sidewalk to the front door. It has been too dry up until now to dig up that sod, but with the rain we had yesterday, the earth should be moist enough to move it to a new location, allowing me to plant the perennials I have purchased so far: stonecrops, daisies, hastas, hydrangeas, peonies, and a couple of others (can't recall what they are ).

It's great being outside digging again ... with no concern for frost anymore!

/edit/ Mind you, I love the feel and smell of the air when it frosts, but unfortunately gardening and frost do not work well together.

It's fun reading about the coming of summer and everyone out in their gardens. My gardening friends here have started their plants indoors and bring them out to harden them (I believe that's the correct phrase - acclimating them to cooler 'real' weather outside). But the past few evenings have been so cool and crisp, with frost advisories nearby and even freeze advisories 'up north' that local have had to cover those plants at night. But soon the heat and humidity will be here and the growing season will start in earnest.

We had to bring in some things a couple of nights the latter part of the week of May 18th because of frost, which was light, but still could have killed off those tender young plants. There has not been any here since then, though.

The the field has been planted behind us, with the greenery sprouting last week (pretty, pretty!), so it is a few inches high now: we were thinking corn would be going in there this year, but that's not so. It may be soy again. Also, apparently, there is quite a rotation here between wheat, hay, soy, and corn. Even sunflowers sometimes. Oooh, that would be amazing! Maybe one of these years. *wonders if she can put in a request to the farmer*

A friend gave me five tomato plants this spring, which I planted and more or less forgot about... along with a pepper plant and some lily bulbs.

I checked on them today, weeded everything, and I think I may have put the pepper in the wrong place. It's growing, but the tomatoes overshadow it by a lot. It was 70 days to fruit, if I remember the tag correctly, and there are two or three weeks to go? But no flowers or anything yet.

Three of the lilies came up, which means I'll have to find out what to do with the bulbs in the fall. And I pinched the dead and yellow leaves off the bottom of the tomato plants. I hope I didn't get too carried away there, because there is already fruit growing and it'd be super sad if I killed them now.

I don't have access to a garden where I live, so I resort to the next best thing: the local Farmers' Market. Not only do they have piles of fresh produce like cucumbers and beets, with tomatoes and sweet corn soon to follow, but a local bakery offers tempting treats like cinnamon bread. Yum!

I've been trying my hardest to use some of the produce in my garden despite life being quite busy right now with two little ones. But I did get 8 cups of carrots bagged and frozen yesterday (and boy did it take a while to peel all those things ) and I thinned out my beets with the idea of working on those today. Dunno if I'll get to them or not as my husband is in the kitchen making sugar cookies. Hmmm... freeze beets or have sugar cookies...?

I also plan to attempt to cut up and freeze a large portion of my onions. I always have more than I can use in the fall, so I'd like to freeze some for well into the winter and spring of next year. Has anyone frozen onions before?

We freeze onions a lot. They work best in soups after they've been frozen, but you can saute them if they're going into a mixture with meat and/or other veggies for tacos or something like that. I'm not sure you could caramelize them or anything fancy like that after freezing them.

How do you cut them up? If at all?

I just dice them up like I would for soup or whatever else I'd use them in, then store them in Ziploc bags.

I freeze onions all the time. If you don't want them to freeze in a lump in a bag, flash freeze them by spreading them out in a single layer on a pan and freezing them for about a half hour, and then transfer them to a plastic bag. They won't stick together that way and will stay loose.

I don't know if they thaw well to eat raw, but they're awesome for cooking.

We tend to puree our onions and then freeze the pulp. We add frozen chunks to whatever we're cooking. It probably isn't best if you like having whole onions, but personally cooked onions activate my gag reflex, but I like the taste that onions give, so it works for me.

I have a verybdecent amount of cherry tomatoes coming in, and my herbs are growing abundantly. I'm not altogether happy with how passive my gardening has been the past two years, but it's better than nothing.

We tend to puree our onions and then freeze the pulp. We add frozen chunks to whatever we're cooking. It probably isn't best if you like having whole onions, but personally cooked onions activate my gag reflex, but I like the taste that onions give, so it works for me.

I have a very decent amount of cherry tomatoes coming in, and my herbs are growing abundantly. I'm not altogether happy with how passive my gardening has been the past two years, but it's better than nothing.

I'll have to try that trick with the onions, Bella! My wife's not a fan of onions, so I always have to try to dice them very small or cook them into nothingness.

We've not had much of anything produce in the garden this year, and while I'm sad I haven't been as diligent and successful with the garden this year, I'm almost grateful it hasn't demanded more attention from me given the way the summer has gone.

I must be ready for spring, I went seed shopping this afternoon. I didn't buy many vegetable seeds though, mostly flowers and herbs.

Remember when I posted this picture? viewtopic.php?p=266236#p266236
Well my husband made one for me for Christmas, though not nearly as elaborate as the one pictured above. It houses three herbs and I've decided on Parsley, Cilantro, and Basil as those are the three I use the most of in my cooking. I grow all three in my garden but during the winter I'm out of luck.

I just ordered my tomato and pepper seeds for the year.
Grandmas Pick Hybrid Tomato
Heirloom Cherry Blend Tomato
Juliet Hybrid Tomato
San Marzano Tomato
Tomatillo Purple
Big Bertha Hybrid Pepper
Gourmet Rainbow Mix Hybrid Pepper

I'm hoping to get some flower seeds started this week. I'm not sure what all I want to start yet, but I'll keep you all posted on what I choose.

We got a Burpee catalog in the mail this week. . . . . the planning has begun.

This will be the first year in two years that I've put out a garden. School will be over in May, and I can't wait to garden a little!