Plum Crazy

 Made plum purée, plum jam and plum fruit roll ups. 

The roll ups were AMAZING! I added some of my chiles and they had this pleasant spicy and sweet mix. When the weather cools down I will be making more jam and fruit rolls up. 

Fourth of July

 For the 4th we went to Phoenix to hang out with Dorothy. It was a short trip but fun. 

Z

Calaveras Big Trees National Park

 Victoria came home early this summer and we went up to Calaveras for the first time. WOW! It was so beautiful. The weather was nice, sky was clear and sunny. It wasn’t too hot, yes it’s summer and it was warm, but not unbearable. 

I love being out in nature and spending time with my girl. What a fun day. 

💕Lady Phoebe

Time Keeps Flying By

 I’ve been very busy and also very distracted. I left town for a week and feel that my poor garden started to decline around the same time. The bulk of what I grew was squash and most of that has been harvested so I believe I will to go in and clean that all up. My pumpkin plant is growing, but at a slow pace so most likely, unless things change, I won’t have pumpkin by October. Only time will tell though.

My tomato plants have grown so HUGE yet have produced only 1 tomato. I had a branch full of green tomatoes and as I was watering the hose went around the plants and broke the branch. Yes; the very branch that had tomatoes in the process of ripening. So irritated and sad. Seriously, of all the branches  that had to bite the dust? My other tomatoes 🍅 were chomped to pieces by Templeton. I suppose it wasn’t meant to be.

During such a questionable and difficult time in the world, going out into my yard with a shovel allowed me to feel value and brought me the peace of mind I needed 

I am already planning what I’ll do next year in the garden. The joy, tranquility and sense of accomplishment I’ve gained from gardening overrides any of the downers that happened. 

My trees produced so much fruit that this fall, and probably winter, I’ll be busy making jelly and fruit leather with everything I froze.

A bonus I’ve enjoyed is being able to share what I’ve grown. It’s a great feeling to hand food over to people I care about. 

💕 Lady Phoebe

Garden reflections

I was FaceTiming with my good friend Miss Dena and showed her the garden. She was blown away. Maybe because I see it on a daily basis I forget the changes and growth more easily; so I went and looked at photos to refresh my mind. And what I saw blew my mind and had me feeling so appreciative of what has happened in my yard.
Here are some images of the different stages:

Pre garden or AKA weed garden. 

Sprout garden

Garden with plants

Plants getting bigger

WOW! Big, full and producing garden.  

Sacramento Love

For as much as I fretted and stressed and (sigh) resisted moving here to the Sac area; I have found so much to fall in love with.

One place I absolutely LOVE and ADORE is the state capital grounds. Here are a few reasons why.

1. It’s physical history. 😍 And I love history.

2. The trees (I’ll post more one this later, but there is a tree scavenger hunt. Could you just die...? It’s like I’m in heaven.)

3. The gardens. They have a cactus garden and rock garden and a ... ROSE Garden:

The Garden

My garden is looking good. I could even say it’s looking great when I think of how far it’s come along. But..

I love my garden and gardening it’s therapeutic and fun. So far I’ve grown and harvested zucchini and yellow squash and then more zucchini and yellow squash.

1st harvest

2nd harvest 

3rd harvest? Who knows, at this point I’ve lost count . hehehe

My tomato plants that I’ve grown from seed are growing like crazy and are pushing out some of my chili plants, but no red tomatoes...yet 🤞The tomato plants my son brought to me that were nearly dead are thriving and growing all over the place but no toms 🍅 ... yet (I’m hopeful, I mean I did bring them back from being nearly dead) My corn is still shorter than me. Sadly my lettuce, radishes, cauliflower, beets, tomatillos, cilantro, onions, watermelon and a few others are all MIA. 

Gardening is fun and rewarding; it’s like raising kids, so when my sprout babies fail it breaks my heart. 

I still have a plan to plant more seeds, I mean I really wanted to pull carrots out of the ground and really want fresh cucumbers, and cilantro and cauliflower and... lol I could go on but will stop now 😄

 I also am going to need to dig up my chili plants and move them since other plants are being area hogs and taking over. 

I am looking forward to posting about my plums that are almost ready to be picked. Soon, Phoebe soon; be patient. I plan on making fruit leather with them. It’s a beautiful purple delight. 😍  I’ve even made some mixed with strawberries 🍓 😋 I’ve found a place that sells local honey and so this will be a win win for me.

💕 Lady Phoebe