garden – tierneycreates

What is an “Agriculture Report”? Well I was inspired by @quiteayarnblog‘s ongoing series of posts titled “Agriculture Report” (and this title always cracks me up) that are actually updates of what is going on in her garden. I just had to adopt this same title for updates on what is going on in my garden/my “garden report“…

Yes if you were in around in 1970 you might remember this song sung by Lynn Anderson – Rose Garden with it’s catchy line: “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden”:

This song popped into my head as I was snapping some photos for this post on my early summer garden.

We are starting our own “Rose Garden” in the front yard’s raised bed and hope to someday have a large rose garden in the backyard. I love roses and roses are VERY special to my husband John.

John was very close with this paternal grandparents growing up and being at their house was his favorite place to be as a kid. At 14 he even blew off a big school dance to go hang out with his grandparents.

According to John his grandfather had a magnificent rose garden and John would hang out with his grandfather as he tended his roses. It was always his secret dream to have his own rose garden someday. We are working on making that happen.

Slowly, over the past couple years, we’ve been adding roses to the front bed:

Here are some of the other flowers currently in bloom, primarily perennials, that we’ve added in to to keep the roses company:

We’ve run out of space to put roses in the front of the house. So we are planning to change the landscaping of the backyard someday, removing the rocks that border the fence and replace them with garden beds with soil so we can plant a large rose garden in the backyard.

We also have plans (perhaps too ambitious..) to build a greenhouse where the raised bed currently sits and relocate the raised bed. My Pinterest inspiration board is getting full of images of greenhouses!

For now we have plants in pots and a raised bed that John built last year:

I am growing lots of sunflowers from seed in the raised bed (they are doing well so far); and growing a couple other flowers from seed and trying to grow basil from seed, which seems to be working so far.

We bought one rose for the backyard that was on sale and a beautiful red color and for now we have it in a pot until we redo our landscaping (big undertaking) in the future:

I also have my annual tomatoes and herbs growing on my upstairs back deck:

So this concludes my “Agriculture Report” and I just realized I did basically Promise John a Rose Garden – ha!

Agriculture Report, Special Events

Agriculture Report and a Concert

October 25, 2024October 27, 2024 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

AGRICULTURE REPORT

I figured I would get one more “Agriculture Report” in for the year now that the growing season in Colorado’s Front Range where I live. I think this is the only update I am providing since my July 19, 2024 post Agriculture Report: Plantings Gone Wild .

As I mentioned in the July post, the free seeds I got from one of my local libraries really took off! Here is what the plants looked like in the raised bed John built at the end of September:

I’d routinely been getting tomatoes from the upstairs porch tomato plants and I started getting tomatoes AND our first cucumbers from the seed planted crops in the raised bed!

John made a Cucumber Salad with our first cucumbers (which are the first cucumbers I’ve ever grown!):

We recently returned from a trip to the Oregon Coast and the weather at home had changed radically (getting colder and colder at night) and there is rumor of a big freeze and possibly snowstorm at lower elevations (we live at 6000 ft above sea level). It has already snowed at the higher elevations (we have a lot of 14,000+ ft above sea level mountain regions in Colorado). So it was time to shut down the garden for the season. Plus it was time to “blowout” our sprinkler system/winterize it, so the plants wouldn’t be getting any more irrigation and where going to die out.

We harvested a bunch of tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini (but only a little as the rest did not ripen they were planted too late) from the raised bed:

John made pickles with the cucumbers and so far they taste delicious (they are still aging in their “pickling”):

In addition to the cucumbers from our raised bed, John used a hot pepper (not sure what I planted) and fresh thyme from our garden.

Besides vegetables, we had some luck with free flower seeds we got from the library. It took awhile but the Cosmos flower seeds I planted really took off:

We plan to put in a couple more raised beds next season, and I will be more organized in my free seed plantings (I hope the library hands out free seeds again next year). I did overcrowd the one raised bed, and the carrots, onions and spinach I planted from the free seeds did not grow.

Oh and would you like to see some photos of real harvests? A couple weeks ago we went to the Sunday Farmers’ Market in Parker and the fruits and vegetables were bountiful!

They have one stand at the Farmers’ Market that allows you to fill a large bag for $15 with whatever they have at their stand (and they have a lot of choices). They are very liberal on how the interpret “fill a bag” and they let me balance a very large head of cauliflower at the very top of the bag! They were also giving out free acorn squashes with purchase (I made a nice soup from mine) – I think they had more squash than they knew what to do with.

CONCERT

October 12 we went to see an awesome outdoor concert by our favorite Icelandic band, Kaleo.

We did see them at Red Rocks Amphitheatre this summer, and it was wonderful to get to see them again but at a smaller venue – Breckenridge Brewery’s Littleton Colorado Campus’ Farmhouse Concert Venue.

Here is a little clip from the concert I took:

And here is the full performance of this song that made John fall in love with the band as much I did when I first heard them around 2016:

But our favorite of their songs is not sung in English, it is sung in their native Icelandic language – Vor í Vaglaskógi – and based on Icelandic folklore:

Hope you enjoyed the music! The lead singer, JJ Julius Son (Jökull Júlíusson) has quite the voice/vocal range, and we love the musicianship of the band.

Agriculture Report

Agriculture Report: Plantings Gone Wild

July 19, 2024July 21, 2024 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Some of my US based blogging buddies who are of a “certain age” might remember a series of awful late night infomercials selling videos of female college students making curious college and Spring-Break partying decisions called “Girls Gone Wild“.

I haven’t thought about these informercials for years and then it popped into my head when I was checking on my garden the other day because I have PLANTINGS GONE WILD!

Tomatoes, Tomatoes

I am on my 4th summer of growing tomatoes on my upstairs deck in Colorado. This year my tomato plants have GONE WILD and are the biggest they’ve ever been! I didn’t do anything different this season than previous seasons but the tomato plants are growing like crazy.

I hope I have a large enough tomato harvest this year to make a pasta sauce as well as salsa with my tomatoes!

Free Seeds Out of Control

In my April 2024 post Explored a new library, tried a new group I shared that a local was giving out free packets of seeds (vegetables and flowers) – 3 packets per library patron per day.

Well after John built me a raised bed (see post John gets “ScrapHappy” too – new raised bed) in June, I planted most of the vegetable seeds in the raised bed to include cucumber, squash, carrots, spinach and onion. However I thought it was too late in the season in Colorado to get a decent harvest so I thought the seeds would help “seed” my new raised bed with organic material as a base for next year’s garden.

So I haphazardly planted my seeds and did not label what was planted in the different areas of the bed.

And now I am dealing with SEEDS GONE WILD! Every seed seems to have sprouted and some plants are exploding everywhere…and I don’t know what they are as they are crops I’ve never planted before!

Yikes! At least I recognize the marigolds I planted for pest control! We put netting over the bed to help keep birds and squirrels out of the garden and so far it appears to be working.

I tried early on to thin the bed once I realized the seeds were sprouting and growing like crazy but the new sprouts were too delicate and some did not survive the replanting. So I just left most of it as a “hot mess”.

I guess I will have to wait until it is time to harvest the vegetables to find out what some of them are! Oh how sloppy my raised bed garden looks!

In Other Agricultural News

Although it looks a bit crowded, my herb container gardens seem to be flourishing this year and I am continually enjoying fresh herbs for cooking this season. For example I’ve harvested all the parsley and basil twice and it keeps growing back!

I love when a recipe calls for “fresh parsley” and I can go grab it from my deck garden!

I’ll close out my Agriculture Report with this inspirational quote I found in a magazine that I put up in my studio:

Agriculture Report, Knit and Crochet Away!, Sunflowers!

Update on Sunflower Granny Squares and an Agriculture Report

June 27, 2024 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is an update to the post Another Hat, Sunflower GS, “Agriculture Report”, and some Pickles.

I’ve made some progress on the sunflower inspired granny square blocks (which someday will be a blanket) that I’ve been working on, primarily while riding in the car as a passenger.

Here is what my first one looked like that I shared in the post I linked:

I decided to add some green to represent newly opening sunflowers and with the rust, yellow and green yarn in play here is how the blocks are progressing:

A couple close up of the various blocks in progress:

I am making the centers to the first 20 – 21 blocks and then I will be adding the oatmeal colored border yarn to complete the granny square blocks. I’ll share an update when I get the first 20 – 21 done.

I also thought I would share an “Agriculture Report” (inspired by @quiteayarnblog‘s ongoing series of posts titled “Agriculture Report”) and the tomatoes on my upper deck keep getting taller and taller and will end up taller plants than previous years by the time they fruit:

We were also able to harvest ONE strawberry so far (we shared it and savored each bite) from the first strawberry plant I am growing in Colorado:

Also the FREE seeds I planted courtesy of the local library (see post Explored a new library, tried a new group) are doing really well in the new raised bed John built from leftovers from our rebuild of the back deck (see posts John gets “ScrapHappy” too – new raised bed and Guest Blogger Post: Managing Humans Demolishing and Rebuilding a Deck):

We put netting on the raised bed to try to prevent the naughty squirrels and other critters feasting on our growing vegetables.

Okay now I need to start catching up on my blogging buddies’ posts, I’ve fallen behind again as it’s been a busy summer so far 🙂

Agriculture Report, From the Woodshop, ScrapHappy

John gets “ScrapHappy” too – new raised bed

June 17, 2024 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This might be part 2 to my 6/15/24 monthly ScrapHappy post (see post ScrapHappy June 2024)…

My husband John worked on a “scrappy” project in June also: he built a raised bed with the scraps of pressure treated lumber from our deck rebuilding project in May (see post Guest Blogger Post: Managing Humans Demolishing and Rebuilding a Deck).

Here are photos of him building the raised bed in our backyard and setting up the automatic irrigation:

We originally had our backyard swing in this spot and John relocated the pavers and the swing to under the two large Aspen trees in our backyard:

Here’s the raised bed with the netting we added to hopefully protect our planting from the critters (animal and bug) that live in the open space behind our house:

I am pretty excited about the raised bed as now I can (perhaps) grow things like squash and greens where I needed a larger and deeper space than my upstairs deck garden allows.

Speaking of the upstairs deck garden, my container garden pots are filling out nice with foliage from the tomatoes, peppers, and herbs I am growing. I also added a pot of strawberries using a macrame hanger that my friend K made me.

We also added to planters that rest on the deck railings to the mix and for now I have seed starts there which I will transfer eventually to the raised bed. Then I will put some type of trailing flowers in those planters.

John set up automatic irrigation (watering) for all the pots and planters on the deck so it we are out of town they will get watered!

A Crafter Needs to Eat, A Crafter's Life

A Quilter’s Life

October 31, 2015September 16, 2018 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A while back a dear friend, who is not a quilter, whom I was trying convince to follow my blog, said: “But your blog is about quilting, and I am not a quilter…”

I replied: “My blog is about a Quilter’s Life” (which is of course more than just quilting).

So on this blustery autumn Saturday afternoon I have decided to just share some random happenings in my Quilter’s Life! (Hope you are not too shocked over the wild life I lead, wink, wink).

Fabric Scraps, Well, Um, Yes Thank You

I hope I do not lose credibility with my readers, but in my very recent post A “Humane” Way to Eliminate Fabric Scraps, I pretty much vowed not to accept any more fabric scraps from friends. I have broken this vow, but if you are a quilter you will understand. I had lunch today with a couple of friends at our favorite Thai restaurant downtown and my friend Susan had beautifully packaged up some batik fabric scraps for me – how could I refuse them?

How could I turn these beautiful batik fabric scraps down?

Junk Drawer Under Control!

I am still working through the lessons learned from reading Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (2014) which I discussed in the post The Space in Which We Live. Recently I took on the infamous “Junk Drawer” (I know you all have one) and now have it under control. I was going to do a post just on organizing my “junk drawer” but I was pretty sure that would put you all to sleep as “organizing a junk drawer” is likely one of the most boring topics imaginable to devote an entire post. Thought I would share a photo and that is the end of talking about my “junk drawer”!

Ta Da - a semi organized — Ta Da – a semi organized “junk drawer” (I am actually able to find stuff without rifling through it too much).

Let’s Pretend this is a Culinary Blog (Just for a Moment)

Since I began blogging two years ago I have become addicted to reading other blogs. I never knew what I was missing – there are so many wonderful posts, ideas, stories, life experiences, and photos that my fellow bloggers share.

However, there is one type of blog I am completely intimidated by: Culinary/Cooking Blogs. Their photos are so beautiful, their blogs are so organized and well-written, and the recipes and cooking tips – sigh, I shudder with envy and intimidation.

For fun, I will pretend for a moment this is Culinary Blog and I will share a wonderful tip I learned from my friend Ali (who is a wonderful Home & Garden writer) who learned it from a chef she interviewed for an article:

A QUICK WAY TO DEAL WITH GARLIC CLOVES (eliminate the tedious peeling of garlic skin)

Separate the cloves
Take a medium-large stone (like one from the beach or your garden) that has been scrubbed clean, and firmly press down on the garlic to break it open.
This will make removal of the garlic skin very easy – remove the garlic and chop, grate or mince it for your recipe!

No worries, I am not going to start a blog “tierneycooks”!

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and….

(By the way, did you notice that the photo above, from the section on a quick way to deal with garlic cloves, is not a very good photo? In culinary blogs their knives in photos are always very clean and very shiny while mine looks like it was smeared in mysterious goo. This is why you do not have to worry about a future “tierneycooks” culinary blog).

In my post Shared Bounty, I discussed how a friend had shared the “fruits of her labor” in her garden this past growing season. Today she gave me the last of her parsley, purple sage, and rosemary and suddenly I have the traditional English ballad “Scarborough Fair” (made famous by Simon & Garfunkel) stuck in my head. The only thing missing is “thyme”.

“Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parley, sage, rosemary, and thyme; Remember me to one who lives there, For once she was a true love of mine.”

I love cooking and I am pretty excited by this last batch for the season of fresh from the garden herbs and plan to make them part of several stews and soups!

Parley, Sage, Rosemary...but no Thyme (but we could still head to the imaginary Scarborough Fair!) — Parley, Sage, Rosemary…but no Thyme (but we could still head to the imaginary Scarborough Fair!)

Well I know you all are exhausted from reading about my wild Quilter’s Life, so I will close here, as I now need to find something else to organize or a new project to start and not finish!

A Crafter's Life

Shared Bounty

October 11, 2015November 21, 2015 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I started gardening a couple of years ago. Funny thing I used to live in Seattle, Washington which has a great climate and soil for gardening (you could practically throw something towards the ground and it would grow), and I was not into gardening.

Then I moved to Central Oregon where the soil is volcanic pumice lava rock of death or something like that, the growing season is short, and we have little rainfall (as a gardening bonus, ha!). Suddenly, now living in a challenging climate, I decided to start growing a vegetable garden.

Four years in, my raised beds finally had a decent harvest (for my expectations) – I had plenty of kale for many months (my $2.99 kale starts turned into like $80 in kale) and a decent harvest of cherry tomatoes…

HOWEVER, today I went over a friend’s house and saw her garden (she is a magical gardener) and left her house with large shared bounty from her harvest: giant squash, celery (I never knew someone who grew celery!), Yukon gold potatoes, tomatoes (heirloom and cherry), basil, Thai basil, rosemary, and lots of parsley.

It helps to have a friend who is an excellent gardener and generous!

My friend has really inspired me to keep on gardening, to learn more about gardening, and to try to expand the areas of my yard that I dedicate to my vegetable garden each year. I hope to be able to share this kind of bounty someday!