Tree house?

We saw this on our travels through Chippewa County in Wisconsin today. Couldn't resist stopping for a picture. It was a gorgeous day for traveling through the scenic Wisconsin countryside.

Happy gardening

Another happy day harvesting and weeding out in the garden. Now it is time to put together a meal including a cucumber from a neighbor, a small white/yellow cucumber, mountain rose potatoes, salad burnet and a few other herbs from our raised bed gardens. I snacked on a few raspberries without sharing. Please don't tell my family. The grapes are Swenson Red and are nicely turning color. I'll share those.........maybe.

Berries, wines and other garden treasures

This isn't the first raspberry from our garden this year but it is the first one we didn't munch before we could take a picture. We planted these this year and so far we are pleased. It is called Autumn Britten and they are huge with a delicious tangy sweet flavor. It looks like we should have a good yield with plenty for eating and sharing with a little left over for wine making.

We started a wine this week with our red currants and blackberries from a friend. So far the flavor is very good. Hopefully the delicate fruity taste will survive the fermentation process.

Our cool weather this summer is slowing down the tomatoes a bit. However, a few are taking on a hint of blush and we hope to have some ready to eat by next week. The green peppers look good even without warm temperatures.

I planted one squash variety this year: Thelma Sanders sweet potato squash. The seed catalogs identified it as being "enormously productive". That is proving to be true in my garden (maybe I shouldn't have planted so many). I hope they store well! I guess it is time to get my husband working on improving our basement storage area for squash and potatoes. However, I also don't want to distract him from his latest project which is making more raised bed gardens for me. I definitely need more room for corn and potatoes next year.

Happy Birthday

It can't be just a coincidence that the beginning of my potato harvest occurs within one week of the birthdays of the only 2 guys I know that would consider mashed potatoes to be a great birthday gift!

These are the adora potatoes and they are delicious. They have been especially good baked and as oven fries. Next week they will be making a short trip from the garden to fire-pit with just a brief stop at the water hose.

The weather has been a bit cool for the peppers and tomatoes but it has been nice to get some rain. We have picked the first two Autumn Britten raspberries and they are wonderful. Hopefully there will be many more to come. We put in 25 plants and 22 of them look like they are doing very well.

Hanging out at the vineyards

We think it is cool that we are finally getting grapes on the vines. I guess that the term vineyard might be overstating it a little since we have about 10 bunches of grapes. They will probably be for fresh eating this year.

Our big success is the red currants. We enjoy the tart slightly sweet flavor and think they are very pretty as well. We have started harvesting them and are looking forward to making them into wine. Last year we had a smaller yield and they were mixed in with other fruits. The currant and strawberry wine was a real treat. It looks like our raspberry plants will produce well and they should be good mixed with the currants. We hope to have more red currant bushes next year so we can also make sauces, relishes and other treats with them. They are perfect for a slightly shaded area we need to fill in. The hard part is harvesting them when they look so nice on the plants.

A work in progress

The good news is that we have a lot of room to work with in our yard. The bad news is that the weeds can easily fill in the spaces before we do. Our lawn wasn't in great shape when we moved in and hasn't been worth the effort for us. We prefer our flower gardens, fruiting shrubs and raised bed vegetable gardens. Three of our favorite projects are pictured above. The hollyhocks bring back special memories because they are from seed collected by my mother-in-law years ago. The bee balm pictured in the center is a favorite of ours because the hummingbirds love it. The red currants are special because every year near our wedding anniversary, we pick them and make a one gallon batch of "Ruby Lady" wine to be enjoyed the next year for our anniversary. The yard is definitely a work in progress with much left to do. However, we are enjoying ourselves along the way.