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Recent Entries to this Blog
Hot and dry is the forecast, over and over and over...
Posted: 19 Jul 2012 Posted: 11 Jun 2011 Posted: 08 Jun 2011 Posted: 30 May 2011 Posted: 24 May 2011 All Entries |
carolyn keiper's Blog
Hot and dry is the forecast, over and over and over...
Category: My greenhouse, high tunnel and garden project | Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2012 3:19 am Well, It has been a while since I have taken the time to sit down and write a little. The Spring is long gone, now and I think Summer is slipping by just as fast as Spring went. The garden is dry now, dryer than I have ever seen it here. We haven't had rain for most of the Spring and Summer now. The corn is wilty and the ears are small. The tomatoes across the road are only about 2' high and have some fruit on them, but the plants are crying for some rain. The few hundred gallons of water I have carried over there have only kept them alive. They aren't thriving, though. The peppers I planted over there are just as small on their own scale. The cucumbers are a loss. They are so bitter you could use them as an anti-poisoning medicine ingredient.... Over here on this side though we can water morning noon and night, I just hope I don't run the well dry...what a worry. There is no shortage each day of what to water. It pretty much all needs some. The cantaloupes and watermelon need the least. They are loving this weather. Most days are in the mid 90's and miserable. I don't know how the animals stand it outside all the time. At least my chickens have shade. The trees and shrubs are wilted most days now and the grass is crispy. What isn't wilted has gone dormant or died. Hopefully it will rain soon. This blog entry has been viewed 432 times
Hives are full of bees
Category: My greenhouse, high tunnel and garden project | Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 8:32 pm Today after my farmers market I got out the weedeater and finished weeding around the hives. Then I went and got out my supers( which is about 1 month late for us here) to put on so I can extract honey for my farmers markets in the fall. This is a very hot sweaty job, especially when it is already 85*. I have to get my bee suit on and cover my entire body and drip with sweat while bent over a 50,000 bees buzzing in and out of the hive (and chasing me down the tree line, til I went and got my smoker out.) One hive was quiet, the other was not. It was brimming with bees all over the inner cover top and bottom. Now the supers are finally on and they will probably swarm. Drats! Although, I have 3 empty hives, maybe they will move into there. now that would be OK. Thanks for stopping by to see whats going on. 
Honey bees on the hive entrance ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) Last edited: Mon Jun 13, 2011 12:22 am This blog entry has been viewed 409 times
I'm tired and sunburned
Category: My greenhouse, high tunnel and garden project | Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 1:40 am Finally the garden is almost all in. Thanks much in part to kevin and adrian. We finished laying all of the plastic much and drip tape this week. We started the week off picking strawberries, yum, but the mosquito's all but carry you away, I had to gain some weight just so they didn't, while we picked them. We planted the cantelope, watermelon, more peppers and tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, pumpkins, some squash called Red Warty Thing, bean seeds and more corn. Today we picked the first of the snow peas. Later this week it looks like the shelling peas ought to be ready. But before that got done, I had to water the bedding plants. Sometimes I had to water them up to 4x a day due to the extreme heat, during the week (90*+). I have sold a lot of them so I am very thankful for that and that I don't have so many to water now. Ollie still comes, but Caity is out of school now so she gets to do the babysitting (except for the dirty diapers, of course) So I don't have to carry him around while I water or plant. Which helps tremendously. Here are a few pictures of the garden now that we are almost done planting it. 
tomatoes, various varieties ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
Celebrity tomatoes across the road. ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
Peppers ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
Corn ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
Honeoye strawberries ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
corn, first planting ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
corn ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
Red Raspberries ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
Red Raspberries ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
4th of july tomatoes ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
cabbage in the high tunnel ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) 
graffitti cauliflower ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) There are a few more things I haven't put in yet so I'll post you a few more pictures later. Every night come dark I'm ready for bed. Not nearly as much time for the stew as before. Sorry, I hope I don't miss too much while I am out side working in the garden. Last evening though,a friend came over and we made concrete bird baths out of rhubarb leaves, so far so good. They are really big. as soon as they are done I'll seal them and take a few pictures. Well thats all for now, I'm tired and off to bed. Thanks for stopping by to see whats going on here. This blog entry has been viewed 1133 times
Farmers Market Season Begins
Category: My greenhouse, high tunnel and garden project | Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 1:24 am Saturday was a busy day for us. We were up early and out the door getting the vans packed up as tight as we could to take to our first farmers market of the season. 
first farmers market 5/28/11 ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) Here is our spot in the park. we have been in the same spot now for 3 seasons, which makes it handy for our repeat customers to find us, and find us they did. 
first farmers market 5/28/11 ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) Next to the picnic table on the ground was another 10 flats of peppers and tomatoes. We had a bit to take back home and unload, but thats how it goes. I raised peppers and tomatoes to give away to any child who came through the market. I didn't have one child who didn't want one to take home. They were so cute. 
Pooch enhancement pictures at the market ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) I went around to the other booths and found this one. I laughed and asked if I could take a picture to post here. Would you do this? There were a few new faces at the market this year. The man next to me took awesome wildlife photos and somehow had them "etched" in full color onto 6"x6" ceramic tiles. If he comes back again I will see if he will let me post a picture his stuff on here. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! All in all it was a good day.Mostly because the sun was shining for a change. We came home to unload the plants and I had a few swallowtail butterflys floating around in the side driveway. There were 3, but when I ran to get my camera 1 flew away. 
( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) This was only 1/2 of my day, but this was the fun part. Hope you enjoyed stopping by again, thanks. Carolyn This blog entry has been viewed 1160 times
The garden is getting filled up
Category: My greenhouse, high tunnel and garden project | Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 2:04 am This past week we have dodged the rain drops and hail and storms trying to get a few more vegetables in. Last week we got 45 more peppers in, 20 mounds of cantelopes, 60 assorted tomatoes and 20 rows of corn. Tonight we finished up the onions and shallots, and the 20 pink tomatoes. Kevin and Adrian got the plastic laid for the watermelons and tilled for another patch of peppers. There is more ready to plant, we just need the weather to get it in. thanks for stopping by again. carolyn This blog entry has been viewed 1092 times
going, going, gone
Category: My greenhouse, high tunnel and garden project | Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 2:47 am Saturday was a busy day. We signed up to participate in the Herbfest on the square in town. This happens on the third weekend of may every year in town and usually the weather is not real nice, but we got a "winner" day. It started out wet, foggy, drizzling, kind of a blah morning. By 9:00am it had quit raining and I had 3 van loads of plants set up on the tables ready and waiting for spring gardeners to come out and stroll through town to see everything that was being offered by various vendors. You could purchase food, crafts, tupperware, candles, plants, yard ornaments, and lots more. By the end of the day we had sold tomatoes, pansy baskets, herbs (lots of them), hanging baskets, petunias, peppers and a few more things. All of which I was very glad to send on their way. Not that I don't want to water or feed them, but my goal is to be a stay at home mom(and feed and water my children, as needed). I can't do that if I'm not here So hopefully we will get some more nice weather and be able to sell more of all the plants I've grown this spring. All of the gardeners and the farmers are getting very anxious to get their seeds in the soil and see some growth as the sunshines a little and warms up the ground. Now my weekend is over and I am tired, so I'll say goodnight and thanks for stopping by to see what was going on here. Talk to you again soon, Carolyn PS... I forgot to mention that by the time I got home to unload what was left, it had started raining... again. So I'm thanking God that we had such a nice day, but I'm still wishing i could send all this extra wet stuff down to cheryl and dooley and toni and all the other people who need it more than us. This blog entry has been viewed 1099 times
Filling the trailer
Category: My greenhouse, high tunnel and garden project | Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 4:25 pm Well the greenhouse is empty of all the peppers and tomatoes and the trailer is full. slowly I am having customers stop just to look or pick up some flowers for a planter. Soon though all the lookers will be itching to get their fingers in the soil and get their gardens planted. The hoophouse is starting to fill out. The tomatoes are almost 2 feet tall and all have flowers on them. The peppers are taking off, also. I had to replant a couple,(I think Kevin put too much fertilizer in the hole, oops). I have picked all the lettuce in there twice now and took it to the local farm market for them to sell. It sure is tasty, but we can only eat so much of it and hate to see it go to waste. The second hoophouse has cabbage almost big enough to harvest. I don't even eat it and I'm getting hungry for it just looking at it every day, now isn't that funny? Got to go now. thanks for stopping by to see what is going on here. This blog entry has been viewed 1338 times
Emptying the greenhouse.
Category: My greenhouse, high tunnel and garden project | Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 1:54 pm Today my husband moved the equipment trailer, that he isn't using, down to my greenhouse so I can bring all my tomatoes and peppers out to harden off. This way if we get a few cold nights we can just move the whole lot right into the shop for overnight. already I have filled 1/2 of the trailer with flats of tomatoes. I think I'm going to run out of room on it. this year I grew Ultimate Opener, Marglobe, Arkansas Traveler,Celebrity, Early Goliath, Big Boy, Costoluto Genovese, Garden Peach, Great White, Ultra Pink, Djena Lees Golden Girl and a few others. I guess my peppers will have to go on the ground when I run out of room on the trailer. I know pretty soon the weather will get nice and be nice for an extended amount of time. I have put my order in for dryer weather and sunshine and days over 65f, so we can all get our gardens in up here. Last edited: Tue May 10, 2011 6:25 pm This blog entry has been viewed 1369 times
Today in the Keiper garden
Category: My greenhouse, high tunnel and garden project | Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 2:49 am AAH, it's Saturday and the sun was actually shining and the garden has been drying out for two days now, so... Kevin(my husband) and Adrian(my son) helped all day. We were able to till, lay plastic mulch, plant beans, more corn, another crop of peas, a 2nd planting of tomatoes and 300 onion bulblets (then I went to the store and bought another 300). The greenhouse has hanging baskets galore, ready to find a new home, hopefully by or for Mother Day at someone else's home. I had to pinch the petunias we started earliest, they have become to tall already. My mother in law walked over to offer me her bed of hens and chicks. They were putting down fabric mulch and they were in the way. So I acquired a whole bunch of hens and chicks for a bare spot by my house. Unfortunately I ran out of day and none of my weeding was not accomplished. Oh well, I guess Monday will come soon enough and I'll just have bigger weeds to get a hold of. Now my day is over and it's time for bed so I'll say good night because I need to get up early and go to church. God Bless you all. This blog entry has been viewed 1288 times
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