Meadowood Edible Garden Update - First Harvest

Bird nesting in hanging tomato plant

The garden projects are moving more slowly now as the temperatures are ranging from 75F to 95F during the days.  How it can be so very humid and we get absolutely no rainfall for weeks amazes me.  The US drought monitor has us colored red - extreme drought.  I'm not looking forward to the water bill this month but so far I think I've kept everything alive (I'm not watering the lawn only the woody materials plus fruits and veggies). 

We now have birds laying eggs.  Unfortunately not chickens as part of the Meadowood Ranch Plan Forward.  Instead we have a mourning dove (based on Wikipedia photo) that has built a nest in a tomato plant hanging basket.  She has laid an egg and is now sitting.  Ms. Dove does leave her nest when the tomato plant gets watered.

Proposed Edible Garden Area now with Mantis Composter

The edible garden project is moving forward.  The Mantis twin composter is assembled.  It has been sited in the proposed edible garden area in the afternoon shade of the workshop.  The  under-ground drain inlet grate near the workshop has been located - an archeological dig of sorts.  I removed the grass growing around the inlet grate but haven't tried to clean out the PVC drainline yet (of course if it would rain I could see how the drain is functioning!).  There is now water pressure at the garden area spigot after discovering that capping the spigot nearer the house that was creating the geiser could be a feasible quick fix - no need to replace the broken faucet immediately.  Now I can water the garden area of the yard much easier.

First Harvest at MR

The first harvest from the veggie garden was Swiss Chard for dinner.  It is good to have a productive garden again even if it is currently rather small.  I cut several stalks of the chard and sauted the leaves in olive oil with a bit of garlic.  They were served with sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese.  I saved the stalks for celery-like use in chicken or tuna salad.

We won the obedience raffle drawing for a illustrated dog print from a local artist who was vending at the trial.  Bryce Dishongh does caricatures as well as finer art.  He has entries on his blog from the obedience trial.  Since we won the free illustration I will spend the next few days trying to get a good group photo - wish me luck!  The photos I snapped today are uploaded plus a prior one of Teds. I'm glad Mike was around to help with Teds - he is very stubborn about staying in a group photo.  The "Mom is handing out cookies in the kitchen" shot actually worked pretty well.

Sauted Swiss Chard