Gubeedal

First, a background for this story:

Back in the day I used to be somewhat of a wild child. You could say I was a punk/ska girl. Dyed my hair crazy colors, shaved my head. Piercings all over the place, gauged out lobes, etc. etc. Then, I started to grow up a bit… well, I stopped dying my hair and shaving my head and started wearing jeans and band shirts rather than crazy plaid or leather outfits with pins and patches, I’m still a bit of a kid though, I refuse to let go of my lip ring, even though I’m pushing 30…. I met Matt, who is my complete opposite, he’s a bit of a redneck and listens to country (ewwww), fell in love…. to quote the dead milkmen “its just you and me punk rock girl” (ha!), and the rest is history.

And now the story:

I’m a bit of a music nerd. I love all kinds. I don’t just listen to punk (never have really, but people always labeled me as a punk chick as I had half inch long hot pink hair). While I’m in the garden, I like to listen to music. Now, here I am, in jeans, a dirty tank top, covered in dirt, my natural blond hair hanging in my eyes. If you just look at me, I look like a normal lady working in her garden. Except the difference with me is that I have on a sex pistols CD, and I’m reliving my glory days and the neighbors are beginning to watch (I live in a townhome, there are people everywhere!). I’m rocking out, and singing along, at some points kind of jumping around… just having a good time. I really didn’t care that people were watching me, I was having fun.

Well, now my neighbors look at me like I’m the antichrist and don’t talk to me anymore… lol!!! Truth be told, I like the quiet!!!

(ok, I don’t have any access to old pics of me… my parents wouldn’t take pictures, they really hated it… and I don’t talk to anyone I hung out with at the time anymore, So instead I added pics of a zombie movie thing I did a few years ago. lol)

Its the end of the season! and I have had so much to do in my garden and with my garden, I have had no time to post anything!!!!

Its starting to cool off quite a lot, and I have been harvesting like crazy. I have found out that out of my bell peppers I have two plants that are orange, one yellow, and one red. so that’s pretty sweet. We have been making decisions as to what plants we are going to let die off and what we are going to bring inside for the winter. So far we are keeping 2 bell pepper plants, 2 banana pepper plants, and I’m not sure how many jalapenos. thats Matt’s department.

I went canning crazy on sunday. I made 9 pints of salsa! 3 hot, 3 medium and 3 mild. Everything but the vinegar was from my garden! (tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, banana peppers, onion… if anyone wants the canning recipe, let me know! its really tasty salsa!) I also made homemade giardiniera, we had some italian beef the other day and it turned out AWESOME!. Thankfully, I have about 4 pints of that, because my family has all requested a jar, so I am going to have to make more, but its ok, I have PLENTY of peppers. I also pickled a bunch of my banana peppers. Matt made fun of me a lot because I kept saying peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers or I made up my own tongue twister about pickled peppers. In total I have 9 pints of salsa, 4 pints giardiniera, and 4 quarts of pickled peppers. I’m officially addcited to canning. I love it when the lids pop to let you know you did everything right and they are sealed… ahhh, its the simple things in life.

As my previous journal states we had a nasty storm last night that ravaged my plants. I took a few pictures of the damage and the tomatoes I am attempting to ripen thanks to the advice of rainymountain and nax (thanks again!) I really hope they are ok. On better examination all of the various peppers and herbs stood up well to the storm. the real issue was the tomatoes.

A huge storm hit last night with 80 mph winds. knocked down every last one of my plants (even the 80+ pound upside down mater planter). A LOT of fruit that was not ripe yet was ripped off. There are probably about 50 green tomatoes lying all over the ground. One of my Health Kick Hybrids cracked at the stem and is unsalvageable, so that plant is gone.

I’m so upset!

I guess no matter how green of a thumb you have, mother nature can still be mean little bi**h.

Marigolds LOVE the upside down planter. They have gotten huge, and multipled. I started off with only a two plants and now have about 5

I lost my daisies. I completely forgot about them, and don’t remember where I planted them….. Maybe I accidently crowded them out in the top of the upside down planter.

I can’t believe I lost my daises! lol