Happy weekend // How’s your garden coming along?

Dear users, dear authors,
I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Do you have a nice craft project going on? How’s your garden coming along these days?

Hi Josefa,
I wish you and all our readers a wonderful weekend too—the first one in September.

Yes, I always have a fun craft project in the works—this time I’m working on something really old, actually an old technique from 50 years ago that I’ve adapted for a current project. I’ll be posting a nice blog entry about it.

The garden is very dry. It’s been over 30 degrees here for days, and with quite a bit of wind, everything is drying out. But the dry weather has the advantage that the tomatoes are ripening well, and not a single one has the dreaded brown rot yet.

The bell pepper plants are also producing fruit very diligently. I’m canning them in various ways for the winter, so we won’t have to buy anything with chemicals—instead, we’ll know exactly what’s in the jar.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and enjoy whatever the season has to offer!
Warm regards, Ina

Mmm, Ina, that looks delicious. It’s making me hungry just looking at it. Great harvest.

Thank you, Josefa—I wish the same for you all. We don’t have a garden, and out here on our west-facing balcony, everything gets scorched by the sun—there’s nothing green. It’s unbearable out there until late in the evening. Early in the morning is best.

You gardening enthusiasts among you always have plenty to do, but, as Ina says, you can serve healthy food without a second thought—and above all, sun-ripened produce tastes completely different.

Every now and then, our elderly tenant gives us fresh tomatoes from her garden, and recently my aunt gave me some fresh green beans. Delicious.

Thank you—I wish the same for all of you!
Yes, growing your own produce is really great. We don’t have a garden anymore either, but on the balcony I have tomatoes and some herbs alongside the flowers, and now also a grapevine and a raspberry bush, though they probably won’t bear fruit this year.
We have a south-facing balcony—it gets really hot there on sunny days—but it’s often cloudy here. With plenty of watering and a parasol, it works out fine, but I’m now also thinking about installing an awning across the entire width.

Thanks for the weekend wishes

The garden is doing well. We’ve already been able to enjoy many sunny days in September, and the rain came late in the evening or at night. So it’s perfect for the garden and for Petra.

It’s supposed to get really warm again today, and we’re planning a trip to the pool with our grandson. Other than that, I have a good book here, and my sewn sample blocks are waiting to be quilted.

Have a lovely, relaxing weekend, everyone

@Ina—your pot of bell peppers—sooooo delicious. I could definitely see myself enjoying that with some fresh bread.

I processed some beans again this week and made 6 jars of sweet-and-sour zucchini. I’m hoping it turns out well and that I understood the recipe correctly. 

Thanks, Josefa—I wish you and everyone else here a wonderful weekend, too.
I don’t have a garden, just two flower boxes in the courtyard, and they’re blooming like crazy right now.

Best wishes, Inge

The weather here is still absolutely fantastic, so I’m going to make the most of it one last time and head to a beer garden with some dear friends tonight. Next week is supposed to be cool and wet here, and besides, I’ll be out of commission for a bit anyway—I’ll pack my little bag tomorrow since I have a surgery appointment on Monday morning.

It’s harvest time for me right now—last weekend I turned plums into cake and plum jam, and this weekend I used the apples that fell from the tree to make cake and applesauce as well.
Unfortunately, I can only do this on the weekends.
But homegrown produce always tastes the best.