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Catherine Castle

~ Romance for the Ages

Catherine Castle

Tag Archives: flowers and vegetables

A Writer’s Garden–Garden Trials, Successes and Oddites by M.K. Scott

15 Thursday Oct 2020

Posted by Catherine Castle in A Writer's Garden, garden blog series

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

A Writer's Garden, Clean fiction, cozy mystery, flowers and vegetables, Garden blog, M.K. Scott, On St. Nick's Trail

Perhaps I’ll remember 2020 as the year we worked on the backyard. Being outside with the flowers, plants, and the bees makes me happy.

Our family goal centered on spending more time outside. With this in mind, we decided on building a new patio and screen porch with the latter becoming my summer office.

  • Garden at dusk
  • Sunflower

The problem with doing something different is it involves change and in our case, moving three blooming rose bushes. Since I couldn’t predict when the workers would finish, I decided to use black bags for gardening, which I kept moving depending on the construction zone for the day.

Garden Bags

Rosemary and basil continue to grow, although the other herbs expired partly due to the season and the bags drying out despite daily watering.

One of the pluses of bag gardening is the ability to move the bags to a sunny location when needed or into the kitchen when a late frost hits. At the end of the season, just dump the soil into the compost bin and save the bag for next year. Sweet potatoes flourished in a larger green bag, but not so with the tomatoes. The round spherical fruit that is sometimes labeled a vegetable is a big deal in Indiana. There’s an unofficial race to have the first red tomato before July 4th.

Sweet potato vine

The round spherical fruit that is sometimes labeled a vegetable is a big deal in Indiana. There’s an unofficial race to have the first red tomato before July 4thIt wasn’t my intention to run a tomato experiment, but I did inadvertently. Several tomato plants flourished in the ground surrounded by chicken wire to discourage our nighttime shoppers. Three I grew among some Blue Lake green beans, another plant shot up in a large container, and a single yellow tomato plant simply existed in a black bag.  The best producers were the ground ones. As for my container tomato, it had tons of tomatoes, but never any ripe ones. I discovered the reason while typing one day within our newly completed screen porch. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched a chipmunk scamper up the side of the pot. Then, carefully balancing on the rim, he reached for a ripe pear tomato with its forepaws. What I wouldn’t give to have a snapshot of the moment.

Tomato

Well, I learned something that day. Chipmunks like yellow pear tomatoes. Instead of getting upset, I had to smile. It did explain the mystery of the missing ripe tomatoes. But, no worries, I have plenty of tomatoes. In fact, if you’re in the neighborhood, I’d be glad to share my vegetable bounty.

If you’re worried about the roses, they’re back to blooming, again. My secret is banana peels and watering the plants every single day. A single banana peel, chopped, and buried near the rose roots provides enough potassium for the entire season.

coleus, marigolds, black-eyed Susan, mint

My successes include reviving the roses, a strong tomato harvest, and figuring out the mystery of the missing pear tomatoes. Tomato plants don’t do well in the black bags qualifies as my learning experience. Oddities would include my veggie-loving chipmunk and a red squirrel we refer to as Mr. McNutty, who knocks on my window whenever the birdfeeder is empty.

Happy harvest, friends.

About the Writer/Gardener:

M. K. Scott is the husband and wife writing team behind The Painted Lady Inn Mysteries, The Talking Dog Detective Agency, which is set In Indianapolis, and The Way Over the Hill Gang series.  Morgan K Wyatt is the general wordsmith, while her husband, Scott, is the grammar hammer and physics specialist. He uses his engineering skills to explain how fast a body falls when pushed over a cliff and various other felonious activities. Morgan’s daughter, who works at a hotel, has contributed a guest horror tale or two to fuel plot lines along with housekeeping details. Overall, the series are a family effort.

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On St. Nick’s Trail (99 cents and on Kindle Unlimited)

By Morgan Wyatt

Private Eye Nala Bonne and her trusty crime-fighting rescue dog Max spend their days surfing social media for telltale signs of disability fraud and philandering husbands, but when a lucrative opportunity to investigate something entirely different, Nala readily agrees to take the case.

The task: find a missing Santa impersonator

Unfortunately for her, someone is dead set against the search and will stop at nothing to drive Nala and Max out of town before their search even begins.

Can this dynamic duo locate the missing Santa before it’s too late?

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    A Writer’s Garden–Secret Gardener by Kimberly Rose Johnson

    01 Thursday Oct 2020

    Posted by Catherine Castle in A Writer's Garden, garden blog series

    ≈ 12 Comments

    Tags

    A Writer's Garden, Certain Threat, flowers and vegetables, Kimberly Rose Johnson, romantic suspense, secret gardener

    Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing.

    Today’s writer/gardener guest is Kimberly Rose Johnson. who will be sharing a secret with us. Welcome, Kimberly!

     

    I have a secret. My gardening skills are lacking. Well, maybe it’s not so secret now since I shared a pic on Instagram of what I thought were amazing zucchini plants. According to experts they weren’t lol.

    Zucchini?

    I may not be a great gardener, but 2020 has proven to be a great year for my garden. My dismal backyard turned into a thing of beauty this year. It didn’t happen by itself. It took some weeding, grooming, water, fresh organic soil, fresh bark, and the right weather conditions, but for the first time in years, I’ve have a pretty backyard.

     

    Backyard 

     

    We made raised beds out of cinderblocks and pavers that were just sitting on the side of the house. We grew lettuce, radishes, and zucchini in the beds. I actually had a salad from my own garden! I realize this isn’t a big deal, but for me it is. We also have cherry tomatoes, and earlier in the season we had some delicious raspberries and blueberries.

     

     

    I am hooked on trying to grow edibles. As much as I love growing food, I love my flowers even more. Through the years I’ve accumulated a decent number of pots. This year I decided to do something with them and planted wave petunias, coleus, a spikey plant, and something that spilled over the front of the pots. I’m not super great with their names.             HANGING BASKET  ⇒

     

     

                                                                                                                                The place I once avoided, turned into one of my favorite hangouts this past spring and summer.

     

    ABOUT THE WRITER/GARDENER:

    Award winning author Kimberly Rose Johnson lives in the Pacific Northwest. She enjoys looking at the pretty flowers in her garden and takes great pleasure in her berry bushes. Kimberly writes Christian romantic mystery and suspense that is safe for ages ten and up.

    You can find all of Kimberly’s social media links at https://kimberlyrjohnson.com/

     

    CERTAIN THREAT

    by Kimberly Rose Johnson

    Katrina White’s garage explodes and she fears someone is out to get her.

    Not long after Katrina overhears two people talking about robbing the bank where she works, her attached garage explodes. With the help of her neighbor, Frank Davis, she escapes the burning home after a storage shelf falls over, trapping her beneath it.

    The co-owner of Protection Inc. has one thing on his mind for the week of Christmas—rest and relaxation, but when his favorite neighbor needs his help he calls in his team. Unable to turn their backs on someone Frank clearly has feelings for the co-owners agree to help out Katrina.

    When things escalate, Frank is certain of two things—he cares a lot for Katrina and he can’t let anything happen to her.

    Join the team of Protection Inc. this Christmas where love is in the air even in the midst of danger.

           Certain Threat releases Oct. 6th on AMAZON 

     

     

     

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