SUMMER GARDEN UPDATE JUNE/JULY 2014-BOUNTIFUL

 All I can say about this summer's garden experience is BOUNTIFUL!   I believe I can put my "Novice" title behind me now.  The hours spent researching, reading, experimenting has finally paid off.  Just about everything I've grown this summer has produced and remained healthy.  No major insect or bacterial issues due to constant preventive maintenance.  Well worth the time and effort, I can assure you.

As you will see from the photos, Carrots, Potatoes, Tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and even

 flowers have produced and keep producing.
The succession plantings of the carrots provided harvests all summer.  I will be starting fall planting of carrots in the next few weeks and will plant every two weeks to ensure the same outcome.

The baking potato harvest wasn't as good as the potted red potatoes but still enjoyed cooking and eating them just the same.  I made a wonderful potato and onion hash that was out of this world.

I am most impressed with the Roma tomatoes that

 I planted from seed, started early in the spring.  The five plants that survived have been consistently producing healthy Delicious tomatoes and make in my opinion, the best sauce.  I've been harvesting these little gems and instead of  going through the labor intensive process of "canning", I've opted to simply blanching, pealing and putting in freezer bags with fresh basil and sticking in the freezer for later use.  This is SO much easier than canning.   The flavor of the Roma tomato is very sweet and robust, typically used for paste but just as good to make a fine sauce.

 The cow horn and Jalapeno peppers are also a favorite, although I'm struggling to come up with ideas and recipes to use them in.  I've been frying the cow horns in olive oil and garlic and they keep in the refrigerator a long time.  Chopped jalapeno added to a taco pie adds a nice kick also.   I found a good recipe for pepper jelly/relish and am going to try it this weekend.  I love that poured over soft cream cheese with a good cracker. 

 Having space in the two 4 x 4 beds after pulling out the spent cucumbers, I decided to try sweet potatoes.  They seem easy to grow and I put the slips in with I believe enough time left with the summer heat to produce a nice harvest.  I also planted a few watermelon seedlings in the other bed however its been at least 3 weeks and no new growth has begun.  I may have missed the window of planting time for watermelon.  I will leave them in a few more weeks, if no change, they will need to come out to make room for my fall plantings.

 The Japanese Eggplant is also producing and is the sweetest I've ever grown.  I also tried the black beauty variety again and am very happy that both plants are healthy and have already produced a nice size fruit with more flowering on the plant.

Yes, it's been a very bountiful season for sure.

HAPPY GARDENING!

Mary

GARDEN UPDATE - JUNE 1ST, 2014 - HARVEST

Cucumbers and Peppers

It's been a while since my last post where I was having a critter problem.  The critter turned out to be a wood rat and we had to trap and kill it.  Luckily it did not reproduce under the deck and there are no signs of any other varmints in the yard.
Things have been going quite smoothly in the garden.  Everything is relatively healthy with minimal bug damage.  I am fertilizing on a regular basis using miracle grow and fish emulsion.  Spraying with neem oil and BT to keep any fungus and aphids under control.  Preventative maintenance is the key folks!

Cucumber Salad

The cucumbers are producing and I am harvesting almost every day.  There's nothing like a fresh cucumber salad out of your garden.  The cow horn peppers are big producers also and I've been harvesting at least once a week.  They have pretty good heat too them this year too.

Green beans are abundant!  After a slow start at blooming, I can't seem to pick them fast enough.  Carrots are also still producing.  I'm so glad I planted every few weeks so we'll have carrots all thru the summer.   Fall planting will begin in August.

Blue Lake and Roma Green Beans, Eggplant

Garlic

Out of the 15 or more garlic bulbs planted, only 4 survived.  They are pretty small but will be good I'm sure.  I had better luck with the yellow onions and harvested a few with more still growing in the garden.

My in ground potato patch bit the dust.  I fear there is bacteria in the area where they were planted, or the cheap top soil I used to mound them was a carrier.  Either way, they all died off so suddenly, it had to be bacterial wilt.  I don't think I can use that area for any of the night shade varieties as they are susceptible. 

Shallots

I hope you all are having much success with your Spring and Summer gardens!

Happy Gardening!

Mary

Yellow Onions

Carrots

Raised Beds

GARDEN TOUR - JUNE 1ST 2014

SPRING HAS SPRUNG BUT SUMMER IS NOT FAR BEHIND

CowHorn Pepper

 Well, Spring is definitely upon us.  The weather has been beautiful, warming up and the garden is loving it.   It won't be long before 90 degree days are here which makes spending time in the garden a challenge.   The heat, humidity and summer rainfall brings a variety pests to every garden.  It's a good idea to start  preventative maintenance now.  Spraying your plants with an organic insecticide soap, BT, Neem Oil and fertilizing regularly will help keep those summer pests at bay.  Live and learn and never give up is my motto.  So far this growing season, I have had minimal damage from insects.  A few caterpillars here and there, that's it.  Preventative Maintenance is the key!

I have a critter living under my deck.  At first, a rabbit was suspect but when my harvest of onions drying on the deck disappeared with only a trace of one peeking out of a burrow, I knew it was something else.  Rabbits don't eat onions!   I had previously noticed damage around the yard; tomato seedlings eaten, strawberry plant mowed down in one night, little things like that.  Thank goodness, whatever it is, has not made it into my beds that are surrounded with chicken wire.
So off I went to Ace Hardware and bought a live trap.  The associate also sold me a "Rat Trap" as after my description of the damage, he told me we probably had Wood Rats and said I'd better deal with it now before they start breeding.  Oh My Goodness!!! 

 I set the trap, baited and the next morning, bait was gone but no critter.  It must be too small to trip the trap....  next step was borrowing a wildlife camera from a friend.  I set the camera up, scattered bait but no pictures.

Otherwise, all is going well in the garden.  I harvested sugar snap peas, cow horn peppers and the rest of the romaine lettuce.   Tomatoes are starting to form as well as cucumbers and squash.  Still no sign of blooms on the pole beans.

Happy Gardening and Happy Mothers Day!
Mary

Pole Beans

Romaine Lettuce harvest

My kitty "little bit"

Live trap to catch critter

Nastursiam

Spinach

VIDEO UPDATE - EVERYTHINGS GROWING - 4/24/14

EVERYTHINGS GROWING - APRIL 24, 2014

Hi All!  It's been over a month since I've posted any blog updates or videos.   Usually in the beginning of the growing season, there's not much to see but dirt and possibly little green specs peaking out of the dirt.... not very exciting stuff and I wouldn't want to bore anyone!    However, now things have really picked up in the garden.  I took a lot of pictures and if you look at the previous postings, you'll definitely see progress!

I will start with this carrot on the left.  It came out of a pot that was growing since last year!  It is HUGE!  I had planted carrots so sporadically last season that I really couldn't tell what was ready to harvest and was was not as I had them coming up all through out the garden.... Luckily, Carrots are the one vegetable that the size doesn't affect taste at all.  Smaller is usually better for Cucumbers, squash, zucchini, etc.

As far as my other early plantings, Onions, Garlic, Shallots, Broccoli, Kale, Spinach and Lettuce, they are all growing only with some issues.  Most of the onions have started to bolt due to serious fluctuations in the weather; freezing to hot and back again so I guess the onions were a little "confused".  I am going to start pulling them to use before they rot.  The Kale, Spinach and Broccoli have been very slow growing but are starting to flourish.  The Romaine lettuce is a winner! I'm glad I thinned them out.  There's about 8 to 10 heads to harvest and they're Delicious.

I transplanted all of the summer vegetable seedlings, Tomatoes, Cucumbers and peppers and only purchased one Big Beef tomato plant and a few cowhorn peppers.   The cucumber seedlings did not grow at all so I had to buy a few plants.  One day, it would be nice, to grow everything from seed, less expensive too.

All of the potato seeds have sprouted and are doing fairly well.  I noticed early blight on a few of them and have treated with organic insecticide also have seen evidence of bugs eating the leaves.  I will keep my fingers crossed that when I finally harvest, there will actually be potatoes.

I got a little carried away with my spring flower planting and bought too many as usual.  I decided some of them would really perk up the garden and hopefully bring beneficial insects around to pollinate.  I really like the color they bring.  So pretty.
Enjoy the rest of the pics.  I will be posting a video update soon.

Happy Gardening!

Mary