The Garden Guide

Winter Vegetable Garden Update IV

Things are starting to look up for my winter garden...finally!  (I think the rabbits feasted until their little tummies were full because they're not bothering things as much.) 

We've already finished up with the radishes they left us.

The leftover squash and zucchini seeds we threw out for a lark have turned out to be pretty hardy.  I did shell out for a poly-tunnel to protect them after they had survived several light freezes.  Its the first time I've ever used a poly-tunnel and it is a quite handy contraption.

Here are the squash all snug in their little tunnel house.  We've got quite a bit of squash coming on...

What a bright sunshiny sight in winter!

The turnips are delicious.  Here's one peeking out of the dirt.

The garlic has been super easy so far.

Carrot tops making a come back.

Rhubarb has turned out to be ridiculously easy to grow.  However, I recently read somewhere that the leaves and roots are toxic to humans and animals and you have to know exactly when to harvest or the stalks get contaminated also, so now I'm a little leery of it.

Black-seeded Simpson lettuce is getting bigger now that the rabbits have grown tired of its tasty leaves.  Maybe we'll get to sample some soon!

My roadrunner stopped by to see if any bugs were in my turnips and beet greens.

He fluffed up when he spotted me and trotted off in a huff...guess I ruined his plan for a nice quiet snack.

Winter Vegetable Garden Update III

I am just sick about the state of my winter vegetable garden!  I don't really want to talk about it... much less write about it! (But maybe sharing my tale of woe will make me feel better.)

First of all there are not any pictures of my beautiful broccoli and cauliflower plants, because they disappeared practically overnight.  GONE...POOF!

And then the cute little fluffy tailed "so and so's" moved on to the radish leaves.

And last night they started pulling up the radishes!

Now they are sampling the green cabbage!  Reminds me of a cartoon I once saw in the newspaper where the rabbits were crowded around a garden staring in awe at all the vegetables thinking "Mmmm, buffet!"

I have to wonder...Do they not like the purple cabbage or are they just saving it for later?

It is some consolation that the turnips, beets, rhubarb, lettuce, chives and garlic are untouched and coming along. The carrots, however, were a no show.  The mustard is absolutely gorgeous! And I don't even know if I like mustard.

 

Bold colors contrasting on ruffled leaves.

 

Oh what textured leaves!

Looks like a parachute caught in the wind.

I did pick a few of the radishes that were ready or close enough to ready and got them out of harm's way.

 

So, suffice it to say that I am ready to wage war on the cute little Peter Cottontails.  "Oh Mr. McGregor, Mr. Fudd...I am in need of some assistance!"  It's wabbit season!

Winter Vegetable Garden Update II

Its only been 2 weeks since we got most of our winter garden in....its definitely showing signs of life.

Way off to the left are some leftover squash and zucchini seeds we planted just for giggles to see what they would do this time of year. 

The radishes are front and center and are coming on like crazy! Behind them are broccoli and cauliflower.

To the right of the radishes are two rows of lettuce that are barely visible. 

Behind the cabbage and mustard is a short but thick row of turnips.

And at the far right we're still waiting for the carrot seeds to push their way up.  In the same row we have rhubarb, chives and garlic.

I've never planted garlic before and put it off for a day or two.  I hate to peel fresh garlic and usually cheat and buy the "fresh" minced garlic in the tiny glass jar.  My husband refuses to cook with anything but fresh garlic.  Guess it will be just one less thing we have to buy.  So, I got busy and got it done.  I wonder if he'll cook more when the garlic is ready?

Oh and we have baby tomatoes!  Remember when I started two plants in early September to see if they'd still make?  Well, the dogs ate one of the plants, but the other is hanging in there.  Its growing pretty slowly now, but is starting to produce.

 

This is the biggest baby tomato.

And here's two more!  How exciting!

Back for Another Round in the Vegetable Garden!

This past weekend we were determined to get our winter garden in the ground! 

Since we're self-employed, my husband spends a lot of evenings tied up with maintenancing equipment and getting stuff ready for the next day, so he started the tiller for me and headed to the shop.

Right off the bat I got the tiller high-centered on top of one of the big cedar logs that edge the garden area.  After a short struggle I got it back on track.  Otherwise we would've been fishing the blankety-blank thing out of the creek!

After tilling our little garden plot once on the shallow setting, I changed the depth thing to the deepest setting (big mistake!).  I didn't go three feet and it got away from me!  Just skimmed right over the top of the ground with me in tow, desperately trying to hang on until I realized that if I would just let go of the lever it would stop. One of those times you automatically glance around afterwards to see if anyone witnessed your folly!

My husband took pity on me and came to the rescue.  Watching him loosen up the dirt, I was thinking  "You might be an excavator if you till your garden with a backhoe!"

Then we added a layer of compost. Topped the compost with a layer of sawdust our neighbors donated to the cause and got back to the business of tilling.

I got it all raked out and pretty, but then we started worrying that the dirt wasn't going to be loose enough for the root and tuber crops...

so we shoveled in some pea gravel and tilled it again!

Happy at last we went to my favorite nursery - Sunshine Nursery  - to get seeds and some bedding plants.  The only bedding plants we ended up with were a few Red and Green Cabbage, Chives and Red Giant Mustard. 

As for seeds, we got radishes (French Breakfast, Easter Egg and Cherry Belle), 'Black Seeded Simpson' loose leaf lettuce, 'Little Gem' Romain lettuce, Turnips (Purple Top White Globe), Beets (Gourmet Blend) and 'Scarlet Nantes' carrots.

Since we can never leave well enough alone, we ended up with more stuff to put in the dirt too...

We added in some revitalizer and cotton burr compost and tilled and raked for the last time!  

And we finally got to plant! Like my fancy row markers?

I wish I could smile and shrug like this was "all in a day's work", but I can't.  Looking at this picture it is hard to believe that we spent 2 1/2 days over 2 weekends to get to this point!  And we still need broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and who knows what else. 

Even though it doesn't look like much now, stick around and see what it will look like in a week or so!

Pickin' and Cannin'

Finally, I got busy and made some more jalapeno jelly. 

Got 5 more half-pints in the cupboard!

Here's what you start out with...Looks gross, I know!  You should see it when its boiling and all foamy...quite the witch's brew!  Too bad I was to busy stirring to get a picture of that!

Here are my little pretties....

Picked even more peppers out of the garden.  I'm not picking as often now and they are finally starting to slow down a little.  And for today's harvest....

...almost a bushel basket full!

All shiny and clean with no place to go!  Well, not yet anyway...I'll come up with something! Jars of whole mixed pickled peppers would probably be the simplest.

Don't laugh at how small the Poblano and bells are.  I gave up on them, picked off whatever was on the plants and then pulled the plants up.  They have been going since April and I guess they'd had enough.  So had I actually!

Vegetable Garden Update (2)

Several weeks ago I posted about the near end of my spring garden.  I have to tell you that I was just a little hasty when I said I was going to rip out my okra that very day! 

I always forget how big and sturdy okra plants really are....

   

Look at the size of this 'Clemson Spineless' okra trunk!  Is it large enough to give me braggin' rights?  I don't know... I do know that I had to dig these guys out one by one with a shovel!   

All 16 of my pepper plants are blooming and producing again.  Yay!   I should be sick and tired of canning peppers, but I think I'm good for one more round. 

The pepper plants in the containers are quite a bit bigger than the ones in the ground....

These are about 3 feet tall!

The 'Bush Early Girl' tomatoes I planted September 1st are coming along.

Day 8 - peeking out over the sides of their pots.

Day 12 - Probably grew 6 inches in a matter of days!

With the rest of the garden gone, I am probably babying them way too much!  But...so far, so good! 

'Bush Early Girl' Hybrid Tomato

Call me crazy, but I've decided to see if I can sneak in a "mini season" of tomatoes!

This brief departure from sanity occurred when I spotted some leftover 'Bush Early Girl' tomato plants while wandering around in the garden section at Home Depot.

The "Days to Maturity" is listed as 54 days.  Fifty-four days puts me at October 24th.  So I'm thinkin' this just might work.

Someone once told me that the optimum temperature for growing tomatoes is in the 75 to 90 degree range.  When I got home, I checked and our average temperature for September is High 90/Low 68 degrees.  For October High 81/ Low 59.  A little cool, but this just really might work!

It is worth a shot!  (and I already shelled out for the tomato plants, so why not?) I mixed up some soil and plunked them into their new fifteen-gallon container homes.

I'll keep you posted!

Vegetable Garden Update (I Am So Over It!)

The initial excitement has long passed, the new has definitely worn off and working in my vegetable garden everyday has actually started to feel too much like WORK!  This happens to me every August without fail. 

I'm always so excited in March and just can't hardly wait to get started.  Finally, the seeds start to sprout and we eagerly monitor the progress of each and every plant as they begin to bloom and produce. 

Then we pick and pick and pick! Eat fresh veggies with almost every meal.  Freeze and can quite a bit.  All the while giving away a bags of it to anyone who wants some garden produce.  So, after months of that, it is when hot and dry August rolls around and the garden starts to look pretty haggard that I quit!

Here is a quick (and final) run down on my spring garden...

Eggplant -

I ended up with only one Black Beauty eggplant and the rest were Ichiban.  I didn't really care for the Ichiban eggplant (no specific reason, probably just because they are different from my favorite, Black Beauty). 

I have to admit that the Ichibans produced a lot more fruit than the Black Beauties. 

Regardless of which is better, I pulled them all up the other day because they were looking pretty tired and I was tired of them.

Serrano Peppers -

I've never grown Serrano peppers before.  I don't really have much use for them, since they are super hot.  The way I ended up with the Serrano seedlings is pretty cute though.  I got them from a good friend of mine/neighbor who was having a crisis! 

Her grandson had grown her a Lima bean plant in school and had given it to her for her garden.  It had promptly died and now her grandson was coming to visit! So she frantically searched all the gardening places in our area for something tall and leggy to replace the Lima bean plant he had so proudly presented her with on the previous visit. 

This is how she ended up with extra plants and how I, in turn, ended up with 5 Serrano plants (which are still producing like crazy)! 

I've started letting them turn red and alternating the red and green Serranos in layers when canning.  They look pretty layered in the canning jars, but are probably going to be ridiculously hot.  I've also frozen some whole, so I can pull one out whenever I make chili (thanks Robin).

Potatoes -

This was the first year I have tried to grow potatoes.  I thought it would be quite simple.  Did a little research and decided it was definitely simple. 

Some suggested planting the potato whole with plenty of eyes and some said cut the potatoes up and use only a few eyes.  I, of course, covered all my bases and did both. 

About 2 weeks later they were doing great...

and a few days later they were dead!  Not sure what I did wrong, but I'm going to try it again!

Okra -

Anyone who has ever grown okra knows that you have to pick this stuff every single day.  Skip a day and the small tender pods become fence posts overnight! 

Towards the end of July I was sick and tired of picking okra, so we cut our plants back about a foot.  We got a few weeks break from picking it, but apparently the break wasn't long enough...now they are blooming and producing again and I'm just not interested.  Yepp, they gotta go too!

Cantaloupe -

Amazing year!  We only had 3 plants and probably got 40 huge melons.  They just wouldn't quit!

Squash -

Somehow ended up with Patty pan (Scallop) squash.  I've never grown it before, not so bad, but definitely prefer straight neck yellow squash. 

Patty pan squash are cute if nothing else.

They are even cuter if you plant them too close to your zucchini!

Bell Peppers -

We had 3 bell pepper plants and probably harvested 100 peppers over the season.  With the way they are priced in the grocery store, we saved a bundle on bell peppers alone!

Cucumbers -

It was a great year for cucumbers also.  They've been done for a good month or so now, but we enjoyed them while we had them!

Tomatoes -

I really don't even want to talk about the tomatoes, but here it goes...  We planted our tomatoes in containers and they were doing great.  Skimping on the dirt in the bottom of the containers turned out to be our downfall.

We got one really good rain and the dirt in the bottom had too much clay in it.  Our tomato plants were literally drowning!  We dug them up and replanted them, but they never really recovered. 

On top of all that, the Roma's I planted later (and was so excited about making hot sauce out of) turned out to be cherry tomatoes!  Glad we like cherry tomatoes!

Zucchini -

Zucchini did great as usual too.  It is pretty hard to mess up zucchini! 

To avoid getting too much zucchini at once, we start a couple of mounds of seeds and later, when they start to slow down, we start a couple of new mounds.  Works out really well!

Poblanos -

Still trying to produce, but the peppers are staying pretty small.  That's OK, we've had plenty of chile rellenos this year and that's about all we use them for.

Jalapenos, Banana Peppers and the Unknown Pepper -

They are just hitting their stride and will keep producing for awhile.  We loved pickled jalapenos (whole and sliced), mixed pickled peppers and what we call "hot mix", so I guess I'll let them stay until I get tired of canning.

Well that's it for the summer garden.  Of course we are already getting excited about our fall/winter garden, and the cycle will begin again!

The Portable Garden

Well, my husband and I rolled up our sleeves and got busy planting our spring garden in April which is actually a little late around here. We live on 8 acres that we have decided to put on the market. Vegetable gardens are definitely one of those “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” things and our garden is one of the first things you see. So when it came time to plant the garden, we were stumped. At first we decided not to have a garden, but that resolve lasted about 10 minutes. Our solution? We cut some plastic 50 gallon drums in half and got busy planting. Who wouldn’t want to pack up their garden and take it with them?

So this is what we started with.  Pretty pathetic, if I say so myself!

I have to tell you that trying to mix drums of soil, compost and sand with a shovel is great exercise for the abs. When I finished mixing the last drum I swore that I was going to get one more, throw some dirt in it and then go out and “stir” it every day. Of course, that drum is still sitting empty….another one of my good intentions gone by the wayside!

Looking a little better!  Atleast there is some green stuff now.

We thought we had resolved our to garden or not to garden dilemma with the drums of plants, but I swear we just don’t know when to stop. After the new wore off, we started wanting more…and a new idea was born. We made a raised bed with some old cedar logs. Planted it and then….Ok well we really don’t know when to stop, because we added onto that two more times!

The end result of all of this is that we gave our 2,000 plus square foot garden plot with wonderful soil from many years and many dollars of amending back to the Bermuda grass and patch worked another garden together. As long as we have a garden to sit and “watch” while we talk in the evenings who really cares!