Garlic Harvested

The garden is showing some serious signs of stress since I have been gone and it has been HOT and DRY. Hope some things manage to survive with a little tlc!

I planned to harvest the garlic when I got back, it was all pretty much brown and ready.

I am so thrilled! It is all so big and beautiful! The type is Music garlic. I have it all tied up and ready to be dried in a shady spot!

I also picked my first crookneck squash. It is quite large.

And I guess while we were gone I caught the critter that has been digging up my corn! This must have been a torturous death! By the time I found him he was all dried out and hollow and his parts falling off. Was not a sight I expected to find, but I hope this teaches his friends a lesson! STAY AWAY FROM MY CORN!

Labeling and Harvesting

 My garden will need to be looked after a couple of times this summer. I had lots of extra scrap pieces of wood so I thought I would make labeling stakes big enough they wouldn't miss them! :)

I already know I am going to miss some good stuff this up coming trip, and things are just starting to come on strong! The beans look crazy full, and I hope to get some zucchini before the SVBs do. I have already scraped a ton of SVB eggs off the summer squash plants! Think I should get a hard tooth brush to brush off all the stems. They like to lay the eggs on the bottom of the stems where you can't see them very well. And also on the flower buds where you wouldn't think to look. Very small, copper colored eggs, only one egg, not in groups like the squash bug, which I have not seen yet...if only they would never come!

The label says it!

There are also beans on the edges of the bed as well.

Harvested my last 2 heads of lettuce yesterday. I think these two went longer because they had a decent amount of shade during the day! I did go ahead and plant some more lettuce in their place that is "suppose" to be heat tolerant. Doesn't hurt to try. I figure if these did well in that spot in the heat, more heat tolerant ones will too!

The first Zucchini! Doing better than last year already! And, maybe we'll have enough beans for a dinner now after I add these to yesterdays!

My twins are now six, and  my little one is now 2 1/2. My daughter and little one love to be outside, they could stay outside all day! This is good because it not only gives me the chance to work out in the garden, it pushes me to get out there more as well. It was more difficult the last couple of years getting out there for very long with the little one. We will see if it is good for the garden or not ;) Too much attention isn't always a good thing!

One of these days I am gonna get in on Monday's harvest with Daphne again, I just have been so busy and keep forgetting!

Beginning of Summer picking

I have been getting a little here and there for a while but things are starting to pick up and the beds are filling up fast with nice green plants.

the raspberries are doing well, I am getting a nice sized bowl every other day or more. Enough for each of us to have a cup full!

These were last years plants and I finally went ahead and pulled them they were getting ready to bolt. A little oregano on the side.

I picked the first beans of the season today. Not enough for a family of five but my daughter will snack on them raw!

Some of my friends just beginning to start their gardens this year often ask what are some of the easiest plants to start with.  Tomatoes are a good start and summer squash but I think beans are pretty easy too! You just have to plant a lot of them to get a good yield for a family to eat a meal. But, they can be planted pretty close. I get a lot of beans in one 4X4 bed!

Today I finished planting up the corn...well, that is until I have to replant again because the chipmunks are digging them up! I am pretty sure that is what is doing it. I have bird netting over the corn for now, not much can get in there, but holes keep popping up around the corn beds and I am thinking chipmunk! Darn buggers. Thinking maybe before I plant anymore I will put a bunch of cayenne pepper in the holes with the corn. That oughta teach them!