Havest Monday

It's Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions! Join in the fun!

Like most folks the tomatoes seem to be taking a break with all the heat and lack of rain. But, for the past 3 or 4 days we have had at least one good downpour every day so hopefully the plants and especially the seedlings are enjoying it. And the temperatures are suppose to go down a bit this week. Hopefully the tomatoes will pick back up again! Although, I have found more tomato worms this year than I have in the past 4 years since I have been in this house. Uhg! It is so disappointing to see that you have a nice red tomato ready to be picked only to pick it and find the bottom or other side half gone!

I cooked up the 3rd pumpkin and froze most of it, but I kept some out for some more Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies. Mmmmm. There Gone! I have about 9 cups frozen with 3 pumpkins on the vine.

 

I also keep coming in with random onions or carrots! That is because every time I go out to pick at least one kid proudly presents me with their bounty! 1 onion. They keep telling me they are ready and I keep telling them I’M NOT! Ha!

On this day, my boy decided that their one and only carving pumpkin was ready to be picked! Between squash bugs, SVB’s, squash lady bugs, and kids….we’ll never have a carving pumpkin. Guess this one is bound to be fall decor!

And since most days when I pick my harvests the Habaneros are still green, I thought I would show a basket of them all bright and full of color! They sure are pretty!

Total Harvest 2010

Variety	This Weeks Total	Season Total
Lemon Cucumber	4	20 ea
American Genuine Cucumber		10 ea
Oregano		1 baggie dried + 1 quart
Spicy Bush and Reg Basil	1 pt	6 baggies dried +2qt
Sebring Zucchini		5 ea
8 Ball zucchini		17 ea
Black Beauty Zucchini		21 ea
Bush Beans	1 pt	25 quarts
Lettuce (mixed pckg)		2-4 lbs
Bright Lights Chard		8 Bunches
Cabbage (mixed pckg)		4 ea
Evergreen Bunching Onion	2	20 plus a few cuttings
Yellow Onion	11	58 ea (small)
Broccoli		4 heads
Juliet Hybrid Grape Tomato	51	357ea
Red Cherry Tomato	41	157 ea
German Johnson Tomato		3 ea
Pink Girl Tomato	4	28 ea
Prudens Purple	2	26 ea
Rutgers Tomato	3	21 ea
Big Boy Tomato	4	20 ea
Strawberries		2 ea
Cosmic Purple Carrot		4 ea
Sweet treat hybrid/Petite ‘n Sweet carrots	21	54 ea
Jalapeno Pepper		5 ea
Purple Beauty Bell Pepper		1 ea
Habanero Pepper	16	22 ea
Serrano Pepper		3
Lincoln and Alaskan Peas		2 cups 1/4 cup
Ambrosia Melon		3
Harvest Princess Pumpkin	1 very small	1
Small Sugar Pumpkin		3

Planted this week: Bush Beans, Peas, carrots, Lettuce, Chard, Spinach.

This one’s for my Dad!

2009 Harvest

2010 Harvest collage

In February my dad and I took a trip together, which was the first time we have spent any length of time together since I was a kid. We live in different states.  We talked a bit about gardening, and I told him about my garden that I was trying to keep as organic as possible without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. He told me, “one day you’ll learn how to garden.”

So, how am I doing so far? Oh and the season isn’t over yet! I still have plenty more harvesting to do. I still have the rest of my summer crops and a fall crop coming! But as you can see from 2009 to 2010 my harvest has grown. Next year I plan to add even more variety to my garden.

I am pretty sure this proves that my gardening methods and skills work just fine! ;) Sometimes it is hard to believe your kids can grow up and do things all on their own and in their own way, but we do just fine.

Happy Gardening!

Baby’s First Carrots and Random Garden Happenings.

Yesterday all I picked in the garden was a nice pile of carrots. The perfect amount to make Eli his first carrots.

They look yummy don’t they!

Well, I’m not too sure he thought so. This was the, “I don’t know what to think of these,” look. I guess he wasn’t ready for this texture yet, so I ended up pureeing it up with a little Coconut Milk Yogurt and he scarfed it down.

These are the two varieties of cucumbers I am “trying”  to grow. The one on the left is the Lemon and  the other is the American Genuine Slicing. The lemon is much more seedy. And for some reason my daughter LOVES cucumber seeds, so the Lemon one is perfect for her! They are a pretty mild cucumber. But I think I like the AG better.

 

Here are their pitiful vines! They are doing terrible this year. Especially the American Genuine. The vines are practically dead on the trellis. I think the heat and the bugs have taken their toll on them. I really am not getting any more American genuines. There are a few small deformed ones on the vine, but I am not holding out much hope for them this season.

I did however get some kind of cross or hybrid or something from the Lemon Cucumber vine! It is fat and longer and has a little bit of green running through it.

There are so many lady bugs in my garden this year.  I have never had so many in my garden. I am not really sure what is attracting them but I am glad they are there. And yes, the powdery mildew has found my garden yet again!

 

These are the last of the pumpkin vines on their last leg! I sure hope that the last of the pumpkins will ripen before these go completely dead. Those squash bugs just have too many hiding places. I think I need to come up with a better plan for pumpkins next year. I don’t want to leave so many hiding places for stinkin squash bugs!

I must have done something right with the peppers this year. I have the most peppers I have ever had. This Serrano plant is just loaded and this is just the top of the plant! The habanero right next to it is loaded as well. But what I am really happy with is that I actually have a decent number of Bell peppers growing.

   

Although the Purple Beauty Bells out in my corner garden have BER! Grrr. What a bummer.

And yesterday I canned up some tomato sauce using my tomatoes that were piled on the counter and some of my fresh oregano and basil and a little grocery store garlic. It smelled really good and looks really good too. I will definitely do this again.

The tomatoes are kinda slow going this year though. May be the heat. Like a lot of you, we have had one of the hottest summers on record. Could be that they are all planted too closely and that darn Juliet has taken over the whole bed! Ahh, you learn new things every year in the garden huh?

Along with the Lady Bugs and the Parasitoid wasps on the Tomato worm, I have also found a couple of little frogs in the garden. Though I don’t think they are of much help right now since they are still about the size of the squash bugs I hope they eat! I found one just perched on a pepper leaf the other day up high in the plant. It was kinda cute. My garden seems to be finally attracting more than just bad bugs this year which is a very welcome thing to see!  Who knows if the people that live here before just poured out the chemicals or what but about the only thing I could find in this yard was an ample supply of ants and wasps among the garden eating bad guys. I’m not saying the ants and wasps are bad, but sometimes enough is enough! So it is nice for my beneficial population to be growing. So far this year I have not  used anything except BT in the garden! I am very happy to have gotten the plentiful harvests that I have been getting with no use of chemical pesticides! Though when the pumpkins are picked, it is very tempting to just TORCH the whole pumpkin patch area! Burn squash bugs! BURN!

Happy Gardening!

Harvest Monday-First Pumpkins and Yellow Beans

It’s Harvest Monday at Daphne’s Dandelions

This week I picked the first 3 pumpkins and the first few Yellow Beans. And even after using all the tomatoes on my counter to make a big batch of fresh salsa on Saturday, I already have  a good pile once again on the counter! Looks like I will be trying my hand at canning again! Glad I got a Canning Rack/pot now!

The squash vine borer damage to one of the pumpkins, the larger one. I stuck a pair of scissors in there a couple of weeks ago and got rid of that bugger! Still cooked up quite nicely and I was able to get around all that and get 7 Cups of pumpkin puree out of this one and the little one. I haven’t cooked the other one yet.

Eli playing with the pumpkins!

D had to get in on the fun too! She was very excited to get pumpkins, and more excited to eat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies (posted yesterday)! Oh and they are gone!

This would be the last 8 ball Zucchini, I pulled the last plant and killed the SVB! I have a few green tomatoes in there, I had some little garden helpers! Maybe they will turn red, we’ll see.

 

Some of the pumpkin puree I froze up and put in Food Saver Bags! Some has been eaten!

3 More Habanero peppers! And a small but colorful bean mix with the yellow ones added in there.

Yesterday I went out and did a little more garden clean up and planted more beans, cilantro, lettuce, spinach, chard, and peas! I will see what germinates and then plant some more of the cool season stuff later. Don’t know if I will get some cole crops or not. I don’t have any transplants, but if I have room, I may see if I can find some.

Harvest Totals 2010

Variety	This Weeks Total	Season Total
Lemon Cucumber	7	16 ea
American Genuine Cucumber	1	10 ea
Oregano		1 baggie dried + 1 quart
Spicy Bush and Reg Basil	1 pt	6 baggies dried +1qt+1pt
Sebring Zucchini		5 ea
8 Ball zucchini	2	17 ea
Black Beauty Zucchini		21 ea
Bush Beans	1 pt	24 quarts +1pt
Lettuce (mixed pckg)		2-4 lbs
Bright Lights Chard		8 Bunches
Cabbage (mixed pckg)		4 ea
Evergreen Bunching Onion	8	18 plus a few cuttings
Yellow Onion	10	47 ea (small)
Broccoli		4 heads
Juliet Hybrid Grape Tomato	72	306 ea
Red Cherry Tomato	19	116 ea
German Johnson Tomato		3 ea
Pink Girl Tomato	1	24 ea
Prudens Purple	18	24 ea
Rutgers Tomato	13	18 ea
Big Boy Tomato	9	16 ea
Strawberries		2 ea
Cosmic Purple Carrot		4 ea
Sweet treat hybrid/Petite ‘n Sweet carrots	4	33 ea
Jalapeno Pepper		5 ea
Purple Beauty Bell Pepper		1 ea
Habanero Pepper	3	6 ea
Serrano Pepper	3 green	3
Lincoln and Alaskan Peas		2 cups 1/4 cup
Ambrosia Melon	2	3
Small Sugar Pumpkin	3	3

Crepe Myrtles and Flowers

Last year we ordered a Dynamite Crepe Myrtle and planted it in the front yard where our 25 + ft Blue Spruce once stood before storm damage. Well, come summer, the Crepe Myrtle began to bloom and we got this beautiful white Crepe Myrtle, not Dynamite. So, we called the company to replace it and we moved this one to the back next to the Weigela. It has done beautifully there.

However, in the back, near the shed wall, there are some bright pink blooms. Now, I am either guessing that either, there are two different trees here, or, it gets too much shade by the wall, causing the color change. If you look closer at the picture above I put an arrow in to point out where it could be two different trees coming from the ground. Although, we did not have two bloom colors last year, it was all white. Hmmmm.

 

I took a closer look, and the leaves do really look different. The ones in the circle on the bottom appear more rounded on the ends and shorter, while the leaves in the top circle appear longer and more pointed. Maybe we will try to separate it and see what happens.

Now, for the “Dynamite” Crepe Myrtle, I am having trouble believing this is the right variety! It still looks pink if you ask me! Dh says that the ones that say Dynamite at Lowes look this color, so he thinks it is the right variety. I do also remember reading that sometimes they can start out a different color, but now that I go trying to research it, I can’t find anything! I want RED!!!!! I hope it resolves itself!

Do you remember the 6 feet tall orange cosmos I had last year? Well, these are what came of it reseeding itself this year. Only a couple of feet tall, and more yellow than orange! I guess the seeds are not true to the original. But, I think I kind of prefer the smaller more yellow variety! I only have a couple, I did not replant those giants this year!

  

This is one of my more favorite beds below. It needs a little sprucing, but I love the overall mixture of flowers and plants. I have Arborvitae, Azalea right on the corner of the deck there, 2 Moon Beam Coreopsis which have filled out beautiful this year, 5 Fire star Dianthus (not currently blooming, but red), red and white impatiens, there are a few lilies dying off next to the round Arborvitae. I really like the different colors of green here.

Tomorrow, for Harvest Monday, I will be showing off my pumpkins! But today, I will show off what I made with some of the puree! Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies! Mmmmm. I really like them. I think next time I might add some more pumpkin pie spices, but they are good and almost gone as you can see!  I read all the comments on the recipe linked above and used some of the suggestions, like adding all the pie spices, and using apple sauce instead of oil. They were nice and cake like! Mmm!

I also gave Eli his first Pumpkin mixed with a little Coconut Milk Yogurt. He ate it right up! Good stuff! He had eggplant this week too. If he continues to like eggplant, I just may have to grow him some next year! I wish I could learn to like them, they are so pretty! Pretty things should taste good don’t ya think!

Well, I will have lots to share tomorrow for Harvest Monday! Looking forward to seeing all the new harvests this week!

Happy Gardening!

Parasitoid Wasp Cocoons

It’s nice to know nature is at work in my garden.  The Beneficials are doing there job all without any interference from me! There are tons of Lady Beetles out there and a lot of mating going on between them! I can’t tell you how many Lady Beetles I have caught doing their "thing" in my garden lately! But, I will be happy to have the Lady Beetle Larvae in my garden! Good stuff.

Well, today I found two Tomato Worms in my garden and one was covered in Parasitoid Wasp Cocoons! Yay!!! According to my reading, these wasp come from the Braconid Family and are very small but super good for the garden using all kinds of BAD bugs as their hosts or prey. Including hornworms, caterpillars, beetles, aphids, squash bugs and stink bugs. All Right! Get to work little wasps! I need all the help I can get with those buggers!

In other gardening stuff, I have been harvesting quite a bit of Oregano and Basil from the garden and drying it. I have found another great use for my Magic Bullet, aside from baby food! The smaller flatter blade does a great job cutting up the dried herbs! I LOVE it! Right now I have two large cookie sheets with herbs drying on them and they will soon meet the Magic Bullet! Fun stuff!

  

Happy Gardening!

Harvest Monday! Aug 2, 2010

I’ve done a little harvesting and a little garden clean up this week. The tomatoes are slowing down a bit…except for those Juliets! I can’t say they are my favorite! They are good for Bruschetta but not for plain eating!

Thanks to Daphne at Daphne’s Dandelions for hosting Harvest Monday!

Here I have some Big Boy Tomatoes, the first small Ambrosia melon, Juliets, Cherry tomatoes, and a couple Royal Burgundy Beans.

An 8 Ball Zucchini below. I decided to leave that one plant out there because it still seems to be producing, despite the SVB damage it has suffered. It has another one or two on it out there right now. The Lemon Cucumbers are starting to pick up now too. Last year I had more than enough American Genuine and the Lemon cucumbers were barely producing. This year I am getting more Lemon Cucumbers than American Genuine and the AG’s look terrible! There is some Basil and a couple tiny carrots in the pile too!

Went out for some onions last minute to add to a meal. Yes they are puny, but they still work!

A nice harvest on this day. A bunch of beans, onions, the first Habanero, juliet’s, cherry tomatoes, and carrots. The longer skinnier carrots are the Sweet Treat Hybrid and the shorter fatter ones are the Petite and sweet. Dh says that the short fat ones are better tasting. Too bad I just planted more of the skinny ones and less of the fat ones! It’s funny that when he took them to eat at work, someone had no idea what they were. How easy everything is nowadays that we can have our carrots, washed, cut, peeled and bagged for us to the point that we don’t even know what one looks like when it is first harvested!

The next day I picked the second Habanero and a Lemon Cucumber.

 

The habaneros and a bunch of tomatoes from the last couple of weeks went into 2 Quarts of Peach Habanero Salsa. The verdict is….it needs something. He doesn’t know what, but it needs something. Maybe more sweetness. Guess we will have to try again. We will have plenty of Habaneros.

Here, another quart of beans, a quart of basil leaves, Lots of Juliets! 2 AG cucumbers, Lemon Cucumber, Prudens Purple, Rugers, and Cherry tomatoes.

Today, I went out DETERMINED to pick the first Sugar Pumpkin. It is practically all orange with a few green veins on the bottom. But, I reluctantly decided to leave it on until they were gone! :(

So, I trimmed up the Oregano BUSH! Ha! More Juliets! A Rutgers and a very tiny Prudens Purple! And, another Habanero, that sadly has a hole eaten out of the bottom! I will still use it! Wonder what in the world could have handled eating that kind of heat!

 

My Gloxinia is blooming! Beautiful! I love it! I cannot believe this thing has not died!  Every time I thought it had, I kept it anyways and just kept finding new spots for it to see if it would come back! Sure enough! I just need to not water this thing!

Yesterday, I cleaned out the bean box! I pulled a bunch of them. The ones in the middle were just plain done for. I tried to just trim up the Royal Burgundy and a couple of Providor Beans. And I trimmed up the Basil plants as well. They made it surprisingly! Even after being buried in all those Beans! Now that they have a little light maybe they will take off!

  

DH found this little critter roaming around the front yard! Don’t know where it could have come from, there are not tomatoes or anything up there. I assume it is a kind of tomato worm.  Maybe something else? He didn’t make it long… 

Bye Bye!

2010 Harvest Totals

Lemon Cucumber	9 ea
American Genuine Cucumber	9 ea
Oregano	1 baggie dried + 1 quart
Spicy Bush and Reg Basil	6 baggies dried +1qt
Sebring Zucchini	5 ea
8 Ball zucchini	15 ea
Black Beauty Zucchini	21 ea
Bush Beans	24 quarts
Lettuce (mixed pckg)	2-4 lbs
Bright Lights Chard	8 Bunches
Cabbage (mixed pckg)	4 ea
Evergreen Bunching Onion	10 plus a few cuttings
Yellow Onion	37 ea (small)
Broccoli	4 heads
Juliet Hybrid Grape Tomato	234 ea
Red Cherry Tomato	97 ea
German Johnson Tomato	3 ea
Pink Girl Tomato	23 ea
Prudens Purple	6 ea
Rutgers Tomato	5 ea
Big Boy Tomato	7 ea
Strawberries	2 ea
Cosmic Purple Carrot	4 ea
Sweet treat hybrid/Petite ‘n Sweet carrots	29 ea
Jalapeno Pepper	5 ea
Purple Beauty Bell Pepper	1 ea
Habanero Pepper	3 ea
Lincoln and Alaskan Peas	2 cups 1/4 cup
Ambrosia Melon	1