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!

Home sprays and remedies

I have a few friends in my BSF class that have recently started gardens or plan to, and ask me questions all the time! It thrills me! I love it when I can inspire someone to grow their own vegetables! I always point them to my blog. Yesterday the conversation was about bugs and fertilizers.  So, today I think I will share a few of the organic things I do in the garden to keep the bugs and critters away and make my garden grow, grow, grow!

Last year something that worked well for me was a hot pepper spray. Since I had an abundance of habanero's and serrano's from 2 years ago I have plenty to make hot pepper spray. Last year I only used the peppers, water, a little veg oil and a little Peppermint pure soap. 

It worked very well at keeping the flea beetles  from destroying my potatoes and helped with the bean  beetles as well.

This year I added a bulb of garlic to the mix. I pureed the peppers, garlic and a little water. Then I strained it, added it to the bottle and added a few drops of oil and soap. I sprayed EVERYTHING. I am hoping it will also deter the bunnies or whatever is eating my vegetables and fruits. I saved the pulp and added more water to let it soak for another bottle for later...peppers do get hotter after marinading for a bit!

Any kind of fencing or bird netting helps keep some of the critters out too! I plan to put bird net over my corn when I start it to keep the birds, deer and bunnies out!

From time to time I also use some diatamceous earth sprinkled around the garden for those little slugs and a few other pests. And of course squishing or a bucket of soapy water works too! Watch out for those eggs on the underside of leaves, especially squash! Destroy them!

Another good thing to use is BT (AKA thuricide, dipel, and a few other brand names). This is a live microorganism good for killing worms, tomato worms, plant eating caterpillars, mosquito larvae, and more. Still, use sparingly, some people can have allergic reactions to it.

I also try to spread things out around the garden like onions and carrots to keep soil pests from hopping from one veg to the next, destroying all of them.

Now, as for fertilizers...

•  I usually start off with a good amount of composted manure worked into the soil! Great sources for this are farms or try the zoo! Don't get the cheap stuff at the store, it is cheap!

• Throughout the season I also use a few things like Fish Emulsion, though if you are a fisher, throw all those heads and guts in a hole in the garden and it works wonders as well! My grandparents do this for their garden, they fish a lot! 

• Some others might be bone or blood meal. I have also found that blood meal sprinkled around the garden deters the bunnies as well. Has to be reapplied after a rain. 

• One of my other favorites is epsom salt spray (1 or 2 tbs in a bottle of water) on the tomato and pepper plants as they are blossoming. This seems to make a good difference in production and end rot, in my opinion.
• You can also spread your grass clippings around your garden to let decompose into the soil. Good mulch and compost.
• I have a pitiful compost pile, but many do quite well with a compost bin for their garden!  Or simply bury your scraps in the garden from time to time.

If you have any helpful organic tips, my friends and I would certainly love to hear them!

 I also recommend my Kentucky gardening friends to print or pick up at the local cooperative extension this Home Vegetable Gardening Guide. It has a lot of useful local information and planting charts!

Chard Noodles

I had an abundance of Chard yesterday that needed a purpose! I had made spinach pasta noodles before for a recipe and I thought why not try chard!

I cooked the chard slightly, then pureed it. Mixed it together with about 5 or 6 eggs and a lot of flour! Rolled it out across the counter as thin as I could get it. Wish I had a pasta press!

Then roll it and slice it. It took me forever to slice these, the roll I had was about 2 feet long, I sliced about 1/4 inch slices and then unrolled them and lay them out on sheet pans. Again, wish I had a pasta press! I put them in the freezer and today I will vacuum package them.

I used the scrappy edges of the roll for dinner last night. My daughter LOVED them! Her twin doesn't care much for any pasta so I wasn't surprised at his response. But the youngest seemed to like them just fine too. They look like green beans here don't they? ;)

So, something new! I think we will be hooked up on pasta for a while!

Long overdue update

I guess an update is long overdue! I have been slacking big time on the blog and a bit on the garden too. It is now going pretty well, but a lot of it is behind, like the tomatoes. I did not do any seedlings inside this year. I planted several seeds directly and bought a few things at the store. I planted some tomatoes seeds directly so I will probably be salivating over everyone else's tomatoes while I am still waiting for mine! But I am sure I will get plenty! I did buy a Chocolate Cherry tomato plant and an Early girl. Gotta get a few early ones so I don't die of jealousy while you all are harvesting pots of tomatoes!

I did not photo two boxes because they are all covered up trying to protect them from the critters. Can't see much anyway!

beans are closest, with one little sunflower that my daughter planted in her impatient excitement before I could tell her where I wanted her to plant them. Behind that is a few pepper plants and chard that made it through the winter. Some other chard did too, but it bolted last week. In the far smaller/deeper box is sweet potatoes and a couple of cucumber plants.

The raspberries are going crazy, and I can't wait for them! The 8X3ft box is just full!

Here I have a lot of garlic, potatoes, carrots, and a few tiny and very late tomato plants.  The potatoes were started around Easter and most are about a foot tall now if you can see them behind the garlic. The garlic is getting scapes already! With the super mild winter they grew big and fast, at least on top, I hope they are the same underneath!

A view from the window. I can't wait for it to be overflowing. It won't be long. I am having to fight off critters. Maybe bunnies or deer. So far it has eaten a small 2yr old blueberry bush, strawberry plants, squash plants, a tomato plant, some sweet potato plants, beans, and that is what I know of! Been trying to cover or fence things off. Chased a bunny off a few times. Hopefully we will get it under control. Gonna be sure to cover the corn right away after I get it planted! Which will be very soon!

Oh I love my lilies! They are multiplying every year! And I love it! They are so beautiful! Wish they would bloom all summer! And, since the big maple tree is gone in the front, I think I will transplant a few up front and let them multiply up their too! I started with maybe 5 about 5 years ago!

This is on the side of the house. The lilies are doing well there too. They bloomed first here.

And the Herb pot is doing very well. 3 Thyme plants, a Rosemary squished in the middle front and an Oregano plant squished in there too. The thyme just goes crazy! I should cut down to one, I will never use this much thyme! And it was cut back recently! Glad it is in a pot! (If any friends want one, just tell me!)

I hope everyone is having great success with your gardens so far! Can't wait to see the beautiful summer harvests!

Cardinal Crab Apple

To replace the large maple that we had to have removed, we replaced it with a smaller more manageable Cardinal Crab Apple. It is suppose to only get about 16 feet tall with about a 20 foot spread. The leaves are suppose to be a purplish red color with dark pink blooms. And it is in full bloom now!

 The tree is about 10-12 feet tall and I got it on sale. Great deal!

 And the bees are already swarming it!

Since I got it on sale, I had money left to get some azaleas and a hydrangea, which I will post pictures of when they are in full bloom! It has been quite hot around here. It is only March and I already have the kid pool out. Everything is blooming and budding several weeks early. Sure hope it does not cause any damage and we don't get any hard freezes. But Summer....uh hum (ya, it's that hot), Spring is definitely welcome!