Time to say good bye...

I can't believe that summer is over! We have seen our first frost I have begun to clean up the garden and prepare for next year. I was very happy with the outcome of almost everything. There are some things I will change for next year and so many things I have learned. I am actually still growing some sugar snap peas, which are super sweet, and some broccoli is sprouting as well as more lettuce.  So  guess it's not quite over yet. 

I have decided to expand the corn garden and I will fence it in this spring to attempt to keep the deer out. The raised beds will stay the same, they just need a little touch up here and there.  I will still plant watermelon, but because of several requests, I will plant the seedless variety. I'm not sure they will be as sweet as the ones grown this year.

The tomatoes had a very late start due to the strange spring weather we had. But I did get some nice ones here and there. I pulled two tomato plants out of the raised beds and moved them into the greenhouse to see if I can prolong my tomato season. I'm not quite ready to give up fresh tomatoes! 

 I was able to harvest some sunflower seeds and I will plant them next year. Although, I don't think I will plant them in the same place as before because they are so big and kind of take over.















I was very happy with the pumpkins and I didn't have to buy any this year to decorate the house for fall. I will also save these seeds and use them for next year. Hopefully I will get even more.

I was surprised by the sweet potatoes that I dug out of the raised beds. The vines were so pretty, but I really didn't expect to actually harvest so many sweet potatoes. Some were small and skinny, but others were really beautiful. I think they may have needed more room, but it was a nice experiment.

The carrots were plentiful but I planted them too close together, so they weren't very big. I will plant them again next year, but I will thin them out more.

Here are all the pumpkins I picked! I think this was the most exciting thing that came out of the garden. I am thinking of planting gourds next year too.

Thank you all for following my blog. I hope it was as enjoyable for you to read as it was for me to share.

August Harvest

Welcome back to my garden blog. I have been really enjoying my garden and I am excited to use what I have learned so far for next year's planting. I have been making notes as to what I will do differently next year and what I will plant more of or less of or even try new (like beets!) I am now starting to research what I can plant in September and October for a fall or winter harvest or plants and vegetables I can plant in the fall for a spring harvest. We have finally been getting some rain so I haven't had to water as much as earlier in the year. The box garden has really helped in limiting the weeds, but the circle garden where I have the corn, pumpkins, watermelons, etc. need a lot of maintenance.

Here is a photo of the corn we enjoyed. All together I harvested 9 ears of corn that were super sweet. The deer ate the the rest, which was more than we got! Oh well, I guess they have to eat too. I am thinking of putting some fencing around this area next year. We'll see. So far, the wildlife have not eaten anything else, but I bet they are just waiting for the watermelon to ripen!

Here is a new baby watermelon that we found a couple weeks ago.

Here is that same watermelon a week ago...

I have two different types of watermelon, sugar babies, which are small and round and these pictures, which look like the regular ones you would find in the grocery store. I'm not sure when they are ready. I'm assuming when the deer start eating them, they are ready! (jut like the corn)

The cucumbers have been abundant! And very large! We have been enjoying them in salads, with dips and hummus, and just plain. Tim likes to make peanut butter and cucumber sandwiches. Whatever! The vines are invading the lawn. I have been trying to keep them on the vine trellis but they seem to have a mind of their own.

Here's a few of the cucumbers that I picked recently. They range in size and color depending on how mature they are.  Personally, I am thrilled with the ones that I pick that look just like they're from the grocery store. I guess it just gives me a feeling of perfection!

The sweet peppers are finally starting to come in nicely. These are the red variety, so they have a little ways to go. I am anxious to taste them.

I have harvested all of the potatoes. They are excellent and I think I will plant more next year. It was fun to watch them mature and then dig into the dirt to find them. I was like a kid finding little treasures. It was exciting to find so many attached to one plant.

The picture of the vine below are sweet potatoes. I didn't even know sweet potatoes grew in this region. Some people tell me they use this vine for decorative purposes and I understand why. They are really beautiful. But it would be a bonus to actually get sweet potatoes! The vine is spilling out of the box garden, but it looks so pretty.

Finally my tomatoes are beginning to ripen. I think I will be overwhelmed with tomatoes in September. I suppose I should learn to can or freeze, or whatever, to help preserve them. I am also sharing my harvest with my neighbors. I think they have been happy so far.

Here is a typical harvest day for me! Isn't it amazing. Unfortunately, the watermelons were not quite ripe enough, but I had to pick a couple just to see if they were ready. I will wait a bit longer for the rest of the watermelon. But the cucumbers, the basil, thyme, rosemary, onions, etc. are just fantastic! I have been harvesting onions for months now. The younger ones I use as scallions. They are awesome raw in a salad as well as cooked.

Of course I have to include some picture of my flowers. I cut all but one of the sunflowers down because the wind pretty much destroyed the othrs. But this one stands strong!

This one was broken in the wind storm. So sad because it was so beautiful.

Wildflower

This plant was a gift from my neighbors last year and it has bloomed beautifully this year. The flowers are bibber than my hand!

Beginning of the Harvest

My garden is beginning to reward me with some beautiful vegetables and herbs. Tim and I enjoyed an abundance amount of sugar snap peas that we ate raw in our salads and with some hummus as well as cooked in a rice dish or as a simple side. I think we have exhausted the vine but hopefully it will produce more as the season goes on.

I have also been enjoying the fresh basil and parsley as well as cilantro and chives. I think next year I will plant more cilantro. The flavors are amazing when you use herbs immediately after picking them. I think I'm going to have to start making some pesto sauce with all the basil I have growing!

I have also been really enjoying the lettuce. I like the butter lettuce a little more than the romaine, so maybe next year I'll plant less romaine. The leaves on the romaine are a little tougher. I haven't had to buy lettuce from the store for a few weeks now and we pretty much have salad every day. I bought some beets from the farmer's market and roasted them and added them to my salad. This is the first time I have ever roasted beets and I really like them. I think I will try growing them next year. 

The green beans are coming in beautifully! These are the bush bean variety. I'm not sure of the difference in flavor between the bush beans and the vine variety, but these are pretty good. I think the skin on them could be a little more tender, but the flavor is really nice.

 Here is the butter lettuce. It is very tender and mild. I've been told that if I don't pull the whole head and only clip off the leaves I need, then it should continue to produce more leaves. So that's what I've been doing. We'll see what happens.

Here is the romaine. Like I said, a little tougher, but still good. I will still grow this next year, but not as much.

I have also been picking some onions. I needed to give the onions a little more room to grow so I have been using them like green onions, or scallions. They are really tasty. I've added them to my mango salsa, my hash browns for breakfast, etc. 

 As you all know, we had one heck of a wind storm last week that knocked out the power for a while. Well, it also knocked down my sunflowers!  Some of the stalks broke completely and I had to remove them. Others just bent over. I am trying to pull them back up by staking them up, but they are pretty stubborn. I have learned that sunflowers take up lots of room and seem to invade other plants. The stems are just crazy! I guess I shouldn't have planted them so close to the corn. They certainly have a mind of their own!

Here is one of the flowers just about to bloom...















Here is the same flower a couple days later...














Speaking of corn...even though the sunflowers  are invading their space, I am still getting ears. I pulled one off the other day to see how far they've come. I think they still need a couple more weeks for the kernels to fill in, but it was really good and super sweet. I'm praying that the deer won't eat them! The deer have eaten many of our flowers so if they run out of flowers to eat, they might start grazing in the garden. I have been putting deer repellent around the area and Tim ordered a motion detector that squirts water to scare them away. It should be coming soon. Hopefully it won't be too late.

 The pumpkin plants are also thriving. I haven't seen any flowers yet, so I hope they will actually produce some pumpkins.  These plants were started form the seeds I collected for the giant 150 lb pumpkin Tim and I bought last year.

Thanks for continuing to follow my blog.

Happy Harvesting!

Garden Update - June

Well, it's been quite a while since I posted a new blog about my garden.

A couple of things have been slowing down my gardening progress. One, the weather has been very uncooperative with a major lack of sun and much cooler temperatures than normal. Two, I found out that the outside hose that I have been using to water all the seeds and plants was running through the water softener. Therefore the plants have been dehydrated and most of the seeds have not germinated. The plumber had to be called in to cut holes in the ceiling in the basement to correct the problem.

But now that that's all taken care of, hopefully my garden will start blooming as expected.

However, some of the earlier plants did survive, like potatoes, bush beans, sugar snap peas, onions, corn, sunflowers, and pumpkins. Those must be hardier than the others, like tomatoes, lettuce, garlic, cucumbers, carrots, and all the herbs, which are not doing that great.

Below is a picture of a few raised beds. The two small ones in the back contain lettuce. They all have been started from seed back in May and are just now starting to resemble leaf lettuce. The larger one in front has onions in the back row, which are looking OK. The middle row contains tomato plants that were started from seed by my neighbor. The one on the left came from seeds directly from Italy. These tomato plants look really weak. I think it is because they haven't gotten enough sun.                   

 The picture below are my potatoes. I don't know anything about growing or harvesting potatoes, but I think these are doing quite well. I'm not sure how to tell when they are ready to harvest, but form what I read, they have a little while longer.

 Here are my sugar snap peas. I find it fascinating how the stems are so delicate and how they find their way to the trellis and wrap themselves around the wire for stability. When they were smaller, I wasn't sure if they needed help to find their way, but my Mom said "just leave them and they will find their way" and they really did, and I think it is really cool!

In the front row there is parsley on the right, some coriander (cilantro) in the middle, which are not doing so well, and carrots on the far left.

 I thought I would include a picture of the rain barrel. I think it is really awesome that I can fill my watering can with rain water and use it to water my plants before I turn on the hose. Just doing my part in conserving water!

I was told that corn should be knee high by the fourth of July. Either my corn is doing really great, or my legs are extremely short. It's weird that the row on the left is small compared to the other three rows. I'm not sure what would cause that. I'm thinking maybe the taller corn might be blocking the sun at some part of the day, but I can't be positive. 

Here are some pumpkin plants. The leaves are starting to turn yellowish brown, so I am really hoping that they will survive. I'm really excited to grow my own pumpkins.                       

This is first year asparagus. I have quite a few of these that will go to seed and hopefully produce a better batch net season. It may take a few years to really have nice asparagus.

Below are a couple of wide shots of the garden, shed and greenhouse along with a picture of our flower garden. I'm really enjoying all of this, even when I have to water for so long. They beauty is all so worth it. And hopefully, the taste of it will be worth it too!

The Weather Breaks!

Finally, the weather breaks enough to allow me to start working outside and planting some seeds. Today I planted some seeds in the garden area outside the raised beds. I planted seeds for sweet corn, pumpkins, watermelon, and asparagus. Also, my sunflower seedlings were big enough to transplant, so those went in the center.  When I was finished, I sprinkled a hefty amount of Deer Away around the perimeter to hopefully keep them from eating what I have planted.

It doesn't look like much! Hopefully, one thing gardening will teach me is patience. Because I tend to be a little impatient at times and then get frustrated because nothing is happening.

I also started incorporating compost in the raised beds but ran out sooner that I thought. I will have to get about three more loads. Once all the compost is mixed in, I will start planting seeds in the raised beds. I also have some tomato seedlings ready to go. I'm still a little apprehensive about the frost, so I will probably wait until next week to start planting in the beds. I put the bird bath out as well as the bench and some other decorative items just to get things looking like I actually did something. I think I will add some potted flowers just so I can have a little color while I'm waiting for the seeds to sprout.

On a side note, the tulips bloomed nicely for the first year. And the deer have not touched them!