Garden Bloom overview (partial/May)

 

I splurged on one plant to see what it was all about this spring. I'm glad I did. It was a "super Roma" tomato plant, and so far, it's been SUPER! It's taken our extreme temperatures and my lack of care and spat back loads of tomatoes.

Zucchini is still going strong for now...and the potatoes are still taking turns flowering. This is the last of the taters to flower. In the back you can see the single radish I've let go to seed. This bed hasn't been productive in a year, except for radishes so I figured why not?

The apple tree is blossoming. The first blossomed failed. I wonder how the trees are doing in Alabama?

I'm so curious, and my hubby is going on a quick trip in 2 weeks. It should be early blackberry season there, too. Wondering if I can talk him into bringing back some and taking pictures of my trees...

Pomegranates are doing well this season. I can't wait for them. It takes SOOO long for them to ripen. It nearly hurts to wait so long!

I've got grapes on the vine, too! Not as many as last year, but that is my fault, and it's OK. I knew better with my choice of plants but I just had to have the Concord grapes because I love them so much. They are worth it. Delectable little jewels that they are. 

There is so much more just since the 10 days that I took these pictures. The mulberries are blooming again... Joy? The cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, string beans, Lima beans, all going like gang busters right now. 

The weather is changing daily again. I know that everyone has been talking about how weird the weather is, but well and truly I've never in my lifetime seen 50's in the middle of May, and yet this morning that is what I awoke to. Absolutely amazing.  

Oh, did I mention I fixed a sprinkler head that my hubby tried to fix for the last year? He even replaced the entire head and that didn't work. It was the pipe that was stripped causing the sprinkler head to sit wrong. It just took a little finesse and a lot of muscle and determination to get it right. I do get the feeling at some point in the future we'll have to re-do the entire line section there, but for now it's working again, and I'm rubbing it in that a woman fixed what the man could not.

:-)

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 5.6.13

Monday - Already? You've got to be kidding me! This weekend went SO fast!

I worked on a project for the chickens. I forgot to take pictures while I was working because i was by myself, but now that it is almost finished I have to go back and take photos. It's worth it. I turned the door around to their pen. I always hated the door leading to their run. I still do, but I hate it a little less now. LOL.At least I can OPEN the door now. See, it used to open in, and the little chooks always seemed to toss all the shavings wood chips and anything else they could find right in the path of the door. I fixed that! It did impede on their space a little, but there is only 3 of them and they do have a good sized run for just a couple of them. I have a few other things up my sleeve for them this summer, too. Just a couple things to help in the way of boredom and keeping them occupied during our seasonal rains. :-)

Ah, but that isn't why you are here is it? It's not just Monday... it's HARVEST MONDAY! Of course! This weeks harvests included the first potatoes and zucchini of the year. I threw those on the grill with some pork chops Friday night. I love it when a meal comes almost entirely from the garden, and ALL local. :-)

Also harvested more carrots, another cauliflower. This one topped out at a decent 2lbs 9oz. a few strawberries a pound of blueberries (not all pictured) and ... well... Oh yeah! One H.O.T. radish. I'm guessing that the weather is just getting too warm for them now.

The zucchini are full bore now. I've got a good 6 on the 2 bushes/vines? Hmm... Anyway We'll be swimming in them the next couple weeks which is good. They tend to only last a few weeks now as we get into May and June so we will be sure to take advantage while we can!

The potatoes I pulled up are the ones that are planted around the blueberry bushes. I didn't like the idea of leaving them to grow to full size under the blueberries and damaging the bushes roots. I knew the longer I let them grow the more likely I'd have a hard time digging them out and end up hurting the bushes. Since they flowered almost 3 weeks ago I've been keeping a close eye on them. Turned out to be the perfect time to pull this little bush we each got a small potato perfectly proportioned for us!

I would love to show off to you my first blackberries of the season as well, but my lovely daughter decided that she wanted to pick me a bouquet of flowers... (Can you see where this is going?) Just so you know when you cut a blackberry flower it only last a few hours in a vase. Also, just so you know it's REALLY hard not to cry when you realize just  WHAT the flowers are that your well intending child handed you with a smile on her face. 'Happy Mother's Day' she says. Happy Mother's Day, indeed. What a gem she is. Every. Single. Bud. And from the thornless canes no less. LMBO.

Ah, well. I suppose it wouldn't be gardening without trials and tribulations, now would it?

 

OH! Guess what else weird just happened? My blueberries REbloomed! Check it!

How Weird it this? I talked to a local blueberry farmer about it and more than half of his crop re-bloomed as well. He thinks it is because of the really late weird frost/freeze we had a few weeks ago. We had another weird cool spell just Saturday night - it actually got down to 59*. For us in May... that is just freaky. The blooms this time aren't as pretty and I'll assume they won't be as large of fruit, but so far on the bushes that have re-bloomed I have about half again as much fruit. That is good because I didn't get as much fruit this year because we didn't get but about 40 chill hours total. The bush in the picture is only a second year cutting so the fruit wont be kept. It's too small to support it yet. Next spring I'll allow it a small crop.

I'm rambling now. Off to work.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~ 

 

 

Harvest Monday 4.22.13

What a week!

I don't have all the pictures for this week, because it was a complete whirl wind. But I do have a few.

Snap peas, and shelling peas are the stars of the show, but those blueberries? Well, the ones that actually make it into the house... Oh they are DIVINE!!!

I also got 5 jalapeno peppers this week, a radish a carrot (salad, LOL) a tiny tomato, a whole bucket full of eggs and I am keeping an extremely close eye on this little sweetheart: 

This cauliflower has at least doubled in size this week, if not tripled! I'm checking it each day and I'm ready to pull the plug! It's starting to get these little hairy things around the florets and I've never seen that before. I don't know what it means, if anything at all. Also I think it might be a crossbred variety as it's starting to turn slightly orange as it is getting larger.  I CAN NOT WAIT! :-D This one is destined to make a pizza crust and a side dish - it's actually large enough to do both!!! EEEK! (Over the moon here) I also have another heading up the normal way of - oh, that should make a good 3" head. LOL. Oh well. I'm just thrilled I have this one! You should see it on harvest Monday next week.

 

Linking into Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday like always! Be sure to check her place out. She's got the hook up of whats being harvested all over the world! When I checked out my archives last week I realized I've been doing this for THREE years now. Daphne - you are the BOMB for being such a wonderful hostess. 3 years and haven't missed a beat yet!

 

The rain that I was talking about for Saturday? It kind of spit on us here and there, but not enough to make me pull everything inside. (YIPPEE!) I made $230 and my parents made about $50 they only brought over one load of stuff. My friend sat out with me and she had brought one load of stuff. She also made $50. So between all of us $330 for 5 hours of sitting around? Not bad! I still have a table and chairs to sell on Craigslist. Hopefully it will be gone by Friday or else I'm going to take it to Goodwill. I don't like taking too much of my time to sell the stuff, I'd rather give it to someone who needs it. KWIM?

 

Time for some coffee. Hope you have a great day! It's looking like more rain today. I'm happy because this would make 3 days in a row! Remind me of this when I'm complaining in the Summer!?

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.15.13

Tax Day. Have you harvested those yet? We have ours done. We didn't get back nearly what we have in years past, and according to our accountant we will get back even less next year. Oh, joy! :-(  Ah, well - no use worrying about that now.

I'm linking in once again to Dahne's Dandelions. Be sure to stop by her place to see what people are harvesting from all over the world. Thanks Daphne for hosting, once again!

This weeks harvest included massive amounts of peas. The snap peas and the shelling peas were very abundant. I also harvest a few jalapenos, blueberries, mulberries, and the first carrot thinnings of the year. They seemed to grow much faster this year than in the past.

Here are the few pictures I got:

 

Tally: 4oz Blueberry, 1lb shelling peas, 8.3oz snap peas, 1.5oz Jalapeno, 1lb mulberries (I quit weighing them), 6oz radish.

Went to Silvia's this weekend and then came home and had some swim time. It felt great to unwind by the pool. I managed to pick up a blush rose, a coral rose, some purple sweet potatoes, some new starts for garlic chives, a rose geranium, a red angel wing begonia and Cheryl gave me a couple pansy babies that will be gracing my desk here at work as soon as they are strong enough to be repotted. :-) So a great big THANK YOU! to Silvia for opening her home and for all the hard work that goes into the garden swaps . I really appreciate all that you do! Besides, I always walk away inspired to continue to work on  creating the environment that I really want to see in my yard for the future.

Lots of work to be done this week. Those new babies all need to be tended to, plus I have a VERY big garage sale to get ready for. It seems we are trying to sell nearly the whole garage! ;-) I'm kicking my precious car out of the garage, so you know i"m getting serious now.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~ 

 

Harvest Monday 4.1.13

No April Fool's Jokes here. The only joke is the way I feel after a ton of work in the yard this weekend.

Not only did we get the new container filled up, but the playground got cleaned up and newly mulched, the hedges got trimmed, the lawn got mowed, the seeds got sowed, the chicken coop got cleaned... we spent the entire weekend outside. Except for the 3 hours Easter morning that we spent hunting eggs and doing the whole bunny thing.

 

Harvests this week? Peas, Jalapenos, mulberries, a head of lettuce, radishes and...

THE! FIRST! BLUEBERRIES!

Nom, Nom, Nom. Just for Easter morning. I didn't tell anyone. I didn't show anyone. I scarfed them. Most of the berries have been disappearing just before ripening. Much like my peaches. :-( But these I got to in time! Next year I'll net the bushes, but this year I just don't have enough on the poor bushes to make it worth my time and effort. I'll have to decide what to do with the bushes when they are done producing. Around here it's pretty common to see the big producers cut them hedge style at the end of picking in order to allow the new canes time to grow again before next season. I might do this as this is the second year these plants are int he ground. (They spent one yer in pots getting nursed back to health) They are now just barely large enough to sustain that treatment.

Of course we also harvest eggs. And, given the nature of the week and all, you probably figured out what I did with those eggs, right? Right. I boiled them suckers up and we played with them! The kids a blast this year. I don't think that they even really remember dying them last year. They remember seeing them dyed of course, but not the process and just how messy and fun it can be. I'm always on the look out for special things to do with our eggs, and since I'm just not willing to spend the money to go and buy WHITE eggs for this singular occasion we have to get creative to make them stand out. I think we did a pretty darn good job. If I do say so myself. :-)

 

As for the outside work? I don't have all the pictures, but the two boxes I have pictures of.

The newer box still needs the top finished in brick. They are there and waiting, but they were holding up the side bricks while they dried. LOL. The first box is fully planted now. I snapped a picture from the window of my living room. I don't know if you can really see or not, but it has lettuce, tomato, potato, leek, and strawberries. :-D

 

I'm really enjoying the height of the boxes. It makes it nice to have a seat and be able to garden without breaking my back. No aching knees and no itchy grass, either.

 

Sown this week: Early Sunglow? corn, Henderson bush Lima beans, Top Crop green beans, Burmese okra,  Sierra Gold & Minnesota Midget Cantaloupe, Sugar Baby Watermelon,  Kubocha Sunshine, Yard long cucumber, Cilantro, Genovese, Sweet & Giant basil

(BOX) Contender bush beans, Holstein beans, Sun Spot sunflowers, Eureka, & All Season cucumber, Ground cherries

 

I think that is everything. I may have missed something. I only sowed half the box. I'm still undecided on the other half. I may just wait 2 weeks and fill it in with green beans. Can't go wrong with them around here. :-)

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

 

 

Harvest Monday 3.25.13

Oh yeah! It's Harvest Monday again! I almost forgot! I've been so busy at work and at play that I nearly forgot to post again. I didn't link in to Daphne's last week, so even though I'm late today I will. Thanks Daphne. I know that even when I forget to post on time that you are always there just waiting on all of us!

This week was super busy. We went to Miami to watch the Sony Ericson Tennis Tournament. We got to see a lot of big names there Serena Williams, James Blake, Andy Murray and - well a whole HOST of other professional players. It was AWESOME. Unfortunately I didn't have a charger for my phone so I couldn't take pictures. I had to save the battery to make sure I could get a call in case of an emergency. Even still I ran out of battery around 10pm! We had excellent seats only 5 rows up, so if you watched tennis at all this weekend, you probably saw me and the hubsters! (I was the really dorky looking lady) LOL.

I digress. I just wanted to let you know we went to play in another town. I'll post those pictures, too but I'll try to hold off until Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday.

Harvests?

Eggs, radishes, PEAS! (WOOT!) and greens. I'm thrilled about the peas. They weren't much. Just enough for each one of us to have a pod. 5 pods of Springs finest offerings. It was starting to rain when I ran in so if you are wondering about the specked eggs, that is what it is. I haven't yet talked the hens into coloring their own eggs, but if I did specked eggs is exactly what I'd want. Violet, pink,etc. spots are awesome. LOL. I do have one that lays with a light sprinkling of chocolate colored speckles. I love it!

So, that was my exciting week. Hoping to finish the (second) raised box this weekend and have those pictures for you soon. The box has been waiting for weeks now and I have been out of town. I feel like a bad gardener.

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 12.05.11

December's first Harvest Monday report!

Linking into Daphne's for the party over there. Make sure you stop by to say hi and tell her thanks for hosting!

Well- after I said that I checked the link and she hasn't posted yet so if she doesn't post still pop on by and wish her well. She normally posts before the sun rises and keeps us gardeners straight!
This weeks harvests looked like this most nights:

I don't have a lot to share as the garden clean up from my week long hiatus hasn't even been completed yet. The peppers suffered from both my absence and a brief dip into the upper thirties. The marigolds that had spread 4' tall and 5' wide are both history. Wow what a sorry sight they are! The purple beans are nearly all gone. What is left is a tangled mess with a couple of live vines intertwined. It breaks my heart to rip them all out because there are a few left that are producing of course and this time of year there is no hope of starting any new plants and harvesting anything from them. The bush beans are nearly all done as well so a tiny handful this week is my pitiful bounty for green beans... but this is December - so I'm NOT complaining!

The cucumber vines also all shriveled up from the cold, and the tomatillos as well... I have one that is still alive but with only one alive it is doubtful that it could set fruit again this year so I will see tonight what is left to mature and bring in anything promising to finish the harvest for the tomatillos for the year. Time to start next years plants indoors! :-D They don't get nearly as tall as tomatoes so I'm seriously thinking about doing this. Besides the purple ones are kinda pretty.

The 'english' peas are doing well and Richard and I enjoy eating them as a snack fresh without cooking them. We eat them rather the way most people eat popcorn- in front of the TV. :-D

Some more Daikons and greens came in - and the first of the lettuce provided a nice salad this week, but silly me got to eatin' before taking a picture.

The Holiday season has officially set in full force as the sitter is officially on the schedule for the remainder of the month and every single week is jam packed with activities and I am scrambling to figure out when to do my baking already! I suppose this is a good thing, but the tree is only up and somehow we need to find time to string lights, and garland and ornaments, and decorate outside and sheesh! I'm tired just THINKING about all that. *teehee* When, exactly did I get O~L~D?

'Till next time!
Barbie~

Harvest Monday 3.28.11

Happy Harvest Monday!
Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday. Macke sure to stop by her place to check out everyones info on what they are harvesting and how they are using their harvests! It's spring and things are really starting to perk up.
My harvests are starting to diversify. This is good news. Even better news is this -
IT's RAINING! It hasn't rained here in a month, and I am so glad to say that not only is it raining today -there is a chance of rain ALL WEEK! Whoot! Of course after jsut a few days of rain I will be ready for the sunshine again. But, for now I am celebrating the rain, and so are my plants.
This weeks harvests includes a bunch of green onions, strawberries, english peas, lettuce, spinach, radish, broccoli, carrot (not plural HA!) and I'm pretty sure I've forgotten something - but here are the pictures that I remembered to take...

I also harvested this: A bowl full of tabasco babies. These were just the ones that were in with the tomato plants. Not all through the garden. These little gems are being saved. OK well, not all thousand of them are. 21 are claimed already and 23 are potted in cups and slated for the Tampa Plant trade. :-)  I ran out of dixe cups believe it or not. But, never fear, ANYONE who wnats them is welcome to them. My garden seems to have plenty for all who want them.

Here are some of the things I am doing to use my harvests:

Pizza Fresca

Breakfast Quesadilla's and fresh Coleslaw

I am wondering where the rest of my pictures went, but meanwhile these are what I have. Not everything managed to make it into the pictures, and low and behold I forgot to weigh most of the harvests. I've got to start remembering now that things are ramping up again.

Check in tomorrw- 'cause I've got a (small) project to unveil and a few pictures to share of what is blossoming in my garden this week.

Did I mention it's raining!? WHOOHOOO!!!!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 3.21.11

SPRING! (Officially!) Linking in this first SPRING day to DAPHNE'S DANDELIONS for Harvest Monday

I don't have much in the way of pictures to show for my harvest. But, each day a handful of strawberries, and a handful of spinach for my Bgirl. I also took 2 clippings form the lettuce. It made salads for dinner for all 5 of us and that is nice. Plus, we had lettuce for our burgers yesterday as well. Radishes for the salad of course. Oh, the last large head of cabbage - 4 pounds. I forgot to take a picture of it until I had already cleaned it, and had it ready for the pot.

Apologies for the cell phone shots. Life gets busy and I lose my one memory card sometimes. I figure one day I'll have to go buy 10 of the suckers. But, then I'll lose track of all of those, too! Ha.

Oh, I made strawberry syrup we ate on our blueberry pecan pancakes with blueberries and pecans from the freezer stash. I have only 1 cup of pecans left. No one in the house is happy about that! The good news is that the blueberries are turning blue again outside and I promised my girls to go picking this year so we'll have them in the freezer again soon! I sure wish Strawberries froze as well as blueberries do. Bummer, Man.  The Boy child finally ate one of these beauties. He was skeptical because they are all shapes and sizes. Boy was he surprised! He is now fighting with the girls over who gets to eat these little treats. Problem with that is dangit! I want more of them for me. *POUT*

I gotta tell you. That strawberry syrup> Yeah that stuff over there------> Yum. I have got to find a way to keep it from fermenting. I don't use enough sugar in the recipe to keep it from fermenting if I canned it. I suppose I could freeze it. Maybe I should start looking into better freezer storage. It irks me to no end to pull something out of the freezer that I worked hard on only to find out that it isn't usable.

Ack, I'm rambling.

HAPPY SPRING!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 3.7.11

Harvest Monday, already? Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions once again. Stop on by her place to see how people are using their previous harvest, and what they are harvesting now!
I do believe I got all caught up in the bees and flowers and forgot to harvest much anyways. I had some thinning to do and made a nice salad of radishes and baby spinach and lettuces, but failed to take their portraits. I did however manage to take the photos of these behemoths.

Though they may not look that large the small one is the size of my thumb and the larger one like a small lemon. Such a pithy pity.  But also the only things I could really weigh. I spent my time this week attempting to fix sprinklers. That didn't work well. AT>ALL. I assumed that bigger was better as the smaller sprinklers were not covering enough territory and my poor little plum tree was suffering for it. Well. now my poor little plum tree is suffering for TOO much water, and it's watering the tree instead of the roots. It's also watering the neighbors yard and his oak tree. NOT my intentions by far. SO next week I'll be off to search for another set of sprinkler heads. Until then I simply have to pray that the plum can either withstand the massive sprinkler head or handwater. *sigh* Either way not ideal.

Hoping to have a better report next week. My row of radishes are going crazy and they are ready to come out of the ground so you are sure to see those at least. So come on back - ya'hear?!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 1.10.11

Hey it is ACTUALLY MONDAY!!! Whoot! Linking in to Daphne's for Harvest Monday!!

Guess what I got my first of this week? A strawberry! The first of the year - and I am hoping and praying there are many more to follow. My strawberry plants seem to have suddenly gotten lower. I don't know if that makes any sense at all but they are. I didn't dig them and divide this year and now that they are already flowering and producing I feel inclined to leave them until next fall. I'll have less of a harvest this year but less is better than none! So, one single 1oz strawberry. No picture, sorry. The girls devoured it before it even had the chance to get washed. Good thing I don't use pesticides!

This harvest Monday is all about the citrus.

I picked 5 gallons of citrus off the trees that wasn't ready prior to the frosts. Technically produced in 2010 but now it is succulently sweet and oh so juicy. I'm glad I waited to pick it. I turned it into 1/2 gallon of orange juice, 2 quarts of grapefruit segments, a citrus salad and loads of assorted segments for lunches. I also keep using the lemons on my salads in place of vinegar. Any time I can use lemon juice I prefer it anytime for my salads. Not to mention the 3 gallons of lemonade we drank this weekend.

There is still more fruit on my parents trees that they will never use. Namely the tiniest tangerines you've ever seen. I don't know if they are worth my while for segmenting out. As a fruit they don't last too long because the peels are thin, as a juice there is more pith than fruit...but I really ador the flavor of the fruit.
Garden progress? Well I seeded a small section. Some garden peas, carrots, a few broccoli, some lettuce and radish. I'm really just replacing what has been taken so far from the winter garden. As I've mentioned before I'm not much of one for cabbage or greens so those few things are the main stay of my frost tolerant garden. All in all it takes rough 10 square feet. Not much - it leaves a lot of the main garden empty, and the only remaining things in the smaller gardens are the year round plants like the trees, and vines.

This coming weekend is a 3 day holiday for me and I am looking forward to working my fingers to the bone. Our budget won't tolerate the new garden that was scheduled to go in but I'm going to try some 'artistic' financing to see what I can come up with. I don't technically NEED the planter finished until mid February but it would be so nice not to have to rush to finish the project if I don't have to. I've put off starting my tomato seedlings until next weekend as well so if I do need to wait on the new bed I won't feel so rushed to complete it then.

Harvest Monday! 10/4/10

It's that time again! Harvest Monday. Thanks Daphne for hosting Harvest Monday's. Link up so everyone can see what is ready for harvest where you live!
This weeks harvest is just that. Quite week. I didn't take many pictures. I'm missing a colander and a handful of okra that look just like the one posted. A handful of green beans and an extra large cucumber that tasted delightful! I was quite shocked. Hubby got ahold of it and had eaten half before I could even snap a picture. He's the cucumber guy. He loves all things cukey. :-) Found a beetle on my beans yesterday so that is not good. It could be in he that hurt my beans as a juvie...to bad there is no JDC for those things. LOL. Anway... here you go!

Don't mind the puny radish. It was a test. It was H~O~T, too! Rich enjoyed it, and Troy complained that it was too small. LOL. It's a French Breakfast so I'm quite sure he'll have his fill sooner or later.

The okra is still hanging in there. Not doing well at all plant wise but still producing! The main plants have quit entirely and shed all their leaves. I'm going to cut the centers out so they can continue a few more weeks. The weather is much cooler and dryer and oddly enough they are the only thing in the garden not appreciative of that!

The tabascos are ready for a few weeks of big harvests again. I can't say enough about this 'little' plant. It's made it through the spring, ans summer and still producing more than we can eat. At 4' tall it's about maxed out in height, and everyone comments on it's beauty. It's been such an easy plant that I think next spring I will have to start 3 and put them in the front garden bed. All of my other peppers that pettered out over summer are just begining to fruit again. I got one baby bell that i accidently knocked off the plant this week, and there is one more on still. The jalepenos, serranos, hungarians, all of them are flowering beautifully, but the fruit is very slow to set.

I may or may not have my first pumpkin on. I know I've said that before a dozen times but so far it looks good. Time will tell. In 3 days I'll have something growing larger each day or something stunted. I'm trying to reroot near the pumpkin so I can cut back the main vine. It may be a disaster waiting to happen, and I may lose the one pumpkin that I manage to get set but i have to try. The plant is very diseased now. It's outrunning it, but if I cut back the leaf skelatons that are left it will leave the vine too vunerable to the sun, and pests. So this is my experiment I suppose. I'm going to tie some ribbons on the vine and trace it back trying to cut out only the other vines but I've done that before and cut the wrong one at the last minute. My spring crop suffered horribly for this. I nearly cried myself to sleep as I had 3 beautiful Jarrahdales that has sized up nicely on. I'll keep you all posted as to how this turns out. Not only to share the info, but for future reference for myself as well. I like being able to look back and see what worked and didn't.

'Til next time!

Barbie~