Fruits Of Our Labor

The garden has been quite fruitful this year, what with all the rain we've had this spring season. We moved back in to our house just in time for me to harvest and can all our produce.

I've been sick this week, and while I seem to be on the mend, I'm still taking it easy. So what else should I do but write a blog post?

I hadn't planted a garden in two years. Basically, I missed a year. I just couldn't handle trying to grow a garden from afar last year while we were living elsewhere. So this year I planted one, thinking we'd be in our new house when it was time to really do some work. Well we made it just in time.

*(Sorry the pictures are small, there seems to be technical difficulties with my blogger.)

 

 

This is what the garden looked like when I first started working on it. It was completely ignored last year, with all the weeds growing as they liked.

 

 

This what it looked like when I got the early crop planted. Lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes, and cilantro.

 

 

My garden currently. As you can see, I've already lost my squash to the bugs, but not without harvesting some fruit first. My peppers, tomatillos and tomatoes are thriving.

 

 

My tomatoes. The plants have gotten so big that they fell over on the ground. We had to stake the cages up with fence posts to keep the tomatoes from rotting.

 

 

Probably my biggest tomato I've harvested.

 

 

Cucumbers and basil.

 

I've already gotten to make a lot with our yield.

 

 

Blackberry jam. This was just from one crop; we missed our early crop because we were moving at that time.

 

 

Peach pepper jam. The peaches aren't ours, but the peppers are.

 

 

Salsa and pickles.

 

I've also been freezing zucchini as well as green beans. We actually had to make a trip to buy our deep freeze so that we could store all that we're obtaining. Our house freezer is already full. It's fun to be canning again, filling our new pantry with home canned goods. This sickness has slowed me down a bit; I've been out for two and a half days so far. But I seem to be on the mend and looking forward to all our busy summer plans. More to post soon!

 

 



Summer Garden Time

It's been a while since I posted anything about my garden, which is slightly ironic since it's been doing better than I've ever had it do for me. The weather stayed cool in Texas for so long that we had an extended cold crop season. I've never had everything in my garden do well at the same time. I'm not bragging because clearly people have had much better gardens than this, but it's exciting for me as a young and inexperienced gardener.

Carrots!!! I've never had carrots do well! This was my "thinning out" crop to make room for the other plants to get bigger.

Spinach is going to seed, hoping to collect them. Onions are heading on out as well as the cilantro. Kale and broccoli are still going strong though.

Radishes are gone and beans are in their place (or will be when they come up). Lettuce is still massive but will be going to seed soon.

Potatoes and spaghetti squash (this spaghetti squash was from seeds I collected from a squash I bought from the store). There's watermelon too, but they're just getting going now that the weather has gotten warm.

Zucchini and yellow squash. There's pumpkin coming up in the front. It's my second attempt at planting it because I already lost some by the squash bugs.

Peppers already have blooms, that's a good sign in my book. Tomatoes are putting on too!

My tomato patch.

Blackberries! Our bushes didn't do well at all last year, but it looks as if they're having a better time this year. Maybe I'll get some jam made with them!

We also have mulberries galore, they're having a good year too. They're ripening too fast for me to get out there and pick them, I wasn't expecting them to be ready so soon. So we're just eating them when we feel like going out there. Ryder has been loving it.

Looking forward to much more fruit from the garden!

A Little Bit Of Spring

It's been beautiful around these parts these last few weeks, and the plants are showing it. All the trees have been blooming and the wildflowers are popping up everywhere. Our garden is no exception.

Peach tree.

Pear tree.

Lettuce, radishes, onions, spinach and kale (there's more but you can't really see them yet).

Lettuce, spinach and asparagus harvested. The asparagus got a little big on me, but they should still taste good. You've got to get out there every day to catch them!

Our blackberry bushes are blooming like crazy.

Strawberries. We're getting quite a few more this year than last year.

I'll be planting the rest of the garden soon and we'll keep waiting as stuff keeps growing!

Working the Earth

It's hard to believe that it's already planting time again. Even though by the end of summer/fall I'm usually ready for a break from gardening, I'm always excited for the new planting season in February. In Texas, our "rest" period is pretty short. Winter is mild and we only get about 3 months of a break. But I'm still raring to go when it comes time to plant.

This year Nick built me some mini greenhouses. They'll be great for starting seeds. He built them out of some old windows my parents had sitting on their property. They'd gotten them discounted (or given, I'm not sure which) when they were building their house, but now they've decided they won't be using them. The original idea was to build an actual greenhouse using the windows and storm door, etc. like my mom's, but Nick thought maybe I could get use out of them this year if he built these smaller versions.

I'm still going to want a full size greenhouse someday, but this will definitely work well for now.

Nick's talking about extending the garden area up the hill, but more than likely it will not be utilized this year.

Looking forward to little green sprouts speckling the dirt!

Fruits of the Garden

The garden is coming along well. The weather has cooperated in giving us enough rain to keep things green and keeping the temperature under 100 degrees. Of course, sprinklers help too.

First crop of tomatoes: cherry. They are the biggest and juciest I've ever grown! I've since picked both regular tomatoes and romas. Soon to be making salsa and hopefully canning tomatoes.

This was my first crop of tomatillos, just enough to make one batch of salsa verde. It turned out perfectly! I've since picked enough to make another batch, and I've found a method for canning the sauce that I'd like to try. I'll let you know how it goes.

This was my first jar of pickled okra. Using Nick's grandma's recipe for pickling, I'm able to pickle one jar at a time, as a get enough okra. We'll see how it turns out!

Growin' Up Green

The garden has been growing and growing, and we've been enjoying some of the fruits.

Watermelon vines, getting close to having one ready!

Cucunmbers

Tomatoes

Roma Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes

Tomatillos

Okra

Corn (yes it's quite pathetic)

Blueberries

Squash the Squash Bug!

If you've grown squash in Texas, most likely, you've been there. Healthy plants, good produce. You walk out one morning, and boom! The plant is lying there dead, with no warning! You have been slammed my friend. Slammed with the infamous squash bug.

These little buggers are absolutely horrible! They can take out your plants soooo fast! I've struggled with them every year except my first. Here's what these evil beings look like.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/chatham/ag/SustAg/squashbug.html

I'm telling you, they're the horniest bugs I've ever seen! This is basically how I always find them.

http://extension.entm.purdue.edu/radicalbugs/default.php?page=pests/squash_bug

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/M1208.html

 

 

Here's what they look like as babies. The eggs are usually found on the leaves of the plant.

They have been the bane of my existence when it comes to gardening. The one thing I can grow well in my iron ore soil is squash, but these buggers have kept me from having a decent crop.

But, those days are gone. Well, sort of. I have found what seems to be the best natural method of killing them. I actually tried some poison, but it only drove them away. As soon as the poison washed off, they were right back. Plus the poison doesn't kill the eggs, and the babies can wipe the plant out overnight. 

What works best is soapy water. It's a little tedious, you have to go out and turn over all the leaves and spray each bug, but it works. Only put a couple squirts of dish soap in the bottom of a sprayer, then fill the rest up with water. You don't want to put too much soap in it because it will burn the leaves. But this soapy water method works well, killing the adults and babies within a minute. Apparently the oily-ness of the soap clogs the pores on their skin, causing them to suffocate.

The next step is to take care of the eggs. The soapy water doesn't affect the eggs, just the live bugs. I've found that a torch works well for this, heh heh. If you keep the torch on low, all you'll do is kill the eggs, not the leaves.

Hopefully doing this will help me have a good crop this year! And I hope these bugs become extinct soon!! Happy carnage!

While We Were Gone...

I was nervous that our garden suffered greatly while we were gone to Florida. Even though we had a timer on the sprinkler, I wasn't sure the bugs didn't devour everything. When we got back, this is what we found...

Growth! Of plant and weed!

Corn, okra and beans.

Our first little squash!

Muscadine grapes.

Tomatillo blooms.

My best radish crop I've ever had!

We've got all kinds of blooms on our pomegranate.

Pickings from our strawberries and blackberries.

Before we left, Nick had picked some mulberries. There's only a few left on our other tree.

There were a few casualties. Only one of my celery plants is going to pull through, and my cilantro is probably gone. The squash bugs are running rampant, so I broke down and got some sevendust. It better work.