The Sun Is Out and So Am I

The weather is beautiful here today... Sunny and currently 46 and almost noon. After the last few days of rain and yuck, I couldn't wait to walk in my garden!!

And this is what I found...

Broccoli

Spinach

and Buttercrunch Lettuce.

Blessings,

Debbie

Harvest Monday 10-31-2011

It has been way too many months since I have participated in Harvest Monday - a place to share with others what is happening in our own little corner of the garden world. Go to Daphne's Dandelions to read what some of my garden friends are sharing.

Yes, I have been MIA from my garden blog (read post here) and I have missed reading all my favorite garden blogs. Slowly I am trying to read a few here and there.

I did not do a very good job this year of keeping track of my harvest. I was so disappointed by the damage that the extreme heat and drought were taking on my garden. I just couldn't keep up with the watering. BUT thanks to cooler temps, the garden is showing signs of life again. Although small, I am thankful for the harvest especially when I read that so many already have snow on the ground!

Harvest this week:

• Bell Peppers 4.9 oz
• Green Beans 9.0 oz
• Okra 3.4 oz
• Tomatoes 3.4 oz

I experimented with the green beans and sauteed them with butter, garlic, and almonds. Larry and I both enjoyed them and I know I will cook them this way again. What is your favorite way to cook fresh green beans?

Blessings,

Debbie

Yes, I have been MIA from my Garden Blog

It's hard to believe but it has been over 4 MONTHS since I last posted to my garden blog...

The harsh summer temperatures and the lack of rain was hard on my garden. I couldn't keep up the watering needs of the garden so kinda gave up. The weather was too hot very early in the season for most of my tomato plants to set fruit. Even the okra suffered from the summer heat.

But about a month ago a wonderful thing happened, the temperatures started to drop and my garden started to revive... I have tomato plants that have started to set fruit (even the ones that NEVER set fruit in the spring/summer), my bell pepper plants are loaded with peppers, the green beans are growing, and the whole garden seems to have new life!!! It sure does my heart good.

Yesterday I gathered the harvest below 

...green beans, tomatoes, okra, and

bell peppers (harvested because the branch holding them broke)

As some of you may remember, 

I planted Christmas Beans in the spring. 

I was rather disappointed in the small amount of beans

 that they produced. 

Here are the plants in May... Kinda pitiful...

Here is a side view 

and if you look in the front of the bed, 

you can see the Spanish peanuts that I planted 

in front of the Christmas Beans.

Well, the Christmas Beans survived the heat 

and here is what they looked like on Sept. 24th 

after the temps started to cool to highs in the 80s... 

FULL OF BLOOMS!

And I took this picture earlier this week on Oct 24th... 

It is amazing to see the difference that one month has made!!!

I have hundreds of wonderful pods... 

I can only imagine what is on the other side of the fence 

in the neighbors yard!! 

I hope they don't mind.

Do you think that the peanuts planted in the same bed 

could have contributed to the great growth of these beans?

I am hoping to harvest lots of the Christmas Beans.

It seems my garden seems to do better in the fall. 

Last year, I was harvesting cherry tomatoes on Thanksgiving Day!

Blessings,

Debbie

we have... R A I N ! ! ! ! ! !

Yes!!! We have rain!!! The birds are playing in the rain and the plants in my garden are DANCING!!!

It has been so hot here and we haven't had rain in a long time!! It is 3:15pm and the temp is only 74 degrees!!! YES!!!

Debbie

Harvest Monday 06-13-11

It's MONDAY and that means another time to celebrate what is happening in our gardens with HARVEST MONDAY on Daphne's Dandelions.

This week I enjoyed my first ever harvest of soybeans. They quickly became EDAMAME!!!

I also had my first harvest ever of Cherokee Trail of Tears beans. Now... all the beans I planted were black but ... as you can see... some of the beans harvested were white. I knew something was wrong when one plant had white flowers but all the others had beautiful lavender flowers. I bought these seeds from a company online. Annie's Granny sent some to me that I will plant later this summer for a fall harvest. Although this was a small harvest, the amount will be add a nice touch to our supper tonight of MEXICAN PILE-ON.

I also harvested my first tomato of the year. My okra continues to produce. The okra loves the hot, dry weather!!

HARVEST TOTALS

Week ending 06-11-11
Okra	8.30	oz.
Tomatoes	0.30	oz.
Beans	20.00	oz.
TOTAL	28.60	oz.	1.79	lbs

2011 Year to Date
Okra	15.40	oz.	0.96	lbs
Tomatoes	0.30	oz.	0.02	lbs
Strawberries	4.80	oz.	0.30	lbs
Mustard Greens	26.00	oz.	1.63	lbs
Beans	20.20	oz.	1.26	lbs
TOTAL	66.70	oz.	4.17	lbs

Debbie

First Tomato of the Year...

and Caleb gave it an A+!!

I barely snapped the picture before he devoured it!

Debbie

Soybeans = Edamame ! ! !

This morning I harvested 1.25 pounds of soybeans from my garden...

Tonight we had Edamame for supper!! YUM!!!

This was my first adventure with growing soybeans and I will definitely grow them again... probably another crop this fall.

Blessings,

Debbie

Monday Harvest - 06-06-11

June has arrived and I am hoping to participate in one of my favorite events on a regular basis. Sharing with my other garden friends at Daphne's Harvest Monday. I so enjoy reading what is happening in other gardens and I gain so much in the knowledge they have to share.

I harvested my first okra (6.3 oz) this year! YIPPEE!! 20 days earlier than last year!!!

Oh.... Do you see what I see?

In other news, it is HOT!! We have had 4 days of 100+ temps. The okra loves it but my tomatoes and beans are not feeling the love.

Be sure to check out the other Monday Harvests at Daphne's blog.

In Case You Didn't Know...

If you forget to put this...

 into this...

you get this...

instead of this ...

and you also get some very disappointed kids who had to eat leftovers for lunch and had to wait to have pizza for an afternoon snack..

NOW YOU KNOW!!!!

(Side note: I was able to empty everything into a bowl, add the paddle, put everything back into the bread machine and save the pizza dough!)

Debbie

MIA - also called LIFE IS BUSY!

It is hard to believe that is has been a little over seven weeks since my last post. Life is so busy this time of year and it is hard to get everything accomplished. I have written several posts (in my head) while working in the garden but that doesn't help if I don't find time to type and post to my blog. Soon school will be finished for the year and, hopefully, I can post on a regular basis. Granny @ Annie's Kitchen Garden tells me that I need to MULTI MULTI MULTI task. I am trying but I think my "tasker" is overloaded and/or confused!

My daughter has described the weather here in Mississippi as bipolar. We have had periods of way above normal temperatures only to see it drop to setting record low HIGH temperatures a few days later. This extreme roller coaster of temperatures along with the excessive winds (with rounds of tornadoes) and rain has caused confusion and delays in my garden.I don't see a real harvest any time soon. Things are growing just not as fast as I would like. I do have blooms on some of my plants but I guess like all gardeners, I want HARVEST!

This year I have planted a variety of beans. I have planted Cherokee Trail of Tears, Christmas Beans, Soybeans, Scarlet Runner, Red Kidney Beans, and Blue Lake Snap Beans. I have Painted Lady beans that need to go in the ground soon... maybe this weekend or sooner. The bed is ready for them. It shouldn't take long to push a few beans in the ground.

Christmas Beans on trellis

(Peanuts in the front of the beans)

Red Kidney Beans on the left

Scarlet Runner Beans on right growing on trellis

Cherokee Trail of Tears on trellis

Soybeans (think edamame) in front of trellis 

Debbie

Harvest Monday 03-28-11

MY FIRST HARVEST... MY FIRST STRAWBERRY OF THE YEAR!!

I apologize for the low quality picture but my phone is the only camera I had this morning and my kiddos were eager to divide up this beauty for a small taste. It wasn't the sweetest strawberry I've ever had but it was good. I am sure they will get sweeter as the harvest continues. This berry was harvested from a plant that came up OUTSIDE of my box. I don't remember when I harvested my first strawberry last year because that was before I started keeping records and blogging but I don't think it was this early!!

To see what other gardeners are harvesting or how they are preparing for the garden season, be sure to check out MONDAY HARVEST at DAPHNE's DANDELIONS. I have learned so much from reading these blogs.

Blessings,

Debbie

What Shouts SPRING to You?

For me, Spring is all the beautiful colors. I anticipate each year spotting my first daffodil!!! I so enjoy all the beautiful flowers as well as watching everything come to life. I eagerly look forward to planting my garden and seeing the first signs of life.

My dianthus (I think I have the name right for these flowers) survived the winter and is thriving.

I am also enjoying the wisteria. This picture is from my front yard.

 Larry took this picture a short distance from our house. It is breathtaking to see an area covered with these beautiful lavender flowers and the aroma is heavenly.

And now for the beautiful color that I found in my garden this morning... My first strawberry is turning RED!!!

What shouts SPRING to you?

Blessings,

Debbie

Excitement Followed By Disappointment

I was so excited today when my seed order from Urban Farmer arrived. I ordered Red Pontiac Potatoes, Butterfly Bush Mix Seeds, and Christmas Bean Seeds.

But when I opened the package for the Christmas beans, the disappointment came...

 Yep.. just 10 seeds. I went to the website and it very clearly says 10 seeds. My mistake!!! I didn't look closely at the description. I had been looking at other seed stores on the web and for the same price and item I would receive 25-30 seeds. In trying to finish my order quickly, I should have read better. I will know for next time. Live and learn. I had purchased Christmas beans back in January on a trip to visit my mother-in-love and promptly came home and misplaced the seeds. I think they are probably hiding with the seeds that EG sent me and I can't find. (sigh)

Now... how much yield do you think I will get from 10 seeds?

Blessings,

Debbie


and, yes, for those of you who have been reading for a while and are wondering, my google ID has changed from debiclegg to Debbie in MS

Harvest Monday 03-21-11

The weather has been beautiful here!! The temps most days are reaching into the 80s and I think we are now to the point where the temperature will stay above 50 at night. We are adding 7 4x4 beds to our garden. I am so excited!!!

The mustard greens have sprouted...

And the garlic (I was very late getting these into the ground!)...

The strawberries are blooming and I even have a few strawberries. This plant sprouted outside the box!

I transplanted a fig tree that my mother-in-love rooted for me...

I love spending time in my garden. I am eagerly looking forward to spending time preparing the new beds and planting seeds this week.

Be sure to hop over to Daphne's site and see how other gardeners are celebrating the coming of spring and anticipating Monday Harvest!!

Blessings,

Debbie

Harvest Monday 02-21-2011

Hello everyone!!! I have missed all of you. I am still not completely recovered from my surgery. I have a few minor problems that are still lingering. My sweet husband had surgery for a cervical herniated disc in early January. Thankfully, he woke from the surgery PAIN FREE and only needed tylenol twice after surgery for a headache. He is doing great! I had an emergency room visit in mid-January for what we all thought was a stroke!! VERY SCARY!!! After many tests, I was diagnosed with a COMPLEX MIGRAINE that caused the stroke-like symptoms. They think it was triggered from the hormone medication that I was given after my surgery in October. Needless to say, I am off that medication and I think my body is getting back to normal.

For over a week the temp each day has been at least 70s and very sunny. ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!! I even saw my first daffodils on Friday!! It must be spring here in the south. The blue birds have even been spotted working on their nests. Saturday I spent time in my neglected garden. My youngest daughter told me that my garden looked sad. It has been so neglected since early September since I have been sick.With the help of my oldest son, we cleaned out old plants and I turned the soil in a couple of beds. I also planted some garlic and potato onions. I had hoped to get these in months ago but life did not allow that to happen. This week I hope to plant spinach, broccoli, and mustard greens. I also hope to start a few seeds inside. We always get a COLD SNAP but, hopefully, it won't be too bad.

Be sure to "hop" over to Daphne's site to check out all the other posts at Harvest Monday. I am so behind in reading everyone's posts for the last few months but I have been a little distracted. I am looking forward to Gardening in 2011.

Blessings,

Debbie