Harvest Monday 07-09-12

It was a great week in the garden. I think this has been my largest harvest ever! This with extremely dry conditions. Yesterday and today we have received a good rain and my garden looks so happy.

I didn't get pictures of everything but here are some...

The Juliet Tomatoes are happy even with the heat and dry conditions.

The Juliets above were harvested in one day.

Lots of tomatoes make my boys and their mom happy!

I was down one day and my sweet husband harvest this for me.

The heat is causing me problems with the peppers.

I can't figure out how to rotate this picture of my Louisiana Purple Beans (which I had to shell because they stayed too long on the vine) and my Florida Speckled Butter Beans.

This was my first year to grow yellow onions. I am pleased. 

They are drying in the garage and will be weighed later.

Harvest Week of 7-3-12 to 7-9-12

Okra 51.9 oz

Tomatoes 162.9 oz

Bell Peppers 17.8

Zucchini 16.2 oz

Beans 15 oz.

TOTAL 263.8 oz = 16.49 lbs

YTD Harvest 44.82 lbs

Check out what others are harvesting in their gardens at Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.

Debbie

A Day Late and A Dollar Short

Well... that is an expression that I heard my grandfather say more than once. I am a day late for Harvest Monday but I didn't want to miss another week of sharing with my Garden Blog Friends. Also, it has been a while since I linked to Tuesday Garden Party.

I spent most of Monday at the doctor's office. I am now on limited activity until surgery sometime later this month. Surgery will keep me down for a few more weeks. This means NO gardening for me and I will need to depend on my family to keep an eye on things. I still have tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, green beans, and peppers growing in the garden. Eventually I will need to remove plants that are no longer producing and I MUST get my garlic and a few other things planted in the garden. I may have to pass on a few things that I had planned for my fall/winter garden this year.

This is my harvest from Wednesday. It seems like it took FOREVER for these peppers to turn a GOLDEN color.

We have had 109 days of 90+ degrees weather. Long HOT summer!! And we have had less than a half inch of rain for the last month! So HOT and DRY!! But finally that came to an end yesterday. The high was in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 50s. NICE! Still no rain and none in the near future. I think the Energizer Bunny tomato plant is enjoying the cooler weather. It has its second wind. My youngest son picked 66 cherry tomatoes yesterday. They were so pretty!! He told me there were a few that he couldn't reach. He was very proud of his harvest!! He even shared a few with me.

Harvest totals for the week:
Okra 101.85 oz
Cherry Tomatoes 12.2 oz
Bell Peppers 6.9 oz
Cucumbers 15.7 oz
Green Beans 4.1 oz
TOTAL 140.75 oz = 8.8 lbs

Blessings,

Debbie

Long Time No Post

I can't believe it has been over a month since my last post. I am still busy with my garden but with the start of school my days are full to overflowing.

I continue to harvest okra, bell peppers, and tomatoes from my garden. I have also harvested my first cucumbers since my last post. It is a race with the pickle worms to see who gets them first! The "Energizer Bunny" cherry tomato plant has given me 540 tomatoes to date. I have no idea if this is a normal but I am delighted with the crop from this plant. It is still loaded with green tomatoes and I expect to get many more before the weather gets too cool for tomatoes here in the South. I hope to harvest my first GOLDEN bell peppers this week. It seems like it has taken FOREVER for these plants to turn yellow. I am also getting a few green beans from my 3rd planting.

My harvest to date:
Okra         24.22 lb.
Tomatoes   16.07 lb
Bell Peppers 5.67 lb
Garlic           2.14 lb
Onion           0.25 lb
Cantaloupe  11.4  lb
Squash          0.19 lb
Cucumbers    1.64 lb
Green Beans  2.2  lb
YTD Totals   63.78 lb.

I have missed visiting everyone at Daphne's Monday Harvest. Hopefully, I will not have to miss another week with the friends I have met through a shared loved of gardening.

Blessings,

Debbie

Harvest Monday 07/19/10 Ups and Downs

Each week I enjoy checking out the Monday Harvest on Daphne's blog. So hop on over and check out what others are harvesting in their garden.

This past week I drove many miles making two round trips to Nashville and one to Mobile. This week I hope to spend very little time in the car.

My harvest totals this week was 38 oz.

Okra                  7.5  oz        Count 11                    

Tomatoes       19.75 oz       Count 32 Cherry, 3 Early Girl, 5 Roma

Bell Peppers   10.75 oz       Count 3 Big Bertha, 1 Red

Blog will be short today. I need to take my new laptop to see the Geek Squad. Problems with blue screen of death and the video adapter. (sigh)

My UP... I have been watching this red pepper anticipating picking my first ever RED bell pepper.

My DOWN... when I picked it and turned it around to inspect it, I found this unpleasant surprise...

Such sadness... but I have others that are starting to turn red and, hopefully, they will be without blemish.

Blessings,

Debbie

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas... well... sort of...


Look my green peppers are starting to turn red! Yippee!!

Busy day but wanted to share my excitement!!


Blessings,


Debbie

What's Going On?

I know I am overwhelming some of you. Three posts in one day!! But there seems to be so much going on in the garden. If you have been reading my blog, you know that we received lots of rain Tuesday and Wednesday. Well as I strolled through the garden this morning, I found some amusing as well as disturbing discoveries in my garden. I am hoping that someone can help me solve a mystery or two!!

First I know we have received lots of rain especially after a long dry spell but this little guy has confused my okra with a lilly pad. (smile) He's so cute!!

Next stop, these guys grew overnight under my cantaloupe.

Found another worm today. I was really bummed. Two more tomatoes are now gone...................... (big sigh!)

Now.... What is going on with my pepper plants and this tomato plants? Yesterday these plants looked great! Today the leaves are all droopy. I know it isn't the heat because right now it is very pleasant outside. Nothing like the upper 90s we had last week. Does anyone have wisdom for me? Words of encouragement? Trying not to panic.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Friday!

Blessings,

Debbie

Little Pleasures

I love to slow down in my garden and enjoy the little pleasures. This is some of my cantaloupe vines. It looks like they are holding hands and trying to stretch to reach out and connect hands with another!!

One of the cantaloupes growing on the trellis.

Can you imagine how long this Big Bertha bell pepper

would be if it had grown straight?

I love the okra flowers.

Here are some of the marigolds in my garden.

Debbie

This blog is linked to Fertilizer Friday/Flaunt Your Flowers hosted each Friday by Tootsie!

HARVEST MONDAY June 28, 2010

It continues to be very hot here and we have had a couple of short showers from scattered thunderstorms that explode here in the afternoons.  This is typical weather for us and I always hope those random showers will fall on my garden. The showers are nice but not enough to satisfy the water needs in my garden.

My okra is just starting to produce. I only pick about 2 pods every other day but I know once all the plants start producing I will have an abundance and will be able to share with friends. Right now all the pods are cleaned, cut, and put in the freezer with anticipation of our first pot of GUMBO!!

This week I harvested:

Okra 7 pods (7 oz)
Bell Peppers 2 (3.5 oz)
Early Girl Tomatoes 1 (2 oz)
Cherry Tomatoes 6 (1.25 oz)

TOTAL 13.75 oz.

The bell peppers were harvested a little early but I was cooking philly cheese steak sandwiches and couldn't wait any longer and pulled the bell peppers to use for our supper. They tasted so good but now I will be patient to give the remainder of my peppers time to mature.

Yesterday we were sitting at the dinner table visiting with a friend when my husband, Larry, noticed a bird that he thought was injured. I watch for a few seconds and commented that I thought the bird was pretending to be hurt to draw attention and wondered if there was a snake out back. We continued to watch the bird and after a short time, the bird began to fuss and fly at a certain area of the wisteria vine on the back fence. Being the BRAVE soul that I am when it comes to snakes, I went for my camera with the big zoom lens. Well, guess what I found... a COPPERHEAD!!

This was one time that I did not want to be right... The picture quality is not that great because (1) I was shaking knowing the copperhead was in my backyard and it made me a LITTLE nervous and (2) I was not about to get closer. Because of where the snake was located we couldn't kill it and after my husband threw something at it, it left. This area is about 30 feet from my garden. Needless to say, I was constantly looking around while working in my garden this morning.

After all the excitement from the snake, we were blessed with this neat view in the sky. My picture doesn't do it justice but maybe it will give you a little glimpse of the beauty.

Blessings,

Debbie



This blog is linked to HARVEST MONDAY.

Ants

ANTS IN MY PANTS GARDEN!


I headed out to the garden this yesterday morning to take advantage of a slight breeze and cooler temps after we had a good soaking thunderstorm yesterday afternoon day before yesterday. I planted a few seeds with my favorite tool for planting seeds... MY PENCIL! I have marks on the end in half-inch increments.

And since I am showing you my favorite garden tools, here are my other favorites. In fact, these are the only other tools that I need and, yes, the stool is there for me on the days when my back is giving me trouble. Having a square foot garden is so much easier than the tools I used when I was growing up and spent many hours in the garden with my grandfather. I can remember walking behind the tiller and hours upon hours spent with the hoe preparing rows for planting and then fighting the weeds!! I firmly believe that my grandfather would have loved a square foot garden!! Keeping the weeds under control is so much easier because I have so few of them.

Here are a few pictures that I took this morning. The peppers look great and, thankfully, no more brown spots.

This tomato bush is bringing much delight to my 10 year old son. Most of these tasty treats do not even make them inside. I wish I knew exactly what variety this is because I definately want more next year.

This is one of the Early Girl tomatoes.

And the cantaloupe continue to grow... It is fun training the vines to grow up the trellis. The bees are also enjoying the flowers on the vines. How long does it take the cantaloupes to mature for harvest from this point?

After I had planted the seeds, I proceeded to the square where I had pulled the bush green beans. With my handy garden tool (hand cultivator), I wanted to turn over the soil in that bed where I had sprinkled some fertilizer a few days earlier. Well, to my horror a large bed of fire ants had moved into a couple of side sqaures. Before I knew it, they were ALL over me!! Boy, do they hurt!!! This set me off on a journey, what can I do to get rid of these pests without hurting my plants????

I found this website that 10 Tips For Organic Ant Control.

1. Baking soda is poisonous to ants, spinkle it around your plants to ensure ants will stay away.


2. Flour & Baby Powder will keep ants from reaching your plants, ants will not cross the powder – so circle your plants with it.


3. You can use coffee grounds, chili powder, cinnamon, peppermint or black pepper. All deter ants and if you pour coffee grounds directly on an anthill, they will eat the coffee grounds and implode.


4. Grits, instant rice & cream of wheat can be sprinkled around plants. The ant will eat a piece of whichever you sprinkle, drink water and the grain expands and kills the ant.


5. Fill a spray bottle with 1 part vinegar and 1 part water and spray on plants. The acid in vinegar will kills ants.


6. Mix together one-third cup of molasses, six tablespoons of sugar, and six tablespoons of active dry yeast into a smooth paste. Use the mixture to coat strips of cardboard. Keep out of reach of pets and small children. You can leave mixture on a saucer outside anthill and they’ll eat it and die!


7. Fold contact paper in half, with the sticky side out and make a circle around base of plant. The ants get stuck on the paper – problem solved.


8. Cut off the bottom of a paper cup and cut a slit up the side of the cup and coat outside with vaseline and place around base of plant. You can also use packing tape.


9. Mix one cup of borax, two-thirds a cup sugar and one cup water. Dip cotton balls in the solution and place in areas near your anthill Ants will leave the plants alone and ingest the sweet mixture. The borax kills the ants.


10. Diatomaceous Earth is a commonly sold organic pesticide that will destroy the insects outer skeletons, causing the pests to die from dehydration.


Read our update to this post – where we tried some of the methods: Organic Ant Control Update

So... what do you use to control the ants in your garden?
 
Debbie

A Tour through My Garden

I wanted to share what is happening in my garden. It has been so hot for the last few days with temps in the upper 90s and the heat index pushing 100+. Thankfully, my garden did receive a small shower yesterday. It looked so "refreshed" after the rain.

I am trying several new adventures in my square foot garden. Below is a picture of my cantaloupes. I am attempting to grow them on a trellis. I will create a NEST for the cantaloupe either out of netting or by using pantyhose for a sling. It is taking some work to train the vine to grow up the trellis but so far I am pleased.

I am learning so much as I watch my garden grow. I have had male blossoms on my cantaloupe vines for a couple of weeks but finally I found a couple of female blossoms today. Now I am hoping that the bee that I see every morning in my garden did his job and pollinated the female blossoms. I am sure this is more than most of you wanted to know. (smile)

I also have okra, strawberries, tomatoes, green beans (bush and pole), zucchini, corn, and bell peppers growing in my garden.

I also have a new friend in my garden. I have been losing my tomatoes to birds. This does not make me happy!! So far Adam (named by my children for the singer in Owl City) seems to be doing his job!!

Thanks for touring my garden with me today.

Check out other gardens on Tuesday Garden Party. I hope I did this link right!

Tuesday Garden Party

What do you have in your garden? Please share with me by leaving a comment.

Debbie