Harvest Monday 08/16/10

With school starting for us next Monday, I realize that I still have many summer projects that need my attention. This week we painted our schoolroom. All the kids helped and we felt good about our job. Now we are busy organizing for the new year. As soon as we are done, I will post a picture but here are a few pictures of the work-in-progress.

Here are a few harvest pictures from the week.

My totals for the week: (in oz)
Okra            62 oz
Tomatoes    30.25 oz
Bell Peppers 1.75 oz
Cantaloupe   67.25 oz
Weekly Total 161.25 oz = 10.08 lbs

YTD Totals: (in lbs)
Okra 8.5 lbs
Tomatoes 8.7 lbs
Bell Peppers 2.8 lbs
Cantaloupes 8.2 lbs
Garlic 2.1 lbs
Onions 0.25 lbs
Squash 0.19 lbs
Total  30.74 lbs

As of today I have harvested 200 pods of okra this year and 328 cherry tomatoes. I am totally WOWed by this number. I am so glad I decided to keep an account of my harvest this year. It has been fun to watch the numbers grow.

Now if you want to see an amazing harvest of tomatoes. Check out Daphne's kitchen counter at her HARVEST MONDAY blog. While you're there, check out all the amazing harvests across the country.

Blessings,

Debbie

Harvest Monday 8/2/2010 My First Cantaloupe

I missed Harvest Monday last week because we were out of town for our annual Vacation/Family Reunion. A week of celebrating family with lots of delicious food and laughter mixed with joy of life moving at a slower pace. This was our 24th year to spend time at Clarkco State Park in Quitman, MS. The Beckman family filled 6 of the cabins at this park.

The excitement for me this week was the harvest of my first cantaloupe ever! And it was grown on a trellis!!

You can see the cantaloupe growing in the top right corner of the picture below.

I also weighed my garlic and potato onions this week since they are dry.

My harvest total this week

Okra 7.5 oz
Tomatoes 11.5 oz
Bell Peppers 14 oz
Cantaloupe 36 oz
Garlic 34.25 oz
Onions 4 oz
Total this week 108.25 oz

While I was gone, my daughter ASHLEY was happy to pick these from my garden.

Make sure you head over to Daphne's to enjoy other Harvest Monday posts.

Blessings,


Debbie


P.S. Thanks, Erin, thanks for following my blog.

Do Frogs Eat Aphids

I found another frog sitting on an okra leaf as if he had found a giant lily pad. I searched the net and can you believe that some people grow aphids to feed to frogs!! I sure hope that all the frogs that I am seeing in the garden will keep the aphids out!!!

The cantaloupe has reached the top of the trellis. I find myself looking at it and thinking... REACH FOR THE SKY!!

Check out the Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage and Oh, How My Garden Grows!

Blessings,

Debbie

     

I LOVE SURPRISES!

 I love surprises!! Well... good surprises!!! I have been away from my computer for a few days and I was sad to miss Monday Harvest,  Oh, How My Garden Grows, and the Tuesday Garden Party. We were out of town for Independence Day and then I needed to make an unplanned trip out of town and left Monday afternoon and returned Wednesday afternoon. Needless to say, I was eager to get to my garden. A very special lady (my precious mother-in-love) arrived at the house for a visit about the same time I arrived home yesterday. Since she loves plants as much as I do and since we both needed to stretch our legs after driving, we eagerly headed out to the garden. I was excited to harvest 29 cherry tomatoes from the Energizer Bunny bush. I also harvested 5 okra pods. But my biggest delight was my find while showing my MIL the cantaloupe growing on the trellis. I showed her the one that I have eagerly been watching and blogging about. I told her that I was surprised to have only 1 "big" melon growing but I was glad to have smaller ones growing, too. As I was moving the leaves around to show her the trellis, I FOUND THIS SURPRISE . . .

And, yes, I shook my head and blinked my eyes a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things! This guy is bigger than the other one. It is about the size of a softball or grapefruit. Yippee!!! I don't know HOW I missed this one. (It is located on the back side of the trellis on the fence side.) I will definitely be in the store today to get the pantyhose to sling the two cantaloupes. Thanks, EG, for your education on slinging melons on a trellis.


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!

It's Raining!!!

It's raining! Not just a quick heavy downpour that only lasts a few minutes but a nice soaking rain!! I think I hear my garden giving a sigh of relief. Wait! What's that I see? It's the leaves doing the HAPPY DANCE!!! Or maybe it is me doing the HAPPY DANCE because I don't have to go and water my garden this evening!! (smile)

Things continue to grow. I am so excited about this little guy. When I asked my youngest if she wanted to see the cantaloupe this morning, she asked, "Did it grow overnight?" Hmmm.... Was she excited or sarcastic? Doesn't matter... she smiled, grabbed my hand, and strolled with me to the garden. I love my kids!!!

Yesterday I rooted several suckers from my cherry tomato plant. I love these little tomatoes and I am amazed at all the tomatoes on this one plant. I wish I knew how to save the seeds (if possible) for next year. I also transplanted 3 green bell pepper plants and 1 eggplant that I bought at Lowes. I was also surpised to see that the cucumber, crooked neck squash, and the white scalloped squash seeds that I planted 4 days ago were already peaking up at me from their underground nest. WOW! That was so fast!!

Today I planted 12 squares of bush beans. I hope that the heat will not be too much for them. We shall see. If they do, super. If they don't, nothing lost really. I can replant again for fall.

Over the weekend, I planted these flowers! They seemed perfect to celebrate Independence Day!

This post is linked to the An Oregon Cottage's TUESDAY GARDEN PARTY

and Oh, How My Garden Grows.

Blessings,

Debbie

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

Bees, Blossoms, and Babies!

The days continue to be very hot and dry! My husband put on his facebook status last night that he tried to water the yard but the water kept evaporating before it hit the ground!! Really, I did water the yard yesterday but the ground was so dry that you couldn't tell what area the sprinkler had covered. Needless to say, it has been tough on my garden.

I wanted to share the exciting news of bees, blossoms, and babies!! This little guy has been doing his job!

And I now have these!!!

My cantaloupe vines are full of baby cantaloupe. My family is tired of me dragging them out to the garden to celebrate the big event!! But... I knew that all of you would want to celebrate the occasion with me!! To enjoy more wonderful garden events, check out An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party!

Have a blessed day!



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