Garden Journal June 28 2015

Welcome To My Gardens

I know that I have not written here in a while.  That is due to nothing really happening in the garden right yet.  I am just letting things grow as they should.  So this morning I went out and took some pictures of all my vegetables in their garden beds to show you the progress that they have made.

The first ones that I have pictures of is my cucumbers.  It seems like they have had blooms on them for a week now but are starting to have tiny cucumbers on them.  Oh and I did see a bumble bee pollinating them on Friday evening.

I think that I finally got them in my area and I think it is because I have planted some white clover in my yard.  They now have lots of things to get their meals from and pollinate at the same time.  I am hoping that will be the same for the humming birds that I have feeding at my feeders. I also have a bit of Bee Balm growing up front too.  Last year they did not flower, but they are flowering this year.  They are pretty to look at.  Perhaps I will take some out of the wheel barrow and plant them in other places in my yard.

Next stop is the Tomatoes.  I have lots of tomatoes growing.  I have so many that I might just get enough of the first picking to make a couple of jars of marinara sauce and put up for the winter.  I have many tomatoes on my Yellow Boys, Roma's and small ones starting on my Beef Steak Tomatoes too.  Almost time to get busy again.

Friday before it rained I added some more of the Thuricide to my lettuce and spinach bed because I was all those baby orange centipedes growing and crawling around in there.  I also saw some sow bugs and both of them are dining on my lettuce and spinach plants.  I think the plants are done in that bed anyway.  I am not sure what I can plant in there now.  I tried cantaloupe seeds, but they didn't grow.  That might be due to those bugs that love to eat roots and seeds.  We shall see.

I also put the Thuricide on my Peppers and they are doing so much better now.  We had lots of rain all day yesterday and I think that helped everything too.

I have squash on my Yellow Straight Neck Squash plant!  I also have lots more flowers on it so that will produce even more.  I think that I may cut the small squash off and add it to my Ham and Rice dish.  I have my ham bone in the crock pot today and will make the rice and the vegetables later today.  That's dinner!

My Purple Green Beans are coming around nicely.  I grew these last year but I waited to long until Pi harvested them that they weren't very tasty.  I also read on the packet that they turn a bright green when you cook them.  I will be picking these for daily meals or so and might have enough to freeze for later eating. We shall see how that goes though.





Well that is about all for now.

Until next time......

All My Vegetables Today June 10 2015

My Vegetable Garden Blog For June 10, 2015

 

Frederick

I have been on the Injured Reserve List, as my husband has aptly named my condition.  I was doing a lot of copying and pasting of articles and using my wrist a whole lot and got some tendinitis there and that was preventing me from doing anything on the computer for a while.  Then my outdoor stray cat that we named Frederick decided that I was some prey and he bit me really hard and broke the skin.  Well it was not totally his fault.  I put some catnip down for him to roll in and I put my hand under his chin...viola!  I was stupid and I got what I deserved.  

It has taken a good 4 days of healing that up and last night I had to open up the scab on my thumb and drain the puss that was forming there.  So that is healing up nicely right now and I am finally getting back to my blogs and writing and such on the computer and Internet.

Here is a picture of my hand from Monday.

I am sorry that the picture is blurry but it was the best that I could do using my left hand.

While on the Injured Reserve list I was unable to weed or water anything, but it seems like things are going pretty good anyway.

Tomatoes 6 10 2015

My tomatoes have started producing small tomatoes during the last few days while I was unable to tend to them.  They are so full and all the different varieties that I have in that raised garden has tomatoes growing on them.  The Roma's are doing really well with at least three per stem.  The Yellow Tomatoes have lots of new tomatoes on them and so do the Beef Steak Tomatoes.  All are doing excellent.

Lettuce and Spinach 6 10 2015

We have been harvesting our Lettuce and Spinach for a couple of weeks now.  I even plucked some Spinach and gave it to my neighbor across the street so that the plants would not go to seed.  I love being able to go out to my gardens and harvest fresh produce that I have grown myself.  It is a plus to know exactly what kinds of bug fighting things I put on them and that they are all natural and no chemicals being used at all.  It is also great to know that my plants will not get that dreaded Salmonella.  

Peppers 6 10 2015

I find it hard to understand why my Pepper plants are not as lush and healthy looking as my Tomatoes, Lettuce and Spinach have been already.  It has been kind of cool and we have had lots of rain, but this week should get them growing better because it is supposed to be in the upper 80's and low 90's and really warm at night in the 60's.  We shall see by the time that I wrote my next post in my Gardening Blog here.

Purple Bush Beans 6 10 2015

I found these seeds from my last years garden and decided to plant them as well.  They are Purple Green Beans.  They are a bush type and I figured that I had this raised garden that my husband was using as a compost bin for now.  I made a compost bin out of an old plastic trash can and so it freed up this raised garden.  On the seed packet it is written that when you cook these purple bush beans that they turn a bright and vivid green.  So I am guessing they are still "Green" beans.  They are growing great in this raised bed and the seeds sprouted much earlier than I had expected.  Usually things take about 7 to 10 days to sprout or pop out of the ground but these babies only took 5 days.  We shall see how long it takes for them to take until they are able to be harvested.

Straight Neck Yellow Squash 6 10 2015

I found out how to keep that incessant squash bug away from my squash.  I had been trying for years to grow the yellow squash but each time I would grow it there would grow a flower on it and the next day it would be flat, like someone or something sat on it overnight.  I asked the local farm store about it and they told me what it was and how to kill it before it can even have a chance to kill my plant.  This is my squash plant today and is doing really well and looks really healthy and there are squash that are forming right on my plant this year.  I am so happy!

Zucchini 6 10 2015

The Zucchini is for my neighbor as he asked me to grow it because he can no longer do gardening of any kind.  I also like Zucchini in my soups and stews and I will freeze some of this if I get enough.  This year was just an experimental year for this and the squash.  If it turns out well enough and plentiful I will grow it again next year.

 

Cucumbers 6 10 2015

I am kind of disappointed in my Cucumbers this year as they would have been all over that trellis that I made on my deck for them to grow onto. I am not sure what is going on with them either.  First I thought that it was the lesser amount of sun that they were getting, but I moved them into a spot that got more sun.  That did not help them and I found, by observation, that they do get more sun on my deck than the other spot in the front yard with all the raised gardens.  We shall see and they are making a little bit of progress too...just not as fast as I would like them to be taking.  I remember last year that I got most of the cucumbers in August, so we shall see and this is only the beginning of June.

Until Next Time......