Last summer harvest

Even though it hasn't been a bountiful growing season,   I still harvested enough for Jennie and I, with a little left over to share with friends.

With the temperatures now consistently hitting triple digits, I have stopped watering and am just letting everything bolt and go to seed. The tomatoes plants only have a few tiny fruits on them so no big loss there.   

Today I picked 6 good sized straight eight cucumbers.   Looks like I'll be making some more pickles and maybe some to Hummus or or dip.  

I am using the last of the tomatoes to make some homemade pasta sauce. Add some fresh basil, oregano, and peppers from the garden to some goat cheese, ricotta, deli turkey and prosciutto on some whole wheat crust and grill it on the grill, you get one delicious pizza.  

I ate half of it before taking this pic because it looked so yummy... and it was.  

Hopefully before going back to work, I can get my beds ready for the fall growing season.   Going to scale back though to give the soil time to replenish its much needed nutrients.   

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Vineyard table finally done

Got the legs stained and now just need a coat of poly to protect it from the elements. 

Harvested another dozen green and semi-red tomatoes, roasted them, and made some delicious salsa. Picked a couple cucumbers as well and made some cucumber,tomato,jalapeno,garlic, and sour cream salsa.  

Now that we have officially got the Texas heat here, the garden isn't looking so well anymore.  Not much growing still so I think I'm not going to waste anymore water on it and think I'll will just start getting things ready for the fall garden.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Halfway through summer

I had the amazing opportunity to spend 16 days of June in Ireland with my wife and her family.

 While there we visited my FIL's 5th cousin and their farm.  His wife had a huge greenhouse that she said was her "little project". I was a bit jealous of the magnitude of it. I'm in the orange checking out the gooseberry plants.

  

Meanwhile back in the states I was fortunate enough to have rain on many of the days that we were gone. I had picked about 10 huge green tomatoes and left them on a plate for them to ripen. Our house and dog sitter ate the tomatoes and said they were delicious.  My neighbor looked after my garden and picked two zucchini squash to enjoy for his family.  When I gat back the tomato plants had lost most of there leaves, cucumber vines had grown to the top of my 10ft trellis, and the mystery tree (maple) had grown to about 5ft tall.  

So as of the first of July,  I have harvested a ton of jalapeños, about 3 bowls of various tomatoes (@ 10lbs), 5 zucchini, 3 straight eight cucumbers, and about a dozen bell and sweet peppers.  Not a bad season so far.  Thanks to the aboundance of rain this season, I have used very little city water.  I also think though that the rain drowned out most of my plants too.  

This year's homestead project has been my grapevine pergola.  It has taken me a few weeks to work on.  I just have a few little things left but it's pretty much done.  

I built a table and used some scape wood found on the curb to build three benches.  It's been a fun project.  

Lately I have been into growing fruit trees.  Here is a sapling of a mango tree I started from a grocery store mango. 

One of my three Bradford pear trees is producing fruit. 

If you haven't started your own garden it's not to late.  Get those beds ready for a fall garden or even plant a tomato plant in a bucket. With our summer heat usually lasting until almost October, you still have time for a late summer harvest.  Either way, as I always like to say..... Happy gardening and Get Dirty!