A bunch of sweet and jalapeño peppers

Sweet peppers are looking good.  Thinking about making some chili rellenos with them.  Most of the seeds I planted a few weeks ago have sprouted.  The tomato transplants however did not take as I had hoped. Got some good rain this weekend that helped out a lot.  City water is ok but old fashion rain is the best.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Most useful garden/kitchen tool for this year's growing season

A cheap salad spinner. This handy tool is being used at least once a week to wash and spin my lettuce from the garden.  

A couple of changes for this years Summer garden are: 

Not worrying about companion planting. Using soaker hoses with a timer that waters every morning, early in the morning, 3 AM for 30 minutes for deep soaking and not mulching like last year.

So far this growing season is doing a lot better than last year.

So well in fact that I still have a lot of. Jalapeño peppers still in fridge to use.  

The first of many cucumbers has started to grow.  These are going to be some pretty big cucumbers. 

Here's a view of more cucumber vines, Bibb lettuce, and buckets of herbs (basil, mint, and cilantro). 

The grape vines actually started out great in May but are now beginning to turn their leaves yellow. Not sure what the cause is so will have to do a little research to find out.  On the left side is a tomato cage containing about four cucumber vines.  I have never had vines so long before, so I am looping them up in the cage to try to keep them off the ground away from slugs and other hungry critters.  This past weekend there was a squirrel convention in my backyard. I counted around 10 squirrels in and around my garden.  As son as I would chase some in one direction. Others would flank the garden from the other side.  Cassie was even trying to help me but there were to many for us.  Some of them even started charging us. These squirrels are getting pretty dangerous. I might have to break down and get an airsoft gun to protect my property and my life.  

Get dirty and keep on gardening. 

Guess what's for lunch?

Another yummy salad thanks to the garden.  I had a salad for lunch and dinner yesterday, so I have to start getting creative to change it up. Yesterday I found one little apple in the fridge to add to it along with some grape tomatoes from the garden and today it's red grapes and sun- dried tomatoes. Toss in some feta, sunflower seeds, and a hard boiled egg from my neighbor's backyard chickens and I got a new salad.

Got lots of lettuce still in the garden so I am glad I love salads.  I also have harvested quite a few jalapeño peppers so it looks like some bacon wrapped poppers will be on the menu for this week or next. 

As of today, I have already done better than last summer's garden.  As long as we keep having this nice weather, things will continue to do well. 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

I think my garden has officially made its value just in tomatoes so far

This morning I found some more ripe tomatoes ready to be picked.  Thanks to Jennie's yarn scale, I am able to get a correct weight on my tomato yield.  Today they weighed in just a hair over 2 lbs.  I think its about time I start swapping produce with my neighbors, because I can't eat this many tomatoes.  Went to HEB this morning for the weekly grocery shopping and was able  to plan a whole weeks of meals using mostly produce from my garden.  Only spent $76 for this week, that of course includes store bought produce that is organic.   My wife and I try to eat mainly organic or local.  My garden is grown organically, as well as I can.  No one can be 100% organic if growing outside.

Found another zucchini this morning about 7" long.  I am going to wait a few days before picking it, simply because I already have 2 sitting in the fridge.  Thinking about making some yummy zucchini bread with it and one of the meals for the week will be grilled zucchini pizzas.

Finally have a few Aladdin sweet and bell peppers that are getting to a good size.  The larger ones should be ready in about a week.

Pest problems:  Loopers (larva of moths) or some cutworms are devouring my kale leaves and aphids are starting to eat my tomatoes.

Possible solution: I might try to mix me up some Garrett Juice to help with the pests.  J. Howard Garrett has written several gardening books.  Some of my favorite are:

Garden Tip:  don't get tomato pollen in your eyes... it stings!!  It's the one drawback of clumping my tomato plants this year.  I was reaching deep in the depths of the clump and a leaf rubbed my eye.  From now on its safety glasses for sure.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

First fruits of summer 2012

Summer Garden: day 67


Thanks to the extended cool weather, I have been able to enjoy the garden with little watering and some of its first fruits of the growing season.  So far the cucumbers are winning... with eight fruits already harvested for eating.  The zucchini plants have already produced 2 good sized fruits, both about 11" long. What I have been waiting for are the tomatoes.   There are dozens of really big green ones just waiting to turn red.  I picked 2 medium sized a little early, because a third one had already been attacked by a bug.  Jennie put the two in the window and they continued to turn redder.  This morning, I went out to cut the second zucchini and saw a small cherry tomato ready to be picked.

Produce total as of today:
Cucumber: 8
Tomato:  3
Zucchini:  2



The tomato plants have now become a 5ft high dense jungle that has outgrown my homemade tomato cage/grid.  The good thing though is that all the branches are holding on to each other for support (survived a severe thunderstorm with some pretty strong winds about a month ago), plus the dense foliage is hiding the redness of the ripe tomatoes from the pesky birds in my backyard.  I think the squirrels though are a bit smarter and will eventually find them.

5ft tomato plants

                                                    

Brandywine 

Large Cherry tomatoes

another Brandywine

The pear tree has some small fruits on them, but probably won't make it to a worthy size of being eaten.                   

Being that last year was the season of cilantro  (it was everywhere and wouldn't die), well I think it finally decided to call it quit and is flowering everyday.   This season though I have a new friend that has secretly made its way to my garden beds... basil.  I have found shoots spring up in the potato bed, some around the beans, and some below my kale tree.  Yeah the kale plant is about 5 ft tall with leaves as big as my hand.   Jennie and I are doing our best to manage its growth but there is only so much that one can eat of kale chips.

  

 The Aladdin sweet peppers are starting to grow, along with an unknown melon (most likely a cantaloupe.)



The front herb garden is continuing to do well now that its established, thanks to the two weeks of off and on rain we had a few weeks back.  I make smoothies every morning before work and decided to add some chocolate mint and regular mint to the mix....it definitely gives it that real fresh flavor.

 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!