A little produce every few days

So this year the produce is ready every few days which is better than last year which nothing grew and previous years I had to much at one time.  So I pick about a handful of tomatoes and jalapeño peppers about three times a week.  Mosquitos are bad this year as they are thriving in the thick vegetation.  I can officially say now that the local nursery mislabeled their seedlings because instead of six cucumber plants I have cantaloupe vines growing everywhere.  Cantaloupes take longer to grow than cucumbers and less produce. Picked my first one a few days ago and letting it ripen a little more before cutting it open.

I planted some radish, watermelon, and cucumber seeds a two weeks ago and the shoots have already started.  Some wild basil is finally making an appearance too.   I cleaned out what was left of the lettuce stalks as it was all going to seed and I needed to clear the space for fall garden planting soon.  

With the tomatoes we have really enjoyed fresh salsa.  I used half of my jalapeños to make two jars of jalapeño jam.  I didn't go through all the preserving process as I am sure it will be gone within two to three  weeks (life expectancy for non preserving jams). 

 I didn't use any food coloring so it lacks the beautiful green color you might expect to see it in.  This is all naturalelle. 

Until next time.... Get dirty and keep gardening. 

It's finally starting to feel like summer.

So we finally are having consecutive days of temperatures in the 90's.  Cherry tomatoes and Bibb lettuce are still being gracious and supplying me with a harvest.  My Roma tomatoes are beginning to fruit and I expect to have some ready to eat in about two weeks. The other day as I was checking my plants I came upon this melon.  I didn't plant any melons and actually bought and planted cucumbers, but it looks like they were mislabeled. To get them off the ground I tied up a rope and wrapped the vines around them.  I also had to put up an a-frame that I was going to trash as a support wall for my Roma tomato plants to get them off the ground as well but to also open up my walk path between my beds. 

The old ash tree into back yard is still growing and providing shade to about 75% of my backyard.  This after two years ago a licensed arborist informed me that it was dying and wouldn't last much longer.

Today I also cleaned out some beds of dried cilantro, withered lettuce, and some weeds to get the beds ready for some July sowing.  Seeds to plant this month are cucumber, tomatillo, radishes, carrots, and sweet corn.  I was planning on sowing some sugar baby watermelons but I think I have enough melons already growing and don't think I have the space. 

Until next time,

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. 

Fried green tomatoes and jalapeño cheese poppers

It's a frying day at the homestead. Had over a dozen jalapeños from the garden. Filled half with string cheese and the other half with cream cheese. Cream cheese was the winner.  Wrapped the peppers in wanton wrappers to keep everything in.  Used leftover oil to fry up the tomatoes. Thanks to a recent episode of America's Test Kitchen, I saved a step and learned to combine the egg and flour together before dipping them in the cornmeal.  Absolutely yummy!

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Green variety tomato

So this year like all other years, I experiment with new tomatoes.  This year I found one that stays green, which helps keep the birds and squirrels from eating them. My mistake was that I planted all of them and then forgot which tomato plant was which. This tomato has been growing for some time now and it never hinted at turning red, so I decided to go ahead a pick it today. If anything, I can make some fried green tomatoes.

 It's a little bigger than a baseball.  The grape tomatoes are doing well.  I harvest about 7-10 every other day.  Roasted them and made some fresh salsa with the jalapeños from the garden.  Just wish I had some cilantro. In between two growing cycles. First batch has gone to seed,

second batch was too small

and used up within a week, and the third batch is just starting to sprout.

We love cilantro in this house!!

Reuseing the bucket system with a modification to help keep the mosquito population down. 

Bottom bucket is the reservoir from which the top bucket feeds from.   Things doing well in buckets are spearmint, marigolds, cilantro, basil. Here is a combo bucket containing a tomato plant, cucumber plant, and some marigolds.

Get dirty and keep on gardening!