Ripening

It's hard to believe that Labor Day is almost here, signaling that summer is coming to an end. I have some bitterness toward this since like most summers, I feel like it was just so short! This year, however, I believe there is some truth to it. Our winter lasted longer than usual, flowers came up late, and grass didn't need to be cut. I did get my garden in around the same time I did last year...right before Memorial Day. Last year, I had tomatoes like you wouldn't believe. So this year I scaled back by one plant, and grew from seed all one type of tomato. I grew them inside and transplanted them at a healthy size. I read that this tomato that I picked (can't recall the kind) was excellent for canning. They all would come in around the same time so that canning could all be done in large amounts rather than a little here little there. Since this is my first attempt at canning, I am looking forward to it!

I really should start keeping a garden diary, because I am pretty sure that by end of August I had tons of tomatoes last year. This year....none. They are there on the vine, and they look great, just one problem - they are all green! Just this week did we notice a few tinting to red. Maybe this is my motivational push to diary the garden! As we continue to try new vegetables, new types, and different styles of gardening, I'd better get my act together.

I am happy to report that the zucchini are done for the year and provided us with much good eatin' for winter. The Green Beans are still pushing some new ones out, but their flavor is becoming less desirable. I think it was just too hot for them the last few weeks. I'm surprised they even hung on this long! The broccoli is faithfully regenerating itself and giving us a little more now and again.

I'm not sure if I will do broccoli again next year. Seems like they take a lot of space for not a lot given back. We will easily eat through the broccoli I've been able to freeze. Maybe next year I will do eggplant or another type of squash in its place.

The good news about summer coming to an end is that my favorite season, fall, is on it's way!! That means time to harvest apples (going to try some dehydrating this year) and that yummy acorn squash will be in the stores soon. It also means soon I will be counting down to our annual anniversary trip!

I'm hoping that in the next week these stubborn tomotes will ripen up. I'm looking forward to the canning and recipes I've found. More updates on that when I start! -L

Hot....humid....and PLENTIFUL!

For someone who lives in Wisconsin, you think I would enjoy the hot humid weather we have been getting these past 3 weeks. Beats the cold of winter, right? Well, give me warm, but that's about all I'd have if it's my choice! 72 degrees, sunny, white puffy clouds in the sky, a slight breeze from the west, and no humidity please. Well, that's not exactly what we've been granted with here. Instead, 85-90 and HUMID! The good thing out of this, the garden is ripening up something real good!

Today after arriving home from work, we went out to water (we've officially almost tapped our rain barrels dry after 2 weeks without rain). In the process of watering, I noticed how plentiful the garden looked. To my surprise we had a few more zucchini's. I'm not exactly sure how well the zucchini will continue to grow. I'll be honest, I tried too many zucchini in a small raised bed and they are kinda choking each other out. Well, lesson learned.

Then I moved along to the broccoli. 4 out of 7 generous heads have started. In a few days, they'll be ready for harvest and will keep regenerating. The tomatoes are also coming along. Lots of green, nothing ripened to red yet.

Next, I got to the green beans. Now, our garden takes up a very small area of our yard. We had to keep the garden close to the house for watering purposes, so we have 4 raised beds that are about 15 sq. feet of planting area each (3x5 beds) and another that's about 3x6 (18 sq. feet). The beans are planted in rows in a 15 sq. feet bed. All of the planting I choose this year is based on it's ability to be preserved, in effort to help feed ourselves over winter. I planted tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, strawberries, zucchini & a sugar snap pea bean pole (these snap peas go straight to our stomach & never make it out of the garden).

Anyhow, I digress - back to the green beans. So I could see there are plenty of green beans to be picked. I grabbed an ice cream pail to put the green beans in. I decided I would count the green beans, you know, just a challenge to see how many green beans I would find! Well, 2 ice cream pails later and drumroll please.......371 green beans! Wow, from my tiny 15 square foot bed. I probably pulled out about this many between the last two times I picked too. Talk about return on investment, I'm sure that pack of seeds cost a mere $1.29.

I'm in green bean heaven! -L

How does your garden grow?

Well, I guess it's mid-summer already! I can't believe it, but our garden is proof! It officially looks "overgrown", and is producing very well! The green beans are coming along well! We've frenched, blanched, and frozen about 8 servings so far, with many many more to come! We also have 3 large zucchini that we will be cutting tonight and using a borrowed dehydrator to dehydrate them with. I read that if you dehydrate them and freeze them, they can then be eaten as "chips" (not sure I will really like that so much) or better yet, when you cook with them, they will absorb the liquid and regain original form (but cooked). I can think of many many yummy things to add zucchini to in winter: stews, slow cooked meals, soups, and baking with (zucchini bread and more!). Yum! We will also cut some of our zucchini to blanch and freeze. I read that you can also shred the zucchini and blanch and freeze it. This would be ideal for baking...since you need to shred it anyhow! Here are some pictures of what we've taken out of the garden.

    

Unfortunately we have some sort of grub thing eating the leaves of our broccoli. I heard that using soap, oil and water will get the pests off. Since we do not use any sort of chemical on our garden, I'm going to try our ecosafe dish soap mixed with water and oil and spray it on the leaves. Thankfully the grub hasn't eaten the broccoli itself, but I'm afraid it will go to that next. Yuk! I just hope it's not too late.  -L

The Gardens

I want just to take a moment to share our flower and vegetable gardens with you!  Both the flowers, fruits, and vegetables are coming along nicely. Enjoy these pictures - I also plan to highlight pictures on the left side bar through the summer. Enjoy!