A Little Pickin'

This morning's walk through the garden gave me a couple handfuls of produce. It's always awkward when there is just one okra pod to pick. Seriously, what do I do with one pod? The okra have been slow getting starting, but a time will come soon where I have a nice pile to chop, batter and freeze for frying later. I am still eating down last years harvest!

The potato plants were all yellowed and the new leaves were yellowing right away, so I went ahead and pulled them out. This last batch had slightly larger potatoes than the last. I haven't checked to see if the sweet potatoes in the front yard are doing anything, but the neighborhood deer laid into them pretty heavily so I'm giving them time to recover.

Delicious carrots! I don't even peel them before I eat them.

Last of the potatoes

Morning harvest: 2 cucumbers, 2 eggplants, 1 squash, 1 zucchini, 1 okra

Oh please hurry and ripen so I can pick you!

Video of the Man-child and Itsy Bitsy

Writing Spider

After a long dry spell in Raleigh, we have finally had several days of good rain. I'm nervous that the tomatoes will start splitting open, but hopefully I kept them well watered before the rains. Many of the tomato varieties have started to set fruit. The "Red Kiss" set fruit fairly early, and now I'm waiting on four luscious tomatoes to ripen. The heat seems to have slowed down fruit setting, but with rain they should get back to producing again.

This morning on our garden walk, I found a writing spider on the yellow tomato bush. She must have known that the yellow bush would be safe since there are absolutely no tomatoes on it yet. I had one in my garden two summers ago that I tried to chase away, but I've decided this one will stay and be a friend.

The bush is back behind a patch of peppers and onions, so I picked up the Man-child and placed him right in front of her. He bent down really close to try and have a conversation with her, "What are you doing spider? Can she hear me?" He was disappointed that she didn't talk back. We've decided to call her Itsy Bitsy.

I recently purchased a small $3 rain gage, and here is the reason I must check the gage before the Baby takes his morning walk:

Evening Garden Walk

Purple basil amongst onions

Sure sign the squash borers weren't all extracted

Bean, squash and gourd tunnel

Corn!

Checking out the really big squash

Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato

Matt's Wild Cherry is the tiniest tomato I have ever grown, and yet it is one of the most vigorous plants. I have two of these indeterminate bushes, and they are sprawling into other plants' territory. It is a great tasting tomato that I don't even bother rinsing before popping in my mouth - the joy of not using pesticides! Today I need to go tie the branches up to the fence and start training them upwards, but I must wait for the sun to come and burn the mosquitoes out of the garden.

Purple

While I don't use any purple in the house to decorate (which I might just have to change), it seems I have a weakness for purple in the garden. This evening while the boys were in the kiddie pool, I took some snapshots of the growing eggplants, okra and butterfly garden.

Here's a shot of the majority of the veggie garden.

There is a low spot in the garden where water stands, so the plan is to convert it into a small brick patio. Right now, all the garden paths are linear with the beds boxed off. The current layout has a lot of wasted space. At the end of the season, the rigid structure will be taken out and replaced with a winding path ... at least that's the current plan. I'm not sure if my trained engineer's mind will be able to handle that much chaos, but the inner artist is craving a spiral or curve.

Evening Garden Walk

Birdhouse gourd

"Magnus" Coneflower

Italian Climbing Squash - when do I harvest this?

Squash Talk. Climbing "Trombetta"

This morning, which happens to be the Baby's first birthday, a female blossom opened on the Climbing "Trombetta" Squash, an Italian summer heirloom from Renee's Garden. There have been a couple other blossoms that never opened and eventually fell off. I had two squash vines and one gourd vine on this trellis, but I lost my other Trombetta vine to pests. I was beyond thrilled to be greeted by this one. Not wanting to risk it going to waste, I got a pipe cleaner to pollinate it by hand. I stagger my squash plantings so as not to lose all my squash plants in the initial wave of pests in June. There are several other young Trombetta vines on the bean tunnel that will be catching up soon.

I was led to believe that this climbing quash was resistant to vine borers. While they didn't go in the main stem, I found one in a side branch. This plant was also a magnet for squash bugs. Squash bugs really aren't too hard to control since they are easy to spot. I just let one of the vines get away from me.

Several days ago, I extracted squash vine borers from nearly every squash and zucchini plant in the garden. Renee's Garden ""Tricolor Mix" zucchini are the only ones that have not attracted pests so far. Considering I only lost that one Trombetta vine and the other plants look happy and healthy, I'd say the SVB extraction went well. In North Carolina we tend to get two waves of squash pests, the first in mid June and the second later in the summer.

I couldn't resist showing you the handsome birthday boy helping me water the garden (and himself).

Discovery: Succulent Blossoms

Discovery: Bumblebees and Sunflowers

Last summer's garden was such a disappointment - even the bees wouldn't come visit it. I'm not sure what happened exactly, because I had bees early in the season, but they disappeared as soon as things heated up. Even with attempting to self-pollinate the tomatoes and squash, production was abnormally low.

This Spring I loaded the garden with sunflowers seeds, flower bulbs and wildflower seeds hoping to entice the pollinators with something a little better than the clover that keeps taking over the lawn. My two kinds of lavender blossomed and I let some of the oregano blossom rather than pruning it all back. Sure enough, the bees are thrilled with the changes and have been repaying the favor by pollinating my veggies.  There are tomatoes growing all over the vines and I haven't had to use to vibrating toothbrush yet!

It is entertaining watching them go to work on the sunflowers. They seem to love all parts of them and are so busy that they don't mind my inquisitive eye or camera lens.

Their favorite flower is Liatris Spicata, which I purchased in a box of mixed plants labeled as "Butterfly Garden". I've had plenty little yellow butterflies stop by, but the bees are driven mad by the purple-lavender spires.

Summer Sauté with Blue Potatoes, Sweet Onion and Zucchini

I have such a weakness for olive oil and Parmesan cheese. I've been cooking various versions of cheesy potatoes since high school. Last summer, I began looking for ways to prepare squash and zucchini other than my usual squash chips or Greek Pasta, so I tossed a handful of chopped squash in with the potatoes and onions. After tweaking with the recipe, I've found a combination that has lit up my taste buds.

Chop up in equal parts zucchini, sweet onion and potatoes. I have found purple potatoes (I grew Blue Adirondak this spring) to work well and sweet potatoes to give it excellent flavor and texture.



Heat up a pan drizzled with olive oil on medium high heat.

Dump in the potatoes and onions. Once these begin to soften, add the Zucchini and sprinkle with garlic salt. Adding the Zucchini too early can lead to mushy results.

Continue to cook until they begin to brown, cover the top with grated Parmesan cheese, lightly toss, and reduce the heat to medium and cover with a lid. If you prefer your Parm not to melt and be a little clumpy, you can always add it at the end of the cooking. Personally, I love the bits of browned cheese.

Once the potatoes are fully softened, remove the lid and let sizzle just a little more before serving.

This makes a delicious side dish as is or could serve as a simple base for all your other garden treats like fresh rosemary and garlic.

Blue Potatoes



Never one to be accused of being patient, I just had to find out what the blue potatoes were doing under the soil. Selecting the weakest looking plant, I sent my trowel down into the soil and loosened the plant roots, careful not to scar the potatoes. I then grabbed the plant with my fist and pulled upward which unearthed several dark colored globes. I then dug around the hole searching out the ones left behind.

The color is an astounding purple just under the outermost skin which is a blackish-violet color. I found these "Adirondak Blue" potatoes on a bottom shelf at Lowes, where there were only a couple bags of slightly soft blue seed potatoes remaining. I wasn't sure if I was too late in planting them, but it looks like I was right on time!

Have you ever eaten blue potatoes? Is there a flavor or texture difference? I'd love to hear your favorite way to prepare them.

A Greenward Progression

Our super markets seem to now be saturated with the words GREEN, NATURAL, and ORGANIC, and that paired with all the news reports about brands misusing these terms has pushed many folks to growing their own produce. Idealistically, they plan on putting a couple seeds or transplants in the ground, sitting on the deck sipping lemonade and watching their garden spring up before their very eyes, filled with large, plump produce of course.

Anyone who has awoken to discover their squash plants wilted and all the tomato blossoms on the ground knows that having a successful garden takes work. Squash vine borers, my ultimate garden nemesis have lead me to taking a scalpel to my squash vines, pumping the plants with pesticides and ramming skewers up the vines.

Yesterday on Twitter, I sought out advice for Japanese beetles and was immediately responded to by several people suggesting natural alternatives to Sevin and other harmful pesticides. I decided to compromise and use dish soap on the beans and tomatoes for the beetles and save the "real stuff" for the borers and just for those areas that I thought would be safer. Last night, I went to Walmart to purchase liquid Sevin, which I was only going to use on the squash vines and the Black and Blue Salvia in the flower garden. Before I opened the bottle, I pulled open the bookish label and read on the back the cautions and warning. It was extremely harmful to swallow, ingest, absorb in the skin, was highly deadly to honey bees, and read, "KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN." Don't you know I reattached the label and put it back in the bag to return at a later date?

So what is a gardener to do about the pests? It seems rather cruel to plant flowers to attract bees and pollinators and then spray chemicals that are deadly to them. It seems completely foolish to spray something with the above cautions on a plant I intend to consume. Obviously, I am not completely chemical free in my garden. I have switched over from traditional fertilizers to blood meal, compost, and fish emulsion. When if comes to fire ants, I've tried natural methods unsuccessfully and will continue to treat the mounds as they appear ... I cannot risk my children's safety when it comes to fire ant stings.

I don't have all the answers, but I am slowly learning. Not only are there natural and safe products to feed plants with and protect from pests, but there are planting methods that can help reduce the effects of pests. Take a gander of to the list of companion plants on Wikipedia. I was amazed the first time I saw the number of intricate relationships between different plant species and bugs. When you start reading up on the various plant species, you can find varieties that are naturally more resistant to disease and pests.When you read up on the life cycles of the pests, you learn to plant and then plant again so as to have seedlings emerge just after your first crop of squash receives the first wave of vine borers. There is typically a large window of time to do the planting, so why not space out plantings to help lessen the effects of the pests and stagger your harvest?

The deal is gardening can be really easy. There is an abundance of convenience products lining the shelves of stores like Lowes and Home Depot. But to be a responsible gardener takes work. We have to shift our mentality from soil being just the brown stuff to stick the plants in to being a living organism in itself. I'm on a greenward progression. Eventually I hope to be able to avoid the store shelves for supplements alltogether and rely on my own compost and compost tea. Until then, I'm going to try to use the safest products I can find and afford and plant plant plant.

Discovery: Onion Blossom and Sunflower

Harvesting Garlic

Last fall, I planted a three foot by three foot space of garlic in the back corner of my herb garden for the second year in a row. I planted three or four varieties, including elephant garlic that I received in a Papa Spuds delivery and some Spanish Garlic, which I saved from last year's harvest. Last year, while the bulbs did develop and packed a flavor punch, due to the lack of nutrients, they were so tiny they almost weren't worth the effort of peeling.

Early in the Spring I began applying Alaska Morbloom 0-10-10 to my bulbs to encourage root growth. It isn't the cheapest product but it contains fish emulsion, a natural fertilizer. Just one to two tables spoons mixed in with a gallon of water covers 25 sqft, so my quart is going a long way. Once the weather warmed up, I quit using the Morbloom and switched to Miracle-gro Organic Choice Bloodmeal to encourage leaf growth.

I start pulling up garlic when the leaves have slowed their growth and 1/3 of them are brown. Not all my garlic turns at the same time, which allows me to space out the harvest.

While some people like to braid their garlic and hang it to dry, I like to wash mine off and let them dry on a paper towel in the kitchen. The soil isn't lose enough to pull up the garlic by the green, and I had to dig this one out with a shovel when the stalk snapped off.

This is the elephant garlic. I threw in a Hotwheels car for size comparisson. It isn't as big as the ones in the supermarket, but for homegrown garlic, it looks pretty good.

The Gardener's Tacky Scale

After a janut to the flea market in which our divergent tastes in garden decor were made more aparent, the Man and I instituted the tacky scale. Zero means a potential installation isn't tacky at all, and three implies it is very tacky. A score of 0 means, cost permitting, I can install without consultation. A score of 1 requires consultation, bargain limitations permitting. A score of 2 requires consulation and begging. A score of 3 just isn't going to happen in our garden. After almost seven years of marriage, I know pretty well how the Man will score something. My preference lies somewhere in between 1 and 2, although my eye can definitely be turned towards a metal inspired 3.

I pulled all the following examples of rain gages from Amazon to demonstrate my point.


Scores 1 for function, clean lines, no gimmicks.



Scores 2 for function with a flare & multi colors.



Scores 3 for whimsy over function & breakable parts.



Scores 3. Cats don't like to sit in the rain.

Sorry pet lovers. We just don't like kitty and doggie statues. We aren't the biggest gnome people either. Neons, pastels, cartoon characters, faeries, predominantly plastic - all out. I decided to find one that I would like to install and just see what the Man would say about it.

My preference. The Man scores it a 1 or 1.5.

So if the price were good enough (Hey Wind and Weather, would you like to send me a free one?) he would be cool with this one too. Instead, I got a no frills, no fancy one for less than $3 from a local hardware store. Score ZERO! Does this mean I can to save up points for something really tacky later? He claims my bean teepee and tunnel are a 2 and my flea market metal frogs and lizzard as a 2 as well. I agree with him on the repilian statues, but there's no way the teepee is a 2. That's harsh.

Do you use a tacky scale when considering purchases? Is there no limit to your tackiness? No shame in it, I'm just married to a no-frills engineer, and I wouldn't change him one bit.

Garden Envy

Confession: if you are already harvesting squash, I don't like you. Well, okay, maybe I like you but I'm mad at you. After all, I blog about gardening. I take pretty pictures of plants. And yet, my entire nectarine tree is covered in brown rot, the beans are holier than the Virgin Mary, and my summer squash plants will not grow. The climbing Italian summer squash from Renee's Garden Seeds is doing awesome, but the generic yellow squash that everyone and their grandma grows is not. This happened last summer as well, which I thought was a fluke because two summers ago I had a bumper crop of squash.

As with any hobby, it is easy to let envy rob you of your own personal enjoyment of gardening. I must step back and remember that half the excitement for me is problem solving. So what if the squash aren't growing! How about hit up the farmer's market, buy some squash and talk to the grower? Chances are, unless it's the daughter-in-law of the cousin of the farmer, the vendor might know a thing or two. Can you guess where I will be heading this weekend? That's right. The farmer's market.

While I might be envying my buddies' squash and zucchini crops and my neighbor's super tall corn, they might secretly be envying my blue potatoes, or my purple basil, or my purple asparagus, or my red okra. I do like my weird colors! Here's to celebrating the growing season and our friends' successes!

First June Evening