Cooler Weather Makes Me Happy

Hello all! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. After my summer garden finally died from the oppressive heat, I had a break from the garden while waiting on Fall to arrive. About a month or so ago I planted Lima Beans and Turnip Greens for my fall crop. I built a trellis for the Lima Beans out of plastic lattice and metal t-post. It's held up well and I'm hoping the beans will be ready mid-November. The turnip greens have not fared so well. I planted three 25' rows of Turnip Greens, but the dogs decided to have play time in the garden a couple of days after I planted them and the seed was scattered everywhere. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. My project this Winter will be to fence in the garden. I did have some Turnips come up but they are not in a nice, neat row like I prefer.

I drove down to the local feed store last Saturday and bought one Celeste Fig and two Meyer Lemon trees. Here is a list of the fruit trees I've planted over the last two years: 2 Fig, 2 Meyer Lemon, 1 Calamondin, 1 Satsuma, 2 Apple, 1 Plum, 1 Peach. I still would like to plant another Peach and Satsuma.

Last but not least, I've been making pickles. Lots and lots of pickles! Some friends went to the U-Pick farm in Lucedale last weekend and brought me back a case of Boston pickling cucumbers. I've made 13 quarts and 2 pints so far. I still have some cucumbers left so I should get another 5 quarts or so this weekend. Thank you Sean and Amber! Below are some pictures of my progress over the last few months:

 

Dog Days of Summer

Hey everyone...hope you all are well. It's been a while since I've updated so I wanted to show you what I have left in the garden. Everything has pretty much played out except for the watermelon and eggplant. Tonight I picked my first watermelon from the garden. I was so worried that it wouldn't but I was pleasantly suprised...shocked actually. I have about a dozen in various stages of growth, so hopefully they will be as good as this one was. I planted two varieties: Charleston Gray and Jubilee. The one show below is the Charleston Gray, 25-30 lbs.

The other thing I've been working is strawberry fig preserves. My mom and I have canned more than a dozen jars. I've more of a Bama Apple Jelly kind of girl, but I've discovered that the strawberry fig preserves are fantastic on toast. That's about all I have going on right now. If it will every rain, I will be able to till the section of the garden where the corn was. I went to the feed store this weekend and bought some Lima pole beans and I'm ready to get those in the ground for the fall crop. I'm also trying to decide and plan what to put in the ground this fall. So far, all I've decided on is turnips. Any ideas?

FarmVille Lite

I'm now enjoying the fruits of my labor. The only bad thing is it's hot, hot, and hot outside. Yesterday evening I picked zipper peas. I shelled, blanched, and put them in the freezer. I only have two quart size bags. I now know that next year I need to plant a few extra rows. Today I picked the corn. I ended up with about 55 small ears. They have been shucked, blanched, and are already in the freezer. I think next time I may try the G90 variety as they produce bigger ears and from everything I have read, have a great taste. All in all though, I am very happy with the corn. This should last us through the winter. A big thanks to my mom for helping me put the corn and peas up!

Here is a picture I took during the blanching process:

Here are three eggplants I picked yesterday. I plan on slicing, breading, and freezing for future Eggplant Parmesan:

 

Last but not least, here is picture of the tomatoes I've picked the last few days. My tomatoes have been great. I think I've had a tomato sammich almost every day this week.

Also, my watermelons are doing great. I have several cantaloupe sized ones right now, but they still have a long ways to go. My plan for this weekend is to mulch the corn stalks using the lawn mower and till them back into the ground. In a couple of weeks I will be hopefully be planting Butter or Lima beans in that same spot.

April Showers Bring May Flowers?

Hope you all are doing well. I figured it was time to update the blog. This will be a large update because I took many pictures this weekend. Well, we didn't have much rain in April. We're now heading towards the latter part of May and it's still dry as a bone. But hey, that's what soaker hoses are for. I just wish I had a well. This isn't a plant that's edible, but the hydrangea was so pretty that I couldn't help but take a picture of it.

 

The next two pictures are updates of my four rows of Silver Queen corn. Most of the corn is now taller than I am and have tassels on the top. Some of the ears are starting to form. I took a walk through the corn earlier and the bee's were having a field day. That makes me happier than you will ever know. 

I started counting the big green tomatoes I currently have growing and lost count when I got to 70. So needless to say, when they start turning red I will have plenty to give away.  I also have two cherry tomato plants that have quite a few in the ripening stage.

 

Watermelons are high on my list of why I get excited about summer. Since watermelons are so important to Grand Bay that they have a Watermelon Festival, I figured I should try my hand at growing them. I have 5 mounds or approximately 15 plants growing right now. I sure hope they produce. 

 Zipper peas are coming along great. I noticed some aphids on the leaves last week so I sprayed them with another round of liquid Sevin. Bye bye aphids!

I have 9 eggplant plants in the ground right now and they are all starting to bloom. Hopefully the eggplants will start to develop soon. 

I bought the herbs in the picture below at Home Depot. I'm trying my best not to buy anymore plants, but dang it's hard to do. Especially when it's less than half a mile from my work. I was able to control myself on this visit though and just bought one of each: Dill, Basil, Parsley.

Another one of my favorite things: Scuppernongs! They are the grapes of the South and in my opinion there is not a grape out there that tastes better. I planted 6 vines last Spring. Hopefully in a couple of years the vines will be long enough to start fruiting. I've read that each vine can yield 80-100lbs of fruit, depending on the variety. I bought these from Isons.com. I highly recommend them if you need vines. 

 

 Finally, I wanted to show you what I was able to do with a few of the Boston Pickling cucumbers that I harvested. So far I've been able to can 3 pint jars of Bread and Butter pickles. This was my first experience making pickles so I hope they taste good. I have to let them sit a few weeks before I can open them though.

 

That's all I've got for now. Hopefully with the next update I will be showing you freshly picked ears of corn.

First Picks of the Season

Happy Friday everyone! It's not much but I wanted to post a picture of what I was able to pick this week from the garden. My plan is to make bread and butter and dill pickles this weekend if I can get all my supplies together. Also, a quick update on my zipper peas that were attacked by the bacterial blight - they look great! I sprayed them last week and will apply another coating of fungicide this weekend. I think I caught the blight in time and the peas will do just fine. I'll take more pictures this weekend and post early next week. Hope you all have a great weekend!

The Battle Begins

So I went for my evening walk through the garden last Thursday and noticed that some of my Zipper Pea Plants had purple spots starting to appear on the leaves. I wasn't sure if this was normal so I emailed pictures to one of our local county extension agents to get his opinion. He quickly emailed me back with bad news: bacterial blight. He told me to apply a copper spray to keep the disease from spreading to my other vegetables. Saturday morning I went to the local feed store and picked up a bottle of copper fungacide and sprayed a coating on my peas, corn, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, scuppernongs, and watermelon plants. Hopefully I will win this battle but it will be a long, hot summer and I know there are many more surprises that mother nature is waiting to throw my way. If  you live in Mobile County, I highly recommend going to the county extension website whenever you have questions. You can email one of the agents and they are always more than happy to answer any questions you have. The website is: http://www.aces.edu/counties/Mobile/

Looking good...I think

I wish I had started this blog a couple of months ago when I actually started planting, but I did take a few pictures so you can see the progress. Here's my garden plot. The cages you see in the middle are where the tomatoes are planted. I made the tomato cages out of leftover welded wire fencing. I used zip ties to secure them to the t-post. It was much cheaper than buying the cages.

Here are pictures I took this past weekend. I planted everything you see below about a month and a half ago. So far, so good.

Corn (4 rows):

Zipper Peas (3 rows):

Cucumber (4 plants in a raised bed):

A few early tomatoes (this one is in a planter, not in the ground)