April Fools?

Just wanted to post a quick update on the garden. So far so good on everything but the squash. The plants are huge and there are a ton of small squash, but they aren't getting bigger because the bee's have abandoned me. No bee's = no squash pollination. I'm hoping it's just a cruel April Fool's joke and they will come back soon. The first picture below was planting day and the second picture is what they look like now.

Eggplant are growing and starting to flower. Shouldn't be too much longer until I have a few baby eggplant starting to show.

 Tomatoes are starting to fruit. Here's a few cherry tomatoes that will be ready in a week or so.

I planted the corn a couple of weeks ago and am very happy with it's growth so far. I need to run by the feed store tomorrow after work to pick up a bag of 32-0-0 (high nitrogen) fertilizer and give it a good side dressing this weekend. The pictures below are in sequence. First picture was a week or so after planting. The second and third pictures were taken today

Here is the garlic I planted back in November. I'm hoping it will be ready in a month or two. Not really sure though because this is my first attempt at growing garlic. It's hard to resist the urge to pull up a stalk to see how far along it is, but I'll wait for the garlic to tell me when it's ready to be pulled up.

Last but not least, just another reason why I love living out in the country. A quick 10 minute walk around the property nets me a handful of fresh dewberries.

Spring Is In the Air

Hello! Hope you all are well. I figured it was time for an update. In my previous post I mentioned I was going to try my hand at growing my own vegetable plants. Well, I did and it worked! I planted squash, eggplant, cucumber and tomato seeds on January 22nd. In hindsight, I should have planted the squash and cucumber seeds about a month after the eggplant and tomatoes. They grew really fast, but luckily it appears our Winter has come to an abrupt end. Because of this, I was able to move the squash outside earlier than normal. I transplanted them into raised beds on Saturday, March 3rd and the eggplant and tomatoes on Saturday March 10th. I decided to plant these in my raised beds so they will be easy to cover just in case we get a surprise frost. It seems unlikely at this point, but stranger things have happened. Below are a few pictures of my light setup and the growing stages of the squash and eggplant.

The squash have been in the ground for a week now and they look great. Every plant is blooming. I've planted 9 squash, 9 eggplant, and 12 tomatoes outside so far. We've had quite a bit of rain lately and the garden is still to wet to for the second round of tilling. Once I can get the ground ready I'll plant the corn, cucumbers, pinkeye purple hull peas, watermelon, and cantaloupe seeds. This is the plan and hopefully the weather will cooperate. I'll try and post another update next month, when hopefully the peas and corn are coming up. Take care!

Calamondin - An Explosion of Flavor

Hello friends! It's been a while since my last post, but Spring is right around the corner and I'm getting excited about the upcoming gardening season. I have a couple of ongoing projects right now. I'm putting a fence around my garden to keep out the monsters (dogs) who like to play "chase" in the middle of my vegetables. I'm also going to try and grow all of my vegetables from seed this year. Last year I spent $50+ on plants and I've vowed not to do that again since there is an alternative. I have a wire shelving unit in my closet and I've hung fluorescent lights to simulate sunlight. My seeds have arrived and I've set my planting date as January 28th. In case you were wondering where the seeds came from, I ordered online from Trade Winds Fruit (www.tradewindsfruit.com). I highly recommend this company if you are looking for vegetable seeds. Because my order was over $10.00, I did not have to pay for shipping. They took less than a week to arrive and were neatly packaged and labeled. I'll keep you updated on the quest to grow my own vegetable plants.

Let's get to the meat of this blog post, the lovely Calamondin. If you love tart citrus you will love the Calamondin. To me, it tastes like a cross between a Satsuma and Lemon. The peel is sweet and the segments are sour. It may just be the perfect fruit, but that's just my humble opinion. I know you can make all sorts of tasty desserts using the fruit, but I like to just slice them in half and eat them raw. Sadly, the ones I ate in the picture below did not come from my tree. My Calamondin tree has only been in the ground for a year. I purchased my tree from Burris Farm Market in Loxley and hope to plant one or two more this year.