Black Swallowtail Butterfly Egg, 1st tomato & bell pepper, squash and corn

We made a fennel bed Black Swallowtail Butterfly nursery. I planted parsley and carrots in it because they also like to use it for a nursery too. We put it out near the woods and hopefully far enough from our backporch that the caterpillars will go to the woods to chrysalis.
We’ve anxiously waited for the butterflies to use the fennel bed and we worried that they hadn’t yet.
However Friday I checked the bed and I’m happy to say that there are several Black Swallowtail Butterfly eggs scattered about on the fennel. ~happy dance~We harvested our first tomato and first bell pepper out of the garden. For us, it’s fun harvesting our veggies. We harvested a dozen yellow squash too.Our corn is standing strong and silking beautifully. Hopefully, we’ll have a nice harvest of peaches and cream corn this year.The rains have been a blessing, but I’m glad the forecast is clear for the next few days.

Here’s wishing you all a great rest of the weekend.

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Bell Pepper Harvest

P1040187We harvested our bell peppers yesterday. Unfortunately, out of the 50+ plants only about a dozen produced fruit. It’s possible over the next few days some of these green peppers will change ripen to a different color… or not… you never can tell about peppers.
Whatever they do, I plan to chop them up and freeze them using my flash freezing method. It’s handy to have frozen bell peppers for cooking any time of year.

I hope you all are having productive flower and vegetable gardens.

Productive Purple Bell Peppers

P1030514I was surprised to find purple bell peppers that have already turned this season.
P1030600I was worried that we may only have one purple pepper plant out of the 50+ plants I started from seeds. I know of 2 plants, so far. Hopefully, they’ll be more.

An interesting point about the purple bell peppers is that they grow a yellowish pepper that turns purple. Most of the peppers I’ve ever grown have started out green and then turned another color.

I think it’s pretty neat what one learns about familiar veggies when you grow other colors/varieties of the same kind. I’m looking forward to harvesting other colors of bell peppers. I’ll put them in a basket and take some photos (and then eat some and freeze some.)

I hope you’re having success & enjoyment with
your Summertime gardening &/or hobby projects.

Edited in:
Another interesting thing about the purple pepper is that’s it’s  cream color on the inside.0prplppr

7-1-2016 Garden Update & Misc

P1030246The asparagus beans have done well so far this year growing/running up the decorative corn and the twine. However, next year we plan to plant the asparagus beans in a row of their own and make a trellis for them to run on. It’s awfully crowded in the corn rows now that both are maturing and fully leafed out.
P1030402Our decorative corn stalks are getting their-ears-on. We’re hoping the deer doesn’t decide to sample the ears before they mature and we can harvest some.P1030450We’ve been getting only a few regular green beans compliments of the deer. There’s wasn’t enough for a mess to cook or freeze, so we broke them up with the asparagus beans and froze them all together. We froze 4 1/2 quarts of asparagus/green beans. I think that’s pretty good. We’re already looking forward to cooking them. 😉

P1030375My 50+ bell pepper plants are beginning to put on fruit. I figure by the end of the month we’ll be covered in colorful bell peppers. I’ll be freezing them for soups, stir fries and other tasty dishes. If most of the plants put on fruit, I’ll probably be giving oodles of them away.

00I added a much needed set of new screwdrivers to my tool collection. My husband is enjoying helping me fill my toolbox with new tools. I like having my toolbox of tools here in the house ready to use anytime day or night. I don’t know why I didn’t think to get my own set of tools decades ago.

P1030394aI made a stacked tuna salad and it was so pretty I thought I’d share a photo of it.
A stacked tuna salad is layers as follows:
crushed corn chips,
tuna salad
chopped tomatoes
shredded mix cheese
with a cherry tomato on the top

P1030279The walnut tree is loaded heavy this year. My husband had to cut some of the heavily ladened limbs off. They were hanging low over the driveway and could do damage to our vehicles when they dropped walnuts or if the wind caused them to break.
I’ve always heard that a bountiful season for the nut trees means an extra cold winter. I truly hope not…

P1020348t09017Just in case the walnut tree is predicting some bad winter weather,
I got busy and made me a new hat on my green Boye knitting loom. Hey, it never hurts to be prepared.

Happy July 1st to you all!
It’s hard to believe half of 2016 has passed already.
Have a safe and fun filled weekend!
I wish you all a wonderful July full of blogging & smiles.ec-sunny

Garden Update – 1st squash, pepper plants & a toe

babysquashOur squash has started putting on fruit. It’s a shame these first squash won’t mature. They rarely do because the male and female blooms haven’t started blossoming at the same time yet. But none-the-less, at least we’re on our way.

bellpepperplantsWe planted our 58 pepper plants. They’re a bit small and I wonder how many will survive. I’m happy to finally have them in the garden where at least they have a sporting chance of growing into productive plants.

carrottoeOur carrots are almost big enough for us to safely pull weeds from around them. As I was looking through my photos of our carrot patch I found a rock that looks like a toe sticking up out of the ground. Mother Nature sure has a bizarre sense of humor. 😮

That’s all my gardening nonsense for the moment.P1010292

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I hope you all have a great week.

gardening

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