Tag Archives: chard

Potatoes, squash, beans, chard, basil, onions, & Temperature Blanket Update

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We got a pretty mess of vegetables out of the garden the other day. We were happy we could harvest a few squash.
We had several potatoes; we used some and stored some for later.We have a rule at our house that the first mess of squash has to be fried. It used to be fried in oil in a skillet method. A few years ago, we needed to change our way of cooking to be healthier, so we make a stir-fry instead. Our stir fry is a bit of olive oil, squash, potatoes, basil, onions, and a bit of cornmeal just for nostalgia. 😉

Thankfully, our area is finally getting some rain. My husband thought it a good idea to go ahead and harvest all the potatoes so they wouldn’t ruin. I agreed with him since the potato plants were starting to die and since we got such a nice harvest a few days before.
Considering that we didn’t plant but 5 lbs. of potatoes, I think we got a good harvest.
I’m guessing there’s probably a couple pecks (half bushel)
We’re happy with them.

Temperature Blankets Update:

I decided to skip May temperature blankets update and wait until June to do my update so they’d be a bit bigger than every couple weeks.
They’re still coming along fairly well.

Wishing you all a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

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5th Garden Update 2019

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One of our yellow cherry tomatoes is ripening. It’s one of the vines we’re growing in a container on the back porch.
The tomatoes in the garden have babes on the vine, so hopefully we’ll have a few big tomatoes too.
Our chard is beautiful and delicious.
The onion bulbs are getting larger.
The squash and cucumbers vines are starting to bloom.
Something has been eating on the bean vines.
We found a baby bean on one of the luckier bean vines.
Our potato plants are big and healthy and new potatoes are cracking the ground at their base.
Last but not least our peppers are starting to produce. These are orange peppers and will take a many weeks to ripen fully… although they are quite edible at any stage of the growing/ripening time.
So despite our region having hot dry weather, our garden is doing well.
I hope all your gardens are productive.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

 

Gardening on the wings of a dove

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I’ve decided to keep my gardening news down to a minimal. I realize that my gardening post can get monotonous year-after-year.  I plan to hit the highlights or whenever I’m particularly feeling the gardening-posting spirit.

Here is the USA, for a good part of this year, there’s been a health warning out about Romaine lettuce.
I understand that label reading to make sure of the vegetables origin hopefully helps make a safer choice.

However, We’ve decided not to chance our mis-reading a label and have decided to grow our own lettuce.
I planted the lettuce seeds in my herb bed since it’s full of bought garden soil that grows stuff alot better. I lightly broadcasted the seeds in the back half of my herb bed. I planned to thin them as they grow.

There’s been a sprinkle rain or two since I planted them. My husband has watered the area a time or two. I’ve been waiting for the first show of little greens.

I looked out the window and saw a couple doves bathing in the birdbaths in my herb bed. I grabbed my camera and got a few photos of one of the doves. Not perfect, but nice enough. 

Then the dove flew…. The dove flew down to my herb bed, joining a second dove…
And together they had a field day in my lettuce patch…Ah yes… such is the circle-of-life… where even well meaning healthy choices help to make for a food source for the fauna.

Our vegetable garden has become a buffet for the deer. It’s not been but a couple weeks since we planted the garden. The chard is gone and most of the tomato plants. We’re planning on replanting soon.We try-not too don’t get upset with the fauna that takes advantage of our gardening. We’ll probably put up some deterents, but that’s about it. I don’t see that this year’s gardening is going to be very successful and then again it might. It’s still early in the season.

Thankfully, we really enjoy seeing the wildlife.

Wishing you all enjoyment in gardening and
watching the wildlife that enjoys your gardening too.

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1st squash harvest – potato bucket update

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We got our first harvest of squash yesterday. We harvested some other veggies to go along with the squash for a stir fry.

My squash plants are big and beautiful at the moment. The corn is growing tall and strong. The beans, well, they’re pretty much just rabbit food as you can kind of tell from the plants in front of the squash.All-in-all, everything in the garden is growing well except for the beans.My potato buckets are looking really good. I’m not putting anymore soil in the buckets. I think they’re full enough. I have high hopes of at least one potato bucket producing at least one potato. I hope they bloom soon…

Wishing you all happy days for the rest of the week!

 

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Squash – potato buckets – storm chard

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I decided to have only a couple hills of squash this year. No fancy varieties, just plain ol’ yellow straightneck squash. No zucchini though, I think the green summer varieties don’t have much taste.

Instead of starting them from seed, I bought a couple of peat pots with squash seedlings growing in them. They’re growing pretty, but I was disappointed that only one had any show of squash. The squash aren’t really as well formed as I’d like. But hey, at least they’re producing.I gave the bare squash vine a good once over and discovered that indeed it had blooms and they were on zucchini squash. 😮
Apparently someone put the wrong plant stake in the peat pot.So, I suppose that it’s meant for me to grow green squash whether I want to or not. :/
I gave it some thought and I’m now looking forward to having both varieties. Together they’ll make for pretty pictures and tasty stir fries. I’ve a couple zucchini recipes I may make too.

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One of my potato plants has grown taller than the bucket. The other potato plant is still at half way point. The plants look very healthy so far. This is easier than planting them in the garden. If this works out, we may make this a part of our gardening every year.

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There was some significant thunderstorms moved through our area. The only thing in the garden that was effected was the chard. I suppose it’s because the leaves are so large. They’ll be okay. We figure they’ll stand back up with time.

I hope you all have nice weather and happy thoughts.

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1st harvest 2017 & potato bucket update

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I’m happy to finally have our first harvest. I pulled some green onions and cut some chard. It was fun and I wish I had more veggies ready to harvest.

I cut some sweet basil. I forgot to get a photo of the cut basil, but here’s one of it still on the plant.

I put the chard in the refrigerator for future use. I used the onions and fresh cut sweet basil in Bruschetta. Then I made some Bruschetta toasties for supper. The toasties was really good and a nice something different. I had quite a bit of Bruschetta leftover for later.

One of the potato plants has broken the soil. It looks like a wee green rose nestled down in the potato bucket. I had trouble getting a good photo, but I wanted to post it anyway. Perhaps this wee green rose is the start of a bucket full of potatoes. I hope I hope.It looks as if our little garden is off to a good start. Hopefully we’ll get more harvest and maybe even have some produce to store for winter.

Happy gardening!

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