Volunteer Tomato Plants, Squash Blooms, rosemary & 4th attempt at sweet corn

P1000061aMy Gnome garden has the nicest crop of volunteer tomato plants. The funny thing about these super healthy plants is that we dug-up and moved the soil. Filtered out roots and anything else we could see. We put down black plastic in the flower bed and then put the dirt back in it. Over time we set up the birdbath, rain-chain and gnomes. I then planted the flowers. After a while I went to weed the garden and found around a dozen tomato plants growing. I think it’s funny how they seem to be planted with some intention next to the flowers.
I believe the plants to be a large cherry tomato variety, but I won’t be 100% sure until they produce an edible fruit. The tomatoes plants I’ve planted in this garden in the past grew super tall and gangly… sooo I’m not thrilled that these may weave my gnome garden into a viney mess. P1000061bI realize that some folks would’ve just pulled them up and tossed them, but I can’t do it, I wasn’t raised that way. I was raised that a volunteer veggie/flower is a gift and should be tended too with as much, if not more, care as if you planted it yourself.
We’ve been discussing what to do with the tomato plants and have decided we’ll probably move them to the big garden sometime soon.

Even though I’ve enjoyed growing squash for years (and have written a book about it,) Until this year, I didn’t think to pay attention to if different squash variety blooms were noticeably different.
P1000036I suppose the golden egg squash bloom in the photo below could be folding in for the day or not opened totally, but I  think there may be a difference in the varieties. I’ll keep an eye on them and see. P1000031

Below is a couple of squash photos just
because I think they’re pretty.P1000033P1000029

P1010500My rosemary is growing beautifully in it’s pretty red container and protective netting. I’m surprised that it’s thriving even though I take it inside every evening.

This next photo is of my Husband’s 4th planting and last ditch effort to grow sweet corn. He’s tried different varieties of sweet corn, but the crows, turkeys and dry weather have prevented any success of the corn growing.
My husband re-tilled the patch and planted new sweet corn seeds and then strung fluorescent twine around, in and over the patch. He’s hoping it may deter the critters long enough for some of the seeds to grow.P1000049In the upper right side of the photo you can see a healthy patch of corn and wonder why (as I do) that it hasn’t been feasted upon yet. It’s a decorative corn variety with different colors of kernels.
My husband planted some asparagus beans in with the decorative corn. Asparagus beans are a new variety for us. They’re supposed to grow to be 14 to 30 inches long. We thought it’d be a fun bean to try to grow and eat. P1000045 My husband thinks it’s the decorative corn variety itself that has deterred the pests so far. I think he may be right. But I also think the deer may be saving it for when they have they’re babies and need some extra nourishment for their nursing fawn.
Whatever the reason for this grace period of growing, We figure that the corn and beans could be dined upon at any time. They’ve dined on our main bean patch so who knows what the deal is.
None-the-less, We keep calm and garden on. Maybe we’ll at least have one mess of corn and beans of some variety. If we don’t, it ain’t because my dedicated husband didn’t give it an all-star try.

Take care & have a great weekend of sunshine & smiles.
gardeningcouple
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Happy February! More seeds

2-1-2016My husband got into the seed buying spirit and decided to try to grow some different things we’ve never grown before.
Burpee sent me a free pack of flower seeds with my squash seeds. Pretty neat!
Hopefully our garden will be full of tasty veggies & colorful Flowers.

Wishing you all a pleasant February
Filled with Sunshine and smiles!

ec-sunnyspgrnbgln

Mostly Corny Post

IMG_5029We had sort of a corny weekend with gardening. We harvested a lot of produce.
My husband harvested all the potatoes and onions over a 2 day period. He had to stop the first evening because after we harvested the corn and squash, he started digging potatoes as the sun was setting.IMG_5078Some of the potatoes are huge.IMG_5196IMG_5118The onions are drying on a table on the back-porch, and the potatoes are drying on garbage bags in my craft room.
My craft room is fast becoming a food-cellar. lolIMG_5152It may not look like a lot of potatoes, but it’s more than plenty for us. After the potatoes dry a couple weeks or more we’ll put them in mesh bags and stack them somewhere…  and then I’ll have my floor back. lol
But I fear my craft table is going to be full quite awhile before I can use it again. So, for now, I’ll use the dining room table for sewing and stuff.

My BFF knew we harvested some corn, so she sent me a link to a video on how to cook and shuck corn using the microwave. She wanted me to try it and see if it would work.
How to cook and shuck corn with the microwave
I was super surprised that yes indeed it does work just like the video says. It took only 4 minutes and there was no silks on the cooked ear of corn. I like that. Here’s a photo of my using the microwave cooking & shucking method. IMG_5105
My husband harvested all the mature ears of corn. We’re not planning on harvesting the rest of the corn when it matures. We’re going leave it for the deer, racoons and other wildlife.
IMG_5005IMG_5135We used the normal method of shucking to prepare our corn for freezing. We’re happy we had about a bushel of corn. We put up 26 bags of corn-off-the-cob.
we used this method:
How to freeze corn – pickyourown.org

Here’s of photo montage of our corny process that we did.

0-corn

Click on this photo to see a bigger photo

I put up 4 bags of corn-on-the-cob for our Grandson when he comes to visit.
I used the same method for freezing except I left the corn-on-the-cob. I wrapped the ears individually in cling wrap, put a few ears in a gallon Ziploc vacuum sealer bag, sealed it and put it in the freezer. By wrapping them individually, they won’t be stuck together and I can take out the amount I need to cook.IMG_5186
And so it goes in our neck of the woods. We’ve been busy busy busy.

I hope you all had a good weekend.
Have a super week!
gardeningcouple
spgrnbgln

Garden Update – 6-23-2014

6-22-2014We got our first harvest of green beans yesterday. I can hardly wait to cook them. I’m going to put new potatoes and some herbs in with the beans and let them cook down. Yum! The rest of the beans will be snapped, blanched, vacuum packed and put in the freezer for winter.

We got our first harvest of cucumbers too.  They’ll be sliced and put in a bowl of icy water with just a sprinkle of lite salt.

A few more squash needed picking, so I picked them. We don’t really need them. I have a huge pile of squash on my counter right now. I’ll post a photo of them someday soon.

The leafy vegetable with the bright color leaf stems is Chard. It’s an interesting veggie. The stems has a celery-like taste to them and the green leafy part taste similar to spinach. This year is our first experience with it and we like it a lot.

I dug up a few potatoes to cook in with my beans.
I picked a few onions to have on hand for cooking or if my husband want to eat them raw.

Thankfully this update is a positive one.

I hope your gardening season is a productive one.
gardeningcouple
Here’s a few photos of our garden that show it’s progress.
Our crops are growing well (and so are the weeds. lol)


🙂
spgrnbgln

 

After the Storms

6-6-2014-IMG_2591Our area has been hit by some storms the past couple days. Today is beautiful and the sun is shining. The clouds are amazing. It’d be a good day for lying on a pallet and watching the clouds change shapes. In the middle of my above photo, that’s a real heart shaped cloud that was hanging in our sky. It made me smile and I knew I had to share it with you all.

I went to our garden and checked to see how much damage was done by the heavy winds and rain. I’m happy to report that our garden is in good shape, other than a few stalks of corn leaning half over. The corn stalks should stand back up over the few days, so all is well with them too. I’m hoping within the next couple weeks, I’ll get to harvest a mess of fresh squash. I can hardly wait. Yum!

Wishing you all a great weekend of smiles & fluffy clouds!
t117013

spgrnbgln