Thursday, July 1, 2010

Cukes, Garlic, and Canning! Oh My!

I took a stab at canning for the first time yesterday. I made 6 pints of dill pickles. How fun! The best part was hearing the "pop" of the seal forming after taking them out of the water bath. Success.
Here are the Salad Bush cucumbers I have been flooded with. Only three plants can produce a ton of food. That's why these were turned into pickles. Freshly picked garlic from the garden. These were the ones along the edge of the raised bed, the areas which dried out the quickest, so the bulbs are on the smaller side but still taste great.

Cukes, Garlic, and Canning! Oh My!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

I've Been Waiting So Long

Tonight.
7:53 pm.
Backyard.
A fleeting moment.
I saw my first hummingbird this season.
It ate from the feeder.
Flew to the sheppard hook where I typically have another feeder.
Visited the Russian Sage.
Then it was gone.
All occurred in a few seconds, but I'm still excited about my encounter an hour later.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Cucumber and Tomato Harvest

This is what I've been waiting for! My first cucumbers and tomatoes were picked today!

Salad Bush cucumbers. By far my favorite cucumber to grow despite the cost of getting the seed for it. This is my third year with the same packet of seed and they had no problem germinating. It's worth the cost. My garden won't be without these tasty cukes.
Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. I've heard a lot of hype about the candylike sweetness of these little guys. I thought they just tasted like....cherry tomatoes....good cherry tomatoes.

First Tomatoes

I tasted my first tomatoes today! Two tasty Sun Gold cherry tomatoes! I've been waiting for this all winter!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

The last of the peas have been harvested. Some were dry and will be saved for seed. The rest were eaten or added to the worm composter. All the vines were composted.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Weekly Garden Update

On the 15th, I posted a bunch of veggie pictures. I thought it would be fun to post pictures of them every seven days to show how quickly, or slowly, they are growing.
Serendipity CornSalad Bush Cucumbers and Blue Lake Pole Beans
Mixed Gourds on the left, Baby Bear Pumpkins quickly climbing up the right.

It's Happening....Tomatoes!

My Sun Gold cherry tomatoes are finally starting to change colors. It won't be long now. I'll finally get to taste a Sun Gold!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Onions

I just made a discovery in my garden. My Sterling onions have started to bulb! Planted among them are my Copra (yellow) and Red Zeppelin (red) onions that are part of Dixondale Farms Long Day Storage Sampler.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Vegetables in the Garden

Tango celery - Harvested it too late last season. It turned hard and bitter. Unfortunately, it was ready when I wasn't. I'm ready this season. It already has harvestable stalks that I can use.
Salad Bush hybrid cucumber- Excellent variety. I've always had to order seed, but it is worth it. It stays quite compact with vines 3-4' long. Excellent flavor and very high yields. It is pumping out flowers. This is a real winner for containers or in the ground. My favorite cuke!
Russet Burbank, Yukon Gold, and a store bought potato used for seed. They are in 3 gallon containers from some shrubs I purchased last season. Behind them are my two composters. To the right is my new Black and Blue salvia plant to help attract some hummingbirds. In the front, long container are some strawberry plants recently purchased that will go into one of my 3'x3' raised beds in the fall.
Russet Burbank potato flowers. I hear that when the flowers bloom it's a good time to sneak out some new potatoes. I'm waiting until they get bigger.
Garlic varieties: Chesnok Red, Silver Rose, Killarney Red, Music, Extra German Hardy, Spanish Roja. They are getting close to harvest time. The foliage is just starting to die back. My Tango celery is in the same bed along with one lonely strawberry plant and some freshly planted carrots.
Mixed Gourds (the first three) and two Baby Bear Pumpkins climbing my new PVC and rebar trellis. Empress of India nasturtium and a self-sown marigold line the front.
Simpson Curled Lettuce
This is my "shell" garden, since I designed it in the shape of a shell. In contains two tomatoes (Isis Candy and Hillbilly) in the far back. A Long Storage Sampler of onions from Dixondale Farms. Three Salad Bush hybrid cucumber plants spaced approximately a foot apart. There are also assorted herbs, a marigold, Empress of India nasturtiums, and one Golden Acre cabbage at the bottom of the picture.
Serendipity Corn - Planted four per square in my square foot raised bed. We'll see how this works. I consider this my experimental bed.