Well, I know I've been rather silent these days (aren't you thrilled? LOL) but I just had to pop in and share some joy about the garden. Nothing's dead yet! WOOHOO! 
Today I went out and added more stakes to the tomato plant and harvested 3 grape tomatoes, 3 zucchini, and 2 strawberries. We're raking it in now, baby!
The cantaloupe is setting flowers and the spaghetti squash has several, um, squashes, growing. I snipped off two small ones today that some birds pecked...apparently my little friends are wanting me to fill the feeders again, because they usually leave my plants alone, except to eat bugs they find in the containers. *sigh* We still need to get those pumpkins and carrots in, and the sunflowers too. It's actually so very easy to plant things like this, I just hate being out in the heat. Tonight though, when the sun goes around the other side of the house, I MUST get them in or the pumpkin fairy will be buying pumpkins in a couple months and "planting" evidence for harvest. Whoops!
On the other hand, I'm already dreaming of what I want to put into the garden NEXT year. So far I'm thinking we'll keep the peas, carrots, tomatoes, pole beans, peppers and radishes. We'll see how I do with the cantaloupe, corn and eggplant. Those might be repeats too. Zucchini squash, we'll just do one plant next time instead of two I think, unless I somehow find someone who really likes zucchini. I'll change around how I did the strawberries for the next track also. I'd like to put in 2 kiwi (you have to have 2, a male and a female, to pollinate...that makes sense, eh?), apples (same thing, you need a second tree), some berries, okra, cucumbers, broccoli and a mesclun salad mix. I better find that homestead soon! Either that or start saving for containers now...hmmmm.
I have to say, the best part of all this is being able to pull fruit or veggies off the plant, hose them off while I'm watering anyway, and put them right on our plates. I don't use any chemicals on these foods, no pesticides...so I feel comfortable letting my daughter even eat something right off there, although the grown-up in me says "UGH...I gotta rinse it, that's still kinda gross. There could be dirt or *gasp* bugs on it." LOL
One other thing I've learned...having corn growing behind the back window of my family room means that I enjoy looking out the window when I'm at my desk and need to stop and think. This week I will be moving my office upstairs to an extra room, where I will turn it so I can see out the window to Mt. Rainier. We'll see how much work I get done then. LOL |
Posted by
Saturday, August 6, 2005 - Harvest
Glad to hear the plants are coming along. If I can find the instructions for milk-feeding or stem-cutting pumpkins (makes them grow MUCH bigger) I will be sure to post them here for you. As I'll have to actually look it up since that's one of the few tricks I don't remember....I'll do my best but don't hold your breath.
Zucchini, if I remember correctly, grows unbelievably well. I remember putting in four plants and realizing (too late) that I really only needed one. We went on vacation for two weeks and came back to find two zucchini (which were pickable before we left) literally the size of baseball bats. I think they must have weighed close to eight pounds apiece! If you want to entertain the two of you...leave one on the plant and watch it grow..... You can actually cook them at that size, btw...though not as zucchini per se. What you do is cut them in half the long way, scoop out the insides, leaving about 3/4 inch of "shell", brown some ground beef, chicken or turkey (buffalo?) and mix it with cooked rice, shredded cheese, seasoning (I prefer black and red pepper, oregano and garlic myself), and small cubes of the zucchini "meat" (not the center where the seeds are, but the meaty part - and small means about 1/4 inch cubes), and some tomato sauce (or you can use alfredo sauce if you're using white meat like chicken). Put that mess back into the zucchini "shell" top with more cheese and breadcrumbs and bake at 350. Takes about 45 minutes to an hour.