That's all for this year

This was a rough year for my garden. Very little rain this summer that really did it in. I watered it some with the hose. I prefer nature to do the watering, too much work for me. I pulled out my plants last week and removed two garden boxes I set up this year in spring (was too hard to mow around and decided to have a simple garden for next year, looks better). So I am back down to four 4 x 4 foot garden boxes. Last weekend we (hubby) aerated and seeded the lawn including around my garden boxes. I still have to pull out my luffa plant. The luffa was my favorite plant this year. I didn't turn the luffas into scrubbers, maybe next year, but TONS of yellow flowers that the bees LOVED. Such a neat plant. I did eat the plant. If you pick them under 6 inches long they are tender and to me taste like asparagus. The luffa plant is a great screening plant that will cover a fence. I didn't get one pumpkin. I refused to spray the plants just to see what would happen. Well, the stink bug devoured all of my squash plants :( except the summer squash. I got a few of those. SO tasty!!!

Looking forward to January when I start planting seeds indoors and planning my garden. I'll be back in January. Time to enjoy the Fall weather around here. Love this time of year!!!! See you in January.

little picks

making soup tonight. grabbed some peppers, chives, two baby summer squashes and couple grape tomatoes for the soup. I have some leftover chicken to use up.

a luffa and a pumpkin

This luffa snuck up on me. One day it wasn't there and the next day...BAM! and 6 inch long luffa! In the photo it's about 14 inches long. Seems to be a fast grower. So far it's the only luffa that I see.

Below: A pumpkin growing. It's about the size of a golfball right now.

Today's garden pictures, August 11th 2010

It's been a HOT, without rain AND humid summer. Not my favorite kind of summer. My garden has suffered. When you look at the whole garden it doesn't look so great.... you see the burnt leaves on the tomato plants and such, but if you look just at each section then the garden doesn't look so bad. Some plants have really taken off, like the squash and the luffa.

Last night we celebrated our middle daughter's birthday. She asked for tacos for dinner. I used the peppers from the garden, jalapeno (only had one, lol), banana peppers, and some little tiny bells. Cook up ground turkey, add minced fresh garlic, add veggies (peppers) and a can of pinto beans. Serve on corn tortillas (that I sprinkled with chz and popped in the oven on a cookie sheet for a couple minutes just to heat up). Add whatever sauce you want, salsa, tobasco, sour cream...whatever you have on hand really. Serve with a salad. done. One of our easy family favs.

I took these garden pictures this morning.

Below: Garden still looking rough.

Below: Luffa plant gone wild! No luffas present just yet. Hope I get some. If not, the flowers were worth it.
Below: Luffa plant and the squash and an old chair I still use which was left by the last home owner..oh, and Rory our beagle/english setter mix. GREAT dog!!!!! Except she likes to dig holes.
Below: Pumpkin, but not sure which one. Again, my mystery garden (stakes failed me)
Below: The luffa (growing along the top of the fence) and squash growing through the garden wire fence and will soon cover the horseshoe area.
Below: we ate one of these last night. OH MY YUM!!!!! I think it's a Calabasa. Will check package later and edit this if I'm wrong.

Below: We ate this little watermelon yesterday. Was good. Because of the drought it stayed small. It was suppose to be a 20 lb. watermelon. I have two more out in the garden.
Below: Notice the grape tomatoes and peppers. I gave the summer squash to my oldest to take home. I have more growning. YUM! I am a big fan of squash.

My First Squash

Butterfly visitor

I love walking down to the garden in the morning. It's a small garden, but I seem to always find something neat. My sunflowers opened yesterday. I only have 4 very tall sunflowers growing that I planted in the spring. One opened fully, another is half way there. The other two, still growing.

I planted several sunflowers for the fall on the side of our house for my neighbors to see. The kids also planted pumpkins with it. I hope it looks cute come fall.

The Squash is coming, The Squash is coming!!!!!!!

Yippee!!!!!!!

Again, my garden is a mystery this year. My garden stakes failed me. Not sure what these are, lol. Could be: Acorn, butternut, long island pumpkin, little pumpkins, big pumkins, and honestly, not sure if I planted summer squash, lol. The bottom two look like summer squash. Next year. I'm keeping a journal. writing it down.

I'm VERY excited to see these :)

Another Garden surprise this morning :)

This morning I found my spreading petunia with a flower. I started this from seed indoors in February. I started many of them, but this was the only one that made it when I planted them outdoors. I totally expected it to flower MONTHS ago, but it waited until today, July 19th. I'll start them from seed in January next year instead. I love spreading petunias.

Below: My luffa plant. The flower cluster. Neat plant.

Below: My grape tomato plant. I purchased this one from Lowes. I pick about ten off this plant daily for the last couple weeks.
Below: My watermelon still growing. The other one shriveled up, so I tossed it to my dogs. This one is now larger than my hand spread out. I see a couple more watermelons starting. Hope they do well.
My back yard needs to be weeded, but this still looks nice. It's our firepit area. Sadly we rarely use this area but to look at during the day. We are not night people, hard to stay up that late, lol, but we do use it at least once/summer and do smores.

Yesterday's lunch

Oh My! Yum! and Garlicky to the max! I went to the library this week, picked up the book Love Soup by Anna Thomas

Yesterday I made this, Page 350, Deconstructed Hummus Soup. The kids loved it! So did I. The recipe is easy and basic. I added the tomatoes, avocado and goat cheese which are not in the recipe. Fit just right! and looks pretty.

Tomorrow I'm making Summer Tomato and Basil Soup, page 320, using my garden tomatoes and basil. cool! and trying out one of her bread recipes, page 394, Oatmeal Molasses Bread. fun fun!

I'm still finishing my first cup of coffee, about to go out to the garden. Wonder what I'll find out there today, fun fun!

Have a great day!!!

Today's garden pics

July 15th.

Below: What I picked this morning. I decided to pick these tomatoes early. Few small leeks (the last of them), Few small onions (not sure I'll do these next year), couple grape tomatoes.

Below: yellow blossoms tucked away here and there. pretty to see.
Below: Today's Sunflower pic.
I only have about 4 sunflowers growing, three of them are about 7 or 8 feet tall! The sunflowers are from my brother's seeds.
Below: Watermelon flower.
Below: I tried to grow the three sisters here, but only one squash took and one Luffa plant. The luffa seeds I got from Target two years ago. I started the luffa indoors in Feb. From the deck I noticed the flower from the luffa plant, funny how excited I get over things like this. It's a pretty flower, in last two pics.
Sadly, I have no idea which squash this is. I'm hoping the long island pumpkin, but could be just about anything. I need to get better stakes next year, or keep a better log. Such a healthy looking plant though. Seems happy with it's spot.
The luffa flower, about the size of a baseball, pretty big.
Same flower. I can see this from the deck. What a fun surprise this morning :)
Have a great day!

Just picked

My first large tomatoes this year. Same tomatoes from last post. They turn red fast! Hmmm, what to make for dinner tonight?

Garden looking a little rough

I took these pics just a few minutes ago.

My Garden today:

My first large red tomato this year! (plant I started from seed)

sunflower, will be here soon :)

Crimson watermelon, about the size of a softball. I bought this plant

squash flower, looking healthy (started from seed)

cherry tomatoes, you can see the fried up leaves from the summer heat/no rain. (plant I started from seed)

Roma tomatoes, not plentiful, but giving me a few. Started from seed

I think watermelon leaves are the prettiest. (below)

My garden from the deck. Notice the brown grass. More rain the in forecast for this week, yippee!

I haven't spent much time in the garden, except to pick a few things here and there. We finally got some much needed rain the other day. The last rain was over 30 days ago (June 8th) which is not normal for this area. Normally we get thunderstorms rolling through and dropping rain every couple days. So my garden is looking a little rough. I have been picking cherry and grape tomatoes, a couple roma tomatoes, some peppers, few carrots. I'm hoping my squash plants produce well. I LOVE squash (butternut, little pumpkins, and big pumpkins for decoration). They seem to be happy and growing well.

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Go to Saving Dinner to read about "How to Enter" the drawing to win a Free Kitchen Aid! Check it out www.savingdinner.com/contest Just post this site to your blog, or your Facebook page, or twitter and let her know AND become a fan on her Facebook Page. Very cool site. She also has free podcasts to listen too on itunes or at blog talk radio. LOTS of GREAT info on there.

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www.savingdinner.com has great recipes that come with a weekly shopping list. All kinds of menus to fit every household need. I've been using her menus since 2004. The Dinner Diva, Leanne, has helped me become a better cook. Not fussy cooking, but easy cooking. Nothing hard and no fussy products. You use all regular ingredients. That's what I like most.

She has a free menu to try out, just go to the link above and send her your email. I have purchased many of her menus over the years, but my personal favorite go to menu has been the Frugal Menu, which is now an e-book. You can buy all four seasons in one book or just one season at a time. My most recent purchase was the Pizza e-book. I haven't tried the recipes yet, but since the kids are out of school I'll be cooking up some pizza's on the grill very soon. We don't have a need to go gluten-free in our house, but I am cutting down. The pizza e-book has a gluten free dough I'm looking forward to trying. My Mom is allergic to Wheat, so we'll be trying this out next week when they come to visit :)

Today's pic, Salad for lunch

I chopped it all up for a Salad, added some hard boiled eggs, honey dijon salad dressing (store bought), a small can of tuna and shredded chz. Was a nice lunch. Since we had such a nice healthy lunch we are now off to the best ice cream place in the world!!!! Carls!

some firsts this year

My first Bell pepper. I bought this plant at Lowes. Three Bell Pepper plants together in one pot for the deck. I have other bell's in the garden.

My first Cucumber this year. I started this plant from seed in Feb. I should have started more. The cucumber seeds that I planted directly into the soil are not doing as well as this one- so far anyway. Wish I had about six of these cucumber plants.

Today's Garden Pics, June 10th 2010

The tomatoes are growing! This plant I started from seed in Feb. I lost the tag, so not sure which tomato this is, Bigboy, or Beefsteak. (update: June 14th- I think this may be a red cherry tomato plant, we'll find out soon)
Garden today, June 10th, taken this morning. Looks much better in person.

Peter Pan Squash flowers...Pretty!!!!