Changes in the Garden:

The garden is still in a full transition from late spring to summer crops, namely my tomatoes and squash. The hot peppers seem particularly happy with the hot temperatures we are experiencing. Over the weekend, I decided to direct seed my squash bed (the varieties included straightneck yellow squash, golden zucchini, emerald green squash, butternut squash, buttercup squash, and delicata squash). This bed was my old potato bed and I’m glad to have the space for some succession planting. The oldest of the squash plants are looking like they are near the end of their productive lives and will more than likely be pulled up and replanted with yet more squash and zucchini….can you tell I like squash and zucchini?

The Solar Fire Tomato Experiment:

On another note, the recently planted solar fire tomato plants seem quite happy in their permanent spot in the garden. They are more of an experiment since they prefer dry, hot climates. I have the hot climate part but the dry isn’t exactly a correct description. The last week was quite rainy; however, the weather forecasters are calling for a hotter and drier period for the next week or so…..so we shall see on that.

The Coriander Seed Quandry:

Another thing in the garden that I am pondering on is when to harvest my coriander seeds from the old cilantro plant. It went to seed a while back and the flowers have turned to “berries” if you want to call them that. I read through a few books of mine to see what I should do and they are calling for me to cut the whole plant down and put it upside down in a brown paper bag for a few weeks to let it dry. My curiousity and question to you all is…should I do it like that or should I trim the buds off in bunches and let them dry in a smaller container or should I pick the seeds off and dry them a different way? What do you all think?

Last, but certainly not least, Harvest Update:

For my harvest for the week, I harvested the last of the roma and cherry tomatoes (2lbs), 0.50lbs of Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans, 0.50lbs of miscellaneous peppers, and picked exactly one eggplant and one crookneck yellow squash (0.10 lbs respectively). I will post pictures later this evening. How is your garden doing?

For other harvest updates, visit Daphne’s Dandelions and see how things are growing!

The garden is definitely in a transitional phase right now.  The cherry and roma tomato plants have reached the end of their life and have promptly been replaced by some Solar Fire Tomato plants.  They are supposed to be heat resistant and with the 90+ degree weather we are having around here.  Another aspect of the garden that is actually doing well is the Golden Zucchini and Emerald Green Squash seedlings.  They seem quite happy in the new beds I built for them.  On the plus side, the harvests over the last week haven’t been meager to say the least.  I harvested the first of the Kentucky Blue and Kentucky Wonder green beans (0.25 lbs), 4.5 lbs of cherry/roma tomatoes, one small (0.10 lbs) “Little Fingers” Eggplant, and a handful of Super Chili hot peppers (0.10 lbs).

Is your garden going through a transitional phase right now?

I finally got around to harvesting my spring potato crop.  It wasn’t exactly a large harvest but it is oddly more than I expected.  I harvested a total of 3.5 lbs of new potatoes.  The old potato bed is going to become the new winter squash and yellow straight neck squash bed.  I’m really excited about having yet more squash that I will get to harvest.  As for storing the potatoes, I will be using the method that The Modern Victory Garden website outlines.  This basically consist of placing the potatoes in a cardboard box and filling it intermittently with shredded paper and storing the box in a cool, dark, humid location.  Since I live in Southeast Louisiana, humidity will definitely not be a problem.

Yesterday afternoon as I was doing my daily garden walk-about, I realized I hadn’t done any sort of full garden update in awhile.  The garden is definitely going through a transitional phase in its development.  The last time you all saw an update everything was lush and green…now, things are looking like something less than that.  I strongly believe that the plants just look like that doing this stage of their life cycle…the fruit stage. 

Here is an overview of the entire garden.  Since I took the peas out of the beds, the first bed does not have that aesthetic appeal that it once had. 

Here is a close-up of the yellow crookneck squash.  As you can see there is some yellowing of the larger leaves.  I think some of that is due to the life cyle of the plant.  The right side of the squash “row” does look a bit battered.  That is because the pea trellis fell on them when I was removing it.

The jalapeno plants are starting to produce some peppers.  I really looking forward to them.  They were planted in between the pea trellises so they seem much happier to be out in full sun now.  (they were in a lot of shade from the rather tall peas plants)

The “super chili” chili peppers are beginning to redden.  I have used a few already to cook with in the stir-fry last week.  They are certainly living up to their name!

Here are the bush bean plants that I planted in the space where one of the pea plants/trellises were.  They are putting on some height and girth.  I eagerly anticipating some garden fresh green beans.

Next up are the “little fingers” eggplant.  I have 4 plants and they are beginning to produce a decent number of eggplants that will soon be ready to harvest. 

Here are the roma tomatoes.  They have a lot of tomatoes that are setting.  The plan is to make either use them in salads and/or make tomato sauce and ketchup out of them. 

The bell peppers are producing now as well.  They have a number of fruit forming even though they are between the pole beans and trellises. 

Kentucky Blue Pole Beans.

Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans

BEANS!!!

The corn patch is finally putting on some growth.   I planted bi-color sweet corn.

The zucchini aren’t nearly as sprawling as the squash nor are they quite as prolific…yet.  I have two zucchinis that are almost ready to be harvested.  I do love a good zucchini!

Here one of them.

And the other one.

Here is the Emerald Green Squash seedlings.  They seem to be quite happy in the new bed.

and the Bright Lights Swiss Chard

The canteloupe is doing well.  If you look on the left side of the pot, you will see a young canteloupe fruit forming.  I can’t wait for it!

Here is the watermelon.  It seems to be doing good as well.

Here are the Golden Zucchini seedlings, thyme (flowering), bright lights swiss chard, and cilantro (flowering as well…I want this to go to seed so I can harvest coriander).

That’s it for the garden tour.  I hope you all enjoyed a walk through my ever-changing garden.  How is your garden looking?  Is it going through a transition as well?

The garden seems to be going through a “transitional” period right now.  While the plants are producing, the aesthetic appeal is not all that great.  This is particularly true of the squash and zucchini.  Another concern I have is that the corn does not seem to be as tall as I think it ought to be.  I think this may be an issue of soil depth…what do you all think?  The soil depth inside the boxes is 8 inches and update the soil that was added in the boxes is solid clay.  Should I have built the boxes deeper?  I know this is a learning process so any insight would be appreciated.  On the bright side, I have my first canteloupe growing!  It is only 1 inch around but it is a promise of things to come.  The new beds are doing well.  The vast majority of the seedlings that I direct seeded a week ago have emerged and looks very healthy.  Now for the harvest update…from the picture above you can see that my tomatoes (the cherry tomatoes in particular) are producing quite well!  I picked a total of 1 lb of tomatoes, 1 lb of yellow crookneck squash, a handful of hot “super chili” peppers, and 1/2 lb of zucchini.   How was your harvest?

For other harvest updates, visit Daphne’s Dandelions and see how things are growing!

I have been searching the internet for a simple and easy to do instruction guide for how to build raised garden builds.  Today I stumbled across a sit called Sunset.com and they provided the fantastic instruction guide that I’ve been looking for.  The bed they built looks pretty nice as well.  On another day, I will do a step by step instruction guide to how I did my beds…though it is pretty close to this process (the first three steps anyway).  The thing I really liked about this article was that they did a few extra steps that made it something special.  They added a bottom lining and built-in row cover attachments.  Very smart in my opinion.  I have also added this post to my “How To” Section for ease of reference if anyone would like to use it.

(Instructions and pictures provided by Sunset.com)

Materials for a raised bed:

• One 6-foot-long 4-by-4 ($15)
• Six 8-foot-long 2-by-6s ($75)
• One 10-foot-long 1-inch PVC pipe ($3)
• Two 10-foot-long ½-inch PVC pipes ($6)
• 32 3½-inch #14 wood screws and 16 ½-inch #8 wood screws ($29)
• One 4- by 10-foot roll of ¼-inch-mesh hardware cloth ($15)
• Eight 1-inch galvanized tube straps (semicircular brackets; $3.60)
• 32 cubic feet (1 1/5 cu. yd.) planting mix ($25 in bulk or $100 in bags) 

With a table or power saw, cut the 4-by-4 into four 16-inch-tall corner posts. Cut two of the 2-by-6s in half. Cut the 1-inch PVC pipe into four 12-inch-long pieces and the ½-inch PVC pipes into 6-foot-long pieces. Assemble pieces on a hard, flat surface.

Assemble the Bed:

Build bed upside down. Set a 4-foot 2-by-6 on its thin edge on pavement, and place a 16-inch post at one end. Secure post with two 3½-inch screws. Repeat at other end of board. Repeat with other short board.

Join short sides with an 8-foot board; and secure with two screws. Add other long side. Add second layer of 2-by-6s.

Place into Position:

With help from a buddy, flip the bed right side up. Move it into position in the yard, marking with a trowel each corner post’s location. Move the bed aside; dig a 5- to 6-inch-deep hole for each post.

Put the bed back into place, with posts in holes; fill around posts with soil.

Installing the Bottom Lining:

Rake the existing soil at the bottom of the bed to level it, then tamp it smooth. Line the bed with hardware cloth to keep out gophers and moles; trim the cloth with shears to fit around corner posts.

Attach PVC Pipes:

To hold hoops for bird netting or row covers, attach four 12-inch pieces of 1-inch PVC pipe inside the bed: On the long sides, space pipes 4 feet apart, 2 feet from each end; screw on two tube straps to secure each pipe.

Fill the bed with planting mix; rake it smooth, and moisten it with a gentle spray from the hose.

Insert the Hoops:

To cover newly planted seedlings with bird netting or season-extending row covers, simply bend two 6-foot pieces of ½-inch PVC pipe to form semi-circles, and slip their ends into the 1-inch pipes inside the bed.

Then drape the bird netting or row covers over them.

I just wanted to share my dinner from last night.  It was my first fully furnished garden fresh dinner.  It was a stir-fry of tender yellow squash, zucchini, bell pepper, and swiss chard.  I seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper and used some cilantro from the garden as well.  It was absolutely delicious!

On top of the harvest used to make the stir-fry, I also harvested a good bit of cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes (first harvest of the year for them), two cucumbers, and one bell pepper.  I will be updating the harvest totals this evening.

Has your garden been giving you anything tasty?

I finally decided what to plant in my new beds.  I had planned to amend the beds and plant over the weekend; however, the weather dictated otherwise.  Just because the weather was bad, it doesn’t mean I can’t go do some garden shopping.  On top of the varieties listed below I bought seeds for 3 packs of Musclin, 4 varieties of winter squash (more on these varieties to come), and 1 packet of yellow straight-neck squash.  I think I might like the straight-neck over the crooked-neck yellow squash.  My plan is to convert my potato bed (the potatoes aren’t pulled up just yet…but it is time for that) into a winter squash patch and I may plant a corner or two of the straight-neck squash seeds just to see the difference.  All I can say is too many varieties and not enough space.  I definitely have the same disease as Lisa from Lisa has Chickens when it comes to garden projects.  We both just can’t stop!  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Here are the varieties in the new 2×8 beds:  

Swiss Chard Burpee’s Fordhook Giant

Zucchini Burpee’s Golden

Squash Emerald Beauty Hybrid

Swiss Chard Bright Lights Mix (I already have some of this growing)

For those that are interested in what a Taste of Louisiana is like, here are some crawfish that I had on Friday evening.  I just thought everyone might be curious to see it, if you aren’t from around here.

Another week has come and gone and the garden is more productive than ever.  I harvested 2lbs of yellow crookneck squash, 5 oz cherry tomatoes, 5 oz zucchini, and 4 oz swiss chard.  I also harvested one roma tomato and one foot long cucumber.  Be sure to check out Daphn’e Dandelions for other fellow gardens harvest updates.  Have a great Monday!

Did you all harvest anything this weekend?