Tuesday, July 27, 2010

It's almost time for Pickles!

In truth, I despise pickles. I hate their texture, I hate their taste, I hate the way they look. I am not a pickle-fan. I do love cucumbers though, and salty cucumbers - so go figure! I also really enjoy making pickles. This year I planted both straight-8 cucumbers for eating and calypso for pickles.

Last year was my first attempt with canning, and since everyone is still alive I actually bought myself some real canning equipment this year & I'm all ready to go for it! I had some wonderful videos I followed last year that I have now lost the link for, but You Tube is filled with way more then just pirated movie clips and music videos. There are tons of how-to videos from regular people, lots with really great information. Basically you need a pot, some jars, a few tea-towels and a jar lifter (learned that one the hard way!) in addition to the contents of your jars.

All I can really offer it the moral support as I'm still pretty new at canning. Go for it! It's really not as scary as you think it's going to be. You can impress all your friends and family as well as saving all those veggies from the garden that otherwise would go to waste.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Sunflower Update

My sunflower, oh my sunflowers, I love you so. With the perfect growing conditions we have had this year (lots of sun, just enough rain, nice and hot) my sunflowers are now well over 7' tall and higher then my porch roof. Which only leaves me wishing I had grown something in between the size of the sunflowers and the strawflowers, other then a few JalapeƱo plants which are still quite small. Oh well, next year!

One of the many amazing properties of sunflowers is the wealth of little creatures they feed. There are the aphids which happily snack on their juice (instead of my vegetables, I have no aphid issues in my veggie patch!), and the ants which tend the aphids. Then the lady bugs who also enjoy the aphids, in a different way, if they can get around the ants. Then the bumble bees, who enjoy the nectar (you can see them in both pictures with their back legs covered in pollen), I have no fear of bees and I'm very happy to see them as they are struggling these days. Then lastly there are the chickadees who come and visit me in the fall and pick most of the sunflower seeds out of the heads so they can bulk up for the winter.

Plus the flowers themselves are quite showy and beautiful.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Of Babies and Things

One of the greatest gifts from my vegetable garden is the bounty of baby food available for my sweet little 7 month old. Yes, 7 months is a little early for solid foods (I'll level with yah, he started them at 4 months ) and especially to be eating non-pureed foods; but both my boys were early & BIG eaters.

For a quick meal I zip out to the garden, grab a zucchini, put a pot of water on the stove, wash then slice the zucchini, quick steam, cool them in cold water & hand them over to the babbling little guy who happily stuffs his face full. When he was smaller I'd blend everything really quickly in my blender for a nice puree, but once those teeth started coming in he really wanted something to bite down into.

He's been eating green beans, carrots, lots of zucchini but his favourite are the Lincoln peas. I got SCREAMED at for not planting enough when he ate them all in one meal and decided he was still hungry. Unfortunately with the heat this isn't really the best time for peas, but I decided to throw some more into the garden under the shade of the beans and just hope for the best. Once we get a little closer to fall I will plant a whole bunch more.

It is an amazing feeling to deliver to your child something you grew in your own soil just for him; after all I grew him too.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Sparse? ... SPARSE?

My husband actually accused my garden of looking "sparse" this year!! I couldn't believe my ears & quickly corrected him saying it wasn't that it was sparse, it's that compared to last year everything is organized and tidy! He did concur but on further reflection, I'm afraid he's a little right.

I had a great plan set out for my succession planting, and then (as I had really planned) I didn't follow it and just went with what the garden told me. I found out I was eating less salad then I did last year, so I planted less, leaving a ton of extra space at the end of the garden bed. Plus with the warmer weather I found the lettuce I had planted was growing quickly enough I could double up on the space as I harvested (sewing new seeds in the sections were the lettuce was just about ready to be eaten).

My beans are more then over-flowing their bed, but I put them against the back fence so they are very easy to contend with. I actually ran out of bean seeds, mostly because they were the most fun for the kids to play with, and partially because I spilled a whole bunch in our driveway. So there is another gap at the end of their bed I attempted to fill in with transplanted carrots with scummed to the heat.

I decided to forgo putting corn in the vegetable garden and sew it in the field beside the house, combined with a heavy pruning hand with the dill, I have almost nothing, except a few beans, growing vertically in my garden this year. Also the squash usually growing in and around everything isn't invading the patch this year, they are also in the side field. The cucumbers are nicely contained in one of the smaller beds, along with an enormous zucchini plant, they are just sort of tucked away in the corner.

These empty spaces between my veggies are annoying me to no end. To a gardener, there is no greater sin then wasted space! But now isn't really the time (with the great amount of heat we've been having) to put in the few things I had reserved for a fall harvest. So for now I'm keeping these spaces covered with newspaper to keep down the weeds and I will have to come up with a better space-use plan for next year. Maybe with a few different kinds of vegetables! Swiss chard? Brussel Sprouts? Broccoli? No, I better find something we'll actually eat.