Fresh Strawberries, and a Squash Coveter

It's been a couple of glorious weeks weather-wise -- rain, then warmth.  I've been doing a lot of weeding and working in other parts of the yard, but the kitchen garden is doing incredibly well!

My mom and Aunt Mary stopped by today on their way from Aunt Mary's home near Columbus, OH, to my parents' place in Southern IL.  They picked and ate strawberries right off the plant, and took some fresh picked radishes with them.  Mom was eyeing the squash, and suggested I plan a trip down to their place that just happened to coincide with when the squash would be ready to harvest.  :-)

The strawberries look great, too:

The tomatoes will be blooming soon.  I broke down, and bought another tomato plant:  German Queen.  It's another heirloom.  Of course, a matter of days after I bought it, I noticed that one of the Polish Linguisa (paste) tomatoes had sprouted.  So.....I'll have Hungarian Hearts in honor of Brigitte's year as a Rotary Youth Exchange student, Polish Linguisa in honor of my son Erick's year in Poland (2011-2012), German Queen for my husband's German heritage.  Now I just have to find something Czech to plant for MY heritage (half Bohemian/Czech and basically half German).  HMMM.....

 Here's the German Queen!

 Hungarian Hearts are looking great.  Once they get to be about 3 feet tall, I'll take off some of the lower branches to reduce the risk of infection, etc., from the soil.

I'm also going to start adding crushed egg shells to the soil -- apparently that is good for slow calicium release which can reduce the chances of blossum end rot









Let's see.....what else is there to show you?  Lots of carrots, and it's about time to harvest the Tennis Ball buttercrunch lettuce -- it's starting to bolt.

While cleaning out the garage, I found this wooden composter I had forgotten I even had!  So I set it up.  It's already almost full of weeds, etc., that I've pulled -- it was overflowing 2 days ago, and the level is already down one entire board.  Amazing how quickly that happens!

The pole beans are starting to twine up the bean tower.  A couple of the cucumbers are starting to inch out onto their frame, and the watermelon is sending out tendrils which I'm guiding onto the flat grid I set up for them.

I have more baby radish seedlings, and now some turnip seedlings.  The Giant Caesar lettuce is coming along nicely, and the basil FINALLY decided to sprout.  The zinnias are budding, and I have marigolds, volunteer and intentionally planted, blooming all over the place.

Have a glorious weekend!  Next up for me is weedwacking the ditch!

Fresh-from-the-garden salad

There is NOTHING like a salad of fresh greens.  I've been enjoying them for a week now.

So today was a gorgeous day to work and we have a weekend of impending thunderstorms, so I worked outside for more than 5 hours today.  The garden looks great.  I finally decided the mystery plant is a weed -- if one's definition of weed is "anything which is growing in the wrong place." -- so I pulled it.

Pole Beans

The Giant Caesar lettuce I planted didn't sprout -- perhaps old seed -- so I replanted one square and planted an additional square of it -- I love the taste and texture of it.  The pole beans have sprouted, but I lost two of the cherry tomato plants.  I may just plant 2 more beans on that tower instead.

The surviving cherry tomatoes look great!

Speaking of tomatoes, I have my tomato tower and bed set up.  I need to add a layer of composted cow manure on top of the grass clippings, and I make a well of soil for each plant.  Since I took this picture, I have planted 3 "Hungarian Heart" heirloom tomato plants from Cook's Garden.  I will plant three "Pink Brandywine" plants, and I'm not sure what I'll put on the two remaining poles.




I also planted one blackberry and one raspberry plant.  And the strawberries are looking really good:





I planted a watermelon "Sugar Baby" plant.  It's a small, seedless watermelon.  I'm experimenting with something different with it.  I put up a something for the plant to grow on to and to support the melon.  I used the wire grids from an old compost bin, and lashed it onto a bamboo pole support.  In the background are a number of different types of iris, including Louisiana Bog Iris and flags, in my rain detention bed.

I also got the rest of the lawn mowed today, and  used the grass clippings to mulch around a lot of stuff.  I planted an azalea to replace a butterfly bush that didn't survive.  In fact none of my butterfly bushes made it through the winter -- I have two dwarf bushes I need to replace.

And....just because.....more pictures of the garden:

More pictures of the garden

First of all, here's my mystery plant.  I have no idea what this is.  I don't know if this is weed, or a volunteer of something worth keeping.  If anyone out there in the blogosphere knows what this is, please let me know!

AAANNNNNDDDD..... Here's the garden.  On the left are cauliflower plants and baby beet plants.  Next is kale and red romaine, interspersed with onions.  The second picture has broccoli in front and tennisball lettuce and baby carrot plants. The third picture has my Winter Marvel butter crunch and the mystery plant/weed.  The open space to the right of the Winter Marvel will be Giant Caesar lettuce -- one of my favorites.  The fouth and final picture shows my bean/tomato tower which will have pole beans on two sides and cherry tomatoes on the other two.  Behind the tower are 2 squash plants (two stils protect by cut out milk jugs), and there are baby radishes around the milk jug furthest away from you in the pictures.

Those are grass clippings around the broccoli and in the base of the tower.  Great mulch/weed barrier.

A close-up of the rasdish seedlings around the squash plant.  They'll be harvested well before the squash takes over the space.

I've been a bit frustrated with the bell peppers I've started from seed.  All germinated, but keeping the seedlings alive long enough to grow a few more pairs of leaves has not been easy for some reason.  I don't remember having this trouble in the past, but.....   Here's one of the Purple Belle pepper plants that is doing well.

Here's my new project -- a new bed for tomatoes!  18 cinder blocks loaded on to a cart, then into the car, then out of the car and around the back of the house.  I broke down one of the compost piles and partially filled the bed.  I need to get some composted cow manure, and then I'm building my tomato frame out of bamboo poles a la Kevin Lee Jacob's technique.

I'm not a big tomato fan -- there's a mild allergy which runs in the family, and I suspect that's part of it.  But my husband and my youngest like tomatoes.  I'm going to plant Pink Brandywine heirlooms, and Hungarian Heart.  I already have the cherry tomatoes on the tower, so I haven't decided what other varieties I'm going to plant  I'll have room for 8 plants.

I'm also going to put in a smaller bed for one raspberry and one blackberry plant.  I'll let you know how that goes!

The Veggies Are Coming! The Veggies Are Coming!

Although the temperatures have dropped again, it was a bright, sunshiny weekend, and I was able to get outside a bit.  Still battling the last dregs of the respiratory garbage, but doing MUCH better.  So while I can't work as LONG as I want before I wear out, at least I CAN  do something.

The garden has been under cover to protect the seedlings from the cold.  Most of the past week has been cold and grey and generally unpleasant, so in celebration of the sunshine, I took the cover off for most of yesterday and let the garden soak up the warmth and sun.

I already have my bean/tomato tower in place.  I'm thinking about wrapping the bottom of it in bubble wrap so I can at least get some tomato plants in the ground.  I'm thinking I'll do cherry tomatoes on two sides, and beans on the other two.

One thing I did discover is that I did one job TOO well -- The cucumber plants I had plastic bottle cloches over were NOT happy.  From the look of them, I suspect they got a bit too warm, so I took the cloches off, and we'll see if they recover.  If not, well, cucumber seeds sprout quickly, so all is good.

My daughter Brigitte is currently a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Debrecen, Hungary, and apparently they don't have a lot of veggies available.  I'm not sure if that is "it isn't in season" thing (which would be typical of most of Eastern Europe), or if it is a general statement on their cuisine.  So the next pictures are for my veggie-starved girl.

This is a kale seedling.  It is starting to develop second leaves.

This is Red Romaine lettuce.  I'm not always a fan of the dark red lettuces, despite their wonderful nutritional value.  To me they taste bitter.  But.....when mixed with other things, it's OK, and it's good for us.

This is some of the lettuce I planted last time -- this is Tennis Ball Buttercrunch.  It makes small, loose-leaf head of yummy buttercrunch lettuce.  I also planted baby romaine, but forgot to take a picture of that.  

The lettuce is interspersed with carrots, but I'm not sure they have sprouted yet.

And the winter sowing jugs are doing great! These are all flowers.

I'm also starting to prep the side 4 X 4 bed, which will be all peppers, and such.  I'm going to use cloches, etc., so I can put them out soon, and I'll intersperse root crops that will be harvested before the peppers start producing.  Radishes and carrots, and maybe beets.