Gura Farm

Frost

2010-03-01T11:28:00.000-08:00

Saturday, March 6th will be 10 weeks before last frost! I have lots of seeds to start and hope to fill up the rest of the heated Jiffy greenhouse.

Seeds Planted

2010-02-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

I started some seeds this month. I first started some seeds in seed starting soil and left them in front of a window. After checking on them a few times, they seemed cold and I relocated them to the top of the refrigerator.

This is a list of seeds that are now on top of the fridge:

2/17- Echinacia, Purple Cone Flower, Burpee - Fridge
2/22- Lavender, Lavanda Lady, Burpee - Fridge
2/22- Lavender, Munstead, Lawn & Garden - Fridge
2/17- Onion, White Lisbon Bunching, American Seed - Fridge

I decided to go out and purchase two of the Jiffy Heated Professional Greenhouse's which come with a heating mat to help keep the soil warm. Below is a list of seeds I planted in the first greenhouse:

2/26- Broccoli, Calabrese, American Seed - HPG
2/26- Echinacia, Purple Cone Flower, Burpee - HPG
2/26- Eggplant, Black Beauty, Thompson & Morgan - HPG
2/26- Lavender, Lavanda Lady, Burpee - HPG
2/26- Lavender, Munstead, Lawn & Garden - HPG
2/26- Onion, Evergreen Long White Bunching, Burpee - HPG
2/26- Onion, Sweet Spanish Yellow Utah Jumbo, Ferry-Morse - HPG
2/26- Spinach, Bloomsdale Long-Standing, Burpee - HPG

Here is what I have planted in the second greenhouse:

2/27- Lettuce, Parris Island Cos (Romaine), Ferry & Morse- HPG
2/27- Lettuce, Mesclun Mix, Lake Valley Organics- HPG
2/27- Peas, Progress No. 9, Agway- HPG
2/27- Pepper, Sweet Banana, American Seed- HPG
2/27- Tomato, Legend F1 - Determinate, eBay- HPG
2/27- Tomato, Matt's Wild Cherry - Indeterminate, eBay- HPG
2/27- Tomato, Red Siberian - Indeterminate, Botanical Interests- HPG
2/27- Tomato, Silvery Fir Tree - Determinate, Botanical Interests- HPG
2/27- Tomato, Sweetie Seedless - Indeterminate, eBay- HPG

The Legend F1 is a blight resistant tomato, after last year, this is a must in the garden! Each of the greenhouses has 72 plugs and greenhouse #2 is only halfway filled.

July 5th

2009-07-07T03:57:00.001-07:00

Here are some views from around the garden. Click on the photos for larger views.

Zucchini (I made bread with this on the 6th! YUM!)

Watermelon plants with a flower. This is the second flower I have seen so far.

Strawberries are still flowering, no red fruit yet though.

Yellow Squash

Loose leaf lettuce

Jason & I have been seeing some bees around the garden early this year. I am having a hard time hand pollinating the cucumbers, so I am hoping that they are doing a good job!

Mary Washington Asparagus that I am growing from seed.

Fourth of July

2009-07-04T17:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day!

Today I enjoyed a summer squash mixed in with my pasta for lunch! I do have some zucchini that is almost ready to pick, so I may make bread this week.

I lost over half of my tomatoes to late blight, I think that it may have come from the one tomato plant that I bought at Home Depot, a mistake I will never make again. We bought some flowers to plant in those pots to attract bees to pollinate our squash and cucumbers. We picked up some Antigua Yellow Marigolds, Vintage White Stock, Blue Danube Ageratum and Figaro Mix Dahlias.

I also re potted my winter squash and started some more lettuce and snap peas for the fall.

Hope everyone's garden is doing better than mine!

June 30th Update

2009-06-30T06:23:00.000-07:00

Click on the photos for a larger view.

We do have quite a few tomatoes growing, lot of varieties and because I am so lazy, none of them are labeled. So, we should have some nice surprises this year!

Here is one of the few strawberries that I have growing right now, not sure what kind of strawberry grows this late. This plant was given to me last year and was half dead with no identity... so another surprise as to what type it is!

Here is my first yellow squash of the season. I think I will save this for squash bread, if I am motivated, I will make that tomorrow night.

The beautiful squash blossoms, they look very Hawaiian.

This is a group of Montgomery False Spirea (Astible japonica 'Montgomery') that borders my swamp.

We are trying peppers again this year, this is a sweet bell pepper.

Dilly Beans & such

2009-06-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

So, we bought a water bath canner this year. Jason wanted dilly beans and I want spaghetti sauce & we both want pickles. We took a ride down to Carmody Farm Stand and bought some green beans and I took out my book, The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food (which I believe is now out of print.), and found a recipe for dilly beans and we went to work. Jason ended up going back out to the store because we needed pickling salt, who knew? Anyway, the canning went slowly, but I did check the seals today and they all sealed properly, so it was worth the effort. Hopefully, they will taste good too!

While I was separating the tomatoes to try to clear up the early blight that nicely showed up, Jason found this guy, luckily before he ran him over with the lawn mower. Never a dull moment!

We took a ride over to Wild Carrot Farm and picked up some Native Strawberries (if I can get Kelso to leave the seeds alone, I will try to save them.), lavender, dill, and a black cherry tomato. If you are in their area, they do sell Organic Seeds from Seeds of Change.

Broccoli

2009-06-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

I started some Broccoli seeds for the fall. Now that they are growing, I have to figure out where the heck I am going to put them! A friend of mine has agreed to take half for her garden, so I really just need room for 6 of them.

I have been picking a few peas and beans this past week! I have also been busy pollinating some squash and cucumbers, and I am really looking forward to eating those. The tomatoes and peppers seem to hate the weather we have been having in Connecticut lately. I have flowers, but no tomatoes as of yet. My project for today is to move them around and create more space between each plant.

This weekend, I am hoping to teach myself to can. There is a farmers market in Berlin tomorrow, and I am hoping to pick up some green beans to make Dilly Beans. YUM!

Tuesday, June 23rd

2009-06-23T05:20:00.001-07:00

Spinach

Male cucumber flower

Female Cucumber Flower (notice the mini cucumber attached to the flower - click on the photo for a larger view)

Here are my squash blossoms, the two females are on the left and the male is on the right. The females have a mini squash attached to their flower. If you do not have bees, you need to hand pollinate the flowers. You should use a male from a separate plant to pollinate the female. The same would be true for a cucumber. (click on the photo to see a larger view! - sorry it is blurry!)

Kelso's Cherries

Two Female Summer Squash Blossoms

Strawberry Blossom

Bush Green Beans

Saturday, June 20th

2009-06-22T04:42:00.000-07:00

Landscaping project is done for this year!

This could be zucchini or yellow squash... time will tell!

Our Ostrich Fern for Fiddleheads!

Our Blackberry set some fruit

Sunday Photo Update

2009-06-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

Brandywine Tomato, grown from seed.

Cucumber Blossom - male

Pea

Green Bean Blossom

Watermelon, finally growing!

Strawberry rhubarb jam

2009-06-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

I really want to try this!

This from the Jam & Jelly Times from Sure Jell, Spring 1995 issue: 4 cups prepared fruit (about 1 quart fully ripe strawberries, 1-1/2 lbs. fully ripe rhubarb and 1/2 cup water) 6 cups sugar 1 box Sure Jell Fruit Pectin 1/2 tsp. margarine or butter

Stem and thoroughly crush strawberries, 1 layer at a time. Measure 2-1/4 cups into 6- or 8-quart saucepot. Finely chop rhubarb; do not peel. Place in 2-quart saucepan; add 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 2 minutes or until rhubarb is soft. Measure 1-3/4 cups into strawberries in saucepot.

Measure sugar into separate bowl. (Scrape excess sugar from cup with spatula to level for exact measure.) Stir fruit pectin into fruit in saucepot. Add margarine. Bring to full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly stir in all sugar. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.
Ladle quickly into hot sterilized jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Invert jars 5 minutes, then turn upright. (Or follow water bath method recommended by USDA). After jars are cool, check seals.

Makes about 7 (1 cup) jars.

Here is my rhubarb, this is the first year for this plant and I hope to harvest some of it next year!

Sowing

2009-06-13T04:22:00.001-07:00

This morning I sowed some Calabrese Broccoli for the fall and some Nasturtium Dwarf Single Mix Flowers (16") for my all of my extra pots. The Nasturtium is edible, so I may try them in my salads :-)

Landscaping Project

2009-06-12T19:08:00.000-07:00

Here is the landscaping project update. We got some more mulch tonight and I will add that tomorrow. The hostas and mondo grass are flowering, I think that it is going to be pretty next year.

Peas

2009-06-12T19:05:00.001-07:00

Here are my pea blossoms:

Carnival Squash

2009-06-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

I picked up 2 pots at the nursery today, I think they may be 10 gallons each. I thought that these would be perfect for my winter squash experiment. My cousin, Hugh, sent down some seeds from a carnival squash. I kept 2 seedlings for myself and passed the remaining to my friend, Iwona.

Tomatoes

2009-06-12T18:47:00.001-07:00

So, today I had to buy a Bloody Butcher tomato. I didn't have a choice, honest to God.

Isn't it cute!!!

I am also going to try to root a German Queen and a Yellow Pear, they are in the window now so we'll see what happens.

Here is my super fantastic Mr. Stripey:

I am going to have to get some more cages this weekend...

Summer Squash

2009-06-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

I have some zucchini and Yellow Crookneck Squash starting to grow. I am going to transplant two of them this weekend to give everyone more room to grow. We'll see if they survive the transplant!

Cucumbers

2009-06-12T18:40:00.001-07:00

The cucumbers are starting to vine, one even has a flower, male of course... but still! I plan on putting one of the x-pens out there for them to climb on. We are growing Lemon Cucumbers and green slicing cucumbers.

Kelso

2009-06-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a view of Miss Kelso through the tomatoes. I have to try to keep her from picking them this year. Little sneak!

Peas

2009-06-07T18:18:00.001-07:00

Here are my pea blossoms. I believe these are Sugar Snaps. They are very tall, so when I grow these later this year, I need to remember to put up some taller fencing.

Edging our swamp

2009-06-07T18:11:00.001-07:00

In an attempt to make our backyard look nice, I have decided to landscape. Due to the cost of plants and the amount of labor it takes, I am only doing 13' at a time. Here is what I started:

Black Mondograss

Variegated redtwig dogwood

Lily

Astilble (fanal)

Francis William Hosta

Siebold Hosta

Halcyon Hosta

Ostrich Fern

and Impatients (I still have to plant).

I still have some landscaping cloth to lay down and I plan on mulching it with black mulch.

Lupines

2009-06-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

I planted some Lupines in the front yard to brighted up our fence... I did run out of mulch though, so poor me will have to go back to Home Depot on Tuesday before the movies :-)

Watermelon

2009-06-07T18:02:00.000-07:00

I dug up a spot in the yard for the watermelon (Sugar Baby) seedlings that we picked up in Vermont. The seedlings in the tray are going in the front yard next weekend and they are Lupines.

Rhubarb

2009-06-07T17:56:00.001-07:00

I just finished transplanting some more rhubarb today. The big plant in the back was done last year, so next year I am hoping to have a small harvest! The last plant we took from my grandfather's was big enough to split into 6 plants, so I was able to share some with the neighbors.

Strawberry

2009-06-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the Strawberry plant that one of my customers gave to me. The leaves are huge!! I am planning on transplanting these to the side yard. It is already sending out runners...

Tomatoes and such...

2009-06-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

Here are my 31 Tomatoes along with the cucumbers and squash. For Tomatoes we planted: Bonny Best (red), Brandywine Pink (pink), Golden Sunburst (yellow), Black Krim (purple), Evergreen (green), and Djena Lee’s Golden Girl (orange). I also found a Mr. Stripey and we got a free Better Boy. We planted cucumbers which included Lemon Cucumbers. I also planted some Summer Squash Saffron and Zucchini. I am still trying to get some more Tomato cages, then I need to stake them all down so they don't get pulled up like last year.

Jason's Square Foot Garden

2009-06-07T17:30:00.001-07:00

Jason made a square foot garden box this weekend - 8' x 4'. We (meaning me) bought some bell peppers to try this year and those are on the extreme right side of the box. In the extreme left are some green beans that I started in March. Finishing off the row of boxes in row 2 are Tendergrean Improved Green Beans and Royal Purple Bush Type Beans. In row 3 (from the left) are some Nantes Coreless Carrots - for Larry and Bright Lights Swiss Chard. Row 4 is Ruby Queen Beets. Row 5 is Bloomsdale Long-Standing Spinch (savoy leaf). Row 6 is Mesclun Zesty Salad Mixture. And, row 7 is Progress No. 9 Peas.

One Pound of Green Beans!

2008-08-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

Today I picked 1 pound of green beans from my 5 plants and they are still flowering. My cucumbers are not producing anymore female flowers, and are starting to look wilty. I think they have given up on life.

We may actually get some tomatoes this year, there are 2 almost ripe Celebrities and some more Roma's that I am hoping to pick tomorrow. The Soldacki's are producing tomatoes, but nothing much happening with them.

I managed to pick another yellow squash and my Eight Ball zucchini has 2 zucchini's growing on it, however, the plant looks awful. Last week, I pulled half of it out and threw it in the garbage.

I have failed my cherry peppers, all of the plants look dead and the fruit that they do set, turns a molty brown. I managed to save some seeds from Carmody Farms red cherry peppers, so hopefully I will have better luck with those.

The Ghostbuster eggplants are producing, but the fruit turns a stripey brown. Right now, we have 5 growing on 2 plants.

Finally, the white zucchini is still growing, even after all of its misfortunes. It is producing all male flowers at this point, but I am hoping in a couple of weeks we might get some females out there.

Square Foot Garden Test

2008-08-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

I plan on doing square foot gardening next year. Jason nicely built a test garden for me using some spare wood we found in the garage. I decided to use it to plant my fall garden, just to see how it worked. I planted beets, loose leaf lettuce, swiss chard and carrots.

So far so good. The seedlings all came up nicely, so I put some vermiculite on order with a local nursery. For more information, please see: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

8/18/08 Harvest

2008-08-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

We cam back from visiting my parents in Northern Maine to find all of this ready in the garden:

Lots of stuff for salads this week!

We had allot of spotty mildew and other fun fungus in the garden too, so half of my Eight Ball Zucchini plant got tossed out, and I cut many of the cucumber leaves off all 6 plants. I guess I will see next week if my efforts paid off.

Ghostbuster Eggplant

2008-08-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

I decided to pick the Eggplant tonight, it was about an inch shy of the 7" it is supposed to be. I have a recipe for Eggplant and Squash Rataotouille. If it turns out edible, I will post the recipe. We also picked a few tomatoes, we also have a few green ones. It looks like a branch on one of the Cherry Tomato plants snapped in half, I left it - hoping that the tomatoes on that will be able to at least start to turn red. ALWAYS SOMETHING.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-08-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

I made these on 8/10/08, the recipe is from AnimalVegetableMiracle.com

ZUCCHINI CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
(Makes about two dozen)

1 egg, beaten
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
Combine in large bowl.

1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
Combine in a separate, small bowl and blend into liquid mixture.

1 cup finely shredded zucchini
12 oz chocolate chips
Stir these into other ingredients, mix well. Drop by spoonful onto greased baking sheet, and flatten with the back of a spoon. Bake at 350°, 10 to 15 minutes.

I froze some to take to Maine with us.

August 10th

2008-08-10T06:54:00.000-07:00

I had a very productive day today. I was able to pick a few cucumbers, a squash and a handful of tomatoes as well as a beet complete with beet greens! I quickly sautéed the beet and greens in butter, garlic, salt and pepper and had that as a snack. YUM!

Landscaping

2008-08-09T05:04:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share my landscaping victory here. Last month, Larry and I tore out his weed bed, laid down some landscaping cloth and planted some shrubs, topped off with mulch, You can see a before and after above. The left side is his neighbors side of the duplex, and the right side belongs to Larry.

Here is a detail of the shrubs we put in.

And here is out project for later this month.

More seeds

2008-08-09T04:26:00.000-07:00

By the looks of my seed collection, we are going to have a pretty good sized garden next year. We picked up some dill seeds, our goal for next year is to make Dilly Beans. Seeds here in New England are either on sale or in this case, buy 1 get 1, so we got more lettuce seeds. It is a mixed variety, so I don't feel too bad about getting it. Now, if I could only figure out how to grow lettuce!

I even managed to pick 2 cucumbers and a handful of green beans. We have several more cucumbers growing and all of the green beans have flowers on them.

Fall Garden

2008-08-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

Today I was able to plant my fall garden! Jason built a 2 square foot garden last weekend which gave me 4 squares to work with. In square 1 I planted 4 head of Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce (transplants), in square 2 I planted 9 Detroit Dark Red Beets, in square 3 I planted 4 Bright Lights Swiss Chard and in square 4 I planted 16 Scarlet Nantes Carrots. The carrots are for Larry, so hopefully they grow!

I was able to pick 1 stunted cucumber, a few Cherry Tomatoes, and 1 yellow squash this morning. I think we should have 3 to 4 more cucumbers to pick for tomorrow and POSSIBLY a Roma Tomato.

We also had a series of unfortunate events in the garden today. I went outside late in the afternoon to let the girls out and found that my Brandywine Tomato fell over and attacked one of my yellow squash. After fixing that up, I decided to transplant the White Zucchini that I have had on life support for quite sometime. When I lifted it out of its pot, the roots completely came apart... OMG. So, I straighted and repacked the yellow squash as well as the zucchini, and am hoping for the best!

More cucumbers

2008-08-07T06:30:00.000-07:00

Last night I was able to pick 2 yellow squash and all of this (pictured above), this morning. The yellow squash went to our neighbor, I think I will have 2 more ready for the weekend. The tomatoes went into this mornings salads and the green beans went into lunch for a snack. It looks like I will have at least 3 more cucumbers to pick for Sunday.

Celebrity News

2008-08-05T06:27:00.000-07:00

Luckily, this tomato ripened when it did - as we needed it for our salads! This is a tomato from our Celebrity tomato, it was small but tasty! I don't see any other tomatoes turning red yet, so maybe by the middle of the month.

August 4th, 2008

2008-08-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

I picked another zucchini today, there is 1 more growing on the plant. I think I am lucky that it is only growing 1 at a time. I am planning on making cookies this weekend with this zucchini, if they come out edible, I will post the recipe!

Garden Update

2008-08-03T07:16:00.000-07:00

I was able to pick a few veggies today. More cucumbers, I think this will make 7 of them in my fridge for this week. More green beans, I am assuming that these won't last long. And then I went ahead and picked 3 of our Cherry Hot Peppers, we'll see how they taste.

I was able to water/fertilize/pollinate and mulch this morning. I had allot of help today with the pollination, I think we have about 6 bees. Only 1 on the deck, he seems to have claimed the eggplant as his own and will occasionally get into the tomatoes. The rest of them crawl into the squash blossoms and stay there.

We have 4 Ghostbuster Eggplants growing, the Soldacki Tomatoes FINALLY stopped dropping blossoms and started growing tomatoes, and 2 of our tomatoes are "blushing". As of right now, we are just waiting for the Brandywine Tomato to start doing something, but she had a real late start.

I also managed to plant some of my Lupin Seedlings near the fence. It will be interesting to see of they make it through the winter. If not, I will plant again in the Spring.

Here are some photos from this morning. (Please click on photos for larger views.) ENJOY!

Kelso checking out the new beans and peas.
She is almost able to hide behind the squash which is amazing as she stands 20" at the shoulder.

Beans and Peas with their very own chicken wire fence to climb on.

Blushing Roma Tomato

Bee buzzing around a Ghostbuster Eggplant blossom.

Soldacki Tomatoes - FINALLY!
Soldacki's are a heirloom variety from Krakow, Poland

More work for tomorrow!

Zucchini Bread

2008-08-02T04:08:00.000-07:00

I was able to accomplish a few things in the garden today. I was able to pollinate 1 squash blossom and several cucumbers. We do have quite a few bees in the squash flowers, so I could probably get away with not doing those, but I don't want to take any chances... lol. Like I need anymore squash right now!

I also managed to move my peas and French Horticulture Beans into 1 gallon pots today and they are all sharing a chicken wire fence to climb on. I will post photos tomorrow of them. I was able to pick another zucchini and ANOTHER yellow squash and also found 3 cherry tomatoes. For those of you that do container gardening, all four of my yellow squash plants are in 3 gallon containers and are doing just fine!

Anyway, I had been waiting for the zucchini to get big enough to pick so that I could make this:

(recipe from allrecipes.com)
Zucchini Bread IV
Submitted by: Kristen

INGREDIENTS:
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I used pumpkin pie spice)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

Bees!

2008-08-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

This morning while I was gardening, I kept hearing: snap snap snap. I looked over and Kelso was trying to catch the bees. OMG, these dogs drive me nuts sometimes! So, I finally have a few bees, mostly in the squash, I have seen some in the cucumbers, and this guy was buzzing in and around the Soldacki tomatoes. FINALLY!

Also, just had to show off a Marigold that I planted from seed:

I have some seeds for Cottage Roses that I plan to plant in the Spring. In the meantime, I thought that I would practice on Marigolds.

Roasted Vegetables with Balsamic Vinegar

2008-07-31T17:31:00.000-07:00

This is almost as good as the Grilled Vegetables with Balsamic Vinegar that our friend Megan makes. Surprisingly, it is also good the next day reheated in the microwave. This recipe is also from recipezaar.com (Barb Gertz)

Ingredients

* 8 ounces fresh green beans, ends trimmed
* 1 small onion, cut into thin wedges
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 dash salt
* 1 dash pepper
* 2 medium summer squash, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick
* 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Directions

1. In a shallow roasting pan combine beans, onion, and garlic.
2. Drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Toss mixture until beans are evenly coated.
4. Spread in a single layer.
5. Roast in a 450° oven for 8 minutes.
6. Stir in squash and roast 6 to 8 minutes more or until vegetables are tender and slightly browned.
7. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan bring the balsamic vinegar to boiling over medium-high heat; reduce heat.
8. Boil gently about 5 minutes or until vinegar is reduced reduced by half (vinegar will thicken slightly).
9. Drizzle the vinegar over roasted vegetables; toss until veggies are evenly coated.

Harvest

2008-07-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

After checking on everyone this morning, I discovered that I had picking to do.... again!

I have another zucchini almost ready, so this weekends project is ZUCCHINI BREAD! Yum!!

Garden Update

2008-07-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

Celebrity Tomatoes
I am hoping that I won't lose these to blight and/or blossom end rot.

Market More Cucumber
(Heirloom)
These have been really good producers and I like the taste for salads.

Eight Ball Zucchini
I plan on picking this soon (4" in diameter). There are 2 more growing, my goal is to make some zucchini bread.

Our "bald" cherry tomato plant.

Ghostbuster Eggplant
This will be picked when it reaches 7" in length.

Stuffed Eight Ball Zucchini

2008-07-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

I picked up this plant while my parents were down here last month. It is an Eight Ball Zucchini (1999 AAS Winner), which from what I understand is perfect for stuffing. I stuffed this one with rice and mozzarella. After this photo was taken, I covered it with some hot spaghetti sauce. Yummmmm!!!

The only problem with this zucchini, is I waited too long to pick it. It should be picked when it is 2-3" in diameter. This one was twice that size. Oops!

Stuffed Yellow Squash

2008-07-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

I found something to do with my yellow squash. You can also substitute zucchini or eggplant.
From recipezaar.com (2Bleu)

Filling:

4 ounces cream cheese; softened
1/4 cup milk
4 ounces Italian sausage, cooked, drained and crumbled
2 tablespoons onions, chopped fine
2 tablespoons bell peppers, chopped fine
2 tablespoons carrots, chopped fine
2 mushrooms, chopped (optional)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons soft bread cubes (or crumbs)

Other Ingredients Needed

2 yellow squash
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cream cheese and milk in large microwaveable bowl. Microwave on high 1 minute or until cream cheese is melted and mixture is blended.

2. Add remaining filling ingredients. Toss to coat and set aside. Take some aluminum foil, and crimple to make a log about 1" high. Use this to support the 'neck' of the yellow squash so they will lay in a horizontal position in your baking dish. Set aside.

3. Cut Squash (or zucchinin) in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out seeds to create a boat. Divide filling equally amongst the boats.

4. Place boats in a shallow baking dish. Spread 2 Tbsp spaghetti sauce over each boat. Top with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and bake for 30 minutes.

Blight

2008-07-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the garden gods do not think that dealing with slugs is enough for the first time gardener. Now I have blight to deal with. After work, I drove down to Agway to pick up some Copper based fungicide. I cut off all of the affected leaves, which left Jason's cherry tomatoes bald, and sprayed away. I am planning on reapplying this weekend sometime.

In the meantime, I plan on not watering with the hose and I am going to add some baking soda to my water.

What's next, locusts?

Yellow Squash

2008-07-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

Today I picked 3 more yellow squash. I am not sure what variety these are. I picked up these plants as a souvenir from my trip to Bar Harbor. I think that I am supposed to pick them when they are smaller, like 4-5" in length. I did grill one, and it sure was tasty!

Harvest

2008-07-27T13:57:00.001-07:00

After picking about a dozen slugs this morning and pollinating the cucumbers and 1 more squash - I was able to harvest some veggies!

We got 1 eight ball zucchini, 2 yellow squash,4 cucmbers, 2 cherry tomatoes and 1 roma and a small handful of green beans!

I hate slugs!!!

2008-07-24T05:16:00.000-07:00

I was innocently picking green beans this morning when I found this horrible looking creature:

As it turned out, he was picking green beans too. Bastard. As I was going through the other plants, I found out he had friends... and they found out, I had salt. The war is on.

After my anxiety attack over Slug Wars 2008, I discovered that I am growning 7 very nice looking yellow squash (souvenirs from Bar Harbor). Yeah for me!

Uh-oh. Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays. ...

2008-07-21T04:38:00.000-07:00

Monday was a depressing day in the garden. My tomatoes and peppers have blossom end rot and my white zucchini had this on 3 of its leaves (which I picked and discarded after this photo):

Harvest

2008-07-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

Today, after mulching, feeding and watering... we managed to get a small harvest! These are the first cucumbers and Roma tomatoes. Jay also had a few more cherry tomatoes.

I packed away my first set of Carmody cherry tomatoe seeds today and have more seeds fermenting. It will be interesting to see if I can get them to grow in the Spring. I also managed to pollinate 2 more squash and saved 1 male flower for tomorrow. Tonight, I am hoping to spray for bugs and then call it a day!

Week of July 18th

2008-07-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

This week I sowed some Oregon Sugar Pod II Peas and French Horticulture Beans outside in peat pots. I sowed some Black Seeded Simpson in a Jiffy Pellet Greenhouse & that is in the garage, and have Romaine Lettuce seedlings outside still in their peat pellets.

We are planning a mini harvest tomorrow of one cucumber, one Roma tomato and a few Cherry tomatoes. After we are done picking, I have to pollinate, mulch, feed and water. Then I have to go to work! Oh joy!

Here are some photos from around the garden (Photos are on photobucket.com, so please allow time for them to load!):

Eight Ball Zucchini Squash

Ghostbuster Eggplant

Cherry Tomatoes

Kelso in the Cucumbers

Tomatoes taking over the deck!

Roma Tomato

Yellow Squash from Bar Harbor, Maine.
Pollinating is not going so great with these, so I am not sure if I am going to get any squash from these plants or not.

Marketmore Cucumber

I have been seeing allot of interesting bugs in the yard since the vegetables have moved in.

Garden Views

2008-07-19T04:52:00.000-07:00

(Click photos to see larger images)

My 2 headed Chernobyl yellow squash blossom

Baby green bean

Kelso in the tomatoes

Garden Update

2008-07-18T04:23:00.000-07:00

Not too much happening in the garden. I am trying my best to keep up with all of the cucumber blossoms. Jay and I saw another bee this past week, and he did check the cucumber blossoms out, but didn't stop. We are not sure how far they fly away from their hives in search of food, so we may have a hive in our woods.

The yellow squash (souvenir from Maine) are starting to blossom. These four plants are sending up mostly female flowers and as of right now, I don't have any males. Just my luck!

(Female Yellow Squash Blossom)

We do have a strange eggplant thing happening. I am not sure if it is the start of an eggplant or not. We'll have to wait and see what it develops into.

(Ghostbuster Eggplant creation)

This weekend, I will be attempting to start my fall garden. I have some lettuce, peas, chard and beets. I am still working on my wildflower garden, I have some nice Lupine seedlings going right now. The wildflower mix from Maine hasn't sprouted, neither has the wildflower mix from 3 years ago. I think I am going to toss that box in the trash.

(Kelso thinks it is too hot to garden!)

Zucchini Problems

2008-07-15T07:00:00.001-07:00

So today I realize, OMG I finally have a female zucchini flower & guess what - no male to pollinate it with. Crap! So, I run down to the nearest nursery and was able to find this thing.

Can you believe that it wasn't even discounted? WTF. Anyway, beggars cannot be choosers and since my souvenir yellow squash from Maine are not sending up flowers yet - I really didn't have a choice. The good news is, it did have 2 nice male flowers with pollen in both. Huzzah! Other than that, the garden is looking pretty good, lots of tomato blossoms and I was able to spend some quality "alone" time with the cucumbers. The beans are also looking pretty good as are the beets. Mmmmmm, beets.

I was also very happy to discover that the Eggplant is self pollinating. VG.

Female Flower :-)

Garden Update

2008-07-14T05:15:00.001-07:00

It is raining this morning, so no new photos.

Kelso and I did brave the rain to go check on the plants though. There are FINALLY 2 female zucchini flowers growing on the zucchini. One of the souvenir yellow squash from Maine is also growing a female flower. My concern now is that I won't have any male flowers to pollinate them with.

The Soldacki (Polish heirloom) tomato is also growing some flowers, so I am hopeful to get a least 1 tomato from the 3 plants that we have. The Brandywine from Maine also has a flower on it. Jason had a mini tomato harvest over the weekend, and managed to have enough to share with Larry. After picking and feeding there are now 22 green tomatoes amongst the 3 plants.

The cucumbers are all going crazy and it is hard to keep up with them. I have about 10 females that I am pollinating by hand and over the weekend, I saw my first bee. He checked out the cucumber flowers and flew away and I haven't seen him since. This morning with the rain, I passed on pollinating - but did check on the 2 cucumbers that are growing. We have one that should be ready to pick within the next week or 2.

I also managed to squeeze in time to run to the farm stand in Cheshire to get some of their wonderful cherry tomatoes. I asked what variety they were and was told, "Ours, from our greenhouse." Jeez. So, I bought them and then went online to find out how to save the seeds. So, now I will have MY OWN from MY OWN "GREENHOUSE" next summer. Ha!

Other than that, not too much going on in the garden. We have 2 cherry hot peppers growing and it looks like more on the way. I bought some more peas and some Swiss chard from the Cheshire Nursery (which has Jiffy pellets if anyone needs some) to plant later this season for a fall garden. I have some lettuce started in my Jiffy Windowsill Greenhouse. we will see how that goes.

Garden Update

2008-07-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some updated photos from the garden:

The cucumbers finally shot out some vines and are climbing up the deck and the stairs. This morning I hand pollinated about 6 female cucumber flowers. Hopefully, I am doing it right! Wish me luck :-)

I also spotted some new tomatoes, though nothing from the Soldacki/Polish Tomato as of yet.
And, still no female squash blossoms.

Today, I am watching the sun to see if any areas of the yard are getting more sun than the deck is. I also plan on redoing the weed block and mulch on the tree in the front yard and adding some mulch to the bushes in the planters out front.

Celebrity Sighting

2008-07-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

One of the Celebrity Tomatoes finally decided to get to work this week. So far, this is the only tomato-ling on any of the Celebrities. And it will be mine - ALL MINE :-)

One of the Roma's has a few nice tomatoes coming in also:

And - one of the Hot Cherry Peppers is producing as well!

Before I watered everyone this morning, I checked all of the plants that need hand pollinating. I had 3 new cucumbers, and no female Squash/Eggplant flowers. AT ALL. To lift my spirits from this great disappointment, I used some of my new Jiffy Pellets. I sowed some Romaine Lettuce this morning to see if I can grow it in August. I also sowed some of the Lupines and Maine Wildflower Mix that I picked up in Bar Harbor. And, I even found the time to loosen up some more soil near the fence and dropped some seeds from a VERY OLD box of Wildflower Mix that we had in our garage. It will be interesting to see if anything will grow.

Other than that, I moved some of the plants to the side of the house instead of the front of the deck to see if they will get more sun. Tomorrow, I will chart it too see if it is any improvement for them.

Back from the Cape

2008-07-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

Thank you again to Uncle Larry for caring for the plants and the dogs this time around! I didn't bring back any new vegetable plants, but I did manage to find some Jiffy Pellets and a Jiffy Pellet greenhouse. I am hoping to get a jump start on the season by starting seedlings in the house in March/April.

We came home to our Gay Zucchini Alliance, which is apparently out of the closet. Still no female flowers on this plant. Jason has a few cherry tomatoes coming along and he is waiting for them to ripen all together. And my cucumber is looking pretty good, it is about 3-4 inches and looks like an OK cucumber shape. I am hoping that I did a good enough job hand pollinating.

Cape Cod

2008-07-06T06:16:00.001-07:00

The plants are watered, fed and sprayed! And we are off to the Cape.

First Tomato

2008-07-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

Jason picked the first tomato of the season today off one of the Cherry Tomato plants. He claims that it did not taste as good as the ones we bought from the farm stand in Cheshire a couple of weeks ago... oh well. We have another that should be ripe by the time we get back from the Cape, unless Larry gets to it first.

I was able to mulch 3/4 of the garden, re-tie some of the tomatoes, as well as prune dead leaves today. I also picked up some organic insecticide made from chrysanthemums. I hope to finish mulching and feeding tomorrow and then on Sunday, spray them down before we leave.

I also did a quick flower check on the cucumbers, eggplants and squash. As of right now, everything is MALE. I am beginning to think there is testosterone in the plant food. A quick check of the tomatoes revealed that the Soldacki have no blossoms at this point, though they are nearly 4' tall. Also, my Alaska Peas absolutely did not like being transplanted, all of them are wilty. Hopefully, we will get some sun someday and they will bounce back.

Getting ready for the Cape

2008-07-03T06:10:00.000-07:00

I think I am finally finished transplanting everything that I have collected. This week I was able to transplant the 4 Yellow Summer Squash and 1 Brandywine Tomato from Maine, as well as the Detroit Dark Red Beets, Romaine Lettuce, Bush Snap Green Beans and Alaska Peas that I grew from seeds. The deck garden has now officially spilled into the yard...

Kelso and I also dug a flower bed near the fence last night and transplanted the Marigolds I bought and all that I grew from seeds. If they make it until the middle of July, I will plant some more flowers in the front yard. I bought some Maine Wildflower Mix and Lupine seeds while we were in Bar Harbor that I think would look really nice on the sides of the pathway to the house.

This weekend my plan is to mulch the containers with some more potting soil, fertilize everything and make some pesticide to spray before we leave for the Cape.

Photo of a Hot Cherry Pepper blossom

Photo of the very tropical squash blossom. Everything on this plant is MALE. Just my luck!

Garden Sex

2008-06-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

The cucumbers have started to flower and we have no bees. Apparently, unlike tomatoes, cucumbers and squash have to be pollinated. This morning, I pulled off a male flower and tried my best at pollinating 3 female flowers with that. I guess I will keep at this and see how it goes, I saw another male flower and will repeat the process tomorrow morning.

I did manage to get a photo of the female flower (the males do not have the mini cucumbers.):

Wish me luck!

Back from Bar Harbor

2008-06-29T14:27:00.001-07:00

Thank you to Uncle Larry for taking care of the plants while we were away for a week. I thought the plants would be dead when we came back - so instead of souvenirs, I bought a Brandywine tomato, several yellow squash and flower seeds.

As it happens, the plants are very much alive thanks to Larry and now we have a green jungle, plus most of the seedlings are ready to plant. Most of the cucumbers have vines that are climbing up the deck, a few of the tomato plants have either flowers or new tomatoes growing. After I was done assesing my mess, I planted 2 of our Detroit Dark Red Beets, 3 of the Bush Snap Green Beans and 2 of the Alaska Peas.

I will be off to purchase some new pots and potting soil on Tuesday.

Here are some photos:

More rain

2008-06-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

We are supposed to get more rain and severe thunderstorms all the way into tonight, followed by four partly cloudy days, then more thunderstorms into the weekend.

With this wonderful forecast, I skipped watering the plants this morning and took a photo of them instead.

Rumors of Cherry Tomatoes

2008-06-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

The past two days we have had intermittent rain mixed with thunder storms. During this storm, one of the Celebrity tomato plants blew over slightly, so this morning I staked it up with a small branch. This afternoon I checked on all of the plants again and decided that it was a good time as any to fertilize them. I mixed some fertilizer (Miracle Grow) and water in a 5 gallon bucket and Ivy decided that she wanted to have a sip. God help me with these dogs in this garden.

(Pictured above are the Market More cucumbers with no vines.)

Right now the only tomato plants with tomatoes are Jason's Cherry tomatoes and a couple of the Roma's. Two of the Celebrity plants have blooms but no tomatoes as of yet. Our Heirloom Polish tomato's (which I believe to be Soldacki's) are just growing very tall and not doing much else. The cucumbers are growing some nice leaves, but haven't thrown any vines out as of yet, and the peppers have done nothing. One of the Ghostbuster eggplants also sent out a bloom, but nothing came of that.

(Pictured above are the seedlings)

For fun, I planted some seeds to see if anything would grow. I planted some Bush Green Beans which are coming up very nicely as are the Snap Peas. The Romaine lettuce and Zucchini squash are both really iffy. I also sowed some Detroit Dark Red Beets... just to see what will happen, if anything.

The only other garden news is that we need to get a baby gate to keep Kelso out. She is extremely interested in all of the happenings of the garden, and happens to love vegetables...

(Celebrity bloom)

(Cherry Tomatoes)

Garden Photo Update

2008-06-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

Here is an updated photo of the garden. Quite a few of the tomato plants have flowers and little green tomatoes, one of the eggplants has a flower, and several of my seedling are coming up (those are not seen in this photo).

We started the garden late in the year so we are not expecting miracles even though my father seems to think we are going to get a ton of tomatoes. I will be thankful if I learn enough this year to actually have a harvest next year. Wouldn't that be something?

Rose Bush

2008-06-12T06:35:00.001-07:00

Here is the rose bush that I wanted to give away 7 years ago. At that time, it gave us maybe 1/2 dozen blooms and looked like a very homely stick. My mom pruned it a few years back and it started to fill out. I made the mistake of pruning it again this past February and Jason cut back the maple tree that grows in the center of it and now it is a monster! It is scheduled to get a trellis in a few weeks.

Raspberry Bush

2008-06-10T05:45:00.001-07:00

Here is our prized possession, the self pollinating Raspberry Bush. I am hoping to get some more potting soil for it tonight.

Garden Update

2008-06-10T05:42:00.000-07:00

So Far

2008-06-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

Here is what the garden looks like so far. Larry and I stopped at the Berlin Farmers Market Saturday morning where I was only able to pick up some strawberries... not too much in season around here.

On the way back home, we stopped at a farm stand where I picked up some Marigolds for pest control. Always more work.

Jay and I stopped at a few farm stands today. We were able to buy produce, although most of it was trucked in from New Jersey. Very disappointing, although at least it is not from California. The man there said that they were growing most of what I was buying, but it wasn't ready yet. I felt like such a dork asking where everything came from... and the woman there was a bit of a biatch. Oh well.

We also stopped in at Ali's to pick up some 3 gallon bucket for the Marigolds and the basil I bought at Stop and Shop. While we were there, a self pollinating raspberry bush attached itself to us. So we are now proud parents of a raspberry bush that I will have to protect from my berry picking dog, Miss Kelso.

I am now on the quest for some strawberry plants....

Gimme More

2008-06-06T18:54:00.000-07:00

We have our very first tomatoling thing today. There is a green tomato on each of the Cherry Tomato plants! Victory is ours.

Today we planted: 6 Roma Plum Tomatoes and 2 Hot Cherry Peppers.

Getting bigger!

2008-06-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

When I decided I would try to plant a garden, I thought that the easiest way for me to start would be using containers. I even had a premo spot for them on the deck that we NEVER use. If this gardening thing turns out to be something I enjoy, the deck is coming down!

My husband nicely picked up more totes from Target and let me know that this was the last of them. Meaning that I would have to throw away the rest of my plants. This started me on my short adventure of finding a cheap source for 5 gallon buckets. A coworkers husband happens to run a nursery. Yeah for me! In the photo you will see my fabulous find of $1 - 5 gallon black buckets recycled from the trees that they sell.

Today we planted: 2 Hot Cherry Peppers, 1 Polish Tomato, 1 Celebrity Tomato, 2 Ghostbuster Eggplants (1 is in a garbage can), 1 Roma Tomato and 3 Market More Cucumbers.

Here is what the garden looks like today, with Kelso on the prowl.

Cucumbers

2008-06-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

We have a slight cucumber problem. Pictured above are my Market More Cucumbers. The way they were packaged in their little seedling container (3 to a container), I had a hard time deciding how to plant them. So, I planted them as they were and decided if I had to, I would separate them later. Also in the photo is Kelso, she thinks it looks wrong too.

We ended up planting: 2 Hot Cherry Peppers, 2 Cherry Tomatoes and 6 Market More Cucumbers. All six cukes in one container for now...

Day One

2008-06-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

After trying to locate a local source for plants, we settled on getting some from 1 town over (Cheshire, CT) at Sunny Acres Farm. From what I could see it was a family operated business.
We picked up mostly tomatoes (several varieties), cucumbers, peppers and eggplant. I was happy to find Roma's, I want to try my hand at making sauce and my husband was happy about tracking down some cherry tomatoes.

The 10 gallon buckets were purchased at Target for an OUTRAGEOUS sum of money... I think $4.50 each. We drilled holes in the bottoms and sides of each bucket, added gravel (which we already had) and washed it off, added Potting Soil (we chose Scotts Premium from Home Depot) and wet it thoroughly, and added two plants. After everything was planted, we watered them and gave them some Miracle Grow - also from Home Depot and called it a day.

We planted 2 Celebrity Tomatoes, 1 Ghostbuster Eggplant (not seen photo below), 2 Polish Tomatoes, 2 Cherry Tomatoes and 2 Roma Tomatoes. Here is what everything looks like on Day 1.

Victory Garden

2008-06-01T04:06:00.000-07:00

In May I purchased the book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. By the time I was halfway through the book, I had to have a garden (Damn you Kingsolver!). This book reminded me so much of my grandfather, it was unbelievable. Like Kingsolver, he grew his garden as a hobby, food and profit. His wife (my grammy Chalifoux), was a "city slicker" that adapted very well to farm life from what I understand. My husbands' grandmother (Millie) also had her own garden, hers, like ours was in the city. Both my husband and I have fond memories of picking vegetables straight out of the garden and eating them like candy. (His favorite was green beans, and mine was peas.)

So, here we are. We have decided to take on the challenge of gardening in the suburbs. This year however, no green beans, no peas. Yet.

Links:
-Victory Garden: http://www.revivevictorygarden.org/
-Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/