Mmmm, Okra!

The garden is mass producing okra at this point. This evening, after dinner, I took the time to prepare a couple of skillets full of fried okra. The okra is now resting gently in the fridge awaiting tomorrows feast.

In other cooking news, earlier this week I tried out a couple of new (for me) recipes. Monday I made guacamole using 2 avocados, onion, lime juice, and fresh cilantro from the garden. I also made a big bowl of salsa using tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro (all from the garden), and onion, with a splash of lime juice.

Wednesday's kitchen experiment involved homemade spaghetti sauce. Again most of the ingredients were from the garden: about 30 Roma Tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, garlic, and jalapenos. Yep - jalapenos - I removed all the seeds so they were not hot - this turned out to be roughly the equivalent of using bell peppers. The sauce turned out pretty awesome, especially after it had a chance to rest in the fridge overnight. I will definitely be making this again.

Garden Update

I finally picked my first two tomatoes yesterday, each slightly larger than a baseball. It seems like someone told me I could generally expect the first tomatoes around the 4th of July. I guess they nailed it. I have also had several cherry tomatoes already but they don't really count.

Only two squash plants remain. I removed the other 3 after things started getting really crowded. I also removed one of the cucumber vines. As it was I was bringing in more cucumbers and squash than I could give away.

The peppers are still looking pityful. I have picked a few jalapenos and two banana peppers.

Garden 2011

This years garden is 24'x8'.

What is it about a couple of days of warm weather that makes everyone want to get outside and work in the garden? This same garden that is getting so much attention right now that will be the garden that is almost completely ignored come the hottest days of August.

Cucumbers Again

About two week ago I noticed my garden had some new growth. A volunteer cucumber vine has risen from the compost. There are several cucs on the vine right now - two are decent sized. I hope they are ready before the frost comes.

Habenero Peppers

The hot peppers are ripe and abundant. Just let me know where to send them.

Garden Update

The garden is producing nicely. I pulled a couple varieties of tomatoes along with one strawberry, a couple onions and cucumbers to complement dinner tonight. I was hoping for a couple of squash as well but all the squash had been left on the vines too long (I was out of town for the week) and were too tough.

The okra is about knee high now. Several blooms but I did not spot any pods. These plants are mostly from the third planting. Apparently rabbits will even eat okra if they are hungry enough. I decided to put up the chicken wire fence after the rabbits got the okra.

The watermelon and cantaloupe vines are growing like mad. I spotted a couple of small melons on the vines. Looking forward to enjoying more of the results of gardening.

Pictures from the Garden

It, the garden, was supposed to be smaller this year, but it ended up larger. That is what happens when your trade in the shovel for a rototiller for preparing the ground.

[UPDATE: Sorry, the picture got lost during the blog shuffle.]



May 3rd and there is already a tomato on the vine.



And a couple of strawberries.



And a couple of strawberries from the wild strawberry vine.



Volunteer. Possibly okra.



Three more volunteers. Probably squash.



Another volunteer. Also okra?



And all the okra that I actually planted.

I pulled my first ripe tomato from the garden today, the okra is being attacked by what appears to be Japanese beetles, and I have three grape sized cantaloupes. Also no more bunnies since the cabbage and broccoli were removed.

The bunnies have disappeared from their nest. I know they were still there yesterday. They were less than a week old so I am assuming something (cat, bird, owl) carried them off.

Laugh Out Loud

The very same day I planted my garden, I spotted a rabbit in the back yard and put up a chicken wire fence around the garden to keep the bunnies out.

Today I noticed something new. A little hole covered with grass clippings and bunny fur. And inside the hole are three (or more) little gray bunnies. I didn't notice the bunny clutch on Saturday when I was trimming the grass around the garden so I suspect the bunnies are less than 3 days old.

Did I mention the nest is on the inside of the fence? {Cue Laughter}

OK, I have now re-routed the fence to place the bunnies back on the outside. I also battened down the fence in the spot where I suspect the momma bunny may have accessed the garden interior (and cabbage).

On a related note, my cabbage took on the appearance of Swiss cheese almost over night. By that I mean holey. Today I sprayed some pesticide on it and the okra. After spraying the cabbage, several worms crawled out into sight on each cabbage plant. After inspecting each plant and counting the worms, I gave up on the cabbage, pulled them all from the ground and tossed them into the woods so the bunnies could feast tonight. I had been needing to thin the garden in that area anyway to make room for the ever expanding squash and cucumber vines. I don't think I will be planting cabbage again.

I mentioned the okra was also sprayed. The okra has aphids. I didn't notice the aphids, but I did spot the ants which were apparently feasting on the aphids. Hopefully the pesticide will clear that up whole mess. Once the aphids are gone, the ants will leave too as they don't really care for okra - boiled or fried.

Garden Update

The garden is rapidly progressing towards various stages of completion.

Squint and you can see two tommys.




For reasons I can't determine, the next two photos are being rotated 90 degrees. If I compensate for the rotation, it does not rotate them, yet they are still off due to the compensation. After fighting with the issue for a few minutes I decided the easiest way to fix the problem is for you the viewer to tilt your head sideways while viewing the next to pictures.

Look: two squash



And some cabbage and broccoli



You can straighten your head back now.

I have been obsessively checking the garden each day. Sometimes two or three times a day. On Friday I discovered I finally had a small tomatoes and squash. On Saturday the count was up to 6 tomatoes and 4 squash. Oh, joy.

I was glad to see the tomatoes coming in. My neighbor had announced a week before that he already had some golf ball sized tomatoes, but he had set his plants out two weeks ahead of me.

I am watching the okra closely as well. It seems too early for okra but I think I have spotted a few tiny pods. Maybe.

It has been raining like crazy here for the last few days. Besides a couple of tornado watches today, we are also under a flood watch or three. So you know what that means, right? I definitely don't need to bother watering the garden this week.

The plants are all progressing nicely. I planted some more corn and okra about 10 or 12 days ago. The conditions must have been good because the plants started peeking through after only 8 days. I have even seen a couple of blooms on the tomato plants but I don't expect I will be seeing one any time soon.

I put up a chicken wire fence around the garden the same day I put the first plant/seed in the ground. Good call as I have now seen three rabbits in the back yard, or perhaps one rabbit three times.

What day is it anyway?

Today was a wonderful day to be outside.

I drove over the Athens this morning (in the freshly painted Miata) to attend Cars on the Square. It was a really nice show centered around the old downtown square. It was a really big show considering it was only its second year. I ran into several folks I knew while I was there. I also looked over several old Corvettes with for sale signs in their windows. All in all, it was a very pleasant morning.

During the afternoon I finished planting the garden. I added cantaloupe, okra, cucumbers and more corn. For a small garden, I definitely over-planted. I will have to thin it out some once I see which plants are strong.

Today I finally got around to transplanting the corn into the garden. I also put a small fence around the garden made of chicken wire to keep the cute little fuzzy bunnies out. Who is afraid of cute little fuzzy bunnies. Not me, unless they have fangs or they are after my veggies.

Besides the corn, I have some tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, and squash ready to be planted. Okra is in the plans as well but it is probably a little too cool still to get that started. This stuff will have to wait a few more days, as I have the precision machines class on Tuesday nights.

The garden plot is waiting patiently for Easter to roll around so the plants can be transplanted into the ground. I have planted some seeds in containers hoping to start the plants myself, but if they don't spring forth in time, I am prepared to acquire a few plants from HD or WM. The weather has been decent and we have had plenty of rain lately so watering has been required.