Let's Talk About Those Cucumbers

Daphne, you're right on the money. You're right, you're right, you're right. I've always grown straight eight cucumbers and they're great for the first month or so and get so bitter. I planted some pickling cucumbers in July and even though it's September now we've never gotten out of the 90's during the day and I haven't changed my watering schedule at all, the cucumbers that the pickling plants have produced are amazing. They're sweet and have that undeniable cucumber flavor that the cucumbers in the market are sorely lacking. They're crazy awesome and nothing compares. I picked some last week and I got two more today and ate them for dinner...and they didn't last on the counter long enough for a picture.

I don't know what it is. Could it be the cooler nights, or could it be that they're smaller and don't spend so much time on the vine in the heat, but I'm telling you, pickling cucumbers aren't just for pickling. They're undeniably wonderful.

The ones I bought were tauted to be a bush variety, and although they don't produce tendrils to climb, I'm wondering if I couldn't weave them through the trellis to free up square footage. It would take dedication, but seriously, these puppies are worth it. I'm now wondering how many more I can get in before the first frost which seems a long way away...although now that I've said that..... Eh, I'm thrilled regardless.

Three more sports designs for the keychains went up today. We HEART sports!

The morning comes early. Sweet cucumber dreams.

About the Eggplant.....

Weeks ago now, I posted that the eggplants had gotten so infested with flea beetles that I cut them down a bit. I didn't want to pull them out because I was afraid to bother the roots of the plants next to them, so again, I cut them back pretty severely and they have regenerated themselves and are putting out new fruit again. Amazing! It wasn't something I was expecting at all, but surely welcome.

I also found this little sucker hanging around. Actually there are a ton of them from light snowy white to this brown. I'm assuming the difference in color has to do with the age of the caterpillar, but I might just be making that up. Sounds good, though, doesn't it. ;)Have I mentioned how awesome that ribbon clearance was? I've wanted some cheerleading ribbon to add to the sports key chains and sure enough I found it. What's great about this satin ribbon is that if you let me know, I can make the webbing any color to coordinate with your school or rec team colors and you can have keychains for team gifts or for the team moms.

I also found a better woven baseball ribbon that I like so much better. I'm not thinking this will go well on a fob, but a wristlet would be perfect.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Peas, Please!

Fall had yet to arrive to Georgia as of last week. I took this picture of my pea plants this Saturday. They are the tallest, healthiest looking pea plants I've ever grown and none of the other attempts had yielded peas, so I was hopeful. They were planted in August some time and have done fantastically, but because of the constant 90 day weather (or so I'm assuming) they haven't yielded a single flower.
Until today, that is!!! Woohoo!!!

The rain from yesterday finally brought with it cooler temperatures. Now we're rocking and rolling with lots of little flowers everywhere. It even looks like I'll be harvesting some beans before too long. This just makes me giggle. I'm just thrilled.

I'm still going through the stash of ribbon I hoarded from the clearance isle this weekend. Today I'm putting up on the Keychains for a Cause page all of the polka dotted ribbon.

The first is red and white polka dots for someone who requested another University of Georgia themed key chain. I'm telling you, us Dawg fans are pretty darn loyal. We have to be after this year and last year, I'll tell you that, but the day we loose to Vanderbilt is the day I hang my head.

The next two are a purple on purple and a green on green polka dot. The ribbon's a bit shimmery which is very interesting, but difficult to photograph as the light wants to bounce off of it at odd angles.

The morning comes early. Sweet pea lovin' dreams.

Jalapeno Harvest Monday

It's another Jalapeno Harvest Monday! These little suckers are so prolific, even in partial shade and have done so much better than last year. This week I found a little red one out there.The man had it for dinner yesterday and was impressed by the immediate intensity of the heat. A lot of them out there are on the smallish side, but are getting that dark hue of just about to turn red, so I picked what was at least a decent size and brought them in.

It was yet another harvest I should have filmed because for three individual times I put my hand it to grab a pepper and came away with a tomato horn worm! YUCK!! Those things are so squishy and just nasty and you never get used to seeing them no matter if you know you're looking for one or not. AAHHH...my skin's crawling just thinking about how squishy they were. Blech.

It's finally raining outside and the kids are having a blast running around in the rain. I caught the girl here in mid twirl right when she heard the first clap of thunder. Game over. Time to go inside.

Yesterday we added the beaded and chenille ribbon to the available designs for Keychains for a Cause. Honestly, I wasn't too interested in the beaded ribbon at first, but it has rapidly grown into my favorite! Today we're adding animal print ribbon!

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Carrots!

Yesterday I found myself musing over the fact that certain things grow better at certain times of the year even though the temperatures may be very similar. I'm seeing that carrots are working the same way.

The carrots I planted in the early spring did eventually bulk up, but not to much wider than finger's width. I actually still have some in the ground that have been there since March and they're still not larger than my pinkie finger.

These carrots, on the other hand, were planted in late August or early September, I can't remember which. Here's how they looked a few weeks ago.

Here's how they look now. These are most likely the best looking carrot tops I've had. Now I'm hopeful to test my theory. I'm thinking they need the warm weather to grow the nice tops and hopefully....HOPEFULLY, the cooler weather they keep teasing us with will help them to grow nice, fat roots.

Hey, it's only a theory, but hopefully it will work. If this is the case, I just need to retrain my mind. There's no sense in planting broccoli and cabbage over and over in the fall if it's not going to grow well and get destroyed by cabbage worms when they're less prevalent in the spring. There's no sense in planting chard and lettuce in the fall when the squirrels leave it alone in the spring. At the same time, if carrots do better in the fall, I shouldn't try to force them to grow in the spring. Yes. I just need to retrain my mind to see that you can't force things to grow that don't want to, and I'd be opening up valuable real estate to grow what will.

I've also been thinking of adding a "reviews" page to the Keychains for a Cause page. I got an email yesterday from someone asking about my credibility and realized that the average joe from the Internet wouldn't realize that when they place their order, their purchase REALLY will show up in the mail in a few days. If you've purchased a key chain, and you wouldn't mind me using your words that you've left here or in other places, please either leave a comment here or email me. I'd appreciate it.

Then.....On to some bling! My mother's been asking me to make a "flashy" key chain to send to my grandmother. She loves things with some pizazz, so here it is!
Now that's fancy pants! I took it outside to photograph so you could see the beading on it a bit better. I love the way it looks on my wrist also, although I made it a bit wider so she wouldn't have to struggle to get her fist inside it.

This key chain and the chenille one below will be up on the website shortly!

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

To All the Beans I've Loved Before

I'm still learning when it comes to what grows best when in the garden. We have such a mild winter that we can actually get almost two full rounds of summer crops in and we'd do a better job of it if the SVB wouldn't also thrive down here and get in two life cycles itself.

Seems like I'm learning carrots do best when planted in late summer and broccoli and lettuce do better planted in the winter and early spring. The beans and cucumbers are both doing well in their second planting, and although I haven't picked any yet, the beans seem to actually be growing straighter now than they did during the summer.

There are no more bees in the garden, and haven't been for some time, but these moths seem to be doing the job of pollinating the pickling cucumbers....however they could very well be the ones that lay the worms that bore into the cucumbers, thus negating their benefits, but we'll see.

We've had the request to add a keychain for Colon Cancer Awareness. I've added it to the Keychains for a Cause page today.

While I was buying the blue ribbon, I ran across the clearance rack of the ribbon store. Bad idea....Bad, bad idea.. :)

I picked up so many new and awesome ribbon from polkadots to more sports themed ones including cheer leading, two ribbons with sparkles, animal prints and even velvet!

My favorite, I think, are these two below. The one on the left is like a chenille and has such great texture, while the one on the right has neat beading.

I'll be getting these up a few at a time during the next week. I'm very excited about the response to the free shipping offer for breast cancer awareness month! If you've ordered one and come back to see this, I hope you're enjoying your key chains!

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

It's All Good

Well, my friends, I came home today to find the remaining lettuce seedlings eaten down to their stems. Seems like I'm going to just need to remember which veggies I can grow in the fall and which I need to keep for the spring. It's just odd to me that the squirrels don't bother the lettuce overly much in the spring so much as they do in the fall.

I did decide to leave the stems in the ground. I've found lettuce has almost magical regeneration properties and I'm hopeful some will still sprout some leaves. It may even be better this way since it's still in the stinkin' 90's during the day here. It's all good.

Things are good also because I picked the first two pickling cucumbers from the garden yesterday! I decided not to grow these in the summer since I wanted the space for the zucchini, but they're vining so much I may just grow them on trellises next year in the summer. They were the perfect size for snacking and even though there was little to no rain and I watered pretty infrequently, they were as sweet as could be.
I'll certainly try them again next year. I don't know what's pollinating them since there aren't any bees around and haven't been for some time, but I'm sure not complaining!

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.