Sunday, July 17, 2011

A Whole Lot of Gardening Going On

So much to report this week! Last week I made the third batch of salsa solely from the tomatoes and peppers in the garden. Yes, I did have to buy onions from the store, but that's minimal in comparison to all the other years where I've had to buy the tomatoes as well! Now I've got 21 cans...that should last, but....I've got more tomatoes ripening on the counter!
I also put all of those cherry tomatoes in the dehydrator. Fantastic results!! I can't wait to use them in pastas and salads. How else can I use them?

I also tried to dehydrate some of my cucumbers. Yes, it worked...no, I'll most likely not do it again. Not so worth the time/effort. I think I'll just plant fewer cucumbers next year.


Here is the fallout from the winds the other night. Most of these tomatoes will ripen on the counter. I'm not sure about some of the cherry ones, but I'm playing the wait and see game with them.

The boy's beans have sprouted wonderfully. He's excited to watch them grow.

Today was an amazing day with low humidity and highs only in the mid-upper 80's by noon. We spent about two hours this morning cleaning up the garden. I pulled up all of the cucumbers as they're mostly bitter by now and I've already made two batches of pickles. Not much else to do with them now, so they're gone. In their place I planted some Kentucky Wonder beans. I'll throw up a trellis when they're ready. In the first 3x3 box with the flowers I put some more spacemaster cucumbers. We'll see what they do. No high hopes really, but hey, the box isn't just sitting there.

I also pulled out the Fortex beans that had really just tapped out with the Japanese beetles running all over them. I planted KW beans and the rest of the Fortex I had. Again, the trellis will go up in a few weeks.



Then, I must say I got an email last week that said, "Football, soccer, baseball, basketball, cheerleading, tennis? Where's the love for lacrosse?" Here it is, baby! I never would have known to have it on hand unless someone had asked.

I did order both chicken ribbons and the bee ribbon. I simply can't wait until I get those in. I'm crazy excited about them.


The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

5 comments:

  1. You are really getting the harvest now, nice! You can use those softened a bit in hot water then throw on pizzas or foccacia bread, I put them in bread dough for a yummy loaf with garlic, don't forget hummus, I use about a dozen at a time when I make that. Finn one time ate a whole half pint container of them in one sitting and then said "mom those berries were GOOD"... LOL I was afraid of the aftermath of eating the equivalent of a couple dozen tomatoes but he was okay :)

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  2. Look at all that salsa. I didn't eat all mine up from last year. I think this year I'll make less salsa. But I'm almost out of tomato sauce so need lots of that.

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  3. You are getting a nice little salsa stockpile. I like the aerial shots of the garden. I agree the weather was awesome this weekend.

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  4. Southerners are TOUGH. You talk about the cooler weather. OMG. We're at upper 80's now and I'm MELTING. Melting, I tell you. Melting. And your gardening. And canning. OMG

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  5. Oh my, salsa! I cannot wait for my tomatoes and peppers to start producing. I am craving salsa and chips as a snack on these hot and humid days.

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