Harvest Monday 7/18/2011

Harvest Monday, hosted by Daphne's Dandelions, is an opportunity to see what gardeners around the world are growing.

This week we managed to have a lot of green come from the garden. Our main harvests consisted of Fava Beans, zucchini, and our first Super Sweet 100 tomato.  We have used about half of the zucchinis and gave away a fair amount, due to the fact that we had to consume the mammoth Ambassador zucchini that the husband brought home.

Zucchini (duh)

Favas, SS100 tomato, pollinated and unpollinated zucchini



More favas

 I forgot to photograph it, but we are also including 13 1/8 oz of garlic into the harvest this week. I can't wait to use up the store bough garlic and try our home grown ones. YUM!

Happy Gardening all!

Mom's visit.... and what is that???

My Mom recently came to visit us from Florida. The boys had an absolute BLAST with her. It was awesome, she cooked every day, she loved on the boys and spoiled us all. I can't wait for her to come back.  We did lots of cooking, saw Shrek the Musical, and went to Disneyland. She screamed so loudly on the Star Tours ride....

Mom, me and Gray

 Mom brought me a fabulous present, a Kefir lime tree.  It is a highly aromatic leaf that we use for cooking.
I have lemon grass growing and now with the kefir tree we are almost at a full contingent for herbs necessary for proper Thai cooking.  Mom smuggled the plant in her suitcase, for real.  She cracks me up with what she deems necessary for suitcase travel. I'd love to see the bag inspectors faces when they scan her suitcase.

Kefir Lime tree

My first plumeria bloomed this week, it reminds me of Hawaii. Ah, I'm going to sneak away with a book and sit next to this and smell this heavenly flower while I relax.

Plumeria

My friend sent home a zucchini with the hubs. That is a ruler next to it.... it weighed in at 4 pounds 7 oz....  it was MAMMOTH.  We stuffed it and baked it. It was YUMMY.... and fed six adults with leftovers.  She let me know that it was not even the largest one in her garden.  They are going away for a week, I hate to see the size of the zukes when she gets home.

Mammoth Ambassador zucchini



So that's what we have been up to in the week since the last post, at least some of it was gardening related =)

Happy gardening all!!!

Pests of all kinds

My daily inspection of the various plants have lately revealed a wonder of icky things.

This photo was not staged, I actually found 3 of these buggers on a single leaf!

Aphids on my Scarlett Runner Beans

More aphids

Apparently something managed to get through my "fool proof" protection

And I keep finding these little things on my tomato plants. Any idea what they are?  I've been smooshing them.

Lot and lots of yucky cut worms and lots and lots of tomato horn worms.   And my Mom amazed me by knowing what a tomato horn worm was!  Who knew she knew???? Mom is loving the garden and is amazed by how great the squash look, yay!

The heat has kicked it up a notch and the plants love it. I'm wilting, and really wanting to turn on the A/C, but still holding strong and seeing how long we can hold out before cranking that bad boy on. I think we need to increase the amount of time we water the plants, they are looking a bit droopy today.

Happy gardening all! I can't wait to show you what my Mom brought me from Florida   =)

Harvest Monday, July 4, 2011

It's FINALLY here!!! Or should I say they are finally here?  This weekend marked the first of the zucchini flush.  We picked 3 on Saturday and had 2 grilled with dinner. Yum!

Harvest:

Zucchini: 1 pound 7 1/8 oz.

And it looks like tomorrow we will have more. I <3 zucchini time!

Remind me of that when I start whining and complaining about the zucchini and squash coming out of our ears.  I may have gotten a little over zealous about the squash/zucchini.... I went through and counted, currently we have 6 summer squash plants in the garden.  6.... Regular zucchini, crook neck yellow squash, and patty pan squash.  That does not include luffa gourd/squash, the kabocha squash, and pumpkin..... Oh, and the 4 more in reserve in case we need them. Yeah, I went over board. What was I thinking?  I am going to have to start handing them out as hostess presents.

But enough of that!  Join Daphne to see what everyone is harvesting around the globe, you know you want to.  Happy Gardening and hope you had a great 4th!

What the what???

We have a tomato thief in the vicinity. In the last 3 days we have been stripped of all but one of my Striped Germans and at least 4 Cherokee Purples.  And one of those Cherokee purples was a big boy.  It is not the normal culprits in my garden. These are the ones I am normally on the look out for:

Ryle tasting the bok choy in last year's garden

And Gray acting innocent

However these thieves restrict themselves to the sorrel, radishes, and strawberries. After all, you plant extra for your invading varmits, right? Gray has been known to attempt thievery of tomatoes, but usually requires help because of height issues, so I don't think he is the varmit I am after today.  I think I may have to wrap the plants in mesh to protect them. We were unceremoniously stripped of lots of tomatoes also.... I guess it as just a matter of time. Off to the store to get more protective gear...

Grrrrrr..... If it's not one thing it's another!  Well, let's hope this leads to Happy Gardening!

Napoleon complex

I think my little tomato plant has a Napoleon complex. It obviously thinks it is much larger than it actually is!  It is 3 inches tall and has set 2 itty bitty tomatoes.

Cute. I hope they make it.

Happy gardening!

A rather productive weekend.

How is it that here is never enough time to get tasks done, no matter how hard you try?  We managed to get a lot done in the yard/garden this weekend.  The hubby installed some drip lines and soaker hoses for me, yay!  And I pruned all the rose bushes of the dead-heads and managed to rip out all the brown leaves from the lemon grass.  They were looking rather shaggy.  These were tasks we had planned on getting done over the long weekend, but now they are done and we have probably more things we will think up for next weekend.

Lemon grass after a severe thinning.

My mom used lemon grass very liberally in most of our meals growing up, and I have always kept some handy in the freezer. But it was very nice to be able to plant some last year when we bought the house.  I really should have planned better about what to plant in the garden for my Mom's visit, the beans aren't producing yet (they are barely taller than my hand....), the bok choy is still tiny, no eggplant, the cilantro bolted.... the Thai chilis aren't hot... Man, what a wreck! At least we have plenty of onions and squash by next week.

Well, she can make due! Happy gardening all =)