Harvest Monday

It feels like the past month or so, I've only been posting about my harvests and CSA shares... Things are growing along out back, not a lot of changes, but I realized a few weeks ago that I'd been spending way too much time on my computer. Most of my free time was being spent in front of this screen, reading about things that interest me like cooking and baking, canning, self-sufficiency, and best of all, all of your blogs! I've decided to cut back on the screen time to get through a few books I've purchased (about said interests), and also getting back into crocheting the blankets I'm making for the boys. Once Boy Wonder goes back to school in three weeks (Do I squeal with excitement, or faint from the realization of having an 8.5 year old going into third grade?), I'll have more free time (ie brain power) to think of creative things to talk about and write about.

In the mean time, here's what I brought indoors this past week...
Wednesday... I still have one plant producing a few nasturtiums. The others have all died from the heat.
Did you know you can pickle nasturtium seeds? Me neither! I had a lot that I saved for next season, and stopped gathering them up. Here's another way to pickle them from Old Fashioned Living, with other nasturtium recipes.

I couldn't remember if I'd purchased red or yellow Tumbling Toms, and now I know! The yellow tomatoes are the first Tom's of the season. They were sorta bitter. Par for the variety's coarse? We shall see...

There wasn't time on Wednesday to weigh the harvest, so I ended up combining that day's harvest with yesterday's harvest, shown below.

The beans are separated into two piles to show the difference between production based on where they're growing. The purple and few green beans are from 12 plants (south facing, sunny most of the day) growing in front of my melons, and the spindly pile is from 50ish plants (west facing, 6-8hrs of afternoon sun) in their own bed. Crazy, huh?

Oh, and those red specs next to the tiny orange sweet pepper? They're my first Thai Hot chili's. They were fruits that were on the pods when I brought the plant home. I popped one of those lil guys in my mouth, and they pack quite a punch for being so small! I can't wait to have more! I see a Spicy Thai Shrimp dish in my future...

I decided to remove them so the plant would produce more.

Below are my first cut flowers. Zinnias and "10 week stock" (I think). I thought I'd bring some indoors before they bit the dust. Like the vase? It's a cleaned up tequila bottle, lol.

This week's harvest total...

Bush Beans:  4.8 oz

Basil: ~1 oz

Baby Belle Peppers: . too small to weigh, doh!

Viva Italia tomatoes: 9.3 oz

Tumbling Tom cherry tomatoes: 1.7 oz

I didn't bother weighing the nasturtiums or Thai Hot's.

I used the basil to make this Basil Vinaigrette (I halved the recipe, used white balsamic, and only 1/2 cup oil). It's a very nice dressing that is low in actual vinegar flavor, so both boys are enjoying it too. Today the purple basil had "stained" some of the roasted garlic pink, so it looks a little better than this picture.

Remember that melon plant I'd successfully saved? Yea, well, I ripped it out yesterday in an attempt to allow more sun to reach the Thai pepper plant. Priorities, ya' know?

Last Monday I mentioned a new addition to the melon family--the melon in the upper left of the below photo, and when I was peaking at my plants from the dining room window (the only way I can see their backsides w/o climbing back there), I noticed a second newcomer hiding behind leaves! Now the total is 6 pantyhose-slung melons growing on 4 plants.

I'm feeling the urge to do another video update... The next set will be more detailed, and I'll try to go slower, I promise. It's a lot quicker and easier for me to do right now than take pictures and write about them, so stay tuned!

Please stop by the wonderful blog of our Harvest Monday hostess, Daphne, to see what she and other gardeners are growing and harvesting this season.

July Garden Tour by Way of Videos

I've been wanting to give y'all a video tour for a few months now, but wanted to wait until all the plants were up and growing...

These were the first takes, so I have to apologize in advance for them being so shaky and for the blurry "close-ups." Let me know if you have trouble viewing them or with this post loading. I didn't realize the video file size would be so large.

Video 1 is of the containers...

Video 2 is of the "square foot garden" raised beds and salad table...

Video 3 is of the raised beds along the deck and the rest of the yard...

Hope you enjoyed! On Friday I'll share a few picture updates with you as well.

Harvest Monday picked on Sunday and Tuesday and posted on Wednesday

HA! I think that title made me realize I've had a little too much coffee, and not enough food. I see more and more of the blogs I read joining in contributing to "Harvest Monday," (hosted by Daphne's Dandelions) and I actually had stuff I harvested on Sunday with intentions of contributing too, but didn't get around to posting about it! Doh! Anyway, here are the goods... On Sunday, I picked all of the ripe cherry tomatoes, and made doubly sure that DH brought them in to work on Monday. He ate most of them for a snack, and gave a few to someone who loves tomatoes. The tomato lover confirms that they were good tomatoes. LOL I also picked a few pears to see how they'll taste. Yesterday I went to work on the SFG, and decided at the last minute to rip everything out. Here is what I harvested before the destruction began (tune in on Monday for carnage pics). My three bell peppers ended up with the same rotting/scorch marks as the one seen in the picture... They were pretty small too. At least I had a good turnout of chili's! I hadn't planned on using anymore okra because I didn't think I would get enough to do anything with, but there were more out there than I expected. After I tore everything out of the SFG, I made a mix of Bumper Crop Soil Amendment (since I don't have any home made compost *yet*), fresh and dried grass clippings, bone and blood meal, coffee grounds, and added this to the existing soil. I've tried to take all the information I've read about fertilizing and amending soil, and putting that info to work. Alas, it just seems so complicating to me that I'm crossing my fingers with this mix. I did a few soil tests two weeks ago with a home kit, and my results showed very low to no nitrogen. This is why I added the coffee grounds, blood meal and grass clippings. Let's hope I didn't overdo it! So guilty! While I was mixing everything in buckets, the LO got into the SFG, and started throwing dirt everywhere. I, of course, grabbed the camera and clicked while I disciplined. Check out how tall that zinnia in the background is! He kept getting into the bed, so I gave up on that battle, and handed him a bowl in a fruitless effort to dissuade him from throwing the dirt out of the bed... Boy Wonder started 2nd grade yesterday. He had a great day, and is excited to be back in school. Dad and I were both sad to see how fast it's all going by, but are so proud of how big he's getting!

I'm a blog slacker

Well, fellow gardening bloggers, sorry for not posting anything in a while... The garden has sort of taken a back seat for me with preparations for Boy Wonder starting 2nd grade on Tuesday, and trying to squeeze in a few more activities before summer break is over. We've also had our 1 year anniversary of moving to CA, and it's had me feeling a little down and out. The garden would normally kick those bummy feelings, but I haven't been gardening! It's too stinkin hot, and I'm too busy for it! The good news is, there hasn't been a lot going out there... I finally got around to frying up the okra I'd been stashing. I chopped and froze about 1.5 sandwich bags worth, and ended up making way too much for one sitting. Now I know that next time I grow okra, I can probably cook about 1/2 that amount at a time. I don't know that DH and Boy Wonder will be glad to hear that since they didn't like it a lot. The LO and I, on the other hand, scarfed the fried okra! Then again, I've got southern blood runnin' through my veins, and the LO eats almost everything. He's been the one eating the cherry tomatoes, in fact. I tried them, I promise, but I didn't like them! Blegh. I served the fried okra with BBQ chicken topped with grilled Fresno's. So yummy... This is the lone giant purple zinnia that grew from the 6-10 I planted on June 1. The first picture was taken 10 days ago, and I thought I'd caught it at the end of it's bloom, but it turns out it was the beginning... the second picture is from today. The zinnia has filled in nicely... Here is my first watermelon. She's still growing, but growing sorta crooked. I think this may be the beginning of the end for her. I recall reading a blog or forum post somewhere where melon's that weren't fertilized grow for a while then die off, and I'm jumping to this conclusion due to the funny growth. The good news is, I ensured these ladies got some lovin'. Teehee The one on the left was pollinated 3 days ago, and the one on the right was done today. Here are my Texas Grano 502 onions. I started them on the 7th, and they began sprouting on the 11th. I have them growing in a 2:1 combo of Miracle Gro Seed Starter and vermiculite, in a plastic container that salad greens from Costco came in. I also started my first round of Waltham 29 broccoli (3 square pots) and Red Acre Cabbage (circular pot) on the 13th. It took the broccoli 4 days to begin sprouting, and the cabbage 6 days. They're looking a little leggy so far... Hmm... I guess there have been some things happening around here after all! I'm feeling a little better now... Yay!