Blood and Sweat-but no Tears!

Well I'm almost a month behind last year's gardening schedule but between the weather, having a lot going on and some issues with my back (herniated disc) I'm just now getting around to getting it in.  If the rains will hold off today most everything should go in tomorrow and Sunday.  While I'm waiting for things to dry out I thought I would share my latest and greatest (maybe) idea for some of the plants.

Last year I had a problem with some root rot on my squash and my cucumbers sort of grew out and spread all over the ground, making it hard to walk and hard to pick.  After seeing this in someone else's garden I thought I would give it a shot.  You will need the following:

A 50' long roll of fencing, some wire cutters and some zip ties.  I used that to create these...

Not your everyday flimsy cages!  These cages are made with 6' sections of the fence, they stand 5' tall and hopefully will each be able to support the weight of 5-6 squash or cucumber plants once trained to grow "up" instead of out and all over the ground.  A couple of notes though once I got going.  Try to cut the fence very close to the joints and be very careful of the rough edges...very careful.  As it springs back when you cut into it-it can bite ya!

Luckily it looks worse than it was but my arms look a bit like I have been in a cat fight.  I zip tied most of the rough joints where the cage meets at the ends so that should help.  Another note-after putting them together Leslie tried to stick his hand into one and it wouldn't fit-making it almost impossible to pick veggies from inside the cage-yikes!  Luckily my hand fits in ok, but you may want to play with different sized openings in your wire fence.  I think once buried in the ground I'll be able to reach down into them and grab what I need.
It was nice to be back outside, getting some physical work done and putting some sweat equity into the garden-even if it wasn't actually playing in the dirt!

I plan on putting them in, planting the seeds around the outsides and then "training" the plants up and around.  I'll keep you posted on how they turn out...Happy Good Friday!

It's Been Awhile...

Wow where does the time go?  Is it already the end of March?  Is it really 2011?  But with Spring comes...gardening!!  After a few sleepless nights thinking about which way to lay out my rows this year I was anxious to do a first "plowing" yesterday.  Man that tiller (borrowed from a neighbor) really kicks my tail!  I'm planning (hoping) to re-till this whole area in a few weeks before I do any seed planting.  I think it might really keep down the weeds.

I had a few stragglers from last year in the garlic and onion family so I went ahead and pulled them, split them and relocated them in their new row position.

I also purchased some more onions, both red and sweet full sized to plant-this will be my first try with this size onions.  As a general rule I have had trouble with almost any type of onion so this is a an experiment for sure.  Luckily they mature by around the end of June or earlier so I can always pull them to make room for something else when the time comes.  Each large batch was only $3 or so-I actually may not even plant them all-it's just too many and takes up too much space.

Finally a couple changes this year-I decided to move my herbs to pots.  I had a few living from last year (Rosemary, Chives, Sage and Flat Leaf Parsley) and I rounded that out with a few more purchased yesterday (Basil, Oregano, Thyme and Cilantro.)  I did it for a couple of reasons.  First off it frees up more room for other stuff (because that of course is every gardener's goal-to plant more stuff!)  Secondly I wanted to be able to save some herbs from weather conditions by bringing them indoors as needed.  For example the Cilantro really doesn't handle summer heat well and the Basil always gets snapped when it cools down.  This way I can move the pots in and out as needed and keep fresh herbs throughout the year.  Of course now I just have to remember to water them more frequently.

I really don't do well with indoor plants but hopefully since these were started outdoors maybe I won't kill them?  That's all for the first 2011 Garden Update-welcome back!

If At First Your Don't Suceed...

So somewhere back around May 25th I posted this very frank post about losing weight.  Well needless to say the summer weight loss plan didn't really go "as planned."  I wrote last week about joining Weight Watchers and so far I'm pretty pleased.  My list of things to try to do in the last thread posted above was pretty straightforward but I just couldn't figure out how to do it.  Lack of motivation, too many summer plans, I'm really not sure.  Whatever the reason for the failure in the last few months I seem to have had a really nice turn around.  Again I can't really say why, I don't think it's $40 a month I'm paying to WW, maybe it is the change in the weather, or maybe just one of those really need to "come to my senses" things.

All of the things I struggled with in the last few months I seem to be able to handle now, the less drinking, more moving, eating less, eating more healthy and even getting in breakfast every day all seem to be hitting their strides.  I have to admit to being very frustrated the first few days on the program, mostly because I was struggling with what to cook for dinner.  Now it seems the foodie in me has taken over the challenge and hunting down healthy recipes has given me the motivation for label reading, calorie counting and trying some swaps in recipes.

I'm almost 2 weeks in, which granted isn't a very long time but I feel confident about my future progress.  I also just flat out FEEL BETTER.  I'm amazed at the difference in the treadmill already.  I wouldn't think a couple weeks of more moving would really help that much but it seems to have helped a lot.  Just a few things I have noticed so far...
 1. No drinking seems to be working better than cutting back.
2. Progresso soups are my friend (especially at lunch!)
3. An apple around 5pm helps me get through til dinner time.
4. 100 calorie popcorn bags are a great "fill up" snack.
So that's it in a nutshell so far-more updates to come!

Long Time, No Blog...

Wow it's been a long time since I blogged!!  The garden is really done, well more like I'm done with it ha ha!  Okra is too tall to even pick anymore plus we really are sick of it.  I picked what I assume will be the last of the green beans last week and froze about 3 sacks of them.  I pulled up the peppers and tomatoes a few weeks ago and all that remains are some fresh herbs that should continue to grow until the first frost.

In other news my beginning of the summer diet has gone completely South and I decided to go ahead and join Weight Watchers.  I think it is the motivation I need and should keep me a lot more accountable in my eating and drinking habits.  With the cooler weather approaching I find it a lot easier to exercise as well.

So in a nutshell probably less foodie posts from me unless they are healthy.  I will be working on finding substitutions for a lot of the less healthy foods I cook.  It's all a bit discouraging since I enjoy cooking, eating etc. so much.  But I think all of that is what has gotten me in this mess in the first place.  I'm sort of obsessed with food, I like reading about it, clipping recipes, cooking it and of course eating it!  Hopefully future blogs will report my progress!

Just Too Darn Hot to Garden...

I hate to say it, but, I'm kind of over it.  Over the heat, over the weeds, over the sweat pouring down into my eyes when I pick green beans.  Ok maybe all that is a bit strongly worded.  But still, how many days over 90 will it take before everything just shrivels up and dies?  Some days I just want to throw in the towel and let it all wither.  Oddly I'm still getting a decent amount of produce...this is from the last week:

As you can see I'm not having any trouble with the okra and I finally picked my only carrots.  Slightly disappointing harvest but I did use them when I cooked for round three of Iron Chef Battle Squash (which will probably be the final battle as my new squash plants look like this...)

I guess day after day of 90+ degree heat combined with the lack of rain just sort of stopped them in their tracks.  (I'll be posting round three of the squash tasting later this week-when I remember to bring in the recipe.)
We still have tomatoes...

Although the plants attacked by the hornworms look more like this...

Stripped bare of leaves, sad and devoid of tomatoes. 

Hmm I think there is okra that needs to be picked...might as well fire up the sprinkler while I am out there...maybe I'm not over it after all?

Invasion of the Giant Man-Eating Worms!

I have been fairly lucky up until this point to keep my garden pretty bug free.  I mean sure some Japanese Beatles have snacked on the green beans a bit but other than that I have only had to even spray for bugs one time at the beginning of the growing season.  So imagine my surprise, dismay, complete revolution when I found these guys on my tomato plants.  The Hornworm.

I was just taking a quick glance at things before heading out of town and I noticed the tops of two of my plants were missing.  I have been having trouble with them leaning a bit and growing above the cage so I figured the plant had just broken off.  But I was perplexed when I couldn't find the top of the plant on the ground laying there.  After a bit more careful searching I found some of these guys perfectly blending in with the giant stems they were devouring.  They had eaten about half of the ENTIRE PLANT!  Leaves, stem, tomatoes-everything!  After removing these four mid-day, and two more later in the afternoon I applied a quick spray of Sevin bug spray and hoped it would keep them away.  No such luck.  While I have been out of town Leslie has removed about 6-8 more of the suckers.  I guess they don't mind Sevin products, maybe they found it to be a tasty condiment to the large quantities of tomatoes they have devoured.  Maybe something like a balsalmic?
In other garden news I have decided that next year all green beans will be planted in one long row instead of two rows as my two current rows are almost meeting in the middle.

Picking them has become an exercise in total claustrophobia.  Bean vines sticking to my body, grabbing at the widest parts of me from all angles.  Production has been fair, I'll be interested to see how they are after I have been gone a week.  A neighbor came by to pick some once but I'm not sure how deeply he picked into the maddening cluster of vine-y terror.
The okra has grown quite tall and soon will block the sprinkler pole.

It is always so strange in April or May to look out at this huge expanse of dirt in the backyard and think to yourself-wow I have plenty of room this year, no garden crowding, no stepping on plants to pick other plants.  The July comes and everything is growing on top of each other.  I have to admit that pulling the dead squash and planting new sort of gave the garden this "re-awakening" in a way-it's fun to see something sprouting again mid-season. 
I'm going to close for now but hope to post this week about last weekend's canning, pickling and preserving marathon (approx. 18 hours of kitchen work over two days.)  It was quite the experience.

Watch out for Hornworms this week-vicious, greedy, hungry bastards.

Would You Like Okra or Green Beans With That?

It is becoming a common refrain around here-every night at dinner, no matter what is being served you have a choice of side dishes-okra or green beans. I suppose it is much healthier than chips or fries-although fried okra can't be at the top of the diet foods list either. There is nothing like adding something you grew to the table every night. So on that note here is a garden update:

 I'm picking about this much stuff every 2-3 days.  I thought the green beans had totally fizzled out on me but then yesterday I ended up with this-

I think the extremely hot June weather caused a case of "blossom drop" which really halted green bean production.  After some cooler temps, a good fertilizing and some water they are picking right back up.

The okra is growing like gangbusters.  I am picking it almost everyday and the plants are about waist high, boob high.  At first I believed I had left way too much room between the green beans rows as well as between the green beans and okra but alas they are too close together now and when I move between the rows to pick I'm bumping up alongside all of the plants. 

My squash all seem to have contracted Squash Vine Borer and so I have ripped most of them out and re-planted fresh seed.  I was pleased to already see it sprouting and the squash casserole Iron Chef competition will probably be delayed about 50 days until we have squash again.  (I do not think Leslie is disappointed by this.)

The jalapeno peppers are producing well, but not as well as last year.  I haven't had any to can yet.  Last year I did about 12 pints. 

The red and green bell peppers are coming in and the red ones are finally turning red.  They always seem to take SOOO long to change colors.

The eggplant are coming along, I'm not sure when they need to be picked having never grown them before but the tag on the plant said 8-10" so I think I will wait a bit longer.

Finally the tomatoes which really are doing well considering the problems I have had with the fungus.  The bottoms of the plants are really devastated but they are producing fruit and we have had some BLTs and I have made 2 rounds of fresh salsa.

This time of the year most of the gardening work is the "harvesting" which is rewarding.  I tend to start to let the weeds go and the plants end up taking over most of the square footage of the garden.  I caught myself already contemplating changes in layout for next year this week-I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself-but there is always that "hmm what if I run the green beans against the fence and then I will have more room for fill in the blank vegetable".

Oh I almost forgot-I used my new canner last week (happy early birthday from Mom and Dad) to make homemade pickles-I've done about 10 quarts so far and they are quite tasty.

In fact yesterday someone told me they were the best homemade ones they had ever had.  Nice.  Rewarding.  Worth it!
Would you like Okra or Green Beans with that sandwich?