I'll Be Back Soon - I Promise!

As you are well aware, I haven't been blogging about the garden much lately. There are several things contributing to this: the discovery of Facebook (a major time suck), working too hard (another major time suck), being plain ole tired, and there's nothing really going on - just waiting for things to grow!

I harvested enough tomatoes to feed a small army today. My pepper plants are producing like crazy although the red ones never turn red so we just eat them green. Still great! Last week we made stuffed green peppers from our homegrown harvest. Yummy! I'll have to share the recipe in a future post. Today I also noticed that the corn I didn't think was going to produce has now formed ears. I harvested 2 ears that we are about to eat. Can't wait! I also harvested 3 cucumbers!! Yes - cucumbers!! The veggie I've never had any luck with. These are pickling cukes so I'm going to try to make some homemade dill pickles next weekend.

This week I'm off to a residential training program for work so I'll have to share photos, recipes and more when I return.

Happy growing!

Attack of the Japanese Beetles

Wow - no posts for a while! Sorry about that. Between going to Vegas for The Amazing Meeting 7 (which was AWESOME!), working 12 hour days, and then getting sick on top of it all, I haven't been able to get in the garden much. I went out yesterday and noticed I have lost one green bean plant to Japanese beetles. The buggers have totally skeletonized all the leaves on one plant and are working on the others. They are all over the place! I've never had a problem with Japanese beetles before, so this is disappointing. Today I sent Dave out to pick off what he could and drop them in soapy water. This is the best organic approach but definitely not the most efficient. I'm not sure if any pesticide exists to destroy them and, even if there is something, I'd have to spray constantly. So, it's a battle of me against the bugs.

On the plus side, we're getting TONS of tomatoes and green peppers. I have at least 2 green peppers large enough to make stuffed peppers. Need to look up a recipe and give that a whirl. The corn and sunflowers appear to be doing well. It looks like I may have some success with cucumbers this year, too (but I'm not entirely convinced yet). I did see a bumblebee on my cucumber plant yesterday so that was exciting. Means I have some natural pollination occurring!

Well, I need to get myself outside. It's a beautiful day but nothing has been watered since the last thunderstorm came through. The plants in pots are looking pretty sad and, despite how I feel, I still need to get out there and at least get stuff watered.

Toodles!

Triumph and Tragedy Gardening Style

I harvested the first tomato of the season the other day (did I already tell you this?). This is a first for me - first tomato BEFORE 4th of July. I got my tomato plants in the ground earlier this year and it seems to have paid off. In my excitement I forgot to take a photo commemorating this feat of gardening. Dave and I ate it in a salad the other night. It was quite tasty! Now there are lots of little red grape tomatoes on the vine. I'll have to point those out to Dave as he loves grape tomatoes (I have issues with biting into them...that discussion is for another blog).

So, what's the tragedy amongst this triumph? Dave pointed out to me that I forgot to put the nozzle back up on one of the rain barrels. Of course, it was the nozzle that leaks. The entire rain barrel drained overnight. :( So, I'm torn about the 4th of July weather forecast. The forecasters are predicting storms. Yay for filling the rain barrels but it will ruin the 4th of July fireworks and I do like a good fireworks display. Even if Mother Nature were to provide a nice one in terms of lightening and thunder, I'd still miss the man-made variety.

A Break from the Heat

Finally! The way-too-early-in-the-season heatwave has broke and Dave and I are able to enjoy a nice evening outside on our expanded patio with a fire. Dave put the gazebo cover on over the weekend. I must say, the patio looks totally awesome and inviting now - hence the reason why we're enjoying a little break outside this evening. Too bad my goofy dogs hate to be outside. The pix above are the before-and-after shots of our patio. The before is from 2007 - yuck! But look at it now! We expanded the patio last year and this year added the planters for the hops. Sweet!

Yesterday I did a little work in the garden. I planted some petunias in the garden beds that had the early Spring plantings in order to spice them up a bit. Dave and I worked to cage the Roma tomato plant with some faux bamboo poles and some twine. We'll see how that works. I also trained the pickling cucumbers up faux bamboo poles (today they have blossoms!). Knock on wood, so far so good with the cucumbers this year. I guess they just need to be in a lot of soil. I also planted the regular cukes and I have pumpkin seeds soaking so I can give those a go. I hope I can attract enough pollinators to get some cukes & Jack-o-lanterns this year. Dave has discovered the frustrations of the Japanese beetle. Now that we have hops, we have them all over the place and they are eating the hop leaves. He picks them off and smushes them. I think it's weird that they eat the hops because the leaves are fuzzy and the vines are really "grabby." The vines will grab onto your clothing and stick!

Ahhhh...the Corinthian Bells windchimes are hung...we have a slight breeze...a fire and citronella candles going...now all I need is a Tequila Sunrise or Long Island Iced Tea and I'm set!