Rule #26: First rule of blogging should have been don't feel guilty about not blogging, right?

Well... here we are over a month later and I am finally blogging again!  Every week I have been meaning to make it to Harvest Monday and share what has been growing, but it just didn't happen.  I did, however, take pictures.  We are still getting some green beans and eggplant mostly now.  I did thin a lot of the radicchio sowing bed and have had some of the thinnings cooked in oil and garlic.  I have just now started harvesting some beets.  There must be some trick to beets that I am not aware of.  Mine have been good and I have maintained dirt on the tops that peek out (and for some I pushed them down a bit), but they aren't getting super big.  Well, they are still tasty and I think that's what counts. We actually nursed many of our tomatoes back to health and netted them well so we are now harvesting a couple.  Hopefully the very cold weather will hold off for them.  The basil produced beautifully and we were again able to make pesto.  I planted a bunch of new lettuce varieties that are doing great.  As are the broccoli rabe, arugula, and tatsoi.  Although the tatsoi and matché did not produce as much as I would have liked from the seed that I put down.  I really meant to get out there and plant more swiss chard and kale, but it just didn't happen :(  I did manage to get a couple of kale plants in but I didn't prepare the soil well or take care of them after planting so I only have a couple.  It was just a busy month and after transplanting 100 plants, sowing all the lettuces and other greens, weeding, and keeping up with everyday life I just didn't have the time.  The weather was also so horrible and the bugs were out in full effect.  The girls and I stayed in quite a bit in September because of those factors.  Well here are some picture from the past month of the garden.  Several of these plants are a bit bigger now.  The broccoli rabe, for example, is much bigger.  No broccoli sprouts in it yet though, just great leaves.  I am anxiously waiting!!!!  And in case you were wondering....the jalapenõ plant is still going crazy!

The radicchio bed is doing very well.  The front ones are the Treviso that will eventually form that nice red center  after being "forced"

A few of the other radicchio bed, some beets, and green beans in the back

One of my new varieties...Palla Rosa

Broccoli Rabe...the are about triple the size now.

Broccoli Rabe

Endive

Endive

Beets

Thinnings of the Puntarella type Chicory

Thinnings

Lovely basil

Rule #25: If at first you don't succeed....try, try, again!

Ah, we are back in the business of eating fresh homegrown green beans!  After planting another round after the storm and power outage almost 2 months ago and nursing the younger plants back to some kind of health they are all finally producing again!  I just love green beans.  The radicchio are all transplanted and yesterday (September 2) I sowed arugula, matché, broccoli rabe, tatsoi, 4 different types of lettuces, and transplanted my endive.  This is the first time I will transplant these and luckily I didn't have to transplant all of them so at the very least I will still have the endive from the sowing bed.  We will see how that goes.  I still need to plant spinach and more swiss chard.  Just chopped all the leaves I had so I am hoping those keep producing.  We shall see.  Getting many eggplants, jalepenõ, a few large yellow peppers, and cutting radicchio.  Unfortunately I have not had a lot of luck with my seed savers exchange peppers or eggplant.  The baby eggplant was eaten by flea beetles so I had to buy 2 plants.  I have found that I like the Japanese ones the best though!  Please let me know if you know what is going on with my Orange Bell Peppers.  I have added a picture of them.  My large yellow ones are Heavyweights I purchased years ago that I am pretty sure are hybrids.  They are doing well though. I'll give them that!  Happy Harvest Monday (hosted by Daphne's Dandelions)!

Weekend Haul

What is going on here?????

Another view

Oh and we are getting little handfuls of Raspberries every day!

Rule #24: Try something Hot, Hot, Hot!

Actually the jalapenos aren't too bad if you take out the seeds and membranes.  We made a huge batch of jalapeno poppers to put in the freezer.  We have made one batch already baking them instead of frying and they were very good.  The spot that gets a bit spicy is right by the stem, so beware!   It's amazing that you only need one plant and the pests seem to know that they are hot too, because they stay away!  In other news you will see a few cherry tomatoes in with the peppers!  Ugh....we did not do well with tomatoes this year.  I think we got late blight, but there are still a few with green tomatoes on them.  Unfortunately even with the netting, Shnikies decided to break through and eat the Gold Medals that were almost ready to pick. We were sad about that one :(  On a positive note, yesterday was transplant day for the radicchio and they seem to be doing well this morning.  A little weepy, but that is normal.  I am so excited about the Puntarella type chicory!  We will see how these new varieties do and if they end up being the correct ones.  From the pictures I think they will be right. I have been picking and eating the cutting radicchio also.  On to more fall planting this week.  I got some new new lettuce varieties to plant this year and a fast growing Cima Di Rapa (broccoli rabe).  My goal is to plant them all and continue to transplant.  Last year I did about 100 radicchio transplants which was a pretty good number.  With the peppers still doing well and the new set of green beans starting to produce the problem will be finding a spot to put the lettuces right now.  I think that I may just pull some of the tomatoes that don't have any green ones on them!  I'm thinking the pesto needs to be made next week!  Happy Gardening!

Jalepenos and Cherry Tomatoes

One of three transplanted Radicchio beds

Radicchio sowing bed

The Puntarella type variety of chicory I have high hopes for (new)

Pepper, Eggplant, Carrots, Cutting Radicchio and Dill seeds (anyone know what is going on with the spots on this pepper?)

Lesson learned last time?  Use gloves when doing a ton of jalapenos or you hands will be on fire!

cutting, de-seeding

Drying and getting ready to be filled!

Rule #23: When the gardener is away, the squash bugs will play

So I knew going on vacation would not be great for the garden. It was dry all 7 days and the squash bugs totally took over and killed my one zucchini and one crookneck squash.  They are also threatening to kill my butternut squash plant that is small to begin with since I planted it very late!  Before leaving I was doing a good job of squishing eggs and young bugs and collected a few zucchini to take on our trip. When I got home I found two pretty mature zucchini still on the plant but they were dying and becoming hollow.  Too bad really :(  We have been trying to give the tomatoes some TLC to nurse them back to better health.  I finally netted to two outside the garden and the green tomatoes on them are looking good.  There are a couple tomatoes in the garden, but since we didn't net those ones most of the tomatoes went to the squirrels.  The foliage on them are beginning to come back, but I just don't know if we will get anything more from them.  My green bean bed is making a come back and my carrots are also doing well. For the most part my baby radicchio are looking good and strong and will be ready for transplanting later this month.  That is a positive note at least!  I also planted more fennel and beets that are coming up strong.  The radicchio, beets, and carrots were planted on July 11th. The peppers are beginning to produce and we have gotten one yellow (slightly taken over by something) and a nice red one.  The jalepenos are also producing a ton and we are getting a steady stream of eggplants.  How is your garden doing?

Picking Heriloom tomatoes early saved a few from the squirrels and the flavor is the same when ripe!

24 hours later....the Italian Heirloom.

After vacation pickings (yellow pepper already eaten!)  The basil is also doing great!

Rule #22: Summer can be hot, water slides are a great investment!

This is especially true when you have two children with summer-ish birthdays.  Since we like to have birthday parties at our home a water slide was a great option when having a bunch of kids over.  We can't believe our little Larkyn is four!!!  Four just seems so big.  She is just amazing and so much fun! She has been saying the funniest things.  Like when I ask her to help with clean up sometimes she says, "I'm on it, mommy" or "sure thing".  I just love that. She continues to do really well with Mckinley.  She just loves her and all little babies/toddlers for that matter.  Sometimes I do hear, "Mommy Mckinley is in my room and I don't want her to be." Ah, I think I will be hearing that a lot from both of them in the future.  Hopefully it will be more of the sharing and playing that they have begun to do.  It is so nice to see them playing with the little people or care bears together.  Mckinley has also taken to looking through books with Larkyn.  What makes us laugh the most is when they play in the castle tent.  Mckinley just launches herself up and through the window to peek out.  She thinks it is just so funny. Larkyn's Peppa Pig Party was a success and I think everyone had fun on the water slide and little slide pool.  I am also including some Fourth of July pictures.  Ah what a fun 5 days!  This was the last day (we didn't know that at the time) of our power being out since the big storm rolled through and left it's mark on our neighborhood. Luckily it was a great chance to see all the neighbors that were still around and how they were doing! I started this post before my trip to NC to see my brother's family and some neighbors that moved.  We had so much fun.  I will have to post those pictures soon, but wanted to add that when we came home Mckinley just took off with walking.  She took a few steps between us on the first, but now she is really practicing her new skill and letting go of things and just walking.

Father's Day 2012

Father's Day Breakfast

Father's Day Dinner

Four!

Playing

Swing time!

Going down

Peppa Pig Party

Lunch with Pig Ears

Going up

Coming Down

Mckinley's Turn

The Cake!

Fourth of July: Navy Girls

Add caption

Headed to the Parade

Rule #21: Watch your garden closely...Pests show their ugly faces around NOW (July)

So after loosing power for 5 days in conjunction with a heat wave, the garden was not a super happy place.  On a positive note, the tomatoes seem to be doing well.  After the "Deracho" storm our neighborhood was a huge mess.  Huge trees down on cars and houses and wrapped around electrical poles.  So we feel lucky with the minimal damage to the garden. Some peppers and parts of the tomatoes had to be propped back up, but all of the plants survived. We did have the generator going, but it was working hard to pump in some a/c for parts of the day so we didn't water as the water pump would need to be powered as well.
I am guessing the lack of water and my absence in the garden contributed to the webbing spider mites taking over the green beans.  My mature round of green beans were totally destroyed and my newer round were starting to go as well.  I yanked all the old ones and spayed some insecticidal soap on the young ones.  I need to get more though and really spray the undersides. Before the storm I was doing really well keeping an eye on the pests and crushing those little yellow caterpillars and eggs that usually get my green beans. Webbing spider mites are a new pest to me and I have read that if the plants also have less water they can be more susceptible to damage from the mites.  Boo. Hopefully my new round will survive.
The dreaded squash vine boror struck again this year.  I knew it was there, but I just didn't have time to deal with it until the past two nights. One of my four was beyond repair and totally wilted to I yanked that one. The other two got emergency surgery last night after the girls went to bed. One of the romanesca zucs is huge and I really wanted to save it.  I found 3 buggers in that one and four in the other romanesca that is smaller. There were 2 in the last crookneck. I then buried the stem under some good dirt and am hoping for the best. I would have taken pictures but I was just lucky to get out there and do something in the garden that I just didn't have the time or heart to get the camera out and document the process. In the past weeks I have been keeping an eye on the leaves and getting rid of any squash bug eggs that I find so they haven't been a problem yet. Saw a big guy on there last night though and will be spraying with a dish soap/ water combo tonight.

I don't know what this is but he didn't seem to be causing any real damage so I left him alone.

He was a wild looking thing!

Pre-Storm Haul

Funny when this happens

I also got to freeze my first ever Borlotti Beans!

Here are my babies. Let's hope this wasn't the last of them.

So there we have the two vegetables that were my focus this year devastated.  They have done better this year and I guess time will tell if they are truly destroyed. I even got to freeze a round of green beans! The zucs actually look good this morning. Fingers crossed.
On a more positive note I am looking forward to the lower temps this week to start my radicchio and endive for the winter garden (*smiles*).  I also roasted my beets and am going to pickle them tonight.  I did not get a chance to plant another round of them so I will try to do that this week also.  Good luck gardeners...it's a battlefield out there!

OK....so I am adding some post-mortem pics of the Zuc!

Yucky Frass.

The remaining Zucs...16 hours Post-Op!

De-Bugged (Hopefully) and covered up

Another Post-Op

Last Post-Op

Boo

Pickling the Beets