Is that a bee?

A pretty hollyhock just outside the door of our little rental house. Anyone want hollyhock seeds? I'll be happy to share! Just shoot me off an email (wyomingmom@mac.com).
We're having a terrible grasshopper problem again this year. No raspberries for us... they've defoliated all of my plants...
This is my female cat, Katie. She follows me everywhere! She even eats grasshoppers... but NOT enough.

Got a favorite way to deal with these buggers?

PS... sorry no garden overview video today. It's turned stormy with lots of wind... and hopefully some rain! Maybe later...

Zucchini Bread.. please share your favorite recipe

My brother-in-law's zucchini plants
My brother-in-law has a fabulous garden beside my little rental house. He came by yesterday with a huge bucket filled with Zucchini... and would I like any...

Yes, please!!!

Now, a few years ago... maybe longer... maybe on a previous computer... I had a delicious Zucchini Bread recipe. Gone!

Do you have a favorite recipe to share?

Onions OUT... Peas IN... Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday!

The day after the big rain...

A big welcome to bestinbloomtoday of Lynn's Garden! Thanks for following my blog!

Rain... the big storm

We had one heck of a thunder storm yesterday, complete with a down pour of rain. I know... those of you who live in my previous home area of New England are probably saying... "Ya.. so?"

But we live in a desert area where our average amount of moisture received is a mere 6 inches!

So yesterday's storm was quite something! And... we're to expect another thunder storm today!

For the most part, my garden enjoyed the rain....

Garden Photos

So, I walked around the garden as mud accumulated on my sandals and took some photos to share...

A cluster of Roma tomatoes

Leaf Lettuce still going strong!

Beet greens growing tall

Sweet Yellow Banana Peppers... I'm waiting for a big enough crop to pickle these.

My watermellon vines are finally growing!

Monday Harvest 7/21/09

I've joined Daphne's Harvest Monday. So here goes...

I'm just back from the garden.

Here's some harvest pictures... sorry no totals. This year, I'm just going to enjoy my gardening adventure... but next year I will weigh everything and keep a tally.

Watering the garden!

Harvest 7/24

Today's Harvest!

More leaf lettuce for lunch!!! Yeah!! I decided to pick the cherry bomb peppers.. all 3! And I picked a few green beans... I had 4... but I ate one! Yummy! My very first picking of Swiss Chard...

HELP! Daphne... Granny... EG... Ribbit... Gardening Blogger Friends... please tell me how to prepare beautiful Swiss Chard!!! Do you eat it raw... or is it best to cook it.

UPDATE at 3:30 MDT: We are receiving a wonderful heavy rain this afternoon! It's been so dry the past few weeks... YEAH!!! Grow garden... GROW!!!!

Garden Revived... want to give you a little gift!

I just picked a whole basket full of wonderful leaf lettuce!

Here it is getting all washed up with a few drops of Basic-H2 organic cleaner.

A little gift to you!

I have some samples of that H2 cleaner that I'd love to share with you! I use it to clean all my garden produce and store bought produce... and all over the house! Let me know where to send it (my email is wyomingmom@mac.com, put "H2 sample" in the subject heading)... and you can have your own little organic cleaner for your veggies or cleaning your floor... or kitchen... or whatever!

Garden Revived!

Anyway... you should have seen how wilted all of my plants were yesterday before watering! The leaf lettuce and beets especially looked so sad... wilted... crying for water...

Then yesterday, I watered deeply using several of those oscillating sprinklers (like this).

My garden looks green and lush... and vibrant today after a good watering... actually, I way way over watered it. But luckily with Mel's Mix the roots won't be sitting in water!

The leaf lettuce, baby romaine, and beets... actually everything looks fantastic.... sorry forgot to bring my camera with me.

Well, time to make a salad!!! Have a wonderful day!

water... water...

Stopped by the garden today... my poor plants were screaming... WATER... WATER...

I've been watering by hose but I think that I'm going to set up some sprinklers to give it a good soaking.

It's been really hot here the past few days... 90's and DRY. Where's that thunderstorm we've been promised?

It's video Friday... our first carrots!

First harvest of carrots!

I couldn't help myself... I just had to see what was going on down there... oh boy do they taste and smell wonderful!

It's Video Friday!!!! Come on by for a tour of my garden!

part 1..... part 2...

Pea bed replanted

A big welcome to Warren Baldwin! Thanks for following my blog!!!

My dreams for pint jars filled with delicious peas.... dashed... I got my plants in the ground way too late. But that's OK... it's because I was setting up my SFG.

Pea Notes:

Plant peas early next year. Start in March and have a cover ready.

TO DO: Start a fall crop of Sugar Ann Peas (45 days) mid August.

In that 4x4 box today I planted:

-4 squares beets

-4 squares broccoli

-4 squares round carrots

-4 squares bush beans

To keep the moisture in...

It's so dry here in northern Wyoming and sometimes windy that I'm finding my soil is often dry even with almost daily watering!

Mel's Mix just doesn't hold the moisture like our weedy clay soil.

I read on a gardening friend's blog that she puts peat moss on top of her soil as a mulch to keep in the moisture... so that's what I did last night!

Garden Video Update 7/20/09

Welcome to Jane! Thanks for following my blog! Best wishes as you make your big move!

Garden Overview

I have had hardly any weeds to pull in my garden... but... I'm being surrounded by weeds outside the garden!

Better get that taken care of before those weeds go to seed!

Yukon Gold baby "gourmet" potatoes harvested last week when I couldn't find my camera! This basket contains maybe 3 pounds of potatoes. I roasted some in olive oil last week... they were fantastic!!!

Want to walk around the garden with me?

Find out what grows good in Wyoming...

Empty squares...

I am just totally loving Square Foot Gardening!

Empty squares...

-Harvested a few squares of Yukon Golds and more will be coming out soon.

-Harvested a few squares of radishes.

-My lettuce bed is getting empty...

Planting more...

Today I planted more carrots & radishes.

-planted 2 squares of round carrots

-planted 2 squares of white tipped radishes (don't know how these will do with the heat)

Thinking about a fall/winter crop...

-broccoli

-over winter carrots???

When I had a row garden I felt totally overwhelmed with weeds and plants... and produce. But having my garden broken down into 1 foot by 1 foot squares really makes all the difference!

Wordless Wednesday... Garden Update 7/15/09

Die Grasshoppers...

We're beginning to see ripe raspberries!!! Yummy! However...

Grasshoppers are decimating the foliage in my raspberry patch... Grumble... grumble...

TONIGHT, I shall apply DE... Grasshoppers... BE GONE!

Wish me luck...

**UPDATE**

My raspberry plants are all dusted... they look like they've been dusted with powdered sugar. Oh my goodness do we have a bad infestation of hoppers!

Where is my camera??? My Harvest begins slowly...

I am so missing my camera... it's in a bag that I put somewhere... I'm so missing sharing my garden photos with you!!!! Got to find that bag..

Harvest News...

Broccoli... I harvested 4 smallish heads of broccoli the other day. We've eaten two of them in a salad. They taste totally different from store bought broccoli. Milder... Darn... wish that I had planted lots of broccoli so that I could freeze some for the future. Well... hence my garden adventure of learning...

Yukon Golds... I roasted some of the "baby gourmet yukon gold" potatoes that I harvested the other day. They were FANTASTIC!!! Even my son who doesn't particularly care for potatoes, had a second helping! They went perfectly with my beef roast!!!

Leaf Greens... Last night I harvested another basket of leaf greens (my 2nd planting).

Tomatoes... My tomato plants continue to bush out... and have lots of flowers on them! I spied many baby tomatoes last night!!! I'm soooo excited!!!!

Peas... Tender, sweet peas are coming on! We picked some last night to go in the salad... and a few we just popped in our mouths! Aaron said they were good.

Green beans... little beans are appearing! Aaron (age 11) gave them his stamp of approval last night as he nibbled on one!

Strawberries... We're getting to the end of our strawberries. Oh did we enjoy eating fresh, sweet.. and sometimes tart strawberries!!! We got lots this year for the very first time... but jam DIDN'T get made. We just enjoyed eating them fresh too much! As I harvest the last of them, they will go into the freezer for fruit smoothies!

Raspberries... We spied a few red raspberries yesterday. Plop... straight into our eager mouths they went! We want more.... MORE!!!

We're having a terrible time with grasshoppers in the raspberry patch again this year. Guess I'm going to have to buy some DE.

Found it!!! Just found my camera! Yeah... will post photos soon!

More later!!!

Out with the sad potato plants...

My very sad Yukon Gold potato box

Out with the "near death" potato plants!

Many of my potato plants died... or were near death. It made me so sad to look at them.

So, I made the executive decision to remove the "near death" plants and harvest the baby potatoes that they produced. Yummy!!!!

I was surprised to see how many baby potatoes lay beneath those sad plants! There's enough for a couple meals... I'm thinking roasted baby potatoes to go with my beef roast for tonight!

Steps Taken...

I added compost and extra soil throughout the potato box in hopes that my remaining somewhat healthy plants will thrive and produce good sized potatoes!

Video walk thru update 7/11/09

Blooming Tomatoes!

Olpaka and Rutger

We were so busy "house finishing" yesterday, that I didn't get to poke around my garden... but I did make the time today to make my weekly Garden Video Update!

Overall, everything is filling out nicely! We continue to have nice warm sunny days here and my garden is loving it!

My yukon gold potato patch is looking very sad... but there will be some potatoes to harvest even still!

Want to walk around the garden with me?

It begins... A record of firsts!

Overview of Garden

My first Banana Pepper! I was totally surprised to find this today!

My first itty bitty bean!

My first pea!

Shasta Daisies, a gift from Ann

My friend Ann offered me some of her Shasta Daisies. I enthusiastically accepted! I love daisies... and... I love black-eyed susans!

I'm just back from digging up 2 5 gallon buckets worth of Daisies. Now to plant them around the cottonwood tree in the front yard!

My SFG is looking really really good! We're still enjoying lettuce, arugula, and radishes.

I'll go take some pictures to share with you!

Bitter Green... BE GONE!

Hope that you had a wonderful 4th of July celebration with your family & friends!

Arugula.

I planted some more Arugula in some empty squares... oh how I love this peppery... spicy green in salad... and I love SFG!!

My garlic harvest.

Funny... a neighbor gave me some garlic bulbs a few years ago. So I put them in the ground and that's it!

I didn't have a clue when to harvest or what to do with them. But then I got to reading some of my favorite garden blogs and learned about garlic scapes... and more importantly... that it was time to harvest my garlic.

Lunch time Harvest!

Yes, more radishes, a head of Baby Romaine, and some Arugula.

Bitter Green... BE GONE!

YUCKY... I pulled out all of this bitter green. It was growing beautifully... but.. It just tasted awful...

I way over planted this 2x2ish SFG. The bitter green is all gone now...

Toni's Gardening Lesson...

Always put markers in your squares so that you know what you planted!