Our first garden salad...

Our 1st garden salad!
We enjoyed a nice salad from the garden tonight... baby romaine, broccoli, danvers half long carrots and radishes.

Radishes are my husband's very favorite vegetable from the garden... so tonight I planted a bunch more for him!

I'm beginning to let some of my muscovy ducks into my garden... not the whole herd of them (all 9)... just a few females and a male.  I have to really watch them as they pass their favorite greens... cucumbers... beets... corn...  overall, they're doing a pretty good job gobbling up the hoppers.... but sometimes the greens are just too tempting!

You'd laugh if you heard me out there with them (I am mama duck!)... I'm always telling them... "Eat the hoppers.... Eat the hoppers!"

Harvest... red beets, greens, beans, radishes

I should have harvested my veggies BEFORE watering! Did you happen to see my Keen sandals from yesterday's post? Oh my! We have heavy clay soil here... and I was totally weighed down!

LOL!!! Anyway... I pulled quite a little harvest... even had enough beets and lettuce to share with my folks!

Included in my harvest: green beans... just a few..., radishes, baby romaine, leaf lettuce, my new most favorite green... swiss chard... (oh... lunch time is calling me!!!!) and beets.

I spied my very first baby Mandan Corn ear yesterday... yeah!!! And 2 little baby watermelons!

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!

Garden Harvest 7/1/09

A big welcome to Amy, Mary, & Elaine! Thanks for following my blog!!

I picked some romaine lettuce...

And yes... more radishes...

A few baby yukon gold potatoes...

And 2 garlic scapes...

And an even bigger batch of yummy strawberries!!!!

I even got to see the strawberry patch toad!

Yummy!!!

Strawberry, lettuce, radish Harvest!

I walked by the strawberry patch and noticed bunches of ripe strawberries! This is our first year to have such a grand harvest!

While I was picking... I had a little SURPRISE!!!

Out jumped a hoppy thing.. a Wyoming toad perhaps....

He jumped on my toe then out of the strawberry patch!

I'm so excited about my harvest today... because we're having a small family gathering... and I picked 2 heads of lettuce, 1/2

dozen or so icicle type radishes... and we have these delicious strawberries to enjoy!

Oh... we'll be enjoying grilled burgers... from the steer that our family raised!

Bolting...

My leaf lettuce, arugula, and spinach are all bolting now... However the baby Romaine seems to be doing fine!

Onions... need help!

EG, this is one of my little watermelon plants! It's my first time growing melons.So sad... the main stem on one of my Roma plants must have cracked off in a recent storm that included some pretty good wind. We'll see how it goes... I have 30 something more Romas so I'm not too worried...
Help!!! My onion patch doesn't look that good... some of the leaves are turning yellow. This is my first time growing onion sets... is that normal for the leaves to turn yellow? I did notice a flower blossom budding on one of the plants.
Another yummy harvest of lettuce greens. Some of my plants are starting to bolt..
Look at these beautiful radishes! Hubby got these to go with his lunch... and lots of lettuce on his ham sandwich!

No more Onions Aaron!

Welcome Red & Green! Thanks for following my blog!

Baby Romaine... looking good!
After I read Granny's blog post earlier today about all the stuff she was getting done... I thought that I'd better kick it in gear!

So... out to the garden this afternoon!

Popping Corn planted...

Finished filling my last 4x4 box and planted some hull-less popping corn! This should be a neat experience... never planted popping corn before... but my family LOVES popcorn!

Flower Boxes...

I have a few smaller boxes that I made up from scrap wood that I will use for flowers. I have Shasta Daisies and Black Eyed Susans sprouting in the inside greenhouse. It's really time to plant them! So will need to get a bit more soil mixed up.

Mel's Mix... My Mixing Station

Here's a photo of my Soil mixing station. I picked up the big red silicone (I think) buckets at Costco. I put my compost mixture in the wheel barrow, slice open a brick of Peat Moss, and dump about 1/3 bag of Vermiculite in one of the red buckets.

Then I dump a shovel full of each component into the middle red bucket... and... mix... mix... mix... then repeat until bucket is filled!

My Helper Today

My son Aaron, age 11, helped me today. I had to keep shooing him out of the onion bed!

Aaron planted 4 broccoli plants and 4 marigolds tonight. Broccoli is one of his favorite veggies... well... maybe 2nd to onions...

BUGS Update...

As I was watering my SFG, I found hoppers... GRASSHOPPERS... little ones... but I am concerned because last year we had hoppers really bad... they ate the folliage from my raspberry bushes! And munch on my Hollyhock leaves... bad... bad... hoppy bugs!

So I googled... and found out that Grasshoppers do not like Cilantro! So tonight I planted bunches of Cilantro in my beds! I went right down the middle of my 4x4 and 4x8 beds with it... running along one of string dividers. I love cilantro... so... it'll work for me!

And I read about putting a molasses/ water mixture in cups to catch them... so I added some cups of this stuff in some of my beds. I caught bunches and bunches of grasshoppers with this mixture last year.

Question...

Do you have a grasshopper solution?

Sunshine all day long... after a night of rain

Hi Ribbit! Thanks for following my blog! Great bug pictures today! That wasp does look kind of scary!
Here's a photo of the leaf lettuce, arugula, cilantro, basil, cilantro, and one little onion that I harvested for my birthday dinner at Mom's house.

Oh boy did it smell good... the basil... and cilantro... and arugula... pungent & spicy... this is soooo exciting!!!

Woke up to Rain this morning... YEAH!!!

Rain!
We are sooo blessed to have rain during the night! My garden is going to LOVE it!!!

Yesterday, I noticed blossoms and little peppers on my cherry pepper plant. Forgot to take a picture, but this is my lettuce bed!

Lettuce Harvest

Today, we're celebrating my birthday with a dinner at Mom's. I'm going harvest a bunch of this lettuce to share. Should be yummy!

We've especially been enjoying the arugula! So spicey... yummy! Didn't plant enough of it!!! Got more in the works though...

Building beds... Filling beds

I'm done building beds... ran out of stuff to fill my popping corn bed... it needs a bit more... will get more supplies on Monday. I also have a few smaller boxes to fill for flowers and a zucchini plant.

I'm am soo loving walking around my garden... watching everything grow!

I picked...

I am sooooo excited! My pre-teen son, Aaron, & I were uncovering the garden this morning... when... he spotted some Radishes that needed to be picked!

So we pulled 1/2 dozen or so radishes... (then replanted more together!!!)

We cut some lettuce leafs... and some spinach... and some arugula.

Aaron loves to eat it all!

So we had greens to go in sandwiches for lunch with radishes to much on too!

Another Garden Giggle...

The other day Aaron came up to help me work in the garden. When I got near him... I could smell this strong... pungent odor... "Aaron, have you been eating chives?" YES!

Well, they were very fragrant!

Mandan Corn is sprouting!

Everyday I see changes in my garden! It's so exciting! I have certainly been "bitten" by the gardening bug... LOL!

My Mandan Corn is sprouting!!!

And this weekend, we enjoyed little snipits of fresh lettuce, spinach, arugula on our sandwiches.

Filled box 4 with Mel's Mix

I filled box 4 (8" deep) with Mel's Mix this afternoon. Will be planting Yukon Golds and some Red potatoes in this box maybe tomorrow!

Also picked up 6 more bales of peat and 14 1cu' bags of compost. I'm so grateful for my teenage son who helped me unload!!!

So far I have planted in my 4x4 "canning" boxes:

-box 2, Wando Peas

-box 3, Bush Green Beans

Spring Crop in box 1:

Lettuce

Spinach

Radishes

Early Peas

Cukes in the north 3 squares