Gardening

You may remember a post from a while back titled "Guess" (From June 22nd ) It had to do with the forgotten garden. I was feeling overwhelmed with going full time and Nic having cancer. I had to let go of something. Well as much as I wanted to let go of laundry or cleaning, I knew it had to be the garden. Thanks to all the rain, not only did I not ever have to water, but my weeds started thriving. So I decided last week that I needed to see if my green beans were ready, but how? So, I got a good start on it, then picked my beans. While picking my beans I noticed the invasion of snails. Being that it was about 7:00 AM, they were out in full force. So after picking my beans, I started picking snails. At first I was holding them into my hand, then they started over flowing, so I went & placed them all in my wheelbarrow- thinking the sun would get to them before they could slime their way out. I got tired of making trips to the wheelbarrow, not that it was that far away, but really their was a crap load of snails. So I started plunking them at the fence. I have a chain link fence, on my back neighbors side, she has built up a little fountain of sorts & used cinder block to lint the fence. I splattered about 10 snails against that before deciding I had hopefully cut their numbers by 50%. As I am stepping out of the garden & was going towards the hose to wash my hands and feet, I noticed I had 3 little slugs on my feet. BLAST VILE THINGS. GROSS. It wasn't bad enough they ate some of my green beans & ruined a few of my potato plant, they has to slime their way onto my feet & legs. *shutter*

Here are the pictures to my story.

No matter how much I scrubbed, I could still feel the slime.

My tomato's are coming along nicely.

Cassidy told me to buy this kind, Sun Sweet. They stay this orange color & she & Stockton Love them! I can't get up the nerve to just pop one in my mouth and try it...

Guess

If you were to look at these pictures what do you think they are of?

Does this help?

I decided to post this after having a conversation with my sister. It was after dinner on fathers day. I mentioned how all the rain had just about made my garden a lost cause. She didn't think it could be that bad. Well I told her it looked like someone had planted grass seed in my garden. What do you think.

Looking at the bottom picture, the row closest to the fence is potato's. I am sure they are fine I will dig them up when the time comes. The next 2 rows are green beans. Now I planted my garden a bit differently this year. & I will never do it this way again. Last year I planted seeds in my water rows, & that's it. not as many weeds & everything grew well. This year, I did it the right way, by planting seeds in between watering rows. Some rows are very narrow, some aren't. After the 2 rows of green beans-- that aren't doing so well, I have a row of cilantro, onions, cucumbers, and zucchini's. The next row was meant for corn, but it never got planted. The last row with all the cages; tomato's, peppers, & tomatillo's.

Anyhow I told my sister if 1 person took 1 square foot of garden & I had enough people to only do 1 square foot, it would take each person 1 hour to do their spot. I still stand behind that.

Not to mention that some of the weeds aren't weeds at all. But plants that got tilled up last fall. I've got potato plants- and I didn't plant any last year. I have about 12 tomato plants that I didn't plant, I also have mint, and a few misc., all growing where the corn was supposed to go.

I'd keep the tomato plants, if I didn't already have about 10. I planted too soon & some were lost to the freeze- or so I thought. I never dug them up thinking they would just die. Well, they didn't, they got a few black leaves for a while, but now have sprouted flower blossoms. Yup, gonna have tomato's coming out my ears. Maybe I'll can some sauce this year, or take them into work, cause we just can't eat that many, not even with the help of family & friends.

Boast

I want to thank Grandma and Grandpa Murray for dinner tonight. They brought a delightful dish from Dianna's Dinners. Until tonight I have never had a meal from there, only heard about them. I heard raves about a Mac'n'cheese with ham chunks in it. Tonight we had Beef Stroganoff . It was super delicious!! I am going to boast about them. Here is their web site.

http://dinnersbydiana.com/ You can buy it and cook it at home. You can buy a full meal, or just sides or the main dish. Very convenient. They are in Layton. Give them a try- I was quite impressed.

I also got a row of beans planted-woot woot!

Garden

Well I got home last night and was able to plant 2 rows in my garden! One row of potato's- some red & some early russets. One row of misc. Tomato's- I think I bought about 4 different kinds, to give them all a try. & some green bell peppers. Tonight's planting will either be Onions & herbs, or green beans. I am still going to buy some Tomitallios and another tomato plant. I've got some Mint & Lavender, but I am going to plant those in the front, Mint would take over my garden before I knew it.-- That's what it did last year. Great for tea, but a pain to keep in one spot.

I am wondering if anyone is trying out those "upside down" tomato's I keep seeing the infomercials for? I wanted to try one out of curiosity, but didn't.

My Garden

My Garden--- Did quite well this year, got quite a few green beans. Too much zuchinni. A gazillion cherry tomatos. Some nice Carrots. I had some herbs, & what didn't get taken over by the mint (I've learned my lesson with this plant) was killed off by my neighbors who sprayed their weed killer a little too close to my garden. I did have some chives & parsley survive. My peppers were stunted in the beginning, but those little plants grew some nice big peppers.

I tried something new this year, tomatillos. Never grown or tried them, but they grew well & now I've got a few pounds in the freezer for future use. I got 3 very nice sized pumpkins from one plant. & some of the large sunflowers-- I should be harvesting the seeds any day now.

-Funny thing, I didn't plant potatos this year, because last years didn't work out. However, I have some potato's in my garden. Funnier thing-- I usually "give back" to my garden with egg shells, melon rhinds, fruit skins & pits (peaches, pears, strawberries, bananas) & just have Nic till them all up. Well last year I had squash coming out my ears, & I had eaten alot of cantelope. Well when Nic tilled last season & again at the beginning of this season... I had 3 plants sprout up that I didn't plant. One was summer squash I kept that one-- the other 2 looked like-- Honey dew-- maybe a little more oval. I pulled one of the plants, because it was taking over my carrots. The other was by my grean beans. I let it grow for a while, still not knowing what it was. I took them into work & gave them away, with the advice that I wasn't sure what the *heck* it was. My co-worker Tina & Supervisor Glenda took them. Both were cooked as thought they were a squash, because once they were cut opened, they had the seed of summer squash/pumpkin looking. The outside was white & the inside had a slight yellow tint to it. After they cooked it up with butter & salt, came the taste test. They both told me it had a sweet taste to it--Wierd. I wish I had a picture of it, but after hearing that, I pulled the plant. My guess would be cantelope & squash mix, but who knows, could have had a little help from zucchini...

Knowing that this weather would kill anything left-- with the exception of my carrots-- I picked everything I had left. Gave lots to family & what was left I took to work to hand out. I still have one pepper & a few tomato's, because for lunch today we are making french bread pizza, & those are great toppings!