My Garden 2010

Well, I haven't posted here in awhile but not for lack of enjoying Gardening.
My garden is doing well - now. It didn't start out so well. Mostly due to that I just get so anxious for gardening season that I tend to plant seeds outdoors too early. That was the case this year. Some of the seeds didn't come up and some that did the plants got damaged by frost. It's shaping up now though and looking pretty healthy. I will miss that spinach that didn't come up and the peas that some hungry rabbits wiped out. But in there place I somehow ended up with at least 6 tomato plants when I intended to plant 2. No complaints just not sure how that happened! I must have dumped some seeds I didn't know about. So, this year we shall have green beans (pole & bush varieties), zucchini, tomatoes, green peppers, and okra. We also harvested a decent amount of strawberries earlier this month.

The most excitement centered around a dwarf apple tree that began growing apples for the first time!! In May it had probably 25 apples growing on it and our whole family was thrilled about this first. Well, sadly when we came back from vacation there were only a handful left on the tree. While we were gone there were some high winds with some storms and apparently that got the best of those little apples. :( Oh well, we are happy to see the little thing working to grow some fruit!

That's the updates for now on the gardening front.
Happy Gardening 2010!

This week in my Indiana garden . . .

Believe it or not I am still picking green beans! I've been surprised by the extended harvest I have had. They have been very productive!

This week I finally got to pick my first zucchini! For some reason the first zucchini to appear stopped growing when only a couple inches long and then would begin to rot! :( I am happy that they seem to happily growing now.

My oldest daughter loved having fried zucchini for the first time last year! Despite that I only had one zucchini this week I treated us to a little fried zucchini!! :) Even better than I rememebered!

Below are the directions I follow:

Wash and peel 2 small or 1 large (8 + inch) Squash.
Slice thin (if slices are thick it will be mushy).
Mix 1 C. Flour 1 tsp salt & 1 tsp pepper in a brown paper bag (or divide between 2 small paper bags)
Drop a couple slices at a time into flour mixture and shake to coat. Continue adding a couple at a time until all slices
Are in bag(s). Put the bag in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
Heat canola oil in large skillet. Place a few slices of coated squash in the skillet at a time (don’t overlap). When the bottom side of each slice is golden brown flip over & brown other side. Set slices onto paper towel lined plates. Allow extra oil to absorb. Sprinkle with salt and serve.
*Takes some time to fry but very good!

This week in my Indiana garden . . . a SNAKE!

This week in my garden after checking on my cantaloupe plant I turned around to walk towards my Okra and what was before me; a snake! Uhhgh! I was out of there so fast! I still haven't recovered. I do NOT like snakes one bit!! This was the first time I have ever encountered one in my garden and I can't say I'd ever even thought of the possibility before. Now I'm on the lookout everytime I enter!!

I'm not sure what I'm so afraid of. To my knowledge we don't have any poisonous snakes around here. It was either a Eastern Garter Snake or a Eastern Ribbon Snake, I believe. (info on these two snakes click here) It was about 2 1/2 feet long; not a tiny baby, mind you!

When I tried to contemplate my fear of these evil things I was reminded of the following passage: Genesis 3:14-15 "And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." KJV

This week in my Indiana garden . . .

Clemson Spineless Okra
First Cantaloupe
























This week:
My pole green bean plants are getting down to their last harvest.
My Okra plants are starting to produce several growing pods
Small cantaloupe fruit are forming! (Yeah! We love cantaloupe!)
My Cherry Tomatoes continue to ripen. (Definitely planting more tomatoes next year!)

This week in my Indiana garden . . .

This week my cantaloupe plant has spread out and is flowering, my pole green beans continue to give a great harvest. (photos to the left) This morning I picked a large bowl full of green beans! The tomatoes on my cherry tomato plant are starting to get a little color.
My bush green beans are yellowing and done producing. I plan to pull the plants up this afternoon. My okra plants continue to grow and more pod starts are developing.

This week in my Indiana garden . . .

The following photos I took this week:


This is a close up of one of my Clemson Spineless Okra plants.
You can see that the okra pods are just starting to form.


Cantaloupe - no specific details to share... the seeds I used came from a storebought cantaloupe!


Close up of Gardener's Delight Tomatoes grown in container. This variety is referred to as "candy from the garden". Extra sweet flavor, 3/4 inch red cherry tomatoes.

This week in my Indiana garden...

I was able to pick another pan full of green beans today. I'm thinking there will likely just be one more batch to pick from my bush variety green beans. However, I'm happy to see that my pole beans have now sprouted small beans... what perfect timing!

I have one zucchini growing in my container. I'm not too impressed so far. The plants look fine but that one zucchini is growing quite slowly. I'm not sure what to think. Last year (before squash bugs took over) once a zucchini started growing it grew quickly and others followed. I'm curious if my zucchini plant that I planted in the ground at a later date will grow better than the one in the container.

My Strawberry plants are giving me some larger strawberries now. They are an everbearing variety. The ones early in the summer were smaller than the ones it's bearing now.

My Lettuce continues to grow and looks beautiful. It tasted great too until we returned from vacation early July. In July it's taste went bitter. So, next year I will plan for my harvesting to all be done before early July. Thankfully we enjoyed lots of it in June and our guinea pigs appreciate the lettuce (bitterness and all) that is being harvested every couple days for them now!

This week in my Indiana garden...

This past week we were away on vacation. I was curious about how my garden was doing while I was away...
While I was gone my green beans grew well! I was happy to pick my first harvest today. My whole family enjoyed having some fresh cooked green beans tonight!
How I prepare greenbeans from my garden: To prepare I simply wash, snap off ends, and snap into 2 or three pieces. Lightly boil in water on the stove for 8 minutes, drain, put back on stove with 2 TB butter, 1/2 tsp garlic salt & 1/4 tsp. Morton's Natures Season's Seasoning and heat, stirring for 2 minutes! (yum!) I also picked a bowl of fresh lettuce & a small bowl of peas! Everything did pretty well while we were gone. It appears we got a lot of rain which was great for everything except my tomato plant that is in a container. It got a little too much water. It's doing alright though. My zucchini plants are flowering and my potato plant has grown large.

Today's harvest above.


Current photo of greenbeans (pole & bush varieties).


Sweet Potato Plant (in container)


Current photo of Lettuce.


Current photo of Potato Plant.

This week in my Indiana garden...

This week my green bean plants are flowering (photo below) and radishes are getting closer to harvest time! We continue to enjoy the spinach and lettuce.



My conatainer plants also seem to be growing well. So far no problem with squash bugs on my Zucchini plants! Yeah! (photo below)

This week in my Indiana garden...

Below are several photos taken from my garden today! Yesterday I picked my first radish of the season and soon peas will be ready to be picked! Spinach and lettuce are being eaten a couple times a week!


Close up of Grand Rapids, Tipburn Resistant Lettuce


Lettuce & Spinach row. We've been thoroughly enjoying fresh salads!


Peas are growing in the pods this week!


Greenbean row - bush variety


My Pole Beans have started climbing this week!

This week in my Indian garden

My pea plants are getting their first pods this week!
photo above of pea plant flowering.

Strawberries have become ripe this week, much to my girls excitement!

Also happy that my petunia plant is flowering that I grew from seed. I grew petunias from seeds I gathered from last years flowers. I'd never done that with petunias.

This week in my Indiana garden...

Lots of rain and sunshine in the last few days are really helping things along in my garden!

My pea plants are beginning to flower and my Quinalt Strawberries are beginning to turn red. Additional green bean plants and zucchini plants have sprouted in the last couple days. The Okra has sprouted well also.

I am also very excited to see the roses on my rose bushes are beginning to open!

Today I plan to plant additional spinach seeds.

This week in my Indiana garden . . .

Potato plant is growing! This has got to be one of the easiest things to grow. I stuck a whole potato 3 inches down in my garden a couple weeks ago and now a potato plant is growing. Photo above.


We'll be eating some spinach salad soon! (Lettuce & Spinach in photo)


Green bean seeds all sprouted and growing well!