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What’s Growing in the Gardens!

July 13, 2010 By Laura 12 Comments

18_summer-squash-photos-300x200

Finally, I have gotten it together enough, to show you what we’re growing in all of these garden beds we’ve got going.   I’m telling you, I find it extremely challenging to blog about garden updates, because everything changes so fast!   So, this post shares some of the rapid garden progress that can happen in what seems like the blink of an eye.

But I also wanted to share this little story with you.  A couple of weekends ago, we had a spontaneous tag sale.  We had quite the traffic for it too (thanks to Michael’s  Tag Sale professional signage that no one could miss).  But what was so funny, was people were more interested in our gardens when they got here, than our tag sale items!!  It was comical.  They were walking around, peeking under leaves, asking questions and generally flattering us to death.  For 2nd year gardens, we were puffing up a bit and struttin’ around like peacocks. I know…then we felt guilty.  lol.  But seriously….people were all over our gardens.  We sold a lot at the tag sale though too, once they got on task for their stop in the first place.

So anyway, back to the point of the post….

01_first_garden_bed Shown here first, is garden bed #1.   This photo was taken June 23, 2010, as are several of the following photos.

02_1st_garden_tags In it, we have growing 3 varieties of tomato plants:  2 Romas, 4 Early Girls, and 2 Burpee Big Boys.
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03_garden-bed Here is another view, taken the same day, to show the height of the plants.   As you see in this garden, we also have some Marigolds, Celosia, and Cosmos.
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04_2nd-garden_bed Garden bed #2.
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05_2nd-garden-tags In this one we have growing several plants of  California Wonder Green peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, and Straight Eight Cucumbers.  We also have in this bed, 2 more tomato plants, of the Sweet 100 Cherry variety.
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06_2nd-garden-newangle Here’s another angle, from the same day.
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07_garden-turtle-ii-decor Also in this garden, is my turtle.  I had a turtle just like this one some years ago, in my hosta bed, and the kids lost it!  We never did find it either.  So I bring it up now and then to the kids, when it comes to mind, because I really missed my turtle!  Well, we were in Michael’s Arts & Crafts one day, and one of them spotted the same exact turtle I’ve been missin’.  So they all pitched in a dollar and some change, and bought me a new one.  So this one has even more sentimental value, because the kids were thoughtful enough to buy it for me, and compassionate enough to feel bad about the one they lost, when I….was trying to make them feel bad about the one they lost. lol.  I love my turtle.  You don’t have to.  But I think he is cute.
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08_triplets-strawberry-bed You’ve seen a 100 photos of our whole strawberry bed, so I skipped that.  But we got quite the crop from our June Bearing plants!  The kids were out there picking them every day.    This photo was taken on June 8, when we were really cranking them out.
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09_a-strawberry-picking

The days were still occasionally cool, especially when the sun wasn’t out. Thus, Old Lady Winter here, in her fleece jacket. lol.  My mother used to call me Old Lady Winter, because I was always cold when I was younger.  “If you can hear me up there, Mom, I’m not cold all of the time anymore!  I’m more like Old Lady Hot Flashin’!“

Our Everbearing strawberry plants have put out some smaller strawberries (as is expected with this variety) but not the  impressive quantity yet.  We should have a crop in spring, summer and fall.  But spring gave us nothing, and summer has only given is a small handful so far.  Maybe the roots are still not established enough?  Maybe we should have plucked the flowers in the early season of this year too?  Anyone know?  We’re holding out hope.

10_strawberries But if they don’t start giving us some fruit this year, we may just rip the Everbearing plants out, and let the runners of the June Bearing take over.  Because they have been very good to us!!  I’m thinking we might need 2 strawberry beds.  Maybe 3. lol
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11_big-strawberry
Care to taste the fresh berry sweetness?
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12_4th-garden-bed This, is bed #4.  It’s the new bed we built this year.   The tag salers really couldn’t get over our squash plants. One tag sale’n guy was so very amazed, he just stood there staring and asked, “What the hell did you put in there?!”  (Pardon his French. lol)
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14_yellow-summer-squash-tag In it, we have Yellow Straightneck Summer Squash, and also Zucchini of some kind, which I forgot to take a tag photo of, just like the Sweet 100 Cherries.

So, just to show you some growth and progress, and proof that we haven’t killed anything yet:

15_1st-garden-bed-grown

….This is Bed #1, with photo taken this time on July 6, 2010.  The tomato plants had grown much taller and stronger for sure.  They are also beginning to produce fruit.  I am very excited about my tomato sandwiches to come.  : P’   Even the Marigolds and Celosia are bigger than we have ever grown.
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16_2nd-garden-bed-grown The Cherry tomatoes and pepper plants are growing well too.   Both gardens have grown even more, now a week later.  I cut the lower leaves on the pepper plants since this photo too, so we are expecting a big growth spurt.

But here’s what has really just grown out of control……

17_4th-garden-bed-grown ….the squash garden bed!  Man….that guy from the tag sale would probably fall right over, if he saw it today.   It’s truly insane, and I swear it has grown another half of a foot since this shot.  See that cosmo plant in the front corner there?  That thing too is MUCH bigger than our cosmo plants last year.  This thing has a trunk!

We water all of the gardens every night with the hose.  But I’ll tell you, the rain works magic.  If it rains during the night, we can’t wait to peek out there in the morning, because there is always very obvious overnight growth.  It feels like Christmas morning!
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18_summer-squash-photos Here’s just some fun summer squash shots.   I didn’t take any of the zucchini that day, because they were just so dark on the dirt.
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19_fresh-picked-squash We can’t even keep up with the squash picking.  I sent a heap home with my father, and the next day we had a heap more.  It’s madness.  Gave more to 2 neighbors, and there is a bunch more today.    I’m going to try making some zucchini bread.  We love steamed vegetables anyway, but we might not much longer,  if we keep eating it the way we’ve had to!  I think maybe we don’t need this many squash plants.  Does anyone have any recipes for us to use these?  Do send.

No Giveaway in this post.  But you’re certainly welcome to grab some squash, if you want some!

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Filed Under: Gardening, Seasonal Home decor, SUMMER Home Decor, The Homestead Tagged With: cucumbers, front-yard-garden-beds, gardens, green peppers, raised garden beds, strawberries, summer squash, tomatoes, triplets, zucchini

Comments

  1. 1
    Michelle says:
    July 29, 2010 at 8:41 pm

    Good for you, I am SO jealous, I really wanted to do a garden! My friend Tara came over the other night, she also has an abundance of yellow squash and she prepared it like you would for eggplant parm and it was delicious!

    If you are even in need of finding homes for any of your scrumptious veggies, I know a family of 5 in Kingston that just LOVES veggies LOL!

    Reply
  2. 0
    MommyTopics.com says:
    July 15, 2010 at 2:56 am

    Your garden beds look incredible. We are in the process of building our very first ones. In the meantime, I’ve just put seeds in the ground for our first shot ever at trying to grown pumpkins, peas, watermelons, and sunflowers.

    We’ll see what happens.

    http://www.mommytopics.com/category/garden

    Blessings

    Rachymommy – MommyTopics.com

    Reply
  3. -1
    Laura says:
    July 14, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    Gina, I just do the things I love to do. I think the sacrifice in spreading myself so thin over all of these things, is that I’ll never truly excel at any of them. ; ) But I am happy doing all of the things that I do, and am learning to accept the imperfections of it all. (Verrrry slowly.) The time constraints of a day, is my greatest challenge. There is always an undone list of things I want to do, that by the time I get to, has more listed after it. If anything goes in my life, it would be my business. Because in the big picture, it’s the least of my priorities. All of the rest revolves the most around my family, and what I want as a part of their childhood.

    Reply
  4. -2
    Gina W says:
    July 14, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    Sorry, ‘hobby’s’ should be ‘hobbies’. I noticed that after I clicked on submit. 🙂

    Reply
  5. -3
    Gina W says:
    July 14, 2010 at 1:39 pm

    How do you do it all? Run your own business, home school 4 children, create extensive gardens, and the multitude of other hobby’s you have? I’m starting to think you ARE Superwoman. lol

    Reply
  6. -4
    Laura says:
    July 14, 2010 at 10:57 am

    Great ideas Ladies!! Now if you said you’ll send me a recipe or 2 (or do a blog post), I’m counting on you!! I forgot about squash pancakes, I’ve hard of them.

    Samantah, (lol…kidding about your typo, ; )….I would love that Zucchini Chocolate loaf recipe from your Baba too!

    Maria…I JUST heard about these friend squash flowers the other day, and it sounded like the craziest thing to me! Still does! But I would like to try them. Deep fried or stir fried?

    Teri…I forgot how often you have had zucchini for lunch. I’d love to send you some! Do you think it would make it there, or get yucky?
    Great tip for {A} about baking. We’ve substituted oil with apple sauce, but never zucchini. Do you really think the Green Giant would be envious?

    Wow…I’m excited with all of the ideas and recipes you all have….so send me the details if you can! E-MAIL tag in sidebar.

    Reply
  7. -5
    Teri says:
    July 14, 2010 at 9:48 am

    Oh, I forgot, BEAUTIFUL gardens! The green giant would be envious 😉

    Reply
  8. -6
    Teri says:
    July 14, 2010 at 9:47 am

    Mmmmmm, I would be all over that zucchini! I have sautéed zucchini pretty much every day at lunch. I slice a whole zucchini thin and sauté it in just a touch of olive oil and seasoning salt in a skillet. Also, you can purée zucchini and substitute it for the oil in baking recipes for a healthy alternative. I’ve tried that with success. Still makes the item pretty moist and yummy. Have {A} try that!

    Reply
  9. -7
    Samantah says:
    July 14, 2010 at 7:26 am

    I should have warned you about the zucchini, once it gets growing, watch out! Now I’m not a huge fan of it, but my Baba made THE BEST Zucchini chocolate loaf when I was a kid. I try to repeat it in the fall for my kids, but I usually buy some at the store instead of growing my own : ) Have fun picking!

    Reply
  10. -8
    Maria says:
    July 14, 2010 at 7:17 am

    Great job! I am so proud of you! We have zucchini coming out our ears too. Last night I made stuffed zucchini….YUM. I’ll email you the recipe, or hopefully post it on my blog with pics, it was deeeelish!

    Not so much on the healthy side but Michael’s Italian side may appreciate this….I pick the male flowers(the ones with just a long stem attached) in the early morning when they are wide open. Rinse out the pollen, mix up a thin egg/milk/flour/garlic powder/parley batter to dip them in and fry them up! My mom still does this too, it was always a treat to have fried flowers from my Nonno’s garden growing up. If the squash get out of control and you just can’t keep up you can pick the female flowers too and they won’t produce a fruit. We use pumpkin flowers here too, any type of squash flower will work.

    Other faves are zucchini bars and cake, or just shred and freeze for throwing in recipes the rest of the year.

    Reply
  11. -9
    Paula says:
    July 14, 2010 at 6:32 am

    I love the turtle and your garden looks fabulous.

    I will email you my two favorite zucchini recipes. If you wash them and shred them with the skin on, you can put them in a bag and freeze them. Lasts for-ev-er.

    Reply
  12. -10
    the inadvertent farmer says:
    July 14, 2010 at 12:03 am

    LOL…yes squash will certainly do that to you! We roast ours or use them in pasta salads. They are also good after roasting in red pasta sauce over noodles. You can make pickles out of them and then there is bread or muffins…I have even shredded them into pancakes!

    LOVE this post your garden looks awesome! Kim

    Reply

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