Lettuce Harvest

The two varieties of lettuce that I'm growing that were found to do best in warmer temperatures have proven to do very well. Both the Pirat and Nevada have resisted bolting so far.  The Pirat is now at its limit for heat tolerance, while the Nevada, which happened to be partly shaded by its neighboring plant is showing no signs of bolting. 

Thinning Peaches

Thinning peaches was very hard to do. Something about removing peaches when I know I'm going to lose many to squirrels went contrary to what I feel that I should do. But to get bigger and healthier peaches one should thin them out to about one peach per every six inches. 

Summer Harvest

Fall Vegetables

This morning I started broccoli and Brussels sprouts to have them ready to transplant into the garden this fall. 

I also put some rooting hormone on two Clematis clippings I was given by my mother-in-law. Hopefully they take hold and I can plant into the garden soon. 

Blueberry Protection & Garden Update

So last night I put together my blueberry cage. It is made from five 1/2" PVC 10' pipes and 8 1/2-in Dia 90-Degree PVC Side Outlet Elbows and bird netting. I attached the bird netting with twist ties.

Blueberry & Raspberry Cage

I just finished building my blueberry and raspberry cage. Hopefully this will keep the birds and squirrels away from our berries. 

Tonight's Salad

Quick Glimpse

Here is quick glimpse at how the raised beds are coming along. We have lettuce we need to cut so it can grow again for us before the heat really starts to stay. 

Seedlings Transplanted

This past weekend I finally got the remaining seedlings that were started in the basement out into the raised beds. 

The kids were excited to get their raised bed planted as well. 

11' Raised Bed

This morning's project was a 4'x11' raised bed out of Douglas Fir. This one was going over asphalt similar to how mine are in our yard.  

Vine Squash Borer

I recently posted an article about how to combat the vine squash borer in the garden. Last night I finally got out into the garden to try it and "bandage" up all my squash plants. I was too late for one, had been already attacked by something, but the rest got wrapped up. Hopefully this method will see results, and I can actually be Borer free this year.

Cedar Raised Bed

This evening I went and installed another raised bed project. This time it was for a bigger order. Two raised beds and one trellis, all out of cedar. 

Here are a few process pictures. I just wish my helper didn't keep running out of the picture, Nacho was giving me a hand installing the trellis. 

Roasting Coffee

I have decided to try to roast coffee.... I recently heard a podcast over on Root Simple in which they discussed the merits of roasting your own coffee beans, and I also remembered a blog post a ways back on Chiot's Run which came to a similar conclusion, so it got me thinking. Would this improve the quality of the coffee we drink, and also help us save money? I was able to get an old air popcorn popper from a coworker for free, to get me started on the roasting. I ordered a bag of green Costa Rica Providencia Tarrazu beans to try out. I was able to get a one pound bag for $10. The roasting of the beans went well. I attempted to do a Vienna roast, so roasted them for just under six minutes, when the majority of the beans went through a second crack. They should be ready for us to grind tomorrow morning after they have sat for about 12 hours. 

Fresh Compost

His past weekend I was able to harvest a nice batch of compost created from our kitchen scraps and yard clippings. Was able to amend the soil of a few plants, such as my blueberry bushes. 

The bin is completely full of freshly harvested compost. 

Raised Bed

Loaded up the truck to head of to our next project. Picked up some ratchet straps for the truck. They made securing lumber into the truck's roof rack really easy. 

So we built another commissioned raised bed, this time Martín was my helper. He helped move the lumber, and then hold it in place while I started drilling. 

Some Tips and Tricks to Fight Miserable Mosquitoes : You Bet Your Garden : WHYY

Some Tips and Tricks to Fight Miserable Mosquitoes : You Bet Your Garden : WHYY

The BTI strategy has been proven to help reduce the numbers of Mosquitoes. Each neighbor puts out buckets of water treated with a piece of BTI dunk, which was replaced monthly. People have found that this helped keep the summer relatively mosquito free. As long as people don't become lax about replacing the dunks whole neighborhoods can remain relatively mosquito free all summer long.

* credit Howard Garrett, “The Dirt Doctor” down in Texas

- See more at: http://whyy.org/cms/youbetyourgarden/some-tips-and-tricks-to-fight-miserable-mosquitoes/#sthash.ee2PsVKy.dpuf

Squash and tomato seedlings

The tomato seedlings were transplanted into yogurt cups so they have a little more space to grow but are eagerly  awaiting warmer temperatures to get outside. 

The last of my squash has started to come up. 

Vine Squash Borers

Here is a short article from "You Bet Your Garden" that talks about methods of combating the vine squash borer, which can be detrimental to all types of squash plants. I may have to give the wrapping the bottom of the vine in gauze a try.

Vine Squash Borers

Vicky in Philadelphia, PA has pumpkins, that were grown from seed, in her well tended school garden. Sadly they have been invaded by pesky vine squash borers and she wants to find out how to avoid this as she plans her garden this year. Mike gives a brief introduction about the vine squash borers: They are night flying moths who lay their eggs at the base of very hallow vines. A physical barrier for her pumpkins, Mike points out, is what will be the best option for Vicky. Mike suggests to grow them out doors in containers and remove them from the containers to plant them in the garden when they are about two feet long. Additionally, Mike recommends, with gauze bandage, to “wrap the whole bottom of the vine going down to the dirtball with this gauzy material”. If Vicky wishes, she can also spray under the leaves every couple of days, forcefully, and where they lay there eggs. This process washes them away.

Here is an image of the telltale sign of Vine Squash Borer damage.

Spring

Spring has finally started to arrive in our garden. The peach tree is full of blooms. I treated it for the leaf curl it had last year, so hopefully we see less of it. The early and mid variety blueberry bushes have blooms, and the late variety still has a bit to go.

Raised Bed

First commissioned raised bed of the season done. 

Summer and Butternut Squash

Today I started our summer and Butternut squash. Last year our supply of butternut squash we grew lasted us until winter, hopefully this year is the same. 

Cucumber Sprouts

My cucumber sprouts are starting to slowly emerge from the soil. 

Peach Blossoms

The peach branches the kids and I pruned off the tree a few weeks ago have started to bloom just in time for Easter.

Converting Lawn into Raised Garden Beds Without Waste

Converting Lawn into Raised Garden Beds Without Waste



Over at Garden Therapy they wrote a really nice article about putting some raised beds in your yard, going through all the thought processes of how to make them, what to put in them and how to maintain them. Enjoy.

Okra

Last night the kids and I started our okra down in the basement. This year we plan on growing 8 plants to hopefully give us enough to have decent harvests that we can use to cook up some of our southern meals we came to love while we lived in Georgia.