Harvesting Fall Beets

As I'm getting ready to plan out this year's vegetables, I know I want to include beets. Again. I thought I had planted beets last spring for the first time ever, but somewhere along the growing season I forgot, or thought they never came up. All summer I thought I had grown 2 plots of swiss chard, … Continue reading Harvesting Fall Beets

Kitchen Lettuce

I saw on Pinterest lots of pins about how you can grow some vegetables from the remains of store-bought or farm-raised vegetables. I thought I'd give it a try with some green leafy lettuce I bought at the grocery store. First, I cut off the end off the head of lettuce. I wrapped the washed lettuce leaves, … Continue reading Kitchen Lettuce

Taming my Tomatoes with a Florida Weave

I keep searching for just the right way to tame my tomatoes. I've tried different trellising methods, but they just seem to grow crazy and become totally unwieldy by late summer. That's also why they are banished out of view to the side garden. Of course it would help if I pruned them like I should, but … Continue reading Taming my Tomatoes with a Florida Weave

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2015! As many of you have noticed, I had to take a little break this fall. Sometimes, life just gets busy and something needs to give. I've been taking lots of pictures and notes, so I'm looking forward to catching up over the next few weeks. In the … Continue reading Happy New Year!

Final Harvest

It's getting to be that time of year when the vegetable garden is waning. I've pulled some things already (beans, roma tomatoes, sunflowers, summer squash, cucumbers), but others are still producing. We've been lucky to not have had a hard freeze yet. So even though I thought I had picked my last harvest last week … Continue reading Final Harvest

Planting Garlic

I decided to try something new in the garden this fall--garlic.I've been reading about how to grow it, and it seems pretty straightforward. Hope so! It should be planted in the fall, 6-8 weeks before a hard frost is likely. Unfortunately, that means I'm probably a couple of weeks late when I looked the date … Continue reading Planting Garlic

Summer Stir Fry: Swiss Chard and Radish

We've tried so many delicious stir fry recipes this summer using vegetables fresh from my garden and the farmers market. One of my favorites is swiss chard and radishes. I'm not really much of a radish fan, but my daughter convinced me to try them sautéed, or in a stir fry. I'm hooked! What a mild, … Continue reading Summer Stir Fry: Swiss Chard and Radish

Powdery Mildew Attack

With the damp spring and summer we had, some powdery mildew was almost inevitable. Question was, where was it going to hit? The vegetables like squash, cucumbers, zucchini, or tomatoes, or the flowers like zinnias, sunflowers, or phlox? Almost every plant is susceptible to this common set of fungi. On most plants, it looks like … Continue reading Powdery Mildew Attack

Harvesting the Cabbage

This was my first attempt at growing cabbage. I never had the space before, so with the new vegetables beds I thought I would give them a try. I first tried to grow them from seeds, but with the weird spring we had, like a lot of of my in-ground seeds I planted originally they didn't sprout. … Continue reading Harvesting the Cabbage

Making Sauce on a Sunny Day

Now that it's finally warm, it's the perfect time to make some tomato sauce with the beautiful garden tomatoes. Well not really, but this has been a great year for my tomatoes and I need to get them harvested. I have lots of tasty San Marzano Roma, Early Girl slicing tomatoes and tons of Super Sweet … Continue reading Making Sauce on a Sunny Day