Vegetables | willsfamilyacres

Archive for the ‘Vegetables’ Category

>Bean Sprouts / Okra Blossom

Posted in Basil, beans, Herbs, okra, tulip on April 1, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Once of the second type of tulips ( which I didn’t write down ) is up. This is the one I’ve been waiting for, with the yellows and red. It’s just beautiful. It is much smaller than the other variety though.

Here is a picture of the soon-to-be melon garden. It is twice the size that it was last year. Two nights ago I removed the old winter veggies that had already flowered and gone to seed. All I have left is carrots and a few herbs. The 3×3 herb garden is pretty full, so I’ll have to relocate these to one of the other beds. We’ll plan on eating the last of the carrots this week. I have 2 cantaloupe, 2 watermelon and 2 cucumber seedlings that I picked up last weekend, awaiting their new home. The natural gardener only had 1 variety of each, which is why I got so few. I plan on going again this week to see if their selection has improved.

Herb garden with society garlic taking center stage.

Dewberry. I found it interesting how bushy this plant is compared to the blackberry, which is one long stick.

I love the instant gratification of beans. As soon as they pop up from the ground they are instant plants, no tiny delicate leaves. In a day or two they’ll be double the size of my peppers. I planted both green beans and butter beans. Mmmm!

I also have two tomato plants in this bed from a swap I made with my neighbor. I gave her 1 roma and 1 sun gold. I have no idea what she gave me, I’ll have to ask her again. I’m noticing a trend here of me having no idea what’s planted in my garden 🙂

The okra took quite a beating from the cold. I covered everything with row cover, but the leaves still haven’t quite recovered. It appears the flowers don’t care though. They plan on blooming anyway.

Thai Basil. Added this because I thought it was pretty.

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>New Banana Tree – First Tulip

Posted in banana tree, columbine, drip system, okra, squash, tulip on March 23, 2009| 2 Comments »

Tulips are my favorite flower and I finally planted some last fall. They started sprouting weeks ago, but didn’t flower until this morning. I’m not sure if the flower is supposed to be so close the ground, but I’m not complaining. I planted a total of 10 ( 2 different types) , all of which have sprouted, but only 1 flower so far.

The dewberry plant is flowering. You’re not supposed to get any berries the first year, but I just may get a few. The blackberries are just about to flower as well.

I planted both nasturtium and marigold from seed a week or two ago. I haven’t had any luck with the marigolds, but almost all of the nasturtiums came up. I didn’t get a chance today, but plan on running drip lines to them as well.

After giving up on the marigolds coming up, I picked up 6 yesterday. These worked so well last year at keeping the horn worms away that I just can’t do without them.

At the farmers market this weekend a guy was selling banana trees. My husband has been wanting on forever so I finally gave in. I ripped out some ruelllias that I wasn’t too fond of and put the tree in a nice corner spot. This location will block the north wind and hopefully keep the tree alive. The type is “Gran Nain”. This is the same as the commercial variety. From what I’ve been reading it should do fine with our weather. The only trick will be keeping the soil moist.

I noticed that a few of the veggies are looking a little rough. The squash is a little yellow in the leaves and the okra has some white veins and just overall looks unhappy. I have all of the veggies on the same drip system, and figure that the amount I’m giving the tomatoes is just too much for the other plants. I attached some 2GPH emitters to the tomatoes, so they’ll receive twice as much water as the other plants. I also attached some on-off switches to the okra, so I can give them even less water, if necessary.

The same guy who was selling the banana tree also had columbine. I picked up two, the standard yellow, which is a Texas native and a very pretty purple and yellow. I planted these in the back corner of the yard where there isn’t much sun. My only concern is the soil. I read that columbine prefers sandy well-drained soil and my soil is clay.

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>Spring Veggies Planted / Drip System Installed

Posted in bluebonnets, drip system, okra, squash, tomato on March 11, 2009| 5 Comments »

I know it’s not quite to the last frost, but I looked at my schedule for the next few weekends and I just won’t have time to plant the veggies. I took half a day of vacation friday and got my seedlings into the ground. Saturday I worked on the gazebo again. I’ll have to post some pictures soon to show exactly what took what could have been 9 full days of gardening work since late November. Sunday I installed a drip system. The new beds are really more than I have time to manage with the hose, and my tomatoes didn’t do as well as they could have last year with consistent watering. It wasn’t expensive, and not too difficult. I haven’t hooked up a timer yet. Right now I just turn on the hose while I’m getting ready for work or taking a morning walk.

Tomato close-up. I plan on putting straw on all of the beds, once this cold front passes. I did some research and found that straw is a cooling mulch. That is perfect for out hot summers, but no so great when you’re trying to keep the beds extra warm.

Brandywine, romas and misc. peppers. I planned on remembering which peppers were which when I transplanted them into bigger pots and that didn’t work out so well. I planted all of them, so I guess it doesn’t matter too much. I’ll figure it out eventually.

Okra and swiss chard. I’m also thinking of planting some sweet potatoes as well.

Yellow squash and zucchini. The seed packed said these don’t always transplant well, but mine have really taken off in the last few days. My trick will be trying to ward off the squash-vine borer. I didn’t have much luck last year.

Rainbow Cherry, Sungold, misc. peppers. I have also scattered onions though all of the beds.

After planting on friday the weather forecast kept getting worse. Monday afternoon I bought some row cover and covered everything last night. This should protect against potential frost, and the sub-45 degrees that we’ll be seeing the next few nights.

To fix my bloom issue … I picked up a few bluebonnets at the Natural Gardener. I planted them right by the front walk. Ahh … spring is here, except for that pesky cold front.

Last night I planted some daylily bulbs in this bed as well. I’m hoping the rain will encourage them to pop up quickly. I’d eventually like to make this entire bed full of daylilies. One of my neighbors has a similar thing on the side of the house and it is really beautiful. I am planning on doing the yellow/orange varieties.

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>Cooking Up the Veggies

Posted in brussel sprouts on February 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »

This week has been a great garden week. Tonight we finally picked our one and only brussel sprout plant. It took me about 5 minutes to get the root out of the ground. I now know why they are in the store/farmer’s market w/ all of their stems missing … they all rip off when you are trying to uproot the plant 🙂 I cooked the brussel sprouts with some bacon, onion, butter, and lemon. mmmm!

Last night we had a salad with the mesclun mix that I grew from seed. I also threw in some home- grown carrots. Sunday we had spaghetti with all fresh herbs and more carrots. I also pulled one of the heads of cabbage and started a batch of sauerkraut. I have never made this before and am excited to see if it turns out. It is so simple to make.

I can’t wait for summer veggies!

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>Squash/Zucchini Planted, Unexpected Flowers

Posted in squash on February 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Last year I had no luck with squash, due to the dreaded squash-vine borers, but this year I’ve decided to try again. I picked up two packets of seeds, 1 zucchini and 1 yellow squash. I planted the seeds Wednesday night and they are already looking great. I plan on moving them to the sunny window in a day or two. I put 4 seeds in each pot, and there are 1 to 2 sprouting in each.

When I was watering the plants this morning I found that two of the tulip bulbs I planted last fall are sprouting. I planted a total of 10, so we’ll see if I get any more. I have to say I am pretty happy with the two though. I’ll put up pics when they bloom.