A Wee Bit Chille'

I've got Jalapeno peppers!!!!!  YAY!!! Success.
After much hard work and trial and error, I have peppers.  I actually picked one jalapeno this weekend! and I can pick the others soon!  I think the pollinating I did actually worked because only those plants that I experimented on have peppers.  The pepper plants in the containers definitely failed.  They haven't grown for months.  I'm going to make salsa with them! 

I also got 3 more cucumbers! Hard to believe, I know.  Growing them vertically really was a success!

They are in the background above-all the water has spread a bacteria on them.  I still have to look it up, so I can prevent it next year, but the cukes are still coming! 

The pumpkins are fantastic!  I'm so excited! I thought there would be more, but 2 will do.  I'm going to have to see if I can use a pinch off method next year, because they've taken over.  I tried a little this year, but it didn't seem to stop the growing!  Hardy buggers! 

Lettuce in a container works awesome!  It didn't work in doors at all, but outdoors, it grows like crazy. 

My beans grew a LOT taller than I thought....  I've never grown pole beans, usually the bush variety.  So I thought they would be a few feet-didn't end up that way.  They are about 6 feet.  Maybe I should have read the bag.  But they have been a success; I got 1.5 lbs this weekend off the plants.  And they were huge! 

My tomatoes are doing excellent considering I started about a month and a half late.  I have tons of green tomatoes.  I don't know if any of them will turn red, but I have a good recipe for grilled green tomatoes if they don't.  So I'm just happy they were so successful. 

I grew a fall bunch of peas! And this is how they are doing:

I also planted 4 new blueberry plants for my parents.  I love blueberries! 

Mom has been working quite a bit lately and hasn't had time to go get her mums.  So I bought mums for my mom!  I tried to match the colors so it would look as cheerful as possible for her when she came home!

I still don't have a spot for my garlic-I just have to talk to dad about a good-out-of-the-way spot. They should be mailed out soon, so I should probably get that ready....

Cheers!  :)

Cuke Mania

Well, the pumpkin is slowly turning orange.  I rotated it yesterday to make sure the bottom doesn't rot. I have to find some cardboard to put under it. 
I got 8 more cucumbers last week off the vine! Craziness!  I also have 3 little peppers growing!  Last week I tried an experiment (since it's rained so much, it's hard for the plants to get pollinated) where I took my finger and tried to rub the pollen from the male flowers to the females.  It's hard to tell which is which, so I just took the powder from one and rubbed it with my finger tip on the ones without.
And now all of a sudden I have peppers!  I think they are both jalapenos! 
I also bought the Ball Blue Book-guide to preserving.  It is excellent!  It has loads of recipes for making jams/jellies/pies/pickle/salsas/jerky/rubs...and the list goes on!  I'm going to can apple sauce within a few weeks; I need to go to Adam's Orchard to pick first though and I don't know when I'll have the time.
Today ended beautifully with the sun shining; perfect for a walk with my friends! 

cheers!

Cucumbers Galore

So I picked FIVE more cucumbers today! I should download what the weather has been for the past 3 months!  It's been a great year for cukes!  I have a bunch of tomatoes on the vines too now.  Some of them are itty bitty, but at the least, I will have green tomatoes this fall!  And they don't have blight; I was just paranoid because of the disaster last year. 
My dad says that I haven't been getting any beans-even though they are awesome vines right now-because the deer will eat the flower buds off of them!  I know it's deer, and not rabbits, because it's too high off the ground where the bite marks are for rabbits.
I have a huge pumpkin growing too! And some smaller ones in there also!  Very exciting!
I think the horse manure has worked out well despite all the aggressive weeds! 

Cheers!

Raining Buckets!

I put out extra buckets to catch the rain water for reuse in the garden because it was raining so much!  And I've recently dug up and replanted some lilac shoots and they desperately need water!  So I'm glad for the rain this week.  My tomatoes were looking grim too, so now I'll have plenty and can feel good about wishing for sunny days! 
Some things I want to remember for next year are:
1) to plant some different varieties of tomatoes (some of the heirloom variety)
2) to plant earlier (around the end of march start the peas/beans/radishes).
3) to set out the rain buckets earlier
This winter I want to attempt growing English Cucumbers-apparently they don't need to be pollinated, so this would be a good indoor variety.  Me and Annemarie also have a friend who are giving us a banana tree to grow (yes, they grow it outside in VT)...so that should be loads of fun! 
And I got 3 more cucumbers this past Saturday!  So I'll have to go through the blog and count how many that is now!  It's over 10; hopefully I recorded them all!
I've also ordered garlic to grow this October to harvest next fall.  Very exciting!  Thanks to Rene who organized that for me!  :)

Cheers!

5 cucumbers!

I got 5 more cucumbers yesterday and there are a whole bunch more on the vine!  It looks like I may get a  few tomatoes too.  The peppers haven't come in yet, but it's ok.  The plants look really good, they just needed more time.  And I found out why my radishes were doing so badly-they needed more water and colder temperatures.  They are a hot food, so I thought they would do better in warm temps! oh well.  I'll try again at the end of August!
Cheers!

Tomato Woes

I think my tomatoes have blight. bummer.  This happened last year.  My mom-the all around expert on all things growing-told me that it's just normal yellowing of the leaves, and that they just need some food, but I'm having doubts.  I'm paranoid from last year when my whole crop of tomatoes caught blight right as they were turning red!  Even the one in the container.  So I'm a bit worried.  Time will tell. 
Also, I found in my book that tomatoes need up to 5 gallons/week of water!  So that could be part of the problem.  Good thing it's rained so much this year.  But you also don't want to water the leaves of a lot of plants b/c they are susceptible to diseases that are brought on by wet leaves.  Most of the time I water right at the base anyways just so I know it's getting right to the roots and not sitting on the leaves and evaporating.  At my house, water is short since we are on a spring; so I've been using rain buckets to catch gallons of water out of our gutters for the hot, sunny days.  It's been working out really well!  As long as I use it right away, then we won't have mosquitoes breeding in it; that's the only thing I worry about.

Ta Ta for now! I'll take pictures when it's sunny!

August Already?!

So I've realized that I probably won't be getting any tomatoes this year.  The plants are still far to small, although they are growing healthy, they are just at the stage they should have been in June/July time.  Oh well.  I have the seeds already, so next year I can start on time! 
I also have been quite successful with the cucumbers, radish and lettuce!  So far I've gotten: 6 good radish, 6 cucumbers with more growing, 2 bundles worth of scallions, and 2 big heads of lettuce!  And it's all been from seed.  I am quite proud for a beginner!

My peppers are growing really well, however, I would be surprised if I got anything off them either.  They were very late going in.  The beans have taken off and the peas have died.  I think they were bad seeds, because I have planted about 20 more and haven't gotten any to grow.  Bummer. 

So there you have it! Pictures to follow!

Happy Gardening!
Katie