Garden in Progrress

The Cabbage, Broccoli an Cauliflower are doing well

now that their fenced in and protected from the chickens.

The beans have sprouted around the bean trellis

and I got the cucumbers planted along the cucumber trellis

that the husband built for me over the weekend.

All the peppers are planted, 

beets are sprouting,

peas are popping up 

and tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe and squash have been planted.

I just need to plant the pumpkin seed, add a little more watermelon seed

and possibly plant potatoes.

Hopefully all those wheelbarrows full of composted maure

will give us a plentiful yield this summer!

Busy Weekend

It was a busy and productive weekend around here

for a change.

There was an abundance of produce on the counter that needed some attention.

And by abundance I mean

there was stuff on the counter.

Our harvests this year have been nothing like last year

and that's disappointing.

But I digress.

We have bugs decimating our cucumber plants

so I made sure I used the ones I managed to harvest.

I made 1 quart and 3 pints of refrigerator pickles.

Sadly, these won't last long.

You can find the recipe here.

Then I had a bunch of beets to contend with,

so I pickled them.

We'll see how they taste,

but at least they look pretty.

I also managed to can 2 quarts of green beans.

Hoping to save the cucumbers,

and hoping that the tomatoes on the vine

ripen soon.

Garden of Weedin

We finally had some time to work in the garden this weekend.

It's no longer the "Garden of Weedin'"

Our corn is growing- sort of.

Some didn't come up at all.

We staggered the plantings-

2 rows, then planted 2 more rows 2 weeks later, etc.

Hoping this allows us to use what we harvest rather than

having 50+ ears to deal with all at once.

The pumpkins are growing like crazy.

Unfortunately, I discovered some squash bugs in the garden.

These things are my nemesis.

They single handedly killed the pumpkins and most of the zucchini and squash last year.
I have a plan though.

Here is one of our 3 potato plants.

I don't recommending deciding to order potatoes

and wanting to make a potato tower 2 weeks before your wedding.

We just planted them in the ground, so I don't have too much hope of potatoes this year.

The beans love the trellis.

I have green beans and black beans growing here.

The cucumbers needed a little help with the trellis.

For the future, I plan to use strips of wood to make more climbing area

for the vines.

The peas are doing well. 

We harvested a bagful.

And I ate several pods.

The zucchini has been producing for a couple of weeks now.

It's delicious.

The squash bugs think so too,

unfortunately.

We pulled beets, zucchini, squash and peas.

This photo doesn't show the huge bucket full

of squash and zucchini.

There was one tomato, but those mother cluckers got to it before I did.

 

Bertha was checking out the produce being offered.

She and Martha Stewart got to the one ripening tomato before I could.

 I have tons of green tomatoes.

I'm thinking of trying to fry some up- something I've never cooked or eaten.

Finally Planted

I finally finished planting the garden

(except for the potatoes- they haven't arrived yet)

The girls enjoyed checking out the new plants-

and scratched up a few new baby tomatoes.

Peas are popping

The beans are popping too.

And so are the cucumbers. 

Can't wait to see them on the trellis.

 And in the meantime I'm trying to finish

all those wedding DIY projects

like the pennant banner.

74 feet long

and 66 feet long.

Now I'm hot gluing them. 

What was I thinking??

The Cucumber Bean Trellis

Last year I made this cucumber trellis.

It served its purpose for the most part,

but it wasn't the greatest.

The chicken wire allowed the cukes to grow through them

but it sometimes pinched off the growing veggie.

It also wasn't very sturdy, so Big E and I knew we'd either have to improve the design of this 

or find something else.

So I found something else here: The Rhinestone Beagle.

Basically it uses 8- 1x2's and 7- 2x2's

some galvanized nails and some twine.

The original design uses 8 foot lengths

but I opted for 6 foot 1x2's for length and

stuck with the 8 foot 2x2's for height.

You're going to use 6 2x2's as your vertical posts and the 1x2's for the cross pieces.

Lay them out and then nail them together.

Be sure to use 2 nails at each juncture to prevent the board from spinning.

The bottom cross piece we nailed 12" from the bottom

and the top piece was about 2 feet from the top

and I think the other 2 were spaced about 18" apart from the others.

(you can tell I'm not one for exact perfect measurements, that why Big E built it)

The original plans called for the 7th 2x2 to lay in the crook at the top

of the trellis and everything gets lashed together with rope or twine.

Because I was too lazy to walk to the barn to get twine 

we were running out of time,

and Big E wasn't keen on lashing, 

he suggested we nail the sides together at the top.

So using 3 1/2" galvanized nails

(they were a little too long but it didn't matter)

he nailed the sides together at each of the 3 posts.

This also made the trellis able to close as if hinged.

This makes it easier to carry and a cinch to store in the winter.

(this is why I'm learning to let Big E build things how he wants 

because he usually knows what he's doing)

 

 And here we have the finished product.

Cucumbers are planted on one side

and pole beans on the other.

One improvement I think we'll have to make is that 

I think there needs to be either 2 more vertical pieces 

and/or extra cross pieces to make for easier climbing for the plants.  

But I think that's something that I can add after the fact 

as it won't be for sturdiness just for the plants' benefit.

Also, because it's so easy to get under the trellis,

I'm going to grow my lettuces under there.

The cucumbers and beans will provide some shade for the lettuce.

We also managed to get nearly everything planted

with the exception of the plants I started

and the tomatoes.

That's on for the weekend.

The State of the Garden

These are apparently Mexican Bean Beetle larvae.

We made the choice to pull up the bush bean plants

as a large majority are chewed up presumably by these critters.

We have pole beans growing now so we'll still have plenty of beans.

The broccoli is also gone.

Sadly, the pumpkin plants will also be pulled up

having been decimated by squash bugs

and powdery mildew.

The squash plants aren't looking so hot either,

but at least I can replant those.

The peas are pooping out.

Some of the pea plants got too wet and mushy.

On an up note, I'm going to be a canning fool

(provided I figure out how to can)

because we're going to have more tomatoes than we'll know what to do with.

And we've frozen 17 quarts of squash, 2 quarts of beans (with 3-4 quarts still to freeze), 2 quarts of chopped green bell pepper, a quart of chopped hot pepper

and a quart of peas.

The corn still looks great (knock on wood)

and we have a zillion peppers.

Now, I'm thinking along the lines of fall/winter gardening.

Kale maybe?

Arugula?

Cabbage?

Bean Trellis

We like beans around here,  

but I only managed one measly row of bush beans in the garden.

So I decided to find a spot to fit in a bean trellis for some pole beans.

So I hiked to the back 40

which is really only the back 2.

Or Tick Haven as I came to call it.

It needs to be mowed.

I found some straight locust branches growing on the stump of a tree 

we cleared from the fence line

and cut them off. 

I'm guessing they were around 10 feet long.

I dragged them back up to the garden and cleaned off all the smaller branches and leaves

and cut them to about 8 foot lengths.

Abby watched, 

probably waiting till I turned my back so she could mess with them

(don't leave iced tea cups on the fence while you garden, she sticks her tongue in them)

I ended up needing 2 more poles

and the help of Big E because he's taller.

We tied the poles together and buried the ends in the ground a few inches for stabilization.

I planted the beans.

Now I just need to tie twine around it for more area for the beans to climb.

We'll see what happens.

The end result should be a crap load of beans in a much smaller space.

In fact, Big E thinks we need to go with pole beans entirely if things go well with this one.

I agree since I discovered the chickens have trampled some bush beans

because they were impeding their route between the shade of the cucumber trellis

and the shade of the squash plants.