Major Growth!

Check out this beautiful leaf! I love squash plants, they are large, lush and beautiful. These plants have my favorite foliage...at least during their prime!



Check out this little squash. Within the next couple weeks we'll have more squash than we'll know what to do with!



Green beans, too. I took this picture on June 12th, so this green bean is probably pickin' size. Last week, the Italian beans weren't even growing. When I looked at them yesterday, they were a good 5 inches. BTW, the green bean is in the very center sitting horizontally!



This plant is my Cinderella Pumpkin plant. These are by far the most beautiful and prolific of my pumpkin plants. In fact, there are little pumpkins about the size of a marbles already there.



My daughter is over two feet tall and these sunflowers are taller than she. These sunflowers won't grow very tall. I did that deliberately since they were much too tall to enjoy last year. Not to mention, the flowers were quite large and heavy.



You can already see the flower bud on the sunflowers.



These are small, fancy gourds. They are crawling up the trellis nicely. Yesterday I noticed two golf ball sized gourds hanging there!



Here are the pumpkin blooms. I am excited!!!!



So, I finally got around to planting my burpee tomato plants that I grew from seed. They look great. Additionally, I found some volunteer tomatoes from last years crop. I have transplanted those to a row and am excited to see what kind of tomatoes they are! They could be cherry, heirloom, ice tomatoes...who knows! I love a good surprise! And yes, this past weekend, I weeded. YUCK!



Lookie what I see....tomatoes. We're going to have tomatoes coming out of our ears!



See how beautiful. We got a huge rain yesterday. I 'll be they are even more incredible now!

Blackberries!

So it's blackberry season.  By the end of June we should have loads and loads of blackberries. Now I can't lie, blackberries are not my favorite fruit.  I don't like biting into seeds, but my Granny can make a fierce blackberry cobbler.  My son on the other hand can eat the berries right off the vine in mass proportion.  

My sons ability to walk right up to a blackberry vine is a direct result of my "Pop paw's" plan to grow thornless, thumb-sized berries.  Now I have heard that the thornless berries are better for pies and cobblers since they are not as sweet as wild blackberries...BUT there is certainly a price to pay to get those delicious, wild blackberries.  The wild berries are just that WILD. They are brutal and their thorns show no mercy.

This past spring my mother and cleared the brush near the garden to allow for easy lawn mowing.  We scratched our skin up trying to battle through loads on thorn bushes.  After a painful battle, we felt that we saved the person on the mower from brutal scarring and pain. Little did we know, only a few months later, those vicious vines popped right back up....it was then we realized we were fighting wild blackberries.

Regardless, scratches or not, we'll be picking all those berries both domestic and wild.  

French Dressing Recipe & More

Tonight I will be eating the delicious lettuce from the garden again! I am so excited! A salad for me usually consists of a little lettuce and loads of toppings; however, the fresh, tender lettuce from the garden needs nothing but some french dressing.

Here's the recipe:

French Dressing

3/4c vegetable Oil
1/4c white vinegar
1/4c Ketchup
1 pressed garlic clove
2T Sugar
1t Worcestershire

Normally, I wouldn't use anything but ranch and honey mustard, but that would be much too heavy for such a tender leaf.



(above)
This view of the garden is mother's. Gorgeous, huh?

(above)
And if you look past the two rows of green beans, row of cucumbers, row of okra, row of peppers You'll see my garden area. The picture doesn't do it justice, really...but you'll be amazed how in the coming month's my little area will become massive. The nature of the pumpkin. I forgot to mention that I planted a row and a half of tomatoes. Lots of fun.




(above)
If you look closely you will see some green bean flowers. It's about that time!

Rapid Growth

Ahhhh, the sweet smell of Honeysuckle is out in full force. The smell is so fragrant that it simply draws me out to the garden. It's been a while since I've added some pictures. So there are many to show.

I must mention that my folks ate a salad of our freshly picked lettuce. Of course I had to try it and YUMMMM! Success.

I'll start with the strawberries. Honestly, if I get one strawberry I will consider this endeavor a success. So, I spotted a nice little flower yesterday, WAHOO. The strawberries have done much better since I have changed the location to a sunnier spot. We'll see, like I said, one strawberry will be a success for me.

And, here is my second attempt to grow peppers. Mother and I were talking last night and thought it was possible that our pepper plants are not getting enough hours of full sun in the garden, so my attempt to both put them in a different soil and to give them full sun will hopefully bear a lot of fruit. These are my False Alarm Hybrid Peppers. They are supposed to taste like Jalapenos but not have the burn.

Ahhh, blackberries. My dear son likes fruit, true....but never in my wildest did I think he'd love blackberries the way he does. When they are ripe, he goes and picks them right off the vine and eats them. As you can see, the berries are in the ripening stage. I can't wait. These are thornless and taste better in cobblers because they are quite tart. Thankfully, we have our fair share of wild blackberries...so we'll have the best of the best of both worlds.

The second attempt to growing green beans. Mother planted a row beside the original (predator eaten) green beans and they are thriving. It is still a mystery as to what really happened, but I think deer and rabbit are the cause, but that doesn't explain why the second row is thriving.

The sunflowers are awesome this year. Though, last year they were too. Our soil must be just right for them and of course the sun must be hot enough for them. They are already about a foot high. I can't wait to see what they turn out like. I have several varieties and colors. Oh the anticipation!!!

Cherries! To my surprise I noticed these little guys last night. They are turning quickly. These are my mother's cherries, and I think it will be quite difficult to pick them as this tree is VERY old and most of the branches are very high up. Mother says she gets a ladder and climbs up to get them. Hopefully we'll get them picked before the birds do.




Okay, so it appears that tomatoes are on the way. We have spotted several yellow flowers. This plants was purchased as a plant. This weekend we'll plant the seedlings we started a couple months back. We have Big Mama Tomatoes, Seedless Tomatoes and Salsa Tomatoes. By the end of summer we'll have more than we'll know what to do with. VERY exciting.

Here are my Cinderella Pumpkins. So far they are winning as the most beautiful of my pumpkin plants. I am eager to see how the look. These Pumpkins are shaped like Cinderella's Carriage to the Ball. They are also a bit redder than the typical Jack O Lantern.

And here is mother's broccoli. It always amazes me how one day it's just a plant and the next it's the fruit. After the broccoli has been harvested we'll till the row and begin watching the tomatoes that are going to be planted between the broccoli rows. Our ridiculously large family garden is too small. Who knew?

Back from vacation

I have been on vacation for the past five days. Mother has managed the garden for me. I got home last night and was too tired to remember the camera and take pictures. So therefore, I plan to do this by the end of the week.

I am planning on planting my salsa tomatoes by the end of the week.

Also, I moved my strawberry plants to a sunnier location and they appear to be doing better.

I may do another blog this week since this blog does not offer much on excitement. Otherwise, have an awesome Memorial Day and I'll catch up with you next Wednesday.

Meet our Snakes!

We finally got some photos and even a video of our dear snake friends. I have been calling them Big & Bigger, but my mother gave them proper names, Sasha & Guillermo. I personally believe them to be Rat Snakes a.k.a. Chicken Snakes. They look a lot like Black Racers and King snakes, but we believe them to be much to large to be that variety.

Check out this awesome video. It will give you a great idea of how large they are.

Although safe snakes, they give me the creeps. They live in the rafters of my mother's house and they are at least 5 feet tall. I am shivering as we speak. I suppose we'll keep them. I won't like they creep me out, but they do a good service.
As far as our plants and whatnot we're just watching them grow. My father and husband tilled the weeds out the other night. Our tomato plants are just about ready to plant. Our peppers probably lack a week or so. My strawberries are quite unimpressive. I have changed their location in hopes more sun will increase their growth. Our blackberries, however, are very impressive. Until next week.

Wow, talk about RAIN!

Okay, so it has rained and rained and rained and rained. WOW. Thankfully the garden was not flooded, so we're good, but wow, talk about the rain.

And we're excited to see actual flowers on the blackberry vines!




Most all of our seeds have poked their way through the ground. Everything looks good except some of our green beans. I don't know what is going on there, but I think we'll probably plant a few more for the weirdo plants. If it turns out to be be a rabbit problem, I don't suppose there is much to do there, but if it is a seed problem we'll just plant some more.


















The tomatoes and broccoli have shot up a few inches and quite frankly the onions look about ready to pull up and eat. And in the next couple weeks we'll be ready to plant our seedlings. They, too, have grown.Check out some of the other beauties that have popped up since last week.