I know this doesn’t look like much, but here’s the thing:  We cleaned out this bed completely on Monday morning, and reseeded it.  I took this picture on Wednesday evening.  That’s just 2 days to germinate!!!!

 

We love this arugula bed, and have been growing arugula here for the last 15 years.  Sometimes, we leave it to go to seed, and save the seeds.  Sometimes, we just pitch the old stems and start over.  Most years we get two or three crops of arugula.  

 

Can’t have too much.  ;)

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

This is one of the four hanging baskets hanging across the front of Hughes Sporting Goods in Blairsville.

 

They are beautiful and HUGE.  They are full of begonias, purple wandering jew, Dichondra, and sweet potato vine.  These baskets are so full that Ralph says he waters them a couple times a day.  

 

Be sure to look to the right when you are heading into Blairsville.  They are breathtaking.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Ok, this is our total garlic harvest.  We ended up with 100 bulbs of garlic.  

 

That’s enough to last the year for cooking, and some to replant in October.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Now that is a tomato!!!  One of my pineapple tomatoes.  You can’t see, but the bottom is red.  When we slice it to put on a pizza it is beautiful.  And delicious.

 

I love growing these tomatoes every year.  Wait…I only PLANT them.  They GROW all by themselves.  OK, with a little help from me and my two green thumbs, and ten black fingernails.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

These are two of the three trays of tomatoes that need to be canned.  Aren’t they beautiful?  They are all heirloom tomatoes.  The smaller ones are a paste type tomato, good for canning, and the big yellow ones are pineapple tomatoes.  The pineapple tomatoes are yellow on top and red on the bottom.  The big red ones are some kind of heirloom, whose name I have forgotten, and the pinkish ones are Brandywine pink.  I should start over with fresh seeds next year, so I can be more precise with the names of them.  If it really matters….

 

I picked 40 tomatoes on Tuesday, and we spent the afternoon blanching and canning them.  It was so much fun.  We love working as a team in the kitchen.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

When we were in the garden, Joseph was fascinated with this bumblebee “doing its job.”

 

We must have watched it for 5 minutes, dipping into the rattlesnake bean flowers.  

 

I love sharing the magic of Nature with my friends, especially the young ones.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

Photo: compliments of Grammy

 

My friends came up to the garden the other day, to pick some kale, zucchini, and tomatoes.  

 

Joseph (who is almost 8 years old) was so excited about everything in the garden.  He loved seeing all the tiny green beans, tomatillos, and the butternut squashes.  He also enjoyed picking cherry tomatoes.  He even told me that “this is the best garden I’ve ever seen.”  

 

Maybe he will remember Miss Gerry’s garden, and become a fabulous gardener someday.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

When I was inspecting the garden on Friday, I looked up into this tomato plant and saw the damage.  The leaves were chewed off at the top of the stem.  Oh No!!!  I knew what that meant:  tomato hornworm.  So I started looking for it, and there it was, just a couple leaves down from the damaged ones.  

 

So I cut off the stem (so I wouldn’t have to look at it anymore) and here is the hornworm.  YAK!!!  It was almost as big as my index finger.  

 

As I continued along the row of tomatoes, I found evidence of another one (you know the moth doesn’t lay just one egg.)  So I looked and found another hornworm.  Just as big as the first one.

 

I know they are part of the food chain, and some bird may go hungry, but I can’t support that kind of wildlife in my garden.  They will have to live somewhere else.  But not these two:  I squished them.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

These are called Autumn Beauty sunflowers.  Aren’t they fabulous?  

 

They are about 10 feet tall, and just keep blooming.  We’ve seen hummingbirds and gold finches visiting them.  The bees probably come too, but they are up so high we can’t see them.

 

The garden is so pretty right now, mostly because of the sunflowers.  

 

Try growing your own sunflowers.  A package of seeds costs $3.00, and all you have to do is poke the seeds in the ground.  Be sure to check the package for height.  Not everybody has room for 10 foot plants.  But they grow so easily, anybody can do it.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The Butternut squashes are coming right along.  I planted seeds from last year’s squash next to the tomato cages, and nearly all of them have come up and started growing squashes.  This squash is about 10 inches long, and the vines are all climbing the cages.  I plant the squash seeds on the north side of the tomato cages, so those giant leaves don’t shade the tomatoes.  

 

The squashes take about 90 days to mature.  Let’s see, I planted them on May 4th, so we can harvest them in August, when the skins turn that pretty buff color.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!