Radishes and Carrots and Lettuce, Oh My!

[Whitewater]

Um. No. I am not sure at all that they're mature yet. I have never done this before!

I will wait until I see some splitting Thanks for the tip!

In other news 2/3 zukes are duds, but the 3rd is coming along nicely, and I hope to be able to pick and eat it this week.

Baby cucumbers are popping out all over the place (we now have 4, 3 days ago there were only 2 . . . ) and they are SO CUTE. Howcome nobody ever told me that very young cukes, ie, young enough to be dwarfed by their flower, are so . . . so . . . well, the only word for it is ADORABLE. Seriously. I love my cucumbers!

The remaining beans are doing well, though I still don't have flowers. Lots of vine, a decent amount of leaves, no flowers. And, needless to say, no beans yet.

I harvested 3 beets today! Going to eat them tonight, with the stuffed Anaheim chilis (no, we hadn't gotten around to it -- tonight!), and maybe some pork chops if I feel the need for more protein, considering that there's cheese in the chili stuffing.

In addition to the beets, I also harvested almost a dozen carrots (the Red Dragons went to seed, but the Scarlet Nantes and Purple Dragons are coming up nicely), another Anaheim chili, and 2 jalapenos.

The first green peppers are growing nicely on their plant, they should be ready in a week or two -- there's about a half dozen. And holy cats, the sweet banana pepper plants are producing like gangbusters -- *already* (the first fruits on the plants!) we have more peppers than we harvested IN TOTAL last year. Guess we need to get a good pickled pepper recipe!

I am very pleased about the peppers, it looks like it will be a good harvest, unlike last year, in which I picked about 12 jalapenos and about a dozen banana peppers TOTAL from 4 plants and didn't get a single thing from my green pepper plant.

Definitely going to get my peppers from my California supplier from now on! Although, I may say that I grew the banana peppers myself from seed this year . . . but then, I did that last year too. Who knows? And yes, you read that right -- the banana pepper plants this year are from last year's seed. Strange but true. I had some left over in the package and I thought, well, why not, I've got the room, so . . . turns out that was a good decision

As for the tomatoes, we really are playing a waiting game. There are a significant # of 'maters on the vine right now (I'd say, in total from the 12 plants, easily 4-5 dozen) but they're all green or yellow. Not a hint of a ripening blush! They're happy plants, though, I guess I just get to wait.

My raspberries have decided to come back. I have 3 berries now, for some strange reason, after I figured the cane was done. LOL, maybe they'll keep producing all summer, wouldn't that be a sight! If this happens next year, though, we'll literally be up to our ears in raspberries -- well, I *heart* raspberry jam and syrup and jelly and know how to make raspberry muffins and pancakes and if we get THAT many we can make an alcoholic cordial and freeze them for winter time, too. In our house there's no such thing as too many raspberries!

I am so pleased about the cukes I just can't stand it. And I'm quite looking forward to the beets too!


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

You know, I experienced this last year . . . wrote about it here on the forum this spring . . . and yet, I forgot.

Yesterday the 1st zucchini to survive to adulthood was 4" long (at most!) and about 1ish inches around. Too small to pick. I looked at it, said '2-3 more days' and forgot about it.

Today, I went out there to look at the peppers and lo, the flower is dead and brown and juicy on the zuke, it's easily 9" long and almost 2" around, and it is *ready to pick*.

So, I picked it. I was going to eat it today but never got around to it. Will do so tomorrow! The first zuke has arrived -- the vangard of things to come

I gave the stunted, non-pollinated zuke to my chickens, who seemed to like it but weren't overly enthusiastic.

I need to put it in the front of my head from now on that zucchini likes to sneak up on you and grow when you least expect it, and that the zuke that is a baby today will be ready tomorrow . . . or possibly this evening, and NOT TO FORGET THAT FACT. Lest you get zukes that are baseball bat sized and lie in wait for you as you come by.

I've got lots of stuff that's just getting ready to explode into being on the yellow crookneck plant, and my patty pan plant is FINALLY starting to show something that might be a flower instead of yet more leaves.

Tomatoes are still yellow and not red. I'm really getting quite frustrated, particularly considering the fact that I'll have 6 jalapenoes and 2 MORE anaheim chilis ready this week (for 3 chilis total) and they are begging to get made into piquante sauce, if we only had ripe tomatoes!!!! I would like to point out at this juncture that my Early Girl is yellow. And not very early, same as last year.

I found a recipe for carrot dip which looks great, thankfully I have finally found something to do with all our carrots besides make carrot cake (which I hate!). Hubby and I like carrots, but enough is enough, ya know? LOL, maybe I can give some to the MIL, she eats veggies The other thing I suppose we could do is cut/slice them up and freeze them for winter, for chicken soup or some such. . . hmmm. . .

Ate the raspberries today, they were yummy.

And yes, the bean plant that I uprooted is dead. Oh well. I am hoping to see some beans before frost, that would be nice. In theory they'll show up before my birthday at the end of August, but I'm not counting on that.

Still hunting for Red Lake Currants. Local nursery said they'd have some, need to call and find out for sure. Last time I called they said yes, turned out they were actually black currants and red *gooseberries*, which are not the same thing! You'd think the premier nursery in this area would know the difference, particularly since the Red Lake Currant was developed here! I am determined to get currents into my garden, I want to try to make a red currant and raspberry wine next year, I think that would be fabulous.

I really do love gardening. We've been able to put food on the table for part of every dinner meal this past week because of what's come out of our ground. That feels unbelievably good.

I wish I had more strawberries, there's only one 8oz jar of jam left in our fridge. I suppose I could go to an organic pick your own place somewhere, maybe there's still some place that has strawberries.

Next year the 15 Cavendish plants will be in full production, so that will help. I am seriously considering expanding the patch again! We'll see. It was backbreaking this year getting enough ground cleared for those 15 new berry plants.


Whitewater

 

[lesa]

How wonderful- it sounds like you are really enjoying your garden and having great success! Congrats! Don't be afraid to pick and eat those zukes and yellow squash, when they are very small. They really are quite delicious, before the seeds overpower them. Your tomatoes are still ahead of mine- I've got green fruit (which I am thankful for) and a very few cherries getting red. A bit more patience and we'll both be up to our ears in tomatoes! Enjoy your harvest!

 

[Whitewater]

Well, we're definitely having success on some things (peppers, tomatoes, zukes) but really struggling on others (beets, beans, cukes), and some stuff like the carrots and the radishes, I've given up trying to manage and am just letting them do their thing! LOL!

Oh, I put a link to all my garden pictures (and, because it's Webshots, you can *also* look at all my OTHER pictures, like the chickens and my crazy wild science-fiction life, etc, if you are so inclined) in my signature and actually finally GAVE myself a sig. on here, so, go me, finally got that done.

Well, this weekend was Project Tree Trimming and it has gone well so far -- we got almost all the trees down that needed to come down (one is tangled up in the power lines, we're going to let the power co. deal with it!) before the chain saw started having carburator issues and it just got too dang hot to work. The biggest reason the trees had to come down is because they were the sort of tree that just loves to grown up against your foundation . . .and they were getting big enough to start to cause damage.

I am a firm believer in the philosophy of taking care of small problems before they become big ones, and since it's easier to take out a couple trees than to give a 2 car lofted garage a new foundation, the trees came out.

What's left is one tree (I think it's an aspen, about 15 years old and about to gnaw into the chain link fence!) and 3 stumps, not bad for a weekend's work, particularly considering that it stormed most of yesterday. Friend Who Owns Chainsaw will come back Tuesday after work to get the rest taken care of.

Got enough good wood to start a firewood pile and, most importantly, enough to give us the wood we need for the exterior corner tent poles of the new canvas wall tent (which we're going to buy in Sept, as soon as we've saved up the $$$) . . . we use the tent exclusively for camping in historically accurate situations and therefore, dimensional lumber (like the 2x4's we have in our garage left over from the chicken coop) really shouldn't be used if there's another option at all, 'cause it didn't exist *as it looks now* in the 17th century, and there's only so much you can do to de-modernize it. We're probably going to have to use 2x4's for the interior ridge that goes along the top of the tent, and probably for the 2 exterior uprights *sigh* but at least for the 4 corners, we'll have actual historically accurate wood, which is nice.

On the other hand . . .

When the aspen comes down (it's tall . . .) we'll see . . . maybe we can get 7 straight feet out of it for the front exterior upright.

The tent dimensions are 10x12 with 4' high walls and a height of 7 feet and a bit, at least, if I remember the website description accurately. Actually (just went and looked), the walls are only 41" high.

Everything we cut down *should* provide most of the wood we need for poles, now that I've thought about it. We'll see.

As for the garden, it stormed again yesterday and where we were got 3" of rain (at least, I suspect it was closer to 4") in about 3 hours. However, the garden is THRIVING on this sort of treatment, LOL. The 2 cukes that remain (I think something on 4 legs snatched them) doubled in size, the big Black Beauty zuke plant is threatening to take over, and the tomatoes are absolutely LOVING all the wetness, particularly the Black Krims, who seem to be developing a new tomato every day. Even the Cherokee Purple tomato has a new tom, which makes THREE CP tomatoes LOL, if I depended solely on the CP tomato, I'd be starving for sure!

My peppers are also happy and I've got 5 green peppers on the plant right now, 4 of whom are golf-ball sized and getting bigger every day. The other one is marble sized I've got 7 sweet banana peppers on 2 plants and the Anaheim chili plants are gearing up for the 2nd round, along with the jalapeno plants.

Still waiting on most of the zuke plants, but I did see various yellow and black bee-looking insects (and an actual honeybee!) in the flowers and around the plants, so hopefully we'll get deluged soon.

Carrots proceed apace. Beans are showing lots of vine, some leaves, no flowers. Dangit!

The strawberries have really perked up since I got of all that buckthorn out of there and they can finally see the sun. With luck they will grow enough over the next few months to be able to survive winter.

My basil is flowering, so is my mint. Gotta get those taken care of!

The 2nd zuke will be ready to pick tomorrow! Could have picked it today but I like them a bit longer. There's more to eat! LOL! And Black Beauties don't get all woody and seedy in the middle until they're baseball bat sized, so we're good with letting them go a bit.

Can't wait until my first yellow and patty pan squash. The way things are going, they'll probably arrive and be ready to harvest just about the time the chickens start to lay! Can't wait for that first egg, either.


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

What you are about to read has nothing to do with gardening, so if you were looking for an update on my garden, don't read this! (But be patient, I haven't gone outside yet today, so there will probably be an actual post about my garden in a while).

It's also VERY long, so please bear with me if you decide to read.

I am deliberately going off topic because I have to talk about this and I can't do it on Facebook or anywhere because my hubby is on there too and a large part of this concerns him. *sigh*

1st off, some advice. If you are over 30 and you're not a bodybuilder and in average shape, muscle and strength wise (like I am) please don't be fooled or lured into thinking that you can do the same things you could do in your 20's. I did, and BOY am I paying for it now. My brain kept saying things like 'That was only a few years ago' and 'Things haven't changed that much' and 'Other people your age and older could do this -- you can do, don't *worry* about it'.

My brain lied to me. In a BIG way!

You see, due to my Asperger's most of my adult career (definitely the last decade or so) has been spent doing non-traditional work, usually involving a large at-home component. I've been (and still am) a live theatre stage manager (and as with any managerial job, it requires a TON of paperwork, especially since some things in the theatre are still *very* old school), a freelance copy writer particularly for advertising descriptions on web-based stores, ie, Etsy, a mystery shopper, a transcriber and now I'm waiting to see if I got a job which is basically being a research assistant (in addition to my current advertising material delivery job, which also has a large at-home component).

When I finally got my 1st actual apartment (and not a room in a house, or tiny studio without a private bath, or similar) and my 1st computer, my brother (who was doing a woodworking/carpentry degree at the time) made me a lovely solid oak desk -- no particle board, no veneer, solid oak. It's beautiful, made in the classic style, and to my tastes. It was an assignment for his hands-on classwork, and now after 10 years it still looks brand-new. He does good work.

Only problem was, almost from the beginning, was that it's a fantastic desk if you don't need to put a computer on it. For writing, or sitting down and balancing the checkbook, or doing homework, whatever, it's great. If you need to do all of that *and* have a computer on it, it's tiny and really way too small. It has no frills, no under-desk keyboard drawer, no extra space, nada. And a CRT monitor takes up the entire space. . . there's barely room for a keyboard, you get cramped. Forget about having a bottle of water and some Kleenex . . .

So, for 10 years I've been putting up with this non-suitable-but-only-thing-I've-got desk because for various reasons I just couldn't afford to get a GOOD desk with the kind of set-up I need that involves a place specifically designed for a computer AND space for hand-writing and paperwork and so on.

Until now The stars finally aligned -- I found a great desk with all the components I need in the style I love at a price I can afford (it's on sale, a $350 set up for $200!!), so, I bought it. Last night!

It's one of those desks you have to put together, but it's at the top of the line for that kind, it's REALLY nice.

The guys at the office store loaded it into my car and two of them handled both boxes with ease, so I figured when I got it home, that Hubby and I would be able to also get it into the house and unpack it with only a modicum of difficulty.

Wrong! Even though Hubby is a strong guy and I, for a woman, am am also strong all things considered ( I can easily lift 50 lbs repeatedly, and can probably lift 75lbs once or twice if necessary, used to be more before my back went out) . . . the main portion of the desk weighed * 171 pounds * and the hutch portion weighs * 60 pounds *.

Here's where Hubby comes in. He was having a very bad night, having received a certified letter in the mail (which, as we all know, is rarely good news) and when I discussed with him my wanting to purchase said desk he said ok, 'cause we discuss major purchases and we don't just buy things like this without talking about it first, . . . but then he says, in a very uncharacteristic move for him . . .

"Don't expect me to help put it together, I'm really not in the mood"

Ok, fine, he's depressed about the bad news, he tends to brood when life smacks him, I get that. Nevertheless, my pride and my quick temper flare up and I respond back "Well, I've put desks together before, I can do this on my own, you don't have to help me, I'll do it by myself."

Oops. He didn't get mad, and I wasn't upset either, but that was REALLY the wrong thing to say 'cause, remember what I said at the top of this, about my brain lying to me about what I can and can't do, now that I'm quite a bit older than I was the last time I had to put a large piece of furniture together?

Yeah.

So the guys load me up, I come home, and discover the true weight of what I've just bought. But I am a stubborn old coot in training, and I looked at the lighter of the two boxes and told it that it wasn't going to beat me, and I got out the seat part of an old office chair we had lying around (it's on wheels) and I levered that box onto the wheeled seat and wheeled that box right into the office.

All by myself.

I couldn't budge the 171 pound box that contained the desk itself, though, so I had to go and ask Hubby for help getting the box into the house, which he graciously did, although once it got into our front door, I had to unpack it in the living room because neither of us were strong enough to get it into the office (and there wasn't room anyway).

After that, my pride wouldn't let me ask for help in unpacking or putting it together.

I started working on the desk at 11pm, by myself. At 12:30, Hubby comes in, kisses me goodnight and goes to bed.

At 4am, I finally get the desk together enough so that I can put all the computer stuff back (we have a router so I *had* to get the comp stuff back up so that Hubby could use the internet in the morning!), and that's when I look at it and say, "forget this, I know I still have drawers and a door to do, plus the hutch . . . but even my hair is sore, I'm tired, I'm hurty, I'm going the heck to BED, I'll deal with it tomorrow."

I had to take half of a Percoset in order to get to sleep, because the pain was keeping me awake.

Then, this morning, 7 hours later (which is less sleep than I naturally get, naturally I'm one of those people for whom 8-9 hours is optimal), I wake up again, due to the pain. Most of it has gone away, including my back (yay! That's the only pain I was really worried about) but what woke me up were my forearms.

My hands are swollen, my forearms ache, my elbows are so sore it hurt to open the screen door on our side entry to let the dogs out.

The strongest OTC pain stuff I have in the house right now is Excedrin for Migraines and that's what I took, even before breakfast, so that my arms could function. Now, thankfully, it's kicked in but everything is still stiff and swollen even though it doesn't hurt nearly as much.

I have learned a lesson today.

In the future, in a situation of this sort, I will come to Hubby and say, "Hubby, I can't put this piece of furniture together by myself, when would be a good time for both of us to do it?" and not let my pride get the better of me. I will remind myself that I am not a healthy 25 year old anymore and that my body has changed, for the worse, and that I cannot do some of the stuff that I could do 10 years ago.

I'm sure he will help me finish everything, but it won't be immediately. Probably this weekend and I am ok with that -- it will take a few days for my body to heal up enough to get the job done.

Yikes.


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

Ok, this actually is a garden update!

I am pleased to note that our two cucumbers (so far) are growing nice and fat, probably helped out by all the rain -- it's raining now -- and high temps and humidity we've been having in the last few days.

I think these will be eaten fresh! It's a tradition around here to always eat the first stuff fresh, where applicable (obviously, for some veggies, they need to be cooked . . ., LOL!)

I hope the rain also helps the yellow crookneck and patty pan squash to get with the program, they really are slackers. Not even any flowers yet! And my two Black Beauty green zucchini plants have already produced 3 zukes this week!

Picked 2 jalapeno peppers today and am watching the progress of the green bells with something approaching glee I am very pleased to see them -- last year's effort to grow green bell peppers failed spectacularly, I didn't get ONE fruit, not even a blossom!

The banana peppers are doing nicely and also look a lot better than last year's harvest, which never did turn yellow, just sort of stayed a pale spring green. These are definitely YELLOW.

The next set of Anaheim chilis is coming right along, they're growing nicely, and the first set had a great flavor -- we can definitely use these

I must remember that peppers like this corner of the garden!

Pulled a couple more carrots, an orange one and a purple one, and another beet a few days ago.

Yesterday we had our first ripe tomato and today was the first ripe heirloom, a Black Krim -- with a spider inside it. I took the BK off the vine (no more spiders, moving on to other tomatoes!) and I think I may just let it ripen outside, cutting away the spider-afflicted bits, because they're really not huge, just a small hole in the bottom of the fruit.

I hope for more tomatoes soon, salsa needs to get made! And now that I know how to can, I will can 8oz jars of it for Christmas and/or hostess gifts.

As for my beans . . . well, one vine is approaching 8 ft tall and has now climbed over the top row/edge of my trellis . . . still no flowers, though . . . but they all look healthy, so I suppose they're just a late season plant. I guess it would make sense, green beans in various forms being a staple of Christmas and Thanksgiving foods around here. I just hope we have plenty, the plan was to blanch and freeze most of this year's harvest so that we'd have beans for the winter. I have 5 vines, wonder how many beans they'll yield?

As happened last year, looks like tomatoes and zucchini will be the stars of my garden, unless the cucumber vines really step up to the plate. Those are only about 2' high right now and are doing the whole 'put out a lot of male flowers first' thing. I'd say at most 1 in every 10 flowers is an actual cuke, *sigh*. Well, I'll know for next year and plant twice as many seeds!

Note to self: When dealing with a veggie garden, always plant at least 3x as much as you think you will need, 'cause Nature, animals, and your own inexperience will take a lot of your harvest. You'll get what's left over, so plant a lot!!

I have decided for next year the beets are going in Rubbermaid tubs or equivalent, a cheap and easy raised garden, with bird netting over the top. This is to hopefully save the seeds from being ravaged by ants, birds, rabbits, squirrels, and whatever else lives underground and ate all my seeds. I have harvested 5 beets so far, and I sowed an entire packet. I am not in this business to feed the ants!

Also for next year I'm taking advantage of the very shady bed in my front yard and planting lettuce. Lots and lots of lettuce, both heirloom and modern hybrid varieties. I was so disappointed in the lettuce this year, and all because I am totally new to lettuce and didn't know what I was doing. (speaking of which, the tennis ball lettuce has now begun to bolt, right on schedule!). Next year it goes in the shady bed so that it won't turn bitter before it has a chance to grow enough to get picked, in theory.

If there's room in there, I'd also like to try cabbage.

I am also seriously considering getting some *more* Rubbermaid tubs this fall, putting them in the front yard, and filling them with dirt, then planting garlic. At the rate we use garlic (in practically every meal, somehow!), we'll save a TON if I can grow it. I will have to do some research on this . . .

I have begun harvesting mint, dill and sage. At the moment all I have to do is lay it all out on the kitchen counter and it starts to dry nicely, *sigh*, despite our A/C the kitchen has a lot of natural light and that means that it's WARM in there in the summer time.

The chive vinegar that I made will do nicely for Hubby's cucumber and onion salad thingie he wants to make, I think, it's certainly strong enough! The only question right now is when we'll have enough cukes!

Sometimes I think my garden is the only fixed constant in my life, my husband is currently (due to some bad news) moody and occasionally inconsistent, there's no telling what goes in the mind of a dog (or a cat, and the chickens really aren't company in the same way) and my friends all have their own lives.

But the garden is always there.


Whitewater

 

[ninnymary]

Whitewater...I'm glad you learned a valuable lesson regarding the desk. I have a similar problem in that when I want something done, I want it now and because I'm petite I have to rely on my husband for alot of things. It's hard for me to let my pride go. To top it off, I'm sort of like a "princess". I can't do anything! I'm not handy and can barely change a light bulb. But I can cook decently, like to keep my house clean and have a nice garden. So I can't be too bad.

Mary

 

[lesa]

Glad the garden is doing well. Gardening is such a learning curve...I bought one of those desks too, a long time ago... Well, I mail ordered it, so it was on my front porch when I got home. I got one box into the house (tugging, pulling, etc.) The other box I tried to lift and broke off 2 of my finger nails- I am talking throbbing, bleeding breaking, not "I need a nail file, breaking"! I tried and tried- finally, I broke down and called a friend. I couldn't do it! I never could have put it together myself. Luckily, my DD is really good at that kind of thing. It took us a couple weeks, but we finally did it. At times like that, my daughter would often say, " Mom, we need a husband!" Being a single (divorced) Mom was sometimes challenging!! Good luck, take a rest!

 

[Whitewater]

LOL, ninny, 'princess' .. .

I've always been a tomboy and used to changing my own tires (and lights, and in theory oil) on my car, mowing the lawn, painting the walls, putting up the Christmas tree, building whatever, all by myself.

I learned to be self-reliant VERY early (well before my teenage years) because with rare exceptions, there was nobody around to help me do what I wanted to do -- and my mother's dad, my Papa, was happy to show me how his hand tools worked, so the two things combined pretty much meant that the tomboy result was foregone.

Then I got in a bad marriage when I was younger and wound up doing everything because he couldn't/wouldn't, and then I was single for well over a decade . . . and right back to 'Do it yourself or it doesn't get done'.

And now my husband is willing to help, but he's quite a bit less experienced than I am when it comes to building stuff, so there ya go! He learns as we go, and he helps me through the visual-spatial stuff that I can't do.

It's nice, his strengths and weaknesses compliment my own quite well and we are stronger by far together! I am still learning, even after 4 years of knowing him, that it's ok to ask for help, that I *don't* have to do it myself anymore.

We're going to finish the desk tomorrow, hopefully I'll have pictures up after that.


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

As for gardening --

Got the first San Marzano tomato today, but I talked about that in another thread.

Was pleased to see a couple female flowers with squash on them on my yellow crookneck plants, I had no idea that they are this much later than the Black Beauty regular ol' green zucchini . . . now i know!

Got another baby cuke, yay, and 3 in the almost ready to pick stage. I'm going to give them a few more days, then pick them.

Total harvest today was 2 tomatoes and a jalapeno.

The tomatoes, in general, are happy and healthy, though I'd prefer a bit more production, but that will come in the next few weeks.

The beans have appreciated the rain and are growing fast, the biggest vine is now growing *lengthwise* along the top of my trellis, LOL! There's a lot more leaves, now, I hope this means that flowers will be soon.

Peppers are also doing well, they're happy and producing fruit at a decent rate -- although I'll be happy with this harvest as it stands right now, we've already picked more peppers right now than we did all last summer! More peppers are a bonus! I will say, though, that the green peppers are growing well but slowly.

Carrots are happy, I guess, I didn't plan on them being such slow growers, I thought for sure they'd be ready to pick by now and most of them aren't. I've been getting 2 or 3 carrots here and there, when they're ready, even though I sowed them all at the same time. Oh well, guess that means that we'll never get sick of them!

Got a couple more green zukes coming along, still waiting on the patty pan plant.

Think that's it for the garden right now. As a garden adjunct, I'm sorry to report that the chickens, now 18 and 19 weeks old, still have not produced that first egg. We are still playing the waiting game.


Whitewater