Photo Update of Garden

These were taken 5/27... ENJOY!

Some of my daylillies that are blooming...

This is one of my favorites. It is deep purple with a bright yellow center.

 A white cuke is hiding in there.  These have really produced.

 The zukes have slowed down a  little.

The spaghetti squash have really grown this week.

 The banana peppers are starting to take off. Harvested one today.

 These are loaded with cherry tomatoes.

 Eggplants are starting to form.

 The lettuce is still hanging in there.The jalapenos are growing. Harvested 4 this week.

 Roma tomatoes are growing. Hope they turn red soon!

 Carrots are about the size of my little finger.

My purple queen beans have fallen over due to the weight of the beans.

Eureka beans just aren't quite ready yet...

These are 2 views of the garden. You can see the daylillies in front.

 Tuesday's harvest. My daughter took the picture. Notice that the veggies aren't stacked in straight rows...

 Lettuce for Tuesday's salads...

Today's harvest... purple queen beans, white and green cukes, a banana pepper, yellow squash, and butterstick and light green zukes.

Purple Queen beans that I cooked last night. The insides are green and they turn green when cooked. 

Hope you enjoyed!

Zucchini Recipe

I am overloaded with zucchini! Here's a recipe that uses zucchini and can be made ahead of time.

1/2 cup mayo

1/4 cup sour cream

1 packet ranch seasoning / dip

2 1/2 cups rotini pasta (I used the multi colored)

2  zucchini (I used 1 yellow butterstick and 1 green)

1  yellow squash

1 Vidalia onion (optional)

Boil pasta according to package directions. Cut vegetables in to matchsticks. Leave the yellow squash a little bigger than the zucchini. In a large bowl, mix sour cream, mayo, and ranch seasoning. Set aside. During the last 2 minutes that the pasta cooks, add the vegetables. Drain and rinse to cool. Toss ranch mixture and pasta / vegetable mixture together. Allow to chill before serving.

A couple of notes:

• Boiling the veggies for a minute just brings out the flavor. Don't cook them!
• You could also add crumbled bacon and tomatoes. I just didn't have any.
• If you use a regular onion, you may want to use less. Vidalia's are sweet, so I used a whole one.

Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance...

Lesson 2: Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

I took some photos of my garden yesterday. When looking at them on the computer today, I realized that I should have planned things out better.

These are my zukes. They are in a 6' X 12' bed. I planted a whole bed at one time. I am getting about 15 per day. Yes, there are 5 of us. There is no way that we can eat 15 a day though!

See what I mean? This is what I picked yesterday!

This bed is 6' X 12', too. It has Purple Queen bush beans in the back 1/2 and Eureka in the front. I planted them on the same day. In retrospect, I should have planted more of these and less zukes as beans freeze/ can well. If you look at the very back of this photo, you can see the tops of my yellow straight necks and speghetti squash.

This the is bed where I planted my lettuce, jalapeno peppers, eggplant, and way too many tomatoes! My  tomatoes are a tangled mess because I planted too many in one cage. They are full of fruit though, so we'll see how it goes! The lettuce was planted too late, but has produced well. I have cut it almost daily for salads.



 These are my cukes. No regrets here yet!

When we planted the garden, we also dug up all of the daylillies in the yard. We replanted all of them in front of the garden. We did a MASSIVE remodel on our house last year and destroyed the yards in the process. I love my daylillies and plan to replant them in my flower beds as we finish landscaping. For now, they're just hanging out! These are the first bloomers of the season!

Don't put off until tomorrow, what you can do today!

Lessson #1: Don't put off until tomorrow, what you can do today!

ZUKES!!!

Some of these are really BIG!! It happened so fast. These really needed harvesting Wednesday or Thursday!

My Garden

I officially started gardening on April 5, 2011.This is my first attempt at a garden. My garden is in Georgia in zone 8. Temperatures here have been HOT for the past month and we have had very little rain. My garden is planted in five raised beds that are 6' X 12'.

These pictures were taken on 5/15.

Yellow straight neck squash plants and a few carrots. The carrots were planted too late (4/5), but I decided to leave them anyway.

Butterstick Zukes planted 4/5 from seed.

More zukes. These are a dark green. Planted 4/5 from seed.

Yellow straight neck squash. These were planted from plugs in early May.

Lettuce planted from seed on 4/5. I don't know the variety. My brother in law donated the seed. It has produced well despite temperatures above 90.

Purple Queen bush beans planted on 4/5 from seed. They are just starting to flower.

Cukes planted from seed on 4/5. I also have a white variety planted. 

This is my harvest from 5/15- 3 dark green zukes, 2 butterstick zukes, 1 light green zuke, and lettuce! 

This a picture of another harvest. This is the bacon from a barrow that we showed and then harvested for fresh pork. Bacon from the farm tastes so much better than store bought!

 I also have peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant growing. I will try to post pics of them soon!

May Eggs

I currently have five laying hens. These are my daily egg totals for the month of May:
5/1-   3
5/2-   5
5/3-   4
5/4-   3
5/5-   3
5/6-   5
5/7-   4
5/8-   4
5/9-   4
5/10-  1
5/11-  4
5/12-  4
5/13-  4
5/14-  5
5/15-  4
5/16-  4
5/17-  5
5/18-  5
5/19-  4
5/20-  3
5/21-  5
5/22-  4
5/23-  7 (we added 2 more hens)
5/24-  5
5/25-  4
5/26-  5 (I moved the girls nesting boxes and they are MAD!)
5/27-  3
5/28-  4
5/29-  5
5/30-  5
5/31-  5

Monthly Total: 130 eggs