Garden time!

Did you bring your work apron?? I've got mine on, phone and camera in the pocket, so let's roll! Meet me down at the gate!


Wow, just inside the gate, take a look at those beans will ya?? Taking off they are!! We've picked off them several times but never enough to 'put aside', but always enough for dinner! That's what counts! The big garden is where we have the rest of the beans for the 'putting aside'.

I'm getting ready to do a second bean planting here in a few weeks. In the long long summers of the south, we can get double crops on many things. Of course, a long summer means not only more crops, but more bugs, more mosquitoes, more heat, more heat..and more heat. Ohh I said that once didn't I? :)


Well, here we are at the tomato's. Lots of green ones still, and plenty that I could probably pick for some of those fried green tomato's ..but I'm hanging in on that a few more days... gotta make sure the 'maters' aren't rock hard!

This first photo is the middle of the 4 rows, between the boxes. I have two rows in each box, on either side of the fence pieces that we use to tie them to.
I came out earlier this week and did some major pruning to these guys. They were just getting too wild and wooly for me!



I pruned back some of the non bearing limbs and found a few sucker limbs. I just gave them a good hair cut. You have to do that once in a while. It has helped them produce even more! (which is always a good thing for the canning jars!)
The second picture is on the backside of the second box, the 4th row. Lots of green gems in there too and I could probably trim these guys back a bit more and may do that tomorrow. We'll see what kind of gardening weather we have.

I went to the garden very early today and worked for about an hour or so. They are calling for 90 degree days here for the next 3 or 4 days, so my gardening chores have switched mainly to the early morning hours. It's a good thing really, but has it's bad points too. Good in that it's not so hot, but bad in that the mosquitoes are usually out and about at that time.
We had a heck of a series of storms move in the other day. Rained hard on and off for two days. That does NOT help with the mosquito population!

The banana peppers are coming right along. I am going to have to treat them I do believe though. They are starting to get spots on their lower leaves, a type of blight for the peppers. It comes from infected seed actually and the only treatment to get rid of it is a copper sulfate. (sigh) They haven't started producing yet, so if I decide to treat, them now is the time to do it. It may or may not work, usually it wont go away. It will reduce the yeild of the pepper crops and I'll have to watch the pods as they come along to make sure they don't start getting it. If they do, I'll have to pick them early and let them finish ripening in the house.

I strolled about the garden yesterday doing a bit of harvesting. I gathered about 5 or 6 cucumbers and about the same on squash. There are more cucs on the vines still, but they can wait a few more days before picking. They are producing a good bit now, so soon I'll be putting some pickles aside for the year. I've got enough to do several jars now, so I may get into that today too! There are plenty of blooms still on the vines with more to come!




The Jalapeno's are doing great. Funny how no bugs ever seem to get to them! LOL..I wonder why??









The okra is coming right along. This is the second box of okra, and the last box on this side of the garden! Let's go in and have some iced tea that I just made and we'll continue our garden and yard walk a little later. I've got a few surprises I want to show you!
Make sure you meet me back here at the garden gate later today, we'll finish the up!