Fall garden finally responding!

I tried planting last month, but it was still too hot and dry here to plant for the fall. Green chard, basil, other herbs, varieties of hot peppers, a couple of short rows of onions, and collard greens are still doing pretty well. Tomatoes are taking a break, but beginning to re-blossom once again. Beets and carrots are still growing from earlier in the summer. Only one red chard seed planted in late August managed to sprout and hang in there for me.

That means, nothing else came up and I had to try again about two weeks ago.

But after two good sets of rain and slightly cooler temps...finally, some success!

snow peas

kale (one spot of four)

Still waiting on new baby collards and sage to pop up. We shall see how it goes.


Happy Fall, Y'all!

Javamom

September Garden

Our first watermelon!

We were able to keep most of our garden hydrated enough to survive Texas's hottest summer on record. This is one of our watermelons that we noticed this week, growing outside the fencing of our garden!


Here is a quartet of canteloupe that I photographed about a week ago...

It has taken advantage of the extra growing space on the fence around the garden.

Here they are today ~ getting a little more ripe!

Eggplant blossoms!



A couple of canteloupe that I picked this morning.

This one is one of the large ones that have grown this summer. One thing about our 100 degree plus temperatures: canteloupe seem to thrive in it! But so do the weeds, with all our irrigation.

It was too hot for too long for our seven tomato plants to even set blossoms this summer. One of our larger tomato plants completely dried up and died. The rest have struggled to stay alive, but also to make a comeback, but come back, they have! I saw lots of blossoms out there this morning.

Next, I need to concentrate on our pepper plants and give them a good feeding with Howard Garrett's liquid molasses plant concoction. I will shoot some photos of them later.


How does your garden grow? Are any of you planting a fall garden now? I have misplaced most of our seeds whilst getting things organized for the new schoolyear. But I will be replanting more cool-weather greens as soon as I find those seeds!

Javamom

God Meets Us In The Garden

"Where earth and spirit mix, God and man meet."

This is a quote from one of my new favorite authors, Vigen Gourian. I was blessed to get to see/hear him speak in person and buy some of his books. I say "see and hear" because he is fun to watch speak, quiet with animated, happy facial expressions. But he can also be firey if he feels he needs to be!

Another good quote: "We are created in the image of the Master Gardener."

This being so, we can take in the full delights in our gardens as the Lord delights in his creation, and in us.

This was after I cleared out most of the aged, squash-bug infested squash plants in early July. Now the cantaloupe plants and watermelon plants have plenty of room to stretch out.

In this shot, you can see how the extreme, constant 100 plus temps are affecting the garden.

Notice how the cantaloupe has trailed up and across the fencing.

These cherry tomatoes sprung up on there own. I let them continue to grow just in case. What a delightful surprise!

The cantaloupe are LOVING this crazy, constant, dry heat.

This was last weekend. I picked the ripe one on Monday and the other one ripened by Tuesday eve.

washing and rinsing ~

Kale

Some of our early July harvest

Cantaloupe picked between 7/23-7/26

Have you met God in the garden recently? It restores the soul. But if you are a gardener, you are already keenly aware of that!

Happy Harvesting,

Javamom

Tomato plant care 6-25-11

A friend recently asked some details about tomatoes, so I am sharing these photos with her in mind. The summer is flying by and I started this post about tying / staking up tomatoes a month ago! These plants have more than doubled in size now. However, it has been a busy summer, with lots of hands-on care needed in the garden, and lots of reading, study, and decluttering the house in my 'free-er' time, to get ready for the fall school term.

We use jute or twine to 'weave' among the stakes between each tomato plant.

Next, we wind the twine around the stake and tie it (no knot, though, unless needed. These wooden stakes hold the twine just fine, no slippage) before stretching it on to the next stake.




The twine gently supports the branches of the tomato plant, providing some 'give' as it grows outward and upward.

You will notice how the plants have grown in my next post about the whole garden in general!


I wish the garden was larger, but this is an extremely hot year to try and keep it alive and growing. In fact, it has been too hot for some of our tomato plants to set their blossoms.



Hope you are enjoying summer tomatoes from your own (or a friend's) garden this summer!
There's just no comparison to grocery store tomatoes.


Javamom

what a difference three days makes!

First, I'm going to post the herbs that I didn't post a few days ago, then you can see some veggies that I only mentioned in passing in my last post. :-)



Spearmint

Cilantro

Sage

Thyme

oregano

Dill

first zucchini

Snow Peas!

and last but not least, ripe grape tomatoes

More that are almost ready!

pear shaped tomatoes. These will ripen a rich, yellow shade

Not sure what this will end up being. It came from the compost soil, and wasn't seeded by me. I call it my zuchamelon!

Tonights dinner consisted of sauteed swiss chard, onions, and a yellow squash that I picked this evening. These were served up alongside veggie-twirled pasta with just a touch of vidalia onion pasta sauce. No cheese necessary.

Keep your garden photos and stories coming! Most of you post on Facebook comments, but feel free to click the link to see this on my blog and comment there :-).

I am simply thankful for God's provision.

Javamom

Yum!!

Garden progress ~ May 30

We are transitioning this year from just organic gardening to also buying heirloom seeds. We started many of these plants ourselves. Hopefully we will locate and purchase all heirloom seeds for our next garden.

This shot was taken before our son mowed and ran the weedeater around the edge of the garden. It looks much neater as of yesterday!

Notice all the greens on this side. We planted red and green swiss chard, collard greens, and kale. We planted spinach, as well, but it did not come up.

heirloom tomato

red swiss chard

green swiss chard

bell pepper (one of a few)


yellow squash (one of several!)



I'm pretty pleased overall with this year's garden. The snow peas are coming up well and attaching themselves to the fencing. There are a few pods out there, too!

The green beans are growing, but not very full just yet.

How does your garden grow? Show me some of your photos!

Javamom