Sassy & Sweet Notes

Final Big Harvest

I shared these images on FB earlier this weekend, but thought I'd post them here on the blog, too. I harvested probably the last of the garden produce this weekend. Lots of acorn squash (which are what grew from the seeds that were packed in a store bought white scalloped squash seed packet!), a few small butternut squash, and even a few bush buttercup squash. Some yellow squash, a few more zucchini..... and slicing cucumbers.

Aside from yellow pear tomatoes, most everything else is being taken over by heat, and/or grasshoppers. It's always sad when the spring garden gets pulled out.

But the end of the garden does mean that we're just that much closer to fall and winter, my favorite seasons! Although, I must say, spring is the most enjoyable season here in Texas, with the wildflowers in bloom.

Hope your gardens are coming along, and providing you with yummy foods to eat!

Sunflowers for the Kitchen

Today was 79 degrees and it rained almost 2". To celebrate such a wonderful day 2 of summer, I picked some of the sunflowers from the garden for the kitchen window. They make me smile!

And, I made 12 quarts of pickles! Yummmm!

Garden Update!

We got a bit of rain this morning -- total surprise! So I decided to snap a few photos of the garden, which has been growing gangbusters! You might notice that I hadn't opened up the coop doors yet, either.

This is the "random" squash bed, which is doing great this year! You can probably even see some yellow squash in there that are just about ready for picking. Yay!

The bed in this photo with the long reaching vines coming out of it (front/center) is a bit of a surprise. The plants are actually producing what look like acorn squash, and not patty pan (scallop) squash. I guess the seeds in the packet were wrong, because I don't think I even have acorn squash seeds. Who knows.... maybe I do, and I just wrote down on my planting map incorrectly. That wouldn't surprise me, actually.... *grin* At least the plants are doing ok. I don't typically have good luck w/ acorn squash. The plants tend to wilt down in the heat, but so far they've been able to perk back up by morning. Here's hoping they continue to do well.

This is the bed I put in most recently. This bed didn't have the best growing results last year, so this year I really took time to replenish the soil with good, rich growing soil. So far, so good! Yesterday I put up the wire trellis for the cucumbers to grow on. It arches over and attaches to the top edge of the chicken yard, so it should be a nice support for the plants. I am happy to see that the zucchini plants at the front of the bed are coming along nicely. In the distance, you can see my bed of radish and spinach. Yum!!

This bed is mostly cucumbers, but there is a tomato on the other side of the trellis, and yellow squash on two corners. The tomato and squash were planted after seeing that the cucumbers weren't coming up well in those areas, so I made use of the space with other plants.

The new coop is proving the be a wonderful wind break for the garden, which makes me very happy! Having a larger area where I can grow taller plants (like tomato and giant squash plants), is awesome! We've already been enjoying harvest from the garden. That makes all the work putting the garden in worth it!

Garden Update

First of all, sorry for the lack of posts this past week! I was traveling for work, and didn't have time before I left to schedule any auto-publish posts for you! Yikes! But I'm back, and have been busy as ever. How about a garden update!

The garden has been growing gang-busters in our upper 80s temperatures. And with the rain we got almost two weeks ago, along with the rain we're getting right NOW! ... it's only going to get bigger! Yay!

This is my older chicken coop. In front of the coop are mostly tomato plants, a couple zucchini, and some butternut squash. And a whole mess of volunteer sunflowers! I can't bring myself to pull sunflowers when they're coming up in the spring, even if they're in less than ideal spots. Like right in the walkway between two garden beds. *grin*

I got a late start with the garden this year, and we're just now starting to get little zucchinis on the plants. But we'll be harvesting in just a few days now, I'm sure.

To the right of the old coop is the rest of the garden, and the new little red barn coop.

In front of the new coop is the larger garden where I planted an assortment of squash plants, as well as 4 more tomato plants. I have tomato plants in one of the metal troughs, and cucumber, radish, and spinach in the second metal trough (which is difficult to see in this photo, since it's just behind the smaller one in front).

The squash plants are doing really well in the larger garden this year. They have a nice wind break from the new coop now, so they won't take such a beating from the wind like they used to. YAY!!! I planted a complete assortment of squash plants in this area, and since I didn't write them down it will be a complete surprise until they start producing fruit.

I set up the lower trellis for the cucumber yesterday, since they're just starting to get to the point that they're ready to start climbing. I imagine before next weekend, I'll be putting up the upper portion of the trellis so they have plenty of room to grow.

I have two big sweet mint plants, and both are growing extremely well.  I have yet to be able to keep a mint plant alive through our mid- and late-summer heat, so I have to start fresh with new plants every year. As is the case for everything, except the volunteer sunflowers.

The bed of Patty Pan (white scallop) squash I planted for Alan is growing like mad! These plants always do really well for us! And look at that small volunteer sunflower, right at the middle edge of that bed!

I planted lots of black zucchini again this year. After tomatoes, zucchini might be my favorite thing to grow in the garden.

I'm growing more bush buttercup squash again this year. Last year, the grasshoppers ate the squash before they were ready to harvest. Hopefully I have more luck this year.

Putting in the garden is a lot of work ... especially since I don't use a tiller. Everything is done with a shovel, fork, and hoe. But the reward of watching the garden grow, and the beautiful harvest we get, makes the hard work completely worth it!