Strawberry | Walter Reeves

http://www.walterreeves.com/food-gardening/strawberry/

Don't Blink!

Things are changing quickly around here on Tatum's Farm!  Apparently the veggies were pleased to be fed with the water soluble Miracle Gro plant food I gave them over the weekend.

Sweet potatoes June 25

Sweet potatoes June 15

Silver queen corn June 15

Silver queen corn June 27

Yellow Crookneck June 19

Yellow Crookneck June 27

Butternut June 19

Butternut June 27

This morning I had to bait some ants that had gotten into my nesting boxes in the chicken coop with a sweet honey and borax mixture.  This has worked for me in the past inside my house.  The little buggers take the borax-laced honey back to their queen, which kills off the whole colony.  I put the mixture outside the coop so that it wouldn't hurt my hens.  The girls seemed pleased that I raked out all their poop this morning - and added it to the compost trenches.

...after an hour the ants covered the lethal honey mix

Today I found the first little lima bean pods on the Fordhook plants.

The corn has pretty little pink things on the tassels.

Also on the farm...

Blooms on yellow crookneck squash

Fat tomato

Yukon Gold potatoes

Maple tree

Coneflower

Bee balm, Becky shasta daisies and coneflower

Hydrangea

Double-blooming daylillies

Gladiolas

Shhhh! We're Hunting Wabbit Food!

From an article called  "How to Grow Carrots - Vegetable Gardener":

"Newly sprouted carrots look like grass—they have two thin, straight leaves" 

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/4331/how-to-grow-carrots/page/all

Oh thank God because I don't see anything in the rows of recently planted carrot seeds that I recognize as germinating seeds. The article also says they are notoriously slow to germinate, but that some of the best varieties are those that I planted.  I planted Danvers #126, Long Imperator #58, and Red Cored Chantenay.

Do you see anything that looks like carrot in this picture???

They are to supposed to have germinated by tomorrow.  Fingers crossed!!!!

June 25, 2013 : Pictures of Veggies

Silver Queen Corn

Blue Lake Bush Beans (a.k.a. green or snap beans)

Carrot

Kale

Fordhook Lima Bean

Tomatoes

Okra

Baby blue lake bush bean

(Itty Bitty Ninja Kitty, who thinks the trellis is for him) and Asparagus Bean

Asparagus Bean Yardlong dow gauk

Baby okra plant

Sweet potatoes

Yellow Crookneck squash

I've decided this is cantaloupe, not watermelon.  No watermelon took.  :(

Onion

Potatoes

Yukon Gold Potatoes on June 26, 2013

A Guide to Growing Potatoes:

http://migarden.msu.edu/uploads/files/growingPotatoes.pdf

Potato: Yukon Gold Care

Yukon Gold Potatoes on June 26, 2013

Potato: Yukon Gold Care notes - Plant Guide

http://www.smartgardener.com/plants/47-potato-yukon-gold/guide/care_notes

Clearly I need to hoe around these guys!!!

Weed Control in Vegetable Gardens

We've got a job to do this winter!!  The weeds are a nightmare right now.  I have been opposed to using any chemicals in my garden, but unless I get a new back, I'm going to have to resort to chemicals this winter!

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/hil/hil-8101.html

"For all-purpose weed control when no crop is present (either in the fall, later winter, or early spring), use Roundup (Ortho's Kleenup). This material, applied over the top of weeds, will kill all weeds. Do not use this material when crops are present or serious injury will occur."

To Know One's Onions

Cleome spider flower

Butterfly weed

Today my sweet new friend from canning class, Nancy, brought me some herbs, including oregano, and flowers including cleome spider flower and butterfly weed!

Oregano

Here's what I learned about the Italian Oregano:

http://m.almanac.com/plant/oregano

Chives

Nancy also brought me some chives.  It looks like I am about to have a real herb garden!  

I will plant the chives and oregano next to my garlic and onions.

Onion

How to Grow Chives - Vegetable Gardener

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/2450/how-to-grow-chives

Video: How to Harvest Sweet Potatoes - Vegetable Gardener

The potatoes won't be ready for harvest until August 1, but they look good!

Video: How to Harvest Sweet Potatoes - Vegetable Gardener

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/4199/video-how-to-harvest-sweet-potatoes

June 23, 2013

This weekend Alan I worked in the garden some more.  The asparagus bean plant (which produces beans that are supposed to taste like asparagus - I am looking forward to trying these!) jumped up and germinated a week or so earlier than expected, so Alan went ahead and made a trellis out of some tree limbs we had laying around.

I weeded and mulched around the newly germinated squash, asparagus bean plant, blue lake bush beans, garden contender bean and okra.  Still no sight of the carrots.

Then I mulched around the bean plants that are already established, threw around some 10-10-10 fertilizer (after the disappointing results of my soil test), and planted cucumbers.  I tried to help Alan till between the corn and beans with the little tiller, but tilled up a bean plant in the process and decided I better leave the hard work to him.

I harvested some more beans and a little kale.  I realized some of the surviving bean plants from our first attempt at the garden this year are lima beans!  Yay! 

Still a ton of grass, but at least there are vegetables in there in between the grass!

 

The beans are so fresh and so yummy.  I discovered a great recipe for them and posted it on my FeedMeSomething.blogspot.com blog.  We ate much of this and then I froze the rest after blanching.