I am BACK to STAY!

My life has been out of control and I have been beyond busy. But finally, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and can begin to enjoy some of the things that I have missed doing, like blogging. So bare with me as I try and catch everyone up on our lives.

One of my loves continues to be gardening.

Here is today's pick!

My artichokes are unbelievable. At last count

we have 45!!! We have already harvested 12 of them

and will share some of our favorite recipes over

the next few weeks.

The plant alone is over 5 feet wide.

Sunflower Harvest

With the monsoons finally upon us it has

become necessary to harvest our sunflowers.

This is the head of my 12 footer.

It is huge!

Today I had a special helper, my husband.

What a delight it is when we can work together.

He fashioned a hook and placed it in each

sunflower stock so that we can hang

them to finish drying.

He tied a rope up in his garage.

Notice the knots in the rope,

this is to keep them from sliding to the middle.

They will hang for a few more weeks

until time to prepare them for storage.

I will have enough seeds to last another
three years until I plant sunflowers again.

Summer Garden

The sun is scorching hot with temperatures over 100, and so I am amazed that my garden is still alive. The strawberries are a bit sunburned on the edges but they are still producing about 2 quarts a week.

We have several basil planted intermittently

throughout the garden as well as marigolds

to attract the right kind of bugs and

discourage all others.

It seems to be working well.

Tomato and tomatillo plants.

Our Anaheim chilies are doing great.

After we lost all of our squash to borers I

immediately replanted and now we have

6 thriving zucchini plants.

We have not been able to purchase canned

pumpkin for a year in this area and

so I planted a pumpkin patch.

Looks like I will be canning my own pumpkin.
Of course, I couldn't plant pumpkins

without planting some for carving.

I also planted corn.

In fact one of my gardens

is a fall garden with corn, pumpkins,

and miniature sunflowers.

All I need now is a scarecrow.

Our peaches are starting to ripen so it

is time to bring out the nets.

I noticed a few holes in some of the peaches.

I harvested my first grapes of the season.

They are on the small side....

...but they are sweet and delicious.

There are 16 more bunches

just waiting to be eaten.

Spectacular

I am enjoying the end of my sunflowers in bloom.

They have a way of brightening up my whole day.

The are absolutely stunning!

Some are starting to droop from the
weight of the seeds that are forming.
In a very short time they will be ready to harvest.

Garden Trials and Success!

Oh what a beautiful morning! My sunflowers have just started to bloom. They are absolutely amazing. One of them has reached 12 feet.

I have been very busy in the garden lately. I harvested my potatoes. carrots, and the rest of my beets. I picked over 50 tomatoes just this past week. Much to my dismay however, I lost 4 of my tomato plants to blight. I salvaged a few dozen green tomatoes and will be making fried green tomatoes this week. I was able to save three of my tomato plants and am in the process of replanting my garden this week.

I also picked bowl after bowl of fresh apricots and will be making apricot jam soon. Watch for my upcoming post. Now to my trial; the vicious vine borer.



I have lost two of my zucchini plants to vine borers. Nasty, nasty bugs. One day I had beautiful looking zucchini plants and then they were gone. It started with wilting zucchini leaves and I knew right away what it was. As I pulled it up this is what I found.


I have recently found out that you can save your plants if you catch them in time, however mine were too far gone to be saved. These pesky insects can also attack your pumpkin plants as well and so I am now on a constant watch to protect my gardens.

Here is what I found:

• First locate the squash vine borer. They are usually at the base of the plant. Night time is a good time to find them. Take the kids out with flashlight in hand and have a borer hunt.
• Once located it is time to perform surgery. Take a knife and carefully cut a slit lengthwise in the vine. Gently open the vine and remove the borer.
• Once the borer is gone, pour a cup of fresh water over the wound and clean it out well. remove any of the orange debris that might be in the affected area.
• Scoop up some nutrient rich compost and cover the wound completely.
• You can wrap the area snugly with a strip of old panty hose to cover the would.
• Water well after completing surgery.
• Water it well daily until it is healed.

This is not a a fail proof method but worth a shot. I have found that in organic gardening there is a lot of trial and error involved, but it is all well worth it to provide nutritious toxic free fruits and vegetables for my family.

If you have any suggestions on vine borers

or organic gardening please share.

Avoid the DIRTY DOZEN

...by growing your own healthful

fruits and vegetables.

This is the end of our broccoli, but the beginning of our tomatoes and zucchini. Our carrots, beets and onions are still going strong. We harvested the last of our artichokes last week and planted our pumpkins for the fall. There is nothing better than being able to go out into the garden and pick your own fruits and vegetables. I feel great comfort in this especially now.

CNN just came out with a report called the "Toxic America". It gives a list of fruits and vegetables that contain the most chemical residue from pesticides used during their growing and harvesting seasons called the:

DIRTY DOZEN

• Celery
• Peaches
• Strawberries
• Apples
• Domestic Blueberries
• Nectarines
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Spinach, Kale and collard Greens
• Cherries
• Potatoes
• Imported Grapes
• Lettuce

The "Dirty Dozen" contain 47 to 67 different pesticides per serving. This is unbelievable! Even with the high power pressure watering systems the USDA used in their testing, these fruits and vegetables were still contaminated. No wonder we are counseled to plant our own gardens. I hope that this makes you want to go out and immediately grow your own food, or at least purchase organically grown fruits and vegetables to protect your families.

You can find out more information here.

Grape Update

This is just 1 single grape vine.

It has completely taken over the whole area.

We even cut it back all of the way last season.

I thought that we had lots of grapes last year,

but this year there are too many to count.

Today's Harvest!

I love gardening!

My Very First BROCCOLI

I picked this perfect broccoli

earlier today!

There are several more each about

a week behind the other.

Look how tall my sunflowers have grown,

they are almost to the top of our fence.

It looks like we will be having artichokes this week.

As you can see there are two different varieties.

I am anxious to see which one we like better.

Garden Update

I have been working endlessly on homework

and needed a break and so

I am blogging!

How is that for procrastination???

Today was the first day since my surgery

that I crossed the protective fence made

to keep Padme out and worked in my garden.

The first thing I did was pick strawberries.

We had to start completely over this year

because Padme got into our strawberry

patch last year and demolished the whole bed.

Each plant is loaded with fruit.

So far we have been picking a large bowl

full of strawberries every other day.

It is the first thing my granddaughter

Tatianna asks about when she comes over.

"Do you have any strawberries for me today?"

I grow sunflowers every 3 years and harvest their seeds.

They add such grandeur to the garden.

This variety will grow over 6 feet tall.

Our tomatoes plants are covered

in blossoms as well as young tomatoes.

Beets!

We enjoy the beet greens as well as the beets.

They taste very much like spinach,

but a bit saltier.

Carrots and beets are well on their way.

Our spinach is about done for the season.
We have already picked from it several times.

I actually planted 3 kinds of potatoes this year:

Red Potatoes

White Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes

I am just so fascinated at our artichock plants

that I had to share more pictures with you.



There is just something wonderful
about being to grow your own food.





Did I mention that between our 2 plants
we now have 32 artichokes.



I used to be worried about how we
were going to share 1 aritchoke and now
I am wondering what to do with 32.



Thank goodness I only planted 2 plants.

We harvested our first artichoke last week

and I gave it to a dear friend and fellow

gardener who said it was absolutely

DELICIOUS.

I have also planted:

Herbs

Squash

Garlic

Onions

and peppers

I noticed that some of my onions started

to flower, also referred to bolting.

Does anyone know what causes it?

They are not large enough to pick,

yet as I understand once

they have bolted they will no

longer continue to grow.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?

Did I ever mention that my first

name is really Mary?

Honest it is, but please

don't ever call me by

my first name.

We counted them this morning,

there are 19 Artichokes!!!

We are looking forward to a bountiful
harvest of grapes.

If we can keep Padme from reaching up

into the trees and eating our peaches

and apricots I should be able

to do some canning this year.

All of the pictures were taken by Kendrick.

He promised to take pictures of the rest

of the gardens later this week.