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Showing posts with label home grown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home grown. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

First Harvest

Last night I got my first harvest from my garden and it was delish!


I know this isn't much compared to Bobbi Jo's, my Aunt Marilyn's (Kristin's mom), Doug's (Jamie's dad), or the countless other super gardeners out there, but so far my garden is doing a billion times better than it has the over my previous two years of semi-unsuccessful gardening. I am hoping this years the trend continues.

This year I've got the following planted:

Green beans
Okra
Peppers (bell, jalapeno and Anaheim)
Tomatoes (several varieties)
Onions
Potatoes
Squash
And a random zucchini that somehow got planted with the squash

In the past, only my peppers and tomatoes produced anything worthwhile so I am super excited to have such a great start to the season.

Also, over the weekend I did a little construction/basket weaving in my garden. I am very tired of the ugly metal stakes used to hold up (or attempt to hold up) my tomatoes and my green beans. The green beans have already completely over grown their stake and the tomato stakes simply look ugly. I decided to make something a little more organic for the garden to fulfill these needs this season.


Two weeks ago when Joe was doing some MUCH needed trimming to our trees, I asked him to set aside some long straight branches. I then used some jute string from Lowes and my best weaving skills and made these stakes for my green beans and 1 set of my tomato plants
By the way, these are my much smaller, younger tomatoes. My other, bigger box full has the metal stakes and is already filled with tons of green tomatoes - woohoo!

So far I am happy with the visual appeal, I just hope they can can stand up (literally) to the weather and the pressure from my plants. If all goes well, at then end of the season I plan to throw these stakes in the fire pit (no more need to store ugly metal stakes!) and start over next spring

Do you have any gardening tips that made your veggie gardens more visually appealing?

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Blackberry Jelly?

I picked some blackberries while at my parents house this past weekend. I LOVE blackberries and picking them is pretty much an annual adventure for me. Unfortunately the drought has led to a reduction of the number and quality of berries this year but I managed to get a big bowlful.



I have always eaten the berries fresh although my Granny would make pie and my Grandma makes cobbler. Everyone loves Grandma's cobbler but personally I am more of a pie type of gal. I just can't seem to let my yummy fresh berries go to make a pie... and the one time I tired to make one I failed miserably.

Today I stumbled across the blog The Blind Pig and the Acorn... its a pretty neat, I recommend checking it out. Anyway, because of this post, I am now inspired to make blackberry jelly. I have NEVER done this before and will need to pick quite a few more berries when I go home for Easter BUT I think I may give it a go (maybe).

So, blog readers, do you have any tips, recipes, or jelly making advice? I am all ears!