Utilizing Our Yard Harvest 2015

These are some of my harvest from July to October. I forget to take a pictures sometimes. So, it;s not all here.

I freeze all the left over.

I gave most to the lady who gave my MIL a bath twice a week.

I made cream corn from these.

I even freeze chopped tomatoes, even if they look not very appetizing. I just cut off the bad part and the freezer they go. The big tomatoes you can see here are left on the ground from last year and grew unexpectedly. I'm glad they did because grape tomatoes did not taste very "tomatoey" for me when cooked. Adding other type of tomatoes tasted better.

 And yes, my freezer is stuffed with fresh vegetables. I will be eating them through the winter.

I had plenty of eggplants, broccoli, and okra. And everyday I have cooked fresh vegetables.

Starting to Green (6/9/15)

Indian corn

Okra

Peanut, I wanted my children to see how they grow.

Cayenne pepper

Sweet bell peppers, will try canning these.

Cherry tomato, only one kind this year.

Sweet potato. I will cover this with fall leaves. I'm hoping I can harvest bigger sweet potatoes next year.

 Broccoli, second year planting them. The first one did not made it during very wet spring and early winter.

Sweet peas, I didn't realize I only got 12 seeds left. Hoping they all fruit for my next year batch.

Two kinds of lavender and rosemary.

Happenings

May 27, 2015
Poor DH got all the hard work in our three days weekend. The first was very nice, it was a working nice day.

The second day was above, hotter than before but not too bad.

The third day, DH was putting the fence around my small garden. The big garden will not be use for vegetables. He change his mind because our children keep asking for a swimming pool. He will get a permit to put it up in the lower part of this yard. We have to run electricity and water there. Of course the township will need to come inside our house to see how we connect them.

Small blueberries bushes, however they already have fruits.

Bigger blueberries. Rain is very stingy this time of year for us. The ground is very dry. I have to water my garden and fruits trees every day.

This vine is a red grape, I have another one that is not in the picture.

Close-up of blueberries. I forgot to take a picture of the apples and peaches. The deer almost finish one peaches leaves, they even ate the small fruit on it. Hopefully DH can put the deer netting this afternoon when he gets home early.

The Veggies

Still not planted yet. I am waiting for DH to buy me some fencing. However, I think I am going out today to pick some sort of fencing. I grew very impatient. Yes, he will do it, but there is a chance I will be planting these on the ground around June.

The above photos are bought from my local farmers market. None of them are heirlooms. Last year I was able to buy a few heirlooms, but no luck this year.

Indian corns.

Okra, long beans, spinach, & peas.

Two Spots

May 9, 2015
Yap, I am going to have 2 gardens this year. One for big plants and one for small plants like herbs and strawberries. I'm not sure if I can plant strawberry this year but I am looking forward to it next year.

Above was already mix. We are planning on putting an above pool there last year, but out neighbor being neighborly told us that we will get fined by the township if we do not get a permit to put it up. We don't want to get a permit and until now no pool for the children and I am taking the spot for some vegetables.

This one is not quite done because our tiller is being temper-mental again when DH started mixing it. This is where my chives and onions can be found. I will be adding strawberries and other herbs here. That's all for today.

A Surprise in my Garden

Here they are. I am very happy my chives came back. I didn't brought it inside the house for the winter, and I am glad because 80% of what I brought inside died within a month. I think this one was an heirloom.

They already have buds, so more chives for next year. I'll just let the seed falls on the ground. I wish I can do this to all of my herbs. I heard lavender will more likely to survive. I will try it this year. I will cover them with a lot of leaves from our trees and hopefully the lavender can survive our harsh winter. I'm pretty sure my chives will do even better because here I didn't cover it. I simply let it withered. However, they have bulbs, lavender doesn't. I'll find out next year :).

These onions I was really surprise because I thought I killed it last year. The leaves just vanished and I didn't bother checking the ground. And look are they now. These ones will be my very first harvest for this season. I bet they will be big enough at the end of June.

June 26 @ Chestnut Ridge Farms

My very selective garden vegetables are growing.

Bell pepper

Cucumber for my sweet relish.

Lemon grass, remember I bought this from my local grocery store and rooted inside a jar. There are two there.

Update From my Garden

Our corn finally flowered and one has fruit, even the short ones have flowers. I think they are the ones that been place in the wettest part of the garden.

They are Indian corn. I think this one will be purple, because the flowers are purple. I will be happy if I can get one cob for next year seeds.

I found this swallowtail caterpillar eating my parsley. I should have brought it inside the house for our science project but I killed it. I will look for smaller ones to bring in. Hopefully I can find another.

The Whole Vegetable Garden

I can't wait to get a bigger one. Only three days left to give us an answer to the property below. If they say yes, I will have an acre and a half garden next season. Woohoo!

Vegetables Update

6/20/13
Here are my Indian corns, they are over a foot tall. You can see in between them are my squash.

These are the potatoes. I read somewhere that if you buried/covered the stems with more soil, they are likely to grow more potatoes. I didn't had a chance to do so, because they were already tall when I read the fact.

Here is one of the eggplant. I should have said, "here is one of the eggplant ans what is left of it."Not so bad from last year. As you can see, a flower coming out and three leaves have so much holes from being eaten by flea bugs.

Our Vegetable Garden

As usual, we covered the area with black plastic to kill the weeds off the area. We only put them when we knew there will be no more snow coming. And this year, since I still have the mound from last year, we didn't bother tilling the soil. Plus, if we did, up until now, there will be no plants because it is still pretty wet.

When I put the Indian corns and squash, I cover them with straws and it helped control the weeds. Here are tomato, eggplants and bell peppers. I have to de-bug the eggplant everyday. Those flea bugs are eating the leaves of the eggplants.

Here are the plot of potatoes.

I still have about 1/4 of the garden empty and still have the black plastic cover on. By this week, I will add more peas and corn to that side.

Gardening Done

My season of gardening is over. I could never plant anything around fall because most of my vegetables last till fall. Plus, the rainy season pick-up. DH cannot til the soil when it's raining. Even if he can, I think what ever I can plant will drown with all the rain we are having.

I harvested the potatoes I planted from the grocery store. I got more of course, however I didn't like the taste, or should I say they are tasteless and the dead stalks become the home for slugs. I found a lot of eggs and slugs in the holes. I exposed them hoping the cold will kill them and less slugs when springs comes.

I harvested a few cilantro seeds that did not get rained on. I tried harvesting the others that are wet, and since there is no sun, the mold enjoyed them. My one and only lettuce is still in the garden, I'm not sure if it will flower. I hoping to get a few seeds from it for my spring season seeds. I can't even go out there to check on what else I can salvage, my yard is way too wet to walk on.

More Veggies of 2012

Bok Choy/Pak Choy 

Cilantro

Okra 

Squash

My very first eggplant, the flea bug never left this one alone. The leaves are eaten as soon as they sprout. The garlic, oil, & water pesticides that I made does not work here...:(

Long beans/yard beans/sitaw.

I didn't have any pictures of my peas. I planted 3 types of them. I have plenty of seeds for next year along with Pak choy and yard beans. I told DH that we should plant cucumber next year because we are having hard time finding sweet relish with no high fructose corn syrup in them. I will also plant popcorn. I heard they are hardy than the regular corn. I will inquire about comfrey  as well for our compost. I have to find a place where we don't have to move them.

I had read that if I want garlic and onions, that I should plant them now. Well, I don't have seed for both and the garden is not ready for it. I have to read about buckwheat also, I also heard they are good for human consumptions. I have to read more about them. I should probably plant more tomatoes next year for salsa, however, I can still find salsa with no high fructose corn syrup at the the store. I have to search for my grains for feeds. I really wanted to have chicken in the back yard next year. I haven't tried digging my potatoes as of yet. I will wait until all the leaves from the trees are gone. These are my 2012 vegetables.

I have no luck with fruit trees this year. We only gotten a bowl full of blueberries and that's it. My fruit jars are empty this year.