Over the past couple of weeks, the garden has been blooming like crazy. Everything is flowering and growing nicely. This past weekend, I noticed that we have about 6 small green tomatoes already. Since the carrot tops have been sticking out more and more, we went ahead and picked one to see how they're doing. It was a bit small and a little knobby in shape, but it tasted great! The color and texture were also perfect. Even Jackson heartily approved. I washed the carrot and left it sitting on the counter top, where Jackson found it and scarfed it up happily. I was so happy to see my toddler not only eating a vegetable, but one we grew ourselves! Hubby noticed a small cucumber (about 3 inches long) growing as well.
But somehow we both missed a multitude of green beans that sprouted seemingly overnight - that is, until late yesterday afternoon. Hubby said he saw a couple of really long beans in the garden, and I excitedly grabbed my basket and went to investigate. Beans are sprouting up by the handfuls on each plant, and many are ready for harvest! I picked a bunch and brought them inside, where we gazed lovingly at them before storing them in the fridge until dinner tonight. We boiled them tonight and served them alongside perogies. They were fantastic.
On the downside, my bean harvest led to an unhappy discovery that while we seem to have nipped our beetle problem in the bud, we now have what appear to be aphids making a nice home of our bean plants. So far I don't see much damage to the plants, but if we don't act soon, they will likely stunt their growth or kill them completely. My Organocide spray is supposed to control aphid populations, so we're hoping a few sprays should do it. I think we also need to work on watering the beans more frequently and keeping the soil moist and less inviting for the aphids. I'll post again after we see how it goes.
In the meantime, I need to pick up some freezer bags so I can start blanching and freezing green beans for the winter. Next up on my list is learning to can vegetables and building a stockpile of canned and frozen vegetables for fall and winter. Also, we need to get moving on building some trellises for the plants that need support. I'm pretty sure we should have put them in the soil when we first planted, but hey, we're amateurs.
The lettuce is still growing rapidly. We pick it frequently and always have an abundant supply for salads throughout the week. We've even given lots of lettuce to our parents and friends, but our supply never dwindles. We are curious to see how long the leaves continue to grow. I'm so glad we chose to grow lettuce this year, and we'll definitely be growing more next spring.
Happy gardening!
Hi ladies!
ReplyDeleteHere's a tip for freezing your veggies:
For anything that will freeze into a lump in the bag (I'm thinking sweet corn in particular, but it's certainly true for other things), after you fill and seal your freezer bag, lay it on its side on a cookie sheet, and smooth it out until the bag is more sheet-like than lump-like. You can stack up a few layers on the cookie sheet, then put the whole sheet in your freezer. Once everything's frozen, you can remove the cookie sheet, and the bags of yummy summer goodness stack much easier. The flattened bags are also very easy to thaw later.
Happy gardening!