Pass the Peas

I picked a nice bag of peas yesterday to share at community dinner. They are tasty. Peas, beets, lettuce, and spinach are all that is left. We had several frosts over about two weeks centered around Christmas that killed off everything else. I need to get my palm tree removed so that I can set up my permanent raised bed layout, and finish spreading gravel in the rest of the back yard.

We needed lettuce for tonight's salad, so I went out and picked some. I also picked the first Early Girl tomato that I remember spotting. It is still obviously very green, but I want to see how long it takes to ripen if I bring it inside. The little sweetie tomato that I did the same thing with is now turning nice and red, though it has taken it's time to get there.

Corn and such

I just thought I'd throw up a few pictures of the current state of my corn. Quite a bit of it has tasseled, and I actually have a decent number of ears coming. I wasn't sure if they were going to produce or not, seeing as how late I got it planted. According to the seed package, the maturity date would be Dec. 20. I'd say it's on track for that. So far we haven't had any temps below about 40, so if that holds out for a few more weeks I should be ok. I also harvested a good amount more beans and peas a few days back. I think I'm going to make some of that famous Harder green bean soup!

Green Beans

The results of today's stroll through the garden. A good fistful of beans (I'm trying to get enough to make green bean soup), my first pea pod of eating size, and a green sweetie tomato that I knocked off by accident. I brought it in to see if it will ripen up anyway. I can say the pea pod tasted just as it should... yummy!

Tandem anyone?

This would be my first post generally unrelated to gardening, but still pertaining to the title of this blog. Anyhow, Dierdre and I went on a bike ride with mom the other day. Naturally we opted to ride our sweet 1970ish made in Chicago, Schwinn Deluxe Twinn. The deluxe part means it has a five speed rear sprocket and derailleur, as opposed to most, which are single speed. It is mostly original. The rear seat, front grips, cables, and tires have been changed. It is a cool mettalic emerald green type color, and the chrome on it polished up quite nicely with a little NeverDull considering it is almost 40 years old!

Yesterday I picked more beans, and made my second lettuce harvest. It filled another gallon Ziploc or so. I also picked my first spinach. It definitely grows slower and produces less then the lettuce. Or course, I only ended up with one plant as well. Since I pulled out my nasty buggy cucumbers and zucchini, I seem to be fending off the spider mites on my beans and tomatoes using insectisidal soap. Wish I would've known that sooner.... Also, it is better to sacrifice a few leaves, or even a whole plant early on, and save the rest, then to "wait and see". That definitely doesn't work. Pull the infested stuff right off, and hit the rest with insectisidal soap hard and fast. That will be the strategy next time I plant.

Darn Pests

Due to a nasty infestation of spider mites I had to rip out all my cucumbers yesterday :-( Didn't get to pick a single one. I didn't realize what the mites were until it was too late to control them. Live and learn. Next year if I see signs of them hopefully I will know to address them immediately. The mites have also spread to the zucchini, but I think I can fight them off the rest of the stuff if I take some quick action. I got some insectisidal soap concentrate, so I'll be spraying stuff this evening.