How Quickly They Grow

Yes, that's a tiny little tomato growing along with some fellow blooms. It's amazing to me that a couple of weeks, a little rain, and lots of sunshine can make such a difference in the garden. It was just a short time ago that these tomatoes plants were barely big enough to need baskets. Now they are taller than the baskets and producing fruit. Fresh from the garden homegrown tomatoes are the absolute best in my opinion. I love a BLT sandwich, but add a fresh tomato to the sandwich and it's gourmet fare for me! I can't wait until they are bigger and get ripe. There is bruschetta, fresh tomato sauce, tomato basil and feta pizza, grilled cheese with tomato, basil, and oregano, and many more dishes to be made with wonderful tomatoes. I can remember not liking tomatoes as a child. I truly believe that there are some tastes that we must grow into to fully appreciate their value. Tomatoes are that taste for me. Come on darlings, grow and ripen!

Not only are my tomatoes plants getting bigger by the day, but so is the cantaloupe. We only planted one due to space issues, but that plant is making the most of the space allowed. It has multiple blooms so hopefully we'll get several cantaloupes from it. Jason likes his cantaloupe with vanilla ice cream. But then, he pretty much likes anything with ice cream! My favorite is just a slice with a sprinkle of black pepper on it. Black pepper may seem weird to pair with cantaloupe, but the flavor contrast is wonderful. The slight spice from the pepper complements the sweet melon. Only a few more weeks, and we should be harvesting them as well as many other plants. Until now we haven't done much more than water, weed, and kill aphids. It's about to be a busy summer!

Sudden Sunflower

The other day while weeding the garden I came upon this little guy. Just before I plucked him out of the ground I noticed he's not a weed. That's a sunflower! A couple of years ago Jason and I grew several giant sunflowers and they were absolutely beautiful. We so enjoyed the bees buzzing around the large sunflower heads. And as the heads dried we were able to watch the birds feast. One afternoon we looked out to see a squirrel sitting on the fence munching away at the sunflower seeds. The squirrel even took off with it! If the squirrel buried it there may have been a giant patch of sunflowers growing somewhere.

This year we've not yet planted our sunflowers. We plan to, just haven't quite gotten to it yet. That's why I decided to let this one continue to grow next to the squash plant. Jason and I assume that it was accidentally planted by one of our bird friends. I know that I'll eventually have to move it or just pull it up. But for now, it's just nice to see a sunflower growing again.

Arrrgh. Aphids!

Pesky garden critters have made their presence known. My darling sprouts had only been growing for about a week when I noticed the tell-tale signs of unwanted critters. Some of the sprouts had been bitten quite badly. Then I saw the culprit--Aphids! Is there any garden pest that is more reviled than aphids? Plants that were previously perfect have now had their life-blood sucked from them causing the mutilated sprouts you see here. Organic insect warfare has begun!

Jason researched various methods to rid our new garden of the pests. One of the more commonly mentioned remedies was a mixture of warm water and dish liquid soap. This mixture is said to remove the aphids' waxy coating which causes dehydration. The dehydration eventually kills the aphids. As we had the ingredients on hand, we decided this would be our first strike against the insect enemy. After a couple of days we did notice decreased numbers, but not enough for a decided victory.

A co-worker suggested using a sprinkle of self rising flour on each plant. The flour is eaten by the aphids as they munch the leaves. The flour should then expand within the aphid for our own IED (improvised explosive device). Since the flour shouldn't bother the plants too much, this method has been our second strike. Again their numbers decreased, but a few aphids held on. They must have tiny gas masks or something!

Yesterday I noticed the enemy's numbers increasing again. Time to launch another strike! We will use a combination of the two methods to hopefully double-whammy the critters. The garden is growing well and we can't have this deterred by pesky insects. If anyone knows a great organic remedy for aphids, please leave a comment. We welcome any suggestions as it appears our battle will continue!

It was a Frog Strangler

With over a week without any rain, we were really needing some. The lawn was beginning to look a little brown and more birds were visiting our bird bath. After a weekend of beautiful weather--not too hot with a nice breeze--the clouds gathered today and it rained. A lot. You can't really see the numbers on the rain gauge, but that's a little over 3 inches of rain. In two hours! Jason and I met a friend for lunch this afternoon and while we were out, it poured the rain. People were pulling off the interstate it was raining so hard. After lunch and a couple of errands we came home to find this:

The rain was hard on our tomatoes. The two tallest plants were affected the most by the down pour. The Early Girl tomatoes were completely on their sides. We're planning to give them a day to try to perk up on their own. They should make it, plants are resilient. Thank goodness! Jason sometimes calls me Miss Brown Thumb. I'm working to overcome that nickname. I suppose this garden will vindicate one of us.

Sensational Strawberries

Sweet and juicy strawberries have long been a favorite of mine. As a child, strawberries would signal the beginning of summer, which always had great things to come: school would be out, the annual Adairville Strawberry Festival always held in May, and warm weather in which I would spend the majority of the day roaming around the farm.

My Mom usually had a small strawberry patch that she pampered. Each year she'd proclaim that the first ripe strawberry was hers to eat. My Mom and I searched the strawberries daily to find the first ripe berry. One year, all the ripe strawberries seemed to be disappearing. We'd watch the berries turn from green to pink with only a day more needed to be gloriously red. Only to find the next day that the strawberry was gone. My Dad then found the culprit of our missing berries-- our dog! Blackie (the dog) was nosing through the berry patch each morning and eating the perfectly ripe berries before we could get to them. Can't say I blame him much, ripe strawberries fresh from the patch are the best.

My parents haven't had a strawberry patch in the last few years, so I get mine from the farmer's market. Since my Mom loves strawberries so much, I made her this Strawberry Trifle for Mother's Day. It was quite the success and a wonderful way to enjoy the sweet berries.

Strawberry Trifle
6 cups strawberries, divided into 2 and 4 cups
1 angel food cake
1 1-oz pkg instant Vanilla pudding
2 cups cold milk
1 8-oz Cool Whip
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Cut angel food cake into 1 inch cubes and set aside. Prepare vanilla pudding according to package directions with the cold milk, set aside. Wash and cap strawberries. Slice all but two cups. Retain a few of the prettier berries for garnish.

To prepare filling: Mash 2 cups strawberries with a potato masher. Combine mashed strawberries and water in a small saucepan, bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Press the strawberry mixture through a sieve into a bowl. Reserve strawberry liquid and discard pulp. If necessary, add water to make at least 1 cup of liquid.

Combine 2/3 cups sugar and cornstarch in a pan. Add the strawberry liquid stirring well with a whisk. Bring to a boil, cook 1 minute stirring constantly. Reduce heat, cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Stir sliced strawberries into filling mixture.

To assemble trifle: Layer half of angel food cake in trifle bowl, pressing down as needed. Spoon half of vanilla pudding over cake. Spread half of the strawberry filling mixture over cake and pudding. Spoon half of Cool Whip over strawberry filling and spread evenly. Repeat with angel food cake, pudding, strawberry filling, and Cool Whip for second layer. Decorate the top with the garnish strawberries. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Serves: 8-10 (unless you really like strawberries, then not so many!)

Sprouts have sprung

Our garden is growing and beautiful little sprouts are all over the beds. It is exciting to see the seeds planted become actual green plants. I love the bright, "new" green of sprouting plants and leaves. It's such a cheerful green as shown in the lima bean sprouts above. The limas (also known as butter beans here in the South) are probably my favorite sprouts in the garden. There's just something about those leaves shooting out of a giant seed. It almost seems as though the stem shouldn't be able to support a seed that size. It does and they are growing taller each day.

Also growing taller each day are the sugar snap pea sprouts. To me, it is very interesting to see the many shapes and sizes that different plants can sprout. The sugar snap peas have a delicate look compared to the robust lima beans. Once these are tall enough, they will have a trellis to climb. I hope the yield will be good. I'm already mentally ticking off recipes for their yummy goodness.

Not to be forgotten are the Kentucky Wonder green beans. Isn't it cute how they look like a green bean fairy ring? They have also grown quite a bit since they sprouted. Just a few more days and the vines may begin to climb the poles. We've had plenty of rain this week, so I haven't had to water yet. I much rather have the rain water for the garden. I hate to put chlorinated water on our garden, but we don't have a rain barrel yet. Maybe soon we can get a barrel and use chemical free water! At any rate, the plants do seem happy!

The Garden is Planted!

Jason and I finished planting the garden last weekend. We are so happy to have everything in the ground. We planned and prepared for several weeks and then worked for a couple of more to get to this point. It is nice to have the beds completed and now we get to sit back and watch the darlings grow! Well, not really sit back--there is still more work to be done. And let's not forget weeding.

Each garden bed is planted with both vegetables and herbs as well as some marigolds. I organized the plant selection within each bed to have complementary plants together. Plus, we mixed in the herbs and marigolds to help keep the insects away. The varying scents should keep the insects confused and away from the plants. That's the theory anyway.

Here we have our tomatoes and peppers planted mixed in with basil, oregano, and rosemary. There are several different varieties of tomatoes including Early Girl, Celebrity, Sweet 100, Mountain Spring, Roma and different heirlooms. I prefer the smaller fruited tomatoes which is why most of the plants chosen produce a tomato about 10 ounces. I'm not sure what the heirlooms will bring, so that will be a garden surprise. Also planted is our peppers. This year we wanted jalapeno and bell peppers. We love to cook with both and Jason really likes stuffed peppers. As for the herbs, we have Tuscan Blue and Hardy Hill rosemary, Italian and Greek oregano, and Sweet, Purple and African Blue Basil. We planted the basil among the tomatoes as they are supposed to fare well together.


This bed contains our yellow squash and zucchini. We have both crooked and straight neck squash. The nasturtiums are planted with these because they are said to deter squash bugs. Even if it doesn't work they are beautiful flowers. Also in this bed, we planted red onion seeds and garlic bulbs. The garlic is normally planted in fall, but I thought what harm could it do to plant it? It will either grow or it won't. We'll have to wait and see. I went out on a limb with one Black Diamond watermelon and one cantaloupe plant. The vines may not have enough space to grow in the beds, but we'll try them too.


Our third bed contains our cucumber, which is waiting for a trellis to climb on. It also has okra, black eye peas and lima beans planted. I planted rue among the peas and the okra. The rue should help keep the japanese beetles away. I really hope they work. The japanese beetles may look like little June bugs, but they sure aren't as welcome here. They aren't as much fun as a June bug either.


The last bed has our green bean teepees. We planted Kentucky Wonder pole beans. This is what my parents have always planted in their garden and they do well. Next to the green beans is short row of sugar snap peas and several rows of carrots. We put the sage in this bed too. Marigolds are scattered throughout the other plants. Hopefully the marigolds will help deter insects too. After all, with being an organic garden we can't use pesticides. I'd rather use natural means to tell them to "bug off."

Now that we have it all arranged and in the ground, we just have to wait for the sprouts to appear. I've already had to do a little weeding and of course watering, but that's our quality time together. Jason laughs because I talk to the plants, but they need encouraging words and to know that we want them to be happy here. A happy garden should be a well producing garden!