Time for some harvest!!!

This is starting to be the time that makes all the hard work worth it.... when you finally get to start eating all the fruits from the plants you have planted, weeded, watered, fertilized... you get the point.  For me I spend most of my time after work and on the weekends out in the yard and garden.  To me it is not "something I have to do...."  but something I love to do.  It is so rewarding to sit back after you spent almost 2 hours mowing the lawn and have a nice cold drink of  choice in your hand and take in how nice the property looks, and for the garden there is NOTHING more rewarding than sinking your teeth into that 1st ripe tomato... not putting down all the other veggies that might come 1st, but nothing beats the garden tomato in my book!

Well no tomatoes are ripe in our garden... but we are getting close!

"Cupid" cherry tomatoes....so close I can almost taste them!

Margarhita  - can't wait to make pizzas with these!!

Mortgage Lifter variety

A few days ago Mo and I enjoyed some broccoli and cauliflower from the garden for dinner (cooked and cheese on top!).  Tonight I was able to harvest peas, fava beans and some green peppers.

PEAS!!!   Kind of wish I would have used a not so stained
container right about now....

"Carmen" variety

This was the 1st time I've ever grown fava beans.  They are a cool weather plant like peas.  I grew them in the area I had corn last year to help fix the nitrogen in that area.  Like many the only reason I had heard of a fava bean is cause of Hannibal Lecter... knowing that killers eat them with human liver and a nice Chianti. Our plan is to make some hummus with the beans, so everyone's livers are safe!   =)   I didn't know what to expect when getting ready to open the beans... I knew the beans were gonna be big since the seeds were huge.  But the inside of the pod was nothing I've seen before.  It is really thick and almost like a velvet liner, all fuzzy like these beans are so precious they get this nice padded soft protection.  Was really neat to see something new like that. 

After I harvested the beans, I pulled out the plants and tilled up the area.  There were some marigolds that came up on their own within the bean patch - so I dug those up and sat aside.  After we got the bed all nice again I transplanted the marigolds along the pathway, and then Mo planted 2 more rows of sunflowers.  As you can see her 1st 3 rows are going crazy  - although they are supposed to get 10' high so they have a lot of growing yet. 

Last night I worked out in the flag pole garden after work.  I tilled up all the soil around the perennials again, as some weeds started to pop up.  There were some marigolds that came up right around the brick edging where the tiller didn't hit last time.  So I transplanted all the edge marigolds to inside the bed.  They are still going through a little bit of transplant shock, but looks like they should all make it.  The white cone-heads are really starting to open up now. 

The patio is really starting to look nice, the lilies are all in bloom and with a nice breeze the smell sitting on the patio is AMAZING!!!   I took another shot of the new landscaping since the lighting was better.  Oh and did I ever mention we love daisies??  =)

 

Back to the garden for a minute....  the 3-sisters part of the garden is starting to take shape.  I'm still worried about there being enough corn for proper wind pollination tho.  Never had the best luck with corn in my garden, it might be the last year I try for corn since its so cheap at farmers markets.  Takes up a lot of room in the garden too.  Along with all the squash plants in the 3-sisters area, there are 4 mounds of cucumbers and 2 mounds each of watermelon and cantaloupe.  All of these are getting hit with the dang cucumber beetles!!!!  Its my mission this year to try not to use harsh chemicals that also kills the 'good' bugs.  So my plan of attack is a bottle of soapy water and tweezers. I feel like Mr. Miaggi (sp? from Karate Kid) trying to catch flies with chopsticks!  Any spare min I have I'm gonna go out and remove any beetles I see and drown them in the soapy water.  I started this tonight and already killed over 20 cucumber beetles as well as a Japanese beetle and a stink bug.    I'm also using Actinovate this year, an organic fungicide.  My neighbor who has all the greenhouses told me about it earlier this year.   Mix 1/2 teaspoon of the powder with  1 gallon of water. They say to do both soil drench when planting and foliar spray every 7 days.  Tonight was my 1st night doing the spray - using it on all squash, mellons, cucs (mildew) as well as tomatoes (fights blight) and potatoes (blight as well) and roses (black spot).  I bought mine from the Gardeners Supply online store.  Here is a great article about what Actinovate is and how it works.

The bug death bottle! Look close enough
and you can see the yellow stripe dang cuc beetles!

3-sisters garden:  corn, beans, squash