No sweeping look at the garden this week.
I thought I’d show you some of my garden oddities.
Have you ever watched the show Oddities on the science/discovery channel?
My husband and I love it. Love it.
In honor of our love of Obscura and Oddities….I give you oddities, garden style.
Squash twins.
Acorn Squash twins, but only one is really thriving.
Twin Tomatoes
I love the oddities that nature creates.
This week my garden is in major production mode. Zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers…we got em.
Beans and peas are booming!
My onion has a flower.
Cucumber and squash.
The tomatoes are ripening….finally!
The baby watermelons are growing well. I just found another this morning, so now we have 4. The 3 bigger ones are pictured below.
The newly planted spaghetti squash and butternut squash are growing well.
The peach tree my husband bought me for my birthday is planted and doing well so far.
How is your garden growing?
I have Phun with iPhone Photos!
I am trying something new.
I Vloged my Garden Gab this week.
Vlog=Video Blog
Please pardon the grass that needs mowing.
Please pardon the wild movement.
I am Not a professional, clearly.
And…….If there was any doubt about my being a native Texan,
after this Y’all won’t have ANY doubts.
^^^^^^^^^
Click the above link and see my Vlog.
Be gentle, I’m a Vlog-ey virgin.
Don’t forget to enter the MyBlogSpark giveaway I’m hosting it ends tonight at 9pm central time.
Is there anything better than watching things you planted blossom and grow? Well, okay watching my children grow tops watching my plants grow, but watching my plants grow is still pretty awesome.
The warmth has taken hold here in Texas. The temps are holding steady in the mid to upper 80′s. I’d prefer the 70′s, but the plants love the warmer weather.
Beans....
Peas...
Lettuce eat some lettuce
I know, I'm phunny
Lots and lots of flowering is going on.
Cucumber flowers
squash flowers
More squash flowers
Tomatoes
Watermelons
Peppers...
;
A bird's eye view, or at least a pool landing eye view
How is your garden growing?
Check out Check out Allie’s new house garden
To check out Greg and Katherine’s Arkansas garden
To visit a beautiful little Brooklyn garden
Pictures from my growing garden.
Flowering bean plants.
Lettuce.
My 5 tomato plants.
I’m growing corn, well corn stalks.
Beets, peppers and (I think) watermelons.
I did not plant lettuce there. It must have washed there in the heavy rain a few weeks ago.
What one thing does not belong? The little oak tree. We had a ton of seeds blown into our yard. One must have found it’s way to my raised garden bed.
Happy Friday the 13th Peeps! may your day be nothing like the long running horror movie series.
Meh. It’s been a while since I’ve posted a regular garden update. Surgery can do that to a girl.
Here are some pictures of my garden’s progress.
The raised bed garden is doing much better than the in ground beds. Only issue with the raised bed? Munchy, hungry bugs.
My small side garden has been under a different sort of attack. Feral cats decided it was a wonderful litter box.
I disagreed.
Here are pictures of the in ground beds. As you can see, some things are growing….other things.
Not. So. Much.
The tomato plants are happy.
Beets.
Pepper plants. Half are bell peppers and half are jalapeño peppers.
Since my seed markers blew away in the storms…I think these are watermelon plants.
Squash, and a lot of seeds that refused to sprout.
Corn.
This is either more squash or cantaloupe. Heh. Time will tell.
If you’re gardening, how’s your garden growing?
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
The wind blew away most of my seed markers.
at least that is how the weather team on T.V. is treating it. It’s been raining here for a little over 12 hours. Storming, wind howling, thunder booming, lightning flashing, big, cold drops of rain falling.
Since we just planted the garden, this is a blessing and a curse. Water is great, a good soaking rain is great.
Puddles, not so much.
Yesterday we had high wind, crazy wind. Crazy blowing away most of my seed markers wind. This year the garden will be a little but of a surprise…. I can not remember where I planted everything. Ha!
Seeds are all about snorkeling, right?
Clearly we have some high and low areas....
Below the garden is a swamp....
My swamp.
These strawberries are survivors from last summer. They laugh at the water, they are already planning strawberry-topia 2
The raised bed is protected from much of the rain. The cats and birds are another story though.
There is no real update on my Grandmother, she is still hospitalized, they believe the mental confusion is due to a slight bladder infection. She is fighting her treatment. She keeps removing her I.V.
If you’re a prayer sort of person, I’d appreciate your prayers for her.
The MyBlogSpark giveaway has ended. The winner was comment #18
Your banana bread looks very yummy, Thanks Jamie, I would like to try it with oatmeal raisin cookie.”
Say hello to Samah on her blog, Good Cooks.
I will have another giveaway soon, because giveaways are fun! 
Anyhoo……Happy Friday my friends. It has been a few weeks since I have updated you on my garden.
See all my earlier Garden Gab posts here.
I’m afraid my gardening is winding down. My raised garden box is sinking-sideways into the earth. The super hot, relentlessly dry summer, combined with water restrictions created large cracks in my backyard. Don’t worry, my house foundation is perfectly fine thanks to soaker hoses.
I tried to show the crazy lean in a picture. I’m not sure I did it justice.
I swear, I'm holding the camera straight. Notice the lean?
Pardon my grass, it needs to be mowed. So, hopefully you can see…my raised garden bed is sinking. My husband is working on my expanded garden space, but it won’t be ready for Fall planting so, I’m probably done gardening until the Spring.
I cut the okra down. Since my garden is sinking I have been removing the plants. The only plants left in the raised garden? The (unexpectedly) hot peppers. The royal purple bean plants. The purple hull peas. And, of course, Strawberrytopia.
The royal purple bean plants are very small still, they flower but have not produced any beans.
The mint plant is still doing well. It has not taken over the side garden. I believe the heat probably stunted its growth.
The carrots are still small-ish, I think maybe I planted them too close together?
Now for the really exciting part. The purple hull peas? Growing lovely little peas. The pea pods start out looking like strange monster claws.
Rawr.....monster claws
The monster claws grow longer and wider, the peas within grow and swell the pods. Then they look like this…
They grow peas that look like this…
There are not enough peas for a meal yet, but I’m very excited about the purple hull peas! They are the only reason that I have not completely gutted the garden box yet.
How is your garden growing? Are you planting this fall?
Don’t forget that Allie and I will have a new set of canning posts for you on Monday. We would LOVE IT if you would link up with us!
Have a super weekend!
So, it’s hot…Yep a shocker I know! Last week, instead of Garden Gab on Friday I posted a whole wheat chocolate cake recipe. I know, the cake was lovely, but it felt strange after 21 weeks of garden posts to not have one last week. So, to correct that and make myself feel better….This week I have pictures for you from the last two weeks. It rained here on Thursday, just enough to wet the ground and make it nice and slick to drive on. Heh! Oh, I’m not being nice, I am sure the rain we got helped the ground a lot, but we’ve been so parched for so long…the rain yesterday was really just a few drops in a really dry bucket.
Without further ado…. my garden pictures.
My okra is still blooming beautifully. The carrots are still very small, but they are still growing.
The royal purple beans are beginning to grow bean pods! They are a beautiful color, but I was unable to get a good picture of them. The purple hulls are simply fighting to stay alive. Poor things!
The strawberries are still in expansion mode, stretching out their little green arms for more and more space.
My poor zucchini plants are still so tiny, but they are trying to bud. So tiny, so cute, my little zucchini plants. I doubt I will get anything fruit from them, but I am not opposed to allowing them to try.
Freezer jam is so easy…so easy. Seriously. So. Very. Easy.
This freezer jam requires no cooking and very few ingredients. I have made this jam with fresh strawberries and with frozen strawberries.
It works best with fresh strawberries. The last batch I made was with frozen strawberries, this batch was made with fresh strawberries.
Here’s what you need. This recipe is adapted from a Ball canning recipe. It was found in the Ball Blue Book of Canning.
Don’t forget that Monday Allie of Forgotten Beast and I will be posting canning recipes again and we will also have a Canning Link-up! We want you to link up your canning posts with ours! Get your canning posts ready (new or previously posted recipes) and join us Monday!
Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row,
And pretty maids all in a row.
That’s how the nursery rhyme goes, however I was disturbed when I looked up the meaning of the rhyme. It’s about Queen Mary, torture and executions.
While torture would accurately describe the weather here in Texas the last month or so, it does not really describe gardening at all does it?
Or maybe it does.
No, No, No…..I love gardening. I love the beautiful green plants. I love planting a seed and watching it grow into a beautiful plant. I love knowing I am growing things that help to feed my family and friends.
Bugs and heat be damned, I love gardening.
My garden is doing well……..
The okra is blooming and blooming. I’ve got tons of little okra-ettes.
The new bean plants are doing very well, green and blooming and lovely.
My mint is surviving the heat.
The carrots are still growing.
I lost my green pepper plant to the extreme heat, but the Hot peppers are doing well.
Strawberrytopia is still expanding. I think the strawberries would be happy to take over the entire raised garden! They don’t produce many strawberries, but they sure do spread quickly.
The squash seedlings are still surviving the heat. I failed to take a picture of them though.
Speaking of heat, it got cooler Thursday. The wind blew. It felt nicer outside.
It smelled like rain.
It did not rain, but it was noticeably cooler. The 102+ degree heat we’ve been experiencing is brutal, so any coolness is exciting to me.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be back on Monday!
