Preparing Peppers

I mentioned yesterday that I would share more about the jalapeño peppers as well as the Keystone Giant Bell peppers that I am growing. I have been growing both in my garden for a number of years. I've also grown Serrano peppers and Cayenne peppers in the past. I really didn't use the Cayenne peppers so I'm not growing them again. I'm the only one who likes spicy food in my family and medium is enough heat for me. I will probably buy the Serrano from a green house this year and transplant them. I just didn't have enough room. I doubled my broccoli plants and added Swiss chard this year to my sprouting tubs. Peppers like heat. They need a warm climate to get started. I placed a heating pad under the tub directly under the peat pots with the peppers. My basement is cold so this helps them germinate and more seeds germinate this way.  They transplant easily while they are little so if one pot remains empty and if I get a few in another I can just move a some. This year all the Bells are sprouting. Yay! You can see I set the heating pad to low. I've used medium once or twice. Depends on the chill in the air.

Canning Green Beans - part A

This year I had the largest first picking of green beans ever! I picked 9 lbs and it covered 1/3 of my dining room table.  My children were anxious to help snap them - it only happens after the first pick.  And I was surprised they both stuck with me until it was done.  It actually went by really fast with their help.

Here is a close up of the green beans in my water bath canning pot.  

Yes, my little garden actually produced enough green beans to fill this pot.

The next step is to wash them in several changes of water.  I'm not sure how many several is so I say 3 or 4.  Sorry no photo.  Then cut them if you want.  My sister makes dill beans and doesn't cut them up.  

 Boil them for 5 minutes.  And I'll share some more tomorrow...

Garden Harvest

This is a small harvest from the 5th.  I picked two small onions because I needed room for the larger onions to grow.  Finally harvested my first squash - that's my fault - I planted 2 and late because of the soggy wet spring.  And two kohlrabi which will sit in my fridge until I get the guts to throw them away.  

On Sunday I picked two bell peppers and one onion for fajitas since my mom and niece were here.  It was a great way to end Fast Sunday.  My mom even noticed that the bell peppers were a prettier green color than she'd ever seen in the store.  She was right.  And much more delicious!

Day Lilies

My Day Lilies are looking pretty good this year. They were slow to bloom (long cold spring) but they look better than they have in a long time. I've planted 2 other types and they'll bloom next year.  This fall I am splitting these.  I need to place them on the hillside next to the new Ash tree.

Pumpkins

This is a Spirit Bush pumpkin.  It's a bush type of course, which means they take up less space.  And it seems to produce two perfect looking pumpkins per bush.  They were pretty small the week before.  And now they are bigger than a softball.  Of course I took these photos on the 24th of July.  I just took a lot of photos and its taking me this long to share.

You can see the 5 spirit bushes here and one little pumpkin enjoying some sun.

Here is the east pumpkin patch next to the green onions on the back upper tier.

And here is one sugar pie pumpkin.  We'll see if I get any pumpkins on the vine type this year.  Last year they started about September.  Too late.  They didn't even reach baseball size before the frost hit.

And here is a small Spirit Bush pumpkin hiding away in the leaves.  I just really liked the way the shadows fell across it.

And here is the West side pumpkin patch.  I planted these a little late and they just don't want to grow. Even with fertilizer! I tilled around them the other day.  I need to take the herbicide to that mess at the end.  I hate bind weed.  It looks like morning glory.  Only it's worse and it's roots can take up to 50 years to kill. I grew two yellow crook neck squash this year and they are just starting to grow squash.  I'm thinking kabobs would be great - someday. 

Daisies and Pin cushions

Shasta Daisy - these are looking quite nice.  I'm sure next week I will need to take the scissors to them. Want to take better flower photos then make sure you take photos from many angles.  Of course it helps to have an f-stop of 4 or less.

Pin cushion flower just getting ready to open.

And this one is open.  I love how they look like little straight pins in the center.  And the wild flower look is really fitting around our home.

Incredible Corn Progress

The corn is Incredible.  I mean the name of the corn is Incredible.  It's an enhanced sweet corn like Ambrosia, only bigger.  And the corn stalks are a little more sturdy.  I have had to side dress it though because I did not get the stuff in the ground before planting. 

A fun close up of the corn stalk leaves.  And as you can see on my side bar I have added a few links to gardens I watch.  I realized as I looked through them that I need to show the progress of my plants.  I haven't done that much in the past.  I think it's because I thought that the harvest was the most interesting part.  So my challenge is to take more fascinating photos of their progress. 

There are only 5 rows but they are bigger than what I've grown before.  And I am no longer taking the time to boil and cut the corn off the husk.  I will blanch them and then freeze them on the cob.  My family prefers it and it's so much easier. I read recently that home gardeners biggest mistake is to make one or two long rows of corn.  They do better with 3 or more rows in a short rectangular shape.  So it sounds like we are still okay.