Squash Bugs have arrived...

The dreaded squash bugs have arrived! I hate them and I killed 5 of them today. Nothing kills them.

Hopefully the squash will survive!

Fresh Raspberry Pie

I made a raspberry pie! It was rather tart though - I have never used lemon zest and I didn't measure so it was more of a lemon-berry pie. I think next time a little more sugar and a lot less lemon!

before

after

Fresh Raspberry Pie Recipe

2/3 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tbsp all purpose flour or quick cooking tapioca pudding

1/2 tsp grated lemon rind (optional in my opinion - made the pie too sour)

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

4 cups berries

1 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake in uncooked crust and add stripes to top of pie. Bake @ 450 for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Raspberries

My step-son Dalton and I picked at least a gallon of raspberries today! They are very sweet. I imagine I will have half as many tomorrow. I plan on making a raspberry pie.

Dalton and I visited the hardware store and bought pretty Lantana, Vincas, Marigold seed, Asylum seed,  and Jalapeno peppers. I decided to plant the peppers in place of my cabbage and broccoli.  Dalton found a beautiful pot filled with different kinds of flowers. We decided to get it and put it on the front porch. We enjoyed planting all of it this afternoon and finishing the day off picking the berries.

Worms

Worms devoured my cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower.  We went to Las Vegas for a week and my mother-in-law harvested the broccoli; it was full of worms. I am just sick over it! Darren pulled all the plants up today. I am not sure if i will replant them or not. 

Darren hoed the strawberries and replanted the green beans for a third time.  I'm not too crazy about the green beans since I will be canning them and I have plenty left from last year.

I picked about a cup of raspberries today. They were pretty sweet! I think they are going to do really well this year. I'm not as confident in the blackberries; they have been picked over by either bugs or birds. I am already dreading the Japanese beetles and June bugs.

Spring Came Early

Spring came early to the South this year so we started planting around March 10th. I bought broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage plants from our local hardware store. March 31st, we planted yellow squash, butternut squash, potatoes, okra, and another few rows of red onions.During the week of April 6th we had a pretty hard frost and I covered everything with a heavy layer of straw; nothing much was bitten by the frost.  About a week or so later (after the 15th of April) we had a light frost and I didn't add any straw to the beds.  The green beans, okra and squash had grown a couple inches above the straw and some of the plants were killed. Also that week I had told my mother-in-law how good my cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower were doing and she said to watch out for the white moths (which I thought were butterflies) because they lay eggs that hatch into worms that will eat your cabbage and broccoli.  So I dusted my plants with Seven Dust; I am hoping they survive.

We ordered some of our plants from Gurney; they came in and the tomato, peppers and eggplant looked awful! I had to baby them for a couple weeks before planting.  We finally planted the tomato's, peppers, eggplant, and strawberries. The potatoes look good. We replanted one row of okra and re-planted three rows of green beans. I also planted some radishes, onions, and some herbs - bee balm, cilantro, Thai basil, and sweet basil. The lettuce is looking good!

Not My Grandma's Garden

My Grandma will be 88 years old this year and up to several years ago she has always put out a garden.  It fed several families since we all lived pretty close.  I remember seeing her and her brother out in the hottest part of the day hoeing and pulling weeds.  She planted one field in the back of the house and one in the front of the house.  The back garden had corn with field peas climbing the stalks, potatoes, onions, and radishes.  The front garden had green beans, squash, cucumbers, peppers, cabbages and other stuff that I just can’t remember.  It was a lot of work! I think I got my love of gardening from my Grandma. She also loves flowers and even today is always planting or repotting something. 

My husband and I have raised beds which is definitely not my Grandma’s garden (hence the name). We have five 4x16 beds made with railroad ties and two smaller ones that are 4x8.   The raised beds are easier to weed. You can plant a lot of different things in each bed and experiment with plants you or your grandma never thought to plant.  Once the growing season is over for one crop it is pretty simple to add a new crop.  All you will need is a small tiller or hoe to turn up the soil then create your rows then plant.  We hand-draw a layout of our garden each year, rotating the crops which helps reduce the risk of soil born disease and we write the date next to the crop so that we have an idea of when to expect it to sprout.  After planting, mulching is a good way to keep the moisture in your soil; we use a lot of straw for this purpose.   

I plan on posting a copy of our garden layout. This is a picture of one of our beds.  We planted potatoes at one end and okra at the other end.

I will post more pictures soon. Please feel free to comment!