Raindrops are falling on my head...

Yes I picked blackberries and green beans in the rain at 7 am this morning! Mosquitos eat me alive!! They have been pretty bad. We needed the rain.
I counted 6 gallons of blackberries in my freezer; I'm so over the blackberries. We have been overly blessed with more than we  need.

Clean up and re-plant

My husband and I decided to clean up the garden at the hottest part of the day today. The squash was dying and all the raised beds needed weeding. It doesn't take long to weed them; which is one of the wonderful things about a raised bed. We also have straw covering in all the beds to help cut down on weeds but you can't keep out all of them.
Since we cleared our potato and onion beds we have two empty bed which my husband tilled up. We planted more green beans in the tater bed. We still have green beans on the vine!!!  We ordered Kennebec white potatoes, white onion sets, broccoli seeds and garlic sets from Burgess.com.
The tomato vines have went crazy! I tied the vines to their cages with some old panty hose.  I somehow ended up with a cherry tomato plant and it has gone wild!  We can't eat them fast enough so what I may do is freeze them and make juice later.  We are getting lots of tomatoes and I am going to make vegetable soup using what I can from our garden.  The Japanese eggplant and okra are both coming on good. I picked a lot of okra yesterday; had to wear long sleeves because it makes me itch. Looking forward to tomorrow's harvest!

Lots of goodies from the garden

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many good looking tomatoes! This has been a good year to be a gardener despite the pests.  There is also some Okra in the bottom and I fried most of it for supper then breaded and flash froze the rest.

Blackberries Gone Wild

My blackberries are currently at different stages. It won't be long and I will be making jam! This is what my blackberries looked like today.

Strawberries

I picked one and a half quarts of strawberries. We have them in a raised bed that is 4x8.  We planted almost 45 plants last spring and they have probably doubled. The result is some of the berries are not ripening good and down in the bottom some have  molded. Also snails have invaded because of the dew and  rain. I thought about snipping the leaves off the top so sun can filter down but I'm afraid it will ruin the plants.  We will have to transplant them this fall into a bigger bed.

Mini Vacation

My husbands parents watched the kids and garden while we were at my husbands work conference in Orlando, Florida for a week.  We visited Epcot and they were having a Garden Festival presented by HGTV.  I was overwhelmed and inspired by all the different flowers and the way they were displayed  throughout Disney. I could not imagine having flowers year round.

When we got back we only stayed home for a few hours then we drove to Kentucky to go fishing. While we were gone to Orlando our seeds sprouted and other plants are blooming.

My mother-in-law has raised beds and also a variety of  herbs. She dug me up some Yarrow and also a vine (I can't remember the name). I have no idea where to plant it! Both plants will spread if not kept in check.  We also marked several different colored Irises for me to dig this fall. Her Peonies were gorgeous as is her garden!
Glad to be home.
P.S. Parsley is still alive!

Guacamole Recipe

This is my favorite recipe for guacamole! I used to use a packet with all the dried ingredients and you just mix with two avocados.  This recipe takes a little longer but is super easy.   My husband collects recipe books and this is the book that I found the recipe

1977

2 medium avocados, seeded, peeled and cut up or mashed

1/2 small onion, cut up

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 glove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

This recipe can be done in a blender or mashed with a fork. I prefer to mash my avocados with a fork then add all the remaining ingredients stir and your done!! Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

Let the Planting Begin...

Finally we had two days of decent weather and the garden dried up enough for my husband to till.  I hit the local hardware store yesterday for the veggies and a few flowers.

This is a  list of what I bought:

1. Green Bean Seed - Blue Lake

2. Bib Lettuce (seed)

3. Tomato Plants - Starlight

4. Tomato Plants - Celebrity

5. Green Sweet Bell Peppers (3 plants)

6. Red Sweet Bell Peppers (1 plant)

7. Jalapeno Peppers (2 plants)

8. Straight-neck Squash Seed

9. Japanese Eggplant (2 plants)

10. Vincas (16 plants)

11. Lavender (1 plant)

12. Rosemary (1 plant)

This is what we already had:

1. Crook Neck Cucumber (seed)

2. Green Beans - Early contenders (seed)

3. Okra (seed)

Now we wait and hope everything comes up! 

P.S.  Parsley is alive!! 

Little Winters

Oh yes - we are still having little winters as my grandma used to call them.  We had a cold snap last weekend which she would call "Red Bud Winter".  This weekend we are having a very cold snap that included a freeze warning for most of Middle Tennessee - this would be "Dogwood Winter". We are not out of the woods yet - there will be "Honeysuckle Winter" and "Blackberry Winter".

Dalton and I planted some more red and white onions this week. The "taters" are coming up. Darren and the boys covered them last night with a tarp. This time last year we had green beans that got nipped pretty bad by the frost so we are holding off on planting a lot till we are sure there will not be a frost.  I just hope our trees did not get nipped. The peach trees had already bloomed and were putting on leaves. The apples trees have just started putting on buds.

Dalton and I stopped by Lowe's last Sunday after church. Oh they had so much that we wanted to get, but I told him it was just too soon and that I wanted to plant most of my stuff from seed. He has made a mental list of what he wants in each of my flower beds not to mention the trees that he thinks we should get.  He told me he had $20 dollars that he would put toward a tree fund. I think he may grow up to be a landscaper/designer.  My Mason is the opposite he has no interest in gardening. I hope to eventually change his mind.

I think we will have a really good strawberry patch this year. The plants are gorgeous and putting on blooms like crazy!  I'm already planning on making strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, and plum jam!! I will be busy!

P.S. Parsley is still alive!

April Showers Bring May Flowers!

April showers bring May flowers.....At least I hope it does! I have never been able to start flowers from seed in pots, but I also do not have the proper equipment like a lamp, or green house etc... Today Dalton and I spread some compost over our flower beds and cleaned them up a bit.  I sewed the seed straight into the ground (thought I might have better luck). I decided to plant my herbs in the new flower bed Darren built me last year near the house. I have had a lot of success with planting the herbs in my garden beds, but I want them more accessible.  We sewed Daisies in the front flower bed and we sewed the Marigolds and Dill in pots. By the way my Parsley is still alive in the kitchen window and I even used it in a recipe the other day. I found some Daffodil bulbs in the building that have been there since November in a plastic bag; they have come out and bloomed!! I planted them in the front bed around the Hyacinths.

Daffodils - been in building all winter!

 I'm not going to buy a lot of annuals like I normally do. I want to try to start some plants with seed this year. Eventually I want a small green house so that I can start all my flowers and vegetables with seeds.

Taters & Onions

My hubby planted  red and white onions and some Red Pontiac potatoes. The weather changed up a little and the ground was pretty wet. Hopefully the potatoes won't rot. We bought the potatoes and onions about a month ago and didn't get to plant them until now.

Planting A Little Green on St. Patrick's Day

My mother-in-law sent a plum tree, crepe myrtle, and some lilies from Kentucky by my husband. Dalton and I  dug a huge hole and planted the plum tree this afternoon. I also tilled the raised beds - I won't be able to move tomorrow.  Darren helped us plant the crepe myrtle and lilies when he got home from work. The hardest thing to do was deciding on a spot for each thing. I do not like things planted just anywhere.   Dalton and I also planted some petite marigold seeds in the whiskey barrel.  PS: Parsley is still alive and doing well in my kitchen window!

Spring Forward....Please

It's almost here!! I am so ready to spring forward. Tennessee weather being as unpredictable as it is we have not planted anything as of yet. My husband tilled in the turnip greens we planted last year to put the nutrients back into the raised beds. We bought red seed potatoes, Texas sweet "wax white" onion sets, Texas red onion sets, one scoop of Bibb lettuce, and I bought one pot of parsley (which I will try to keep alive indoors). Our beds are not quite ready for planting and it has rained so we will have to wait a few days before we plant.
 I did find a few strawberry blooms hidden beneath some of the more dried leaves.

Strawberry Bloom

I am excited about having strawberries this year. I hope they make well.
My raspberry vines are not looking well. If they do not produce this year we may have to replace them.

We drew up our plan for rotating the beds and what seeds/plants we will buy. We created cold frames last year on two of our beds and I will start the lettuce from seed.  We normally buy a lot of our seeds and plants through the Gurney catalog (Gurney.com). I think we will buy some that way and some through our local hardware store this year.

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Deer Gyros with Cucumber Raita

Another passion of mine is cooking - this I also got from my Grandmother. All my life she worked as a cook and she enjoyed it. She just turned 88 and is almost blind. She still tries to cook, and my mom has to help her.

My husband hunts so we eat a lot of wild game.  Its sometimes challenging to come up with a new recipe, but I have found that it can be done.  I made deer gyros with cucumber raita, sweet potato fries and steamed asparagus. It was so good!!