Garden Updates

It's been a pretty good year for our garden considering the abuse it's taken (Ella really likes to get in there and pull things that shouldn't be pulled - Roxy (the dog) usually accompanies her and is the taste tester).  We tried several new things this year and I'm excited to say that they have actually produced something more than just weeds.  While I'm happy with this years progress over last years, I did have high hopes for the garden this year.  That is until I found out I was pregnant... wasn't really planning on that this summer.  It's alright though, there is always next summer.  So this is what we have so far:

Snow Peas - these have done super well this year, so far I've gotten a gallon freezer bag and it's still producing.  Although, our heat has just about completely fried them so I'm thinking I'm going to yank them out and replant so I get a fall harvest too.

Don't they look yummy!

Sugar Snap Peas - these haven't done nearly as well as the snow peas, but we've still managed to get a quart size bag.

Cucumbers - this is one of the poor plants that Ella Bella has attacked on more than one occasion (I'd actually venture to say it is her favorite).  We've had several cucumbers doing really well, only to be destroyed by a little girl.  I currently have close to 30 out there that will be ready to pick soon (barring any incidents).  I planted 24 plants in the hopes that I would be able to pickle them.  All the plants actually survived and are doing well.  Now if only I could get a cucumber that is ready to be picked.

I planted 12 tomato plants in the hopes that I could make salsa and tomato sauce this year, but unfortunately only 4 survived the crazy weather here in Utah.  Today the tomatoes were the latest casualty of Ella.  One of our drip connectors has come apart in our garden and so the garden was completely flooded and I went out there to find about 15 green tomatoes like those little beauties floating around the garden.  So sad.  I think I've given up on getting any red tomatoes.

 

Green Peppers - these are new this year and have started doing really well.  I'm so excited.  I plan on dicing them all up and sticking them in the freezer.

Carrots - these little guys are so cute.  They aren't quite ready to be pulled yet (I know this cause I pulled one last night and it was only about 4 inches long), but I'm excited that they are growing.

Corn - last year I planted and nothing even popped up.  Sad.  This year I wanted to try it again so I planted white corn and ruby red corn.  Only 8 of the 20 white corn came up and is doing well, but all of the 20 red corn came up and is doing really well.  I'm excited to try this red corn.  It's one of Burpee's sweet hybrid corns.  If nothing else it will look good all dried up as a fall decoration on the front porch.

Strawberries - oh sweet sweet strawberries.  I've decided that store bought strawberries don't even compare to fresh from the garden strawberries.  I planted these little guys last year and they didn't do anything, but this year there was a plethora of strawberries for about a month.  Of course someone (um, Ella) usually got to them before we could, but we managed to snag a few first and they were delish.  

Red Potatoes - I actually picked a couple out of the garden last night, but forgot to take a pic.  

Raspberries - these are transplants and all of them except for one are first year plants.  We have managed to see about 4 raspberries on them before the birds got to them.  One of them I actually managed to eat first.  I'm excited to see what next year brings on these babies.

We've also gotten a bag full of green beans, not really sure what happened to pictures though.  I'll continue to let you know how it goes.

I'm Dreaming of Spring

Since we seem to be one of the few places in the country that isn't buried under snow right now (which is quite unusual for us, but no complaints here), I've been enjoying the mid 40's weather we're having and dreaming of spring.  So naturally I've started thinking about my garden for the upcoming year and since Wal-Mart has set out the Burpee seeds, I thought I better make some definite plans so that I was able to get the seeds I wanted.  I also picked up a great little seed starting greenhouse kit at Home Depot for $5.  It holds 50 little plants and I'm hoping this will help things to start producing a little sooner than they did last year.

So this is what I'm wanting to plant this year:

lettuce
broccoli
red and green peppers
onions
tomatoes, lots and lots of tomatoes (I'm totally canning salsa this year)
red potatoes
zucchini
cucumbers, lots of these little guys (I'm going to can dill pickles, I hear they're super easy)
corn - I'm going to attempt this again.  I'm convinced that my seeds were just bad last year.
sugar snap peas - so excited about this
carrots - anyone have a tasty carrot bread/cake recipe?
watermelon - maybe I'll actually get fruit this year... just a thought
pumpkins - I do not cook with these, they are purely for fall decor
asparagus - these were already planted when we moved in and I think this is the third year, so I'm crossing my fingers that we'll get something this year since these have become a favorite at our house
strawberries - I planted these last year, so hopefully I'll get some sweet tastiness this year
raspberries
blueberries

Now of course I've got to see if there's room for all of this in the garden.  For this I've found a great little garden planning tool here.  Now I just need to go fight my way through the hyperactive dog into the garden so that I can measure my planter boxes.  Do you plant a garden?  If so what are you planting this year?

My garden plot

The garden was a huge selling point for me when we looked at the house this time last year.  Raised planter boxes and an automatic drip system in place.  Yes please.

Can you spot the out of control asparagus!?!

Canning and Preserving Goings On...

A couple of weeks ago two of my dearest girlfriends and I got together and canned 84 jars of peaches in one day.  Holy cow!  That was a long day and quite the sticky mess to clean up.  Fortunately, my father-in-law David was here and he did a great job keeping all of our six kids entertained and out of our way.  This has since inspired me to want to can some more stuff this year.  My plans are to can some apple pie filling, apple butter, pears, chicken and turkey.  I've canned chicken before and I'm assuming turkey is the same and last year I canned applesauce and pear sauce and now that I've done peaches I would like to attempt pears, but I guess we'll see.  It depends on how much free time I can find in the next month.  On Saturday night, I managed to make a couple pints of raspberry jam which is quite tasty although I would cut down on the sugar next time.  It was way too sweet for me.  On Saturday I also managed to get our last crop of zucchini grated, bagged and in the freezer.  I was able to get 11 cups of grated zucchini, so don't be surprised if you get some zucchini bread from us this year.  Also, since fall is officially here and it has been freezing at night I figured that I should pick all the tomatoes I could get from my plants to salvage anything I could.  I have about ten pounds of green tomatoes sitting on my counter right now just waiting to ripen so that I can freeze those as well.  That's in addition to the five pounds of red tomatoes in my produce drawer.  I also need to figure out what to do with all my cucumbers.  I was going to pickle them, but I don't have enough to do that.  Any suggestions?

Anyways, I've babbled long enough about that so here are a few pics to enjoy.