Judy’s Square Foot Garden Blog

Hi everybody!  Whew — what a day!  We worked for many hours in the garden this morning.  We got the raised beds in the front yard replanted and harvested alot of veggies in the main garden.  Then we came inside and started preparing everything to put in the freezer.  So that took quite a while — snapping the beans, blanching the tomatoes, beans, squash, okra and corn…..  We prepared 4 quart bags of tomatoes, 4 quart bags of green beans, 3 quart bags of corn on the cob, 2 quart bags of squash and 1 quart bag of okra.

I also harvested a good bit of parsley, stevia and chives from my herb bed.  I rinsed it well and then put it in the dehydrator.  I have these stored in ziplock quart bags.  I think it is so cool that I have my own parsley flakes that I grew and dehydrated!  Now, I haven’t tried the stevia (stuff is 100 times sweeter than sugar) — I need to look up how to actually use this.

In addition to all the veggies we prepared for the freezer, we also will be taking 3 - 1 gallon ziplock bags of pole beans to take with us to Kentucky on our 4th of July road trip.  My mother-in-law loves pole beans so this will be a real treat for her.  We also have a good many tomatoes and cucumbers that we will be taking to her too.  Her garden is coming along pretty well.  I can’t wait to see it.  But she has 1 big problem — RABBITS!  When we talked to her on the phone this morning, she said that when she walked out to her garden, two rabbits ran out!  She said that the rabbits are eating everything.  So we will try to construct something for her when we get up there to keep the bunnies out of her garden.

Well, I’ve gone to hit the hay — it’s getting late and we will be getting up early in the morning to head out on our 11 hour road trip.  I hope that everyone has a wonderful 4th of July holiday!!

Well, I have about 30 minutes before I have to leave to go to work this morning.  I am so glad that today is Friday and that we have a weekend coming up!  I have alot of things to do in the garden this weekend as well as alot of planning for more planting…..

Our forecast for the weekend isn’t too bad…. I’ll have to get out early in the morning to work in the garden though.  It’s going to be really humid….

This weekend I’ll be “on my own” working in the garden…  DH is going to the hunting camp for a work weekend with his buddy (our neighbor).   But that’s ok because I believe I can do most everything myself.  But, since he is off from work today (and I’m not) you can bet that I’m going to leave him a couple of chores to work on while I am gone LOL

• Put up boards on potato bin — the bin that we have the sweet potatoes growing in.  This is just an experiment because we’ve never grown sweet potatoes before and we’re going to try to grow them the same way you’d grow regular potatoes in the bin….
• Take down potato bin #1 and see what we’ve got!  I’m so anxious to see if we’re going to have potatoes or not…. my bins got way to much water this spring and the Yukon Golds didn’t like it much.
• Transplant some things into the garden…. I have some basil that I rooted from cuttings, some Italian “Frying Peppers” and some “Grand Bell Peppers” that I have in peat pellets inside that need to go out.
• Do some planning work and decide which tomatoes I will be growing this fall and get those seeds started inside.  I want to have them ready to plant outside the first part of August.
• Also do some planning work and figure out what I’m going to plant in the squares where the corn  and the bush beans were growing in the main garden.  I need to pull both of these spent plants up and get some fresh compost added to the soil so I’ll be ready to re-plant these squares.
• Check the Peaches ‘N Cream corn and see if it is ready to harvest — if so, harvest and blanch, then freeze
• Harvest other items in the garden such as okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and cantaloupe (I think I should have two more cantaloupe ready)
• Blanch and freeze more tomatoes

I’ll add more items as I think of them.  Got to run — time for work!

Man, another month almost over with!  It’s hard to believe that we’re already 1/2 through the year.   This week I’ve been busy with work (end of the month) so I haven’t had much time to post on my blog.   But I have been in the garden harvesting veggies… tomatoes, okra, cucumbers and even more cucumbers LOL!  Yes, it is true, I am drowning in cucumbers.  But believe it or not, it’s time to get new plants started already!  My cucumbers will be playing out before long.

Yesterday I got seeds started inside for my 2 neighbor beds (2 - 2′x8′ raised beds) in the front yard.  I soaked the seeds overnight on Tuesday night so hopefully get them to germinate faster.  I planted cucumbers, okra, beans, cantaloupe, and corn.

Did you know that it’s time for me to get tomato seedlings started inside?  I know!!  Kinda hard to believe, isn’t it?  But if I start them now, they will be ready to transplant in the garden during the first 1/2 of August….  that will give me tomatoes ready beginning in the October/November timeframe.   I am probably not going to grow as many varieties as I did this Spring.  I have found a few that I really like and that produce very well and those will be the ones that I replant.  So far, my pick for tomatoes are Heatwave and Campari.   The Heatwave tomatoes were just outstanding this year.  Even though they are determinates, they still grew about 4.5′ tall and are still producing blooms (and hopefully tomatoes).  Plus, an added benefit of the Heatwave variety is that it will set fruit even in temps up to 96 degrees.  My second pick for tomato variety is the Campari — I choose the plant that produced the best from the F2 seed that I planted.  I had several plants that produced so many tomatoes!   So I saved seeds from the fruit of these plants — they are F3.  I am hoping that when I grow the F3 seed out for Fall tomatoes, that I will get some stabilized plants that continue to produce true.

Well, got to run.  I have to take my sister to the doctor today for a followup visit.  She broke her foot a couple of weeks ago…..  I’m hoping she’ll get some good news that everything is mending….

Have a great day…. tomorrow is Friday!

Ah, it’s Sunday night…. almost time to call it quits for the weekend.  But I still have about 2 loads of laundry to finish up first.  Plus, I want to read the message board and post there as well as read some of my favorite gardening blogs.

I had a great time with my friends yesterday.  I saw some that I haven’t seen in several months and that was a real treat.  I’ve never been one to have alot of friends — I just usually have a couple of close friends and that is it.  But this group of friends has been together for quite a while now — 9 of us out of the group got together yesterday.  A couple more of them had other committments and couldn’t join us.   I would say that we’ve been together for about 3 1/2 years now!   I think that I am so very lucky to have found these ladies — they are all awesome ladies and some of the best friends I could ever have. 

Well, bright and early this morning (but not too early LOL) DH and I headed out to the main garden.  We knew we had some “picking” to do…. our last harvest was on Friday morning.  We’re finding that about every other day is working out really well to take our harvest basket out to the garden.  First we picked the tomatoes, then the okra, then the cucumbers and squash.   Oh, we harvested some more jalapeno peppers too.   Then it was on to the pole beans… that completely filled what room was left in the harvest basket.  I also picked a cantaloupe and we had it for dessert tonight.  It was one of the Minnesota Midgets and I have to say that the taste is outstanding!  It’s a great variety of cantaloupe to grow in a square foot garden — it doesn’t take up too much room (vines are about 3′ to 4′ long and will grow on a trellis).  Also, the melons are the perfect size for 2 people!  DH  had to go inside and empty the harvest basket and return back to the garden for our CORN HARVESTING!  Yep, we had no choice but to harvest the Sunshine Hybrid and the Sugar Dots.  I had a 3′x4′ of each variety planted (a total of 24 squares).  The dreaded CORN WORM had just begun to nibble on the very top part of the corn ears (where the silks are).   So I just cut the very top portion off of each ear so we didn’t loose hardly any of the eatable corn — Yeah!!

This is the Sunshine Hybrid corn!  It’s a solid yellow color.  We harvested 13 ears of this variety.  I have to admit that I did eat one ear raw — it was so sweet!  This is a pretty good variety of sweet corn.  All of the rows filled out quite well (thanks to hand pollinating just to be sure). 

This is what the kernels of this variety look like up close.

This is the ears of Sugar Dots that we harvested!   I think there were about 14 or 15 of these.  On this variety of corn, the kernels seemed to be much larger.  You can tell in the pic that this is a bi-color corn — both yellow and white kernels.   This variety needed just about 3 or 4 more days to completely fill out (darn corn worms!).  But still, sampling one of the ears raw, the taste is unbelievably sweet!  I am very happy with this variety (as far as taste goes). 

This is a closeup of the Sugar Dots.  Isn’t this beautiful corn!  The yellow kernels are even different shades of yellow — some are darker and some are lighter.   Of course, mixed in with the white kernels, it makes the corn look really cool.  I think we will definitely grow this variety again!

I blanched the corn and put 3 ears in each Ziplock freezer bag (quart size).  We ended up with 9 bags of corn in the freezer.  So that’s 9 meals that we’ll get to enjoy fresh, garden grown corn.  You know, of all the items that I’ve put up in the freezer this year (tomatoes, okra, jalapeno peppers, turnips, yellow squash, eggplant, pole beans and corn) I think that the corn was what I am most proud of. 

We have 1 more variety of corn left growing in the garden — Peaches ‘N Cream.  The tassels are just beginning to die back.  I checked them and didn’t see any corn worms (keeping my fingers crossed — I think the corn worms wanted the other two varieties of corn that were ready to harvest).  So DH went to Lowes today and bought some Sevin dust and I will be dusting the Peaches ‘N Cream tomorrow morning. 

Oh — something important — corn worms BITE and it HURTS!  DH or I neither were bitten — we were very careful.  But I just wanted to warn anyone that is growing corn to be careful — they are not cute worms that you can touch.   You know, it seems like the tomato hornworm would be the one that you wouldn’t want to touch, but they are harmless, unless you are a tomato plant LOL

Speaking of tomatoes, I blanched more tomatoes and put them in Ziplock freezer bags too.  AND all of the pole beans we picked this morning also were blanched and put into the freezer.  My freezer (side by side refrigerator/freezer) is out of room, so luckily my sister’s stand alone freezer has plenty of room.  I’ve been taking my veggies over there and putting them in her freezer.   We are thinking about buying a stand alone freezer again.  Our last one bit the dust when Katrina hit.  We were without power for about 2 weeks and we would plug the freezer into the generator to keep everything frozen.  Well, the freezer didn’t like that too much and decided to quit.  I think this time I would like to get a smaller chest type freezer.

It’s getting late and morning will be getting here all too soon.  Good night!

The summer solstice

Our planet is tilted 23.5 degrees on its spin axis. On June 20 this year (some years it’s June 21), the North Pole is pointing toward the sun as much as is possible.

The setup at June solstice puts the sun as high in our sky as it can go, yielding the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  Scientists put the exact moment of the solstice at 8:00 p.m. ET

I don’t know how I missed this video — but I just found it LOL!  It’s Patti’s “Chicken Chase” — very cute video showing Patti moving her chicken tractor from one raised bed to another.  And then catching all the young hens and getting them back into the chicken tractor.

I think Patti does an awesome job showing how you can ‘FULL CIRCLE’ garden.  She rotates her chickens from one raised bed to another.  The chickens help by tilling the soil, eating bugs and eating the spent veggie plants.  They even eat the weeds that Patti pulls from her garden!  And very important, they provide her with manure and organically fertilize and replenish the soil in her raised beds.  OH, have I mentioned eggs?  The chickens provide Patti with fresh eggs everyday. 

Take a few minutes and go and check out Patti’s video — it will make you smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmlhJM15-4s&NR=1

Patti has a new video on YouTube!   She explains how she started her first two raised beds early in the season and how she planted the remaining beds 2 weeks apart for a harvest that will take her through the growing season. 

I love watching Patti’s videos!  Here’s a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clqqILk1eic

It’s Friday!!  Yeah … and that means that it’s time for my blog pick of the week.  People are really blogging alot more now that their gardens are growing with the warmer weather and they have garden “things” to talk about LOL  So this week, it was even more difficult to choose just one blog that really stood out because all the blogs that I read were really great!  You know I think I could read about veggie gardens all the time and not get bored LOL  But this one blog really caught my eye because of a recipe… and even though I don’t have any garlic growing, I will definitely try this recipe when I grow garlic this coming winter!!

Congratulations to Donna at Veggie My Love (http://veggiemylove.blogspot.com/) on her great blog!  And while you are there checking out her blog, take a look at her recipe for “Donna’s Scape and Scallop Scampi” — here’s a pic of this delicious looking dish!

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Whew — it’s already time to get started on my TO DO LIST for this weekend!  This week seems to have flown by so fast.  I have a busy weekend planned — all day Saturday is a planned day with my friends who I haven’t seen in a while.  So there will be no time for working in the garden on Saturday.  DH will be home so he can still do a couple of things on the list. 

I do know that most everything that needs to be worked on “outside” will have to be done in the morning hours because the weather is just getting too darned hot to be outside from about 10 AM till about 6 PM.  We’ve actually had a little bit of a cool front come down to the Gulf Coast … can you believe it’s 66 degrees outside this morning?   It’s been a long time since it’s been that cool early in the morning.  And the forecast high for today is only supposed to be 91 degrees.  For Saturday, it looks like it’s going to be “hit-and-miss” dodging the rain in the morning and afternoon.  Then the same thing on Sunday.  But maybe with it temps cooling down a little, working during the day outside won’t be too bad.

So on to the LIST:

• Mow front and back yards
• Pull up yellow squash plants in front neighbor beds — replant
• Check 1 ear of corn in the main garden to see how close it is to being ready for harvest  Did this one today.  It’s just about ready… needs a couple more days to let the kernels on the top end of the cob fill out.  I was so surprised because the stalk I pulled was completely pollinated!   And I ate it raw — it was awesome.  But just a couple more days and the watering I did this morning should also help.
• Put boards up on potato bin that I planted sweet potato vines in (going to try the same process with sweet potatoes in the potato bin!)
• Pull up spent bush beans in main garden and re-plant with seeds soaked on Saturday
• Harvest in garden  I did this for about 2 hours this morning!  I have a pic to share in a post that I will do tonight.
• Prepare more tomatoes for the freezer on Sunday
• Start working on PLANNING PHASE for the mid-summer garden (what to plant, where to plant, etc) 

Well, that’s all I have for the TO DO LIST for now — I’ll keep adding things as I think of them.  Have a great Friday everyone!

From the http://todayyesterdayandtomorrow.wordpress.com/

Bayer Intentionally Infects Families With AIDS

Recently unearthed documents prove that  Bayer sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine, Factor VIII concentrate intended for hemophiliacs, to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, knowing all the while that it was tainted with AIDS. 

Bayer knew that the drug was tainted with AIDS, and told the FDA.

Both Bayer and the FDA are at fault for this catastrophe. FDA regulators helped to keep the continued sales hidden, requesting the company that the problem be ”quietly solved without alerting the Congress, the medical community and the public,” according to the minutes of a 1985 meeting.

VIDEO: Attorney interviewed by Joe Scarborough of MSNBC.  Bayer and the FDA conspired to distribute a drug called “factorate”, a hemophiliac drug tainted with the aids virus to Japan, Spain and France in the early 80s.

Coincidently, this is also when we first began to hear about this virus. Bayer corp. FULLY ADMITTED IN COURT TO KNOWING THIS DRUG WAS TAINTED WITH THE AIDS VIRUS AND SHIPPED IT REGARDLESS.

Bayer is also one of the companies involved in the Genetic Engineering of the foods on our store shelves today, none of which are labeled as such.