Not fast enough

May 10, 2012

I don't know if I'm just so eager to be eating some fresh homegrown veggies or things are just off to a slow start around here.  I had some problems earlier this spring germinating some banana pepper seeds and my squash were slow to germinate as well.  I gave up on the banana pepper seeds and decided to buy some small pepper plants already growing.

  The squash finally were big enough to stick in the ground and have given me a few pickings, and now they are dying out on me!!!!! the squash or rotting before they are ready. 
I think i will be sticking more seeds in the ground.

My green beans, pictured here are doing fine.  I have pole butter beans, as well as purple hull peas and Mississippi silver skin peas also.  I started to see a few rust spots on the leaves of the peas and sprayed them with Maneb fungicide before that got out of control. 

Pictured above is my raised bed which has a few tomato plants, bell peppers, lettuce that's finishing up and my slow growing cucumbers.  Right smack in the middle of that bed some volunteer zinnias and a huge sunflower popped up which was a nice surprise.  It will add color and food for the birds and the bees. 
Last spring i planted fennel after reading it was a good companion plant.  I read somewhere on the Internet that it could be planted with tomato plants and peppers to deter insects.  Well .....in the bed i had these companion plants planted together, i started having trouble with my peppers and they did not produce much at all, the tomato plants did so so....Not sure if it was the fennel or not. Well that fennel went to seed after the summer came to an end, and it reseeds itself well, it grew all winter here, and now i have fennel everywhere.  Had no clue it would become invasive.....i have little baby fennel plants everywhere.

When it flowers in spring it's so pretty, bright yellow flowers before seeds set in.

Here are some i picked in April, still experimenting with it in my cooking.  It has a strong licorice taste that gets milder when cooked for awhile, in my opinion. 

You cut the tops off and slice the bulb parts to cook.  The feathery tops can be used in salads or with fish and chicken, i haven't tryed that yet.  Have you ever grew fennel before???? If so, let me know how you use it in your recipes.

I grew carrots for the fist time this winter.  Wow!!!!! we never imagined them to taste so good,  compared to the store bought ones that have no taste at all.  These were really sweet.  I bet a good beef roast pared with the quartered fennel bulbs and those sweet carrots would roast well together in a dutch oven. Yummmmmmmmm......................

What about that swiss chard?????? I have planted a few plants in the fall......and they are still going strong through April.  These few plants gave, and gave, and gave......you really get alot for your money with these plants.

I was able to put alot of this up in the freezer, by cutting it into small pieces, blanching it and putting it up in my Food Saver bags.

Still discovering ways to use this nutritious vegetable in our meals.  Came across a Swiss Chard Au Gratin recipe and tryed it..... It was really good, well it had lots of cheeses and half and half cream in it.  Cheese makes everything taste good..... I will have to share that recipe with you later.

Well.......that's what's growing here.  Looked out in the garden this morning and noticed a few of my cherry tomato plants look sick.   Ohhhhhh poooooh!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I don't know whats going on this year..........guess i need to play detective and figure out whats going on in my soil........
I remain.....anxiously awaiting the taste of a vine ripe tomato and fresh sliced cucumber.....

Hope your garden is coming along fine...............

Join me and hop on over to Heidi's Country Homemaker Hop #19 lots of interesting stories over at Heidi's place.

                            LIVE SIMPLE............................Sheryl