July Week 3

Well this week has been a busy week for the plants. My romaine lettuce is soon going to seed. I am going to save some seeds and see how they do next year. "Cut off the stalks once they flower and then form a fuzzy head similar to a dandelion. Take the stalks indoors or into an outdoor area that is protected from wind and breezes" They will soon be ready for me to save.

I also had to trim one of my basil plants. When the plant has secondary leaves over the first leaves then you cut the first leaves so the second leaves have room to grow. I am freezing them for storage as I have read that that is the best way to save them.

My strawberry plants are now producing small green berries so that is a great sign of berries to come.

The hot peppers are finally starting to go red and the green hot peppers are almost ready to pick.

The Echinacea is getting ready to bloom you can see where it is about to come out. I also have my first cucumber out and there are more on their way. Which means we should be able to make pickles this year. I also had a nice bag of green beans that we harvested. I plan to freeze them for future use. I am going to blanch them and then spread them out on a baking sheet put them in the freezer and then once they are frozen I will put them in a baggie. I am blanching them to preserve the nutrients and by laying them flat before putting them in a baggie they won't stick together. It was great to be able to pick a green bean and eat it without having to worry about washing it first. I read to harvest the beans every 2-3 days so they keep producing so hopefully I will get a good amount of beans. I am sure harvesting them will keep me busy and you can't help but smile as you pick them and they taste even better then usual because you know you grew them.

Love,

Candy

July Week 2

Here are some of the plants in the second week of July. The cucumbers and beans are flowering. And the peppers and tomatoes are green and growing. Some of the herbs and the onions are growing nicely.

Love

Candy

Vegetable garden July

Well it is now July. The garden is doing pretty well. The seeds that did come up are getting bigger and I even have some tomotoes starting on one of the plants. The pepper plants that I started from seed seem to be lagging behind the ones that I was given as seedlings. I think I either need to start them sooner at home or maybe just do seedlings. The tomatoes that I started from seeds are doing well as are the beans and cucumbers which were direct seed. The onions and lettuce look to be doing the best right now. They are the biggest of the plants. I was also able to pick some nice size radishes they are quick and easy growers.

The hot pepper plants and strawberries that we have on the balcony are quite big. The herbs are growing fairly well, but I am not sure that they get enough sun where we have put them. Some of the lettuce from the containers on the balcony are done so I pulled them up and have planted some dill seeds in those spots.

Love

Candy