Belles and Maters

Picking the tomatoes just as they start to turn helps them from being eaten by bugs or squirrels or splitting. They ripen just fine indoors if they're already started turning on the vine.

Playing catch up...

These photos were taken over the past couple of weeks, as I haven't updated the blog in a while.

Melons and more...

Cucumber harvest already?

Picked 4 cucs, gave the first one to my neighbor. Picked a few green belle peppers and an ivory belle. Chopped off a few big banana peppers and even a small jalapeno.

Same cucumber from 2 days ago!

These things grow so fast!

Broccoli harvest and eggplant parm.

Ida made this really delicious eggplant parm that included the eggplant and some fresh basil and oregano from the garden.

• 3 tablespoons olive
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 1 tablespoon fresh basil chopped
• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano chopped
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 medium tomato, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese
• 
  

• Directions

  1. Slice eggplant, sprinkle both sides with salt, place in colander for one hour. Rinse well with cool water, pat dry.
  2. Combine olive oil and garlic- brush over both sides of eggplant slices.
  3. Place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Turn over eggplant slices and bake another 5-8 minutes longer or until golden brown.
  4. Cool on a wire rack.
  5. Place half of the eggplant in a greased 1-qt. baking dish.
  6. Sprinkle with half of the basil and Parmesan cheese.
  7. Arrange tomato slices over top; sprinkle with remaining basil and Parmesan and layer with half of the mozzarella cheese and the remaining eggplant; top with remaining mozzarella.
  8. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.
  9. Uncover and bake 5-8 minutes longer or until the cheese is melted.

Though not what I would call bountiful, we topped our first broccoli:

First zucchini and a few jalapenos...

The moon and more..

Though we're not growing it in the garden, I did get a lot of mosquito bites trying to photograph the moon, and that has to do with nature and all that jazz...

Cucumbers are doing well. I handled this one and knocked off some of the spikes.

Now THIS creepy thing will eat eggplant...

We've harvested the first eggplant. It was large enough to be resting on the ground, even after propping it up, so we've cut it off:

The garden in overview. We've added some circular path stones, though I still need to bury a few of them toward the back:

The second box, doing well. The cucumbers and cantaloupe are climbing (with a little help).

The first box, the zucchini is still taking over everything, but everything is doing well.

Cantaloupe climbing:
 

Ivory bell peppers:



In the past week the first banana pepper plant started taking off like mad. It seems to have survived the late transplant well.

We have quite a few zucchinis growing now, it's just hard to get a photo of them through the leaves!

Our second eggplant is coming along, though the Colorado Potato Beetles are taking a toll on the leaves:

 Broccoli crowning!

These gross things are eating the eggplant...

Before I get the first taste of my garden, there are lots of things getting theirs. Unfortunately, this is one of them.

It's a Colorado Potato Beetle, and teh internetz says they're very resistant to insecticides, and they're too gross to touch, so I'm going to have to get some long tweezers or something... blechh...

Swing setters, like jet setters, but slower and at home...

Finally got that dirt pile flattened out and the area cleaned and rocks dumped on top. 

Very happy with how it all looks, though I'm not completely done, of course... at least it's presentable.

I moved the Jalapenos and Banana Peppers from box#1 to box #2 because the Broccoli and Zucchini were fighting to blot them out. I should have looked at my book before planting that Zucchini, and saw they really needed a lot of space, but that's also why I'm keeping this blog, to reinforce the things I learn.

 Either way, the two transplants seem to look especially droopy in the mornings. Even though I brought a sizable dirtball with them, I'm sure a lot of the roots were damages. I'm just watering every morning and they perk right up. There are a ton of peppers growing, so everything seems to be okay.

Our cucumber plant is flowering! Can't wait to get it running up the trellis.

Banana Pepper turned red...

Our Ivory Bell Peppers are looking to quickly turn abundant.

Put my tomato cage from last year around the Eggplant for stability. Another flower has started to fruit, and this first one is getting mighty big and was threatening to touch the ground. The fear now is that it'll have a wire dent in the side...

Both tomato plants are coming along, but the Supersonic type has the most so far. I've been studiously threading the arms into the trellis, but realized I hadn't kept up with cutting out unneeded suckers.

The battery on my camera was dead this morning when the zucchini flowers are in bloom.

Just a show of a Jalapeno flower.

Another day, another update...

So excited about the second box, and how things are coming along, I took more photos.
Either that, or I'm fiendishly procrastinating doing real work...