March 8th

 

The Salinas and Aneheims are starting to come up but the Pablanos are nowhere to be seen, so I replanted them.

Mar. 9th: Rutgers tomatoes have started coming up.

My chilies are doing very well this year with no mice to dig up,the seeds.

I do, however have a golfer in my hot windows. He is having a hay day, but my anger has not built to a level to seek vengeance yet.

While I have been working in the garden, lair has been making some beautiful necklaces.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TLCDesignJewelry?ref=s2-header-shopname

 

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Ray's Garden 2014

Solexx Panels

I planted my chilies and peppers in the green house between Feb 10th and 17th. The first chili just came up on Feb 19th. I have planted jallepenos, Big Jims, bananas, pablanos, Anaheims, and Salinas chilies plus yolo wonder and china giant bell

Feb 28: most of the chilies from Feb 10th are up, some of the others as well. Temperature of the soil plays a big difference in what has come up. I have a heater under the plants and the plants in the middle have come up quicker and more reliably than those on the edge where it doesn't get as warm.

Chilies

I got Solexx panels for my birthday and put them up today, replacing the double layers of cheap plastic. The panels actually came in a big 49" by 22' roll and was very easy to cut and install--much easier than the plastic. Also I won't have to replace it every year or worry that the wind is going to shred it to bits. An added bonus is that the cats' claws won't put holes in it, so I will have to find something else to cuss at.

May 1st: Planted Roma and Rutgers Tomatoes.

 

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Getting greenhouse rolling

Emily and I put the green house back together today. She helped clean it all out and put new plastic on it. Then we planted three types of bell peppers: golden summer, northern king, and fat & sassy.
We also planted chilies: jalapeños, big Jims, banana chilies, tomorrow we need to finish the chilies with cayenne, pablanos, a couple habaneros, and a few others. Then some tomatoes and who knows what else.

Monster Cauliflower

A couple of weeks ago I covered my tomatoes and chilies because a brief cold front was coming through for two day with temps down around 30 degrees after which we would have at least 10 days of warmth. This past Friday another cold front came through of a more severe nature with temperatures at 20 or below for several nights in a row. So I picked the rest of my tomatoes and chilies and let them ripen inside. That is pretty much the end of the garden except for the cabbage family. It will be interseting to see how they do as winter comes on.

Speaking of the cabbage family we picked a whopper of a cauliflower last week. The Gardener's Handbook says, "Cauliflower usually will not grow to the same size in the home garden as you will find in the store."

So who knows when I will write in this again. Until then... dream green. Not politically correct green but manure green.

Harvest Day

 Left: A bouquet of Ethan's flowers for Mom.

Right: A very large flower from Ethan garden.

Some red flowers are blooming now.

 I can't believe it has been nearly a month since I wrote here last.
I have been busy canning and getting the boys off to college. I have canned about 4 cases of peaches and given as much more away to family. So far I have put up 2 cases of salsa a case of spaghetti sauce, and a few bottles of ketchup.

Here is my biggest watermelon so far at 30 lbs.

Emily's melon

Five different chilies

Peaches

Two of my bush type cucumbers are putting on like crazy and my peaches are starting to get ripe, forcing me to ease into canning mode. I have put up 14 pints of sweet relish and six quarts of peaches.

Cucumbers

Anaheim, Banana, and Poblano Chilies

My banana chilies continue to be productive and I just harvested my first batch of poblanos (a large meaty chili) which turned out great as rellenos.The rest I roasted and froze. I have also frozen a couple gallon bags of chopped chilies and eaten a fare amount of banana chilies stuffed with cream cheese. My wife and daughter love these because they don't have heat.







My corn patch is small this year, but we are eating it several times a week. Of  course the squash and tomatoes are still producing. My new food mill should be here Wednesday. Then I can start doing something with the tomatoes. I plan ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and salsa among other things.

The watermelons continue to grow. They are getting long but not too big around yet.

Anybody need any dill seed? I think I will have a gallon when I am done and all my dill came up volunteer so I don't need it for seed. How many quarts of pickles will a gallon of dill make?