What's Growing?

We had a very unusual cold snap in April that stymied the growing season here and got us off to a slow start, but started we finally have here in southern Mississippi!

 

The squash are stretching their legs.

 

 The zinnias are reaching for the sky.

The wild petunia I transplanted from Georgia is showing it's pretty face.

And the tomatoes are basking in the sun.


Are you growing anything in your spring garden?


 
 

Just Tomatoes

It seems as though some years, some vegetables do better than others.  Last year, it was squash.

This year, it's tomatoes.

Every day, I'm picking and washing more ripening tomatoes.

 

Roma and Better Boy.  They haven't let me down this hot, hot summer.

 There's something so right about a home-grown tomato.

What backyard vegetable is filling your table this summer?

Raised Beds 2012

I had great success with my first ever raised beds last year, so of course I couldn't wait to start again this year.

 

Nothing too earth-shattering or out of the ordinary in the ol' garden this year:

• Crookneck squash
• Zucchini
• Roma tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Okra
• Green beans
• Basil

 

Do you like my garden security system?

 

It was constructed to keep out the following major garden pest:

 

 

And keep him out, I shall!  Nothing will stand in the way of these....

  

 Happy spring!

 

Zucchini Pesto Pasta

My garden has been a dream lately.  We've cut tons of basil, and over the weekend, we picked a nice big zucchini.  So, I wanted to make a meal of garden produce!

I didn't have a recipe to follow.  I was just playing it by ear, so to speak.  But roughly, I used:

1 thinly sliced zucchini

2 cups uncooked pasta

1 cup homemade pesto sauce

2 cups thinly sliced chicken breast

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Garlic salt

Salt and pepper

I cut the zucchini ino thin ribs and sauteed it in garlic salt and olive oil.

And then, well, I mixed everything (zucchini strips, cooked chicken, cooked pasta, cheese, and pesto sauce) together!  It tasted so good.

So unbelievably fresh!

Harvest

The raised beds are bursting at the seams!  It's great to see our garden flourish.  Here are a few of our recent harvests.  (Click here to see some other garden produce we've enjoyed this year!)

The green beans and butter beans were big and green and literally the best we've ever tasted.  And there's still more to come!

We've got basil coming out our ears! It's amazing what a few seeds can do.  The leaves are so big and fragrant.

I can't wait to enjoy more of this as the season progresses.

What herbs and vegetables have y'all been growing?

Raised Bed Progress--Still Growing!

It's week nine of working in my raised bed garden.  It's looking a lot fuller since I started it!  As you can see, I've been slowly adding sections.



It's so exciting to see things growing!

The zinnias are *this close* to blooming!

The basil has gotten so big and fragrant.

We also have green beens....

 And squash, among other things!

Even more fun that watching the plants grow is actually getting to harvest and eat them.

These are scallions. Not only had I never grown them before, I'd never even eaten them!  They are a lot like onions.  And the entire green top can be chopped up and used as an herb, kind of like chives.  They are great in a baked chicken crust!

These are the tops of just three scallions! What we haven't used are chopped and in the freezer.

The lettuce has probably been our most sucessful crop. 

We've been eating our lettuce crop for a month.  When you snip off the big leaves, they regenerate bigger than ever!  The best part is that we started harvesting it less than six weeks after planting.  How's that for a fast turnaround?

Anyone else having fun in the garden?

Raised Bed Garden--Week Five

 So far, our raised beds have been a huge success!

Picking (and eating!) our very first strawberry was very, very rewarding!

Since things have been going well, I decided to "expand."  Meaning, I connected what was two seperate beds with a new bed.

I hope what I planted there (dahlias, zinnias, and more broccoli and lettuce) proves to be successful as well.

The lettuce is doing GREAT! I wish I'd known before now how easy it is to grow your own.  We have several beds of it, and they are currently FULL of lettuce, ready to eat!

The broccoli is growing by leaps and bounds.

And so are the green beans!

 The squash I planted has finally come up nice and sturdy.  It is planted in an old rubbermaid drawer we didn't need.  I just drilled some holes in the bottom and filled it with dirt!

Grow, garden, grow!

I'm linking to KISS!