harvest time for the beans

Wow, I've been so busy I didn't even notice beans growing on the beans plants. I just noticed them yesterday when I went to water them. There are actually a few beans I need to pick. I haven't really done any research until just now and I should've continued to sow beans every 2 weeks after the first one. So, I just sowed some more of the Greencrop bush snap beans and there will be quite a gap in bean production. This is the bush type beans. They don't need a trellis to climb on. And I don't know why I didn't buy green bean seeds. Green beans are one of my favorites. I'm pretty sure I've had snap beans before but just don't remember how they taste. I'll just cook the few beans I'll pick in a stir fry. That's the easiest way to cook them for me. I cook all my stir fries with soy sauce and sesame oil --- oh, and with some garlic, too. Growing up, I watched my mom use fresh garlic in just about everything, so I've gotten in that habit, too!
In order to get the bean plant to continue bean production, I will need continually pick the beans and not allow them to fully mature. If I do, the plant will stop blooming and all I'll end up with are beans that can only be used as seeds.
That was a tip I learned from my friend, Jen, and her blog. I also found some very good information on beans at these university sites: http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Ipm/homegrnd/htms/47beans.htm
http://www.oznet.k-state.edu/hfrr/extensn/Hort_Tips/Vegetable_Crops/beans.htm and
http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/7240.pdf


Take $20 Off any $40 Order!

growing, growing, growing

My little garden is sure growing. I now have 3 bean plants, 7 zucchini plants, 6 cucumber plants, cilantro, garlic chives I already had growing and a bunch of cantaloupe seedlings. I wasn't planning on growing cantaloupe but I bought one a few weeks ago and dumped the food scraps along with cantaloupe seeds into the ground where I have the plants and a week or so later, they started sprouting. More are sprouting everyday. I'll find out how well they can do. :) It would be quite neat to be able to harvest my own cantaloupe. I'll have to make sure to fertilize them.
I bought a mini greenhouse kit made by Jiffy that came with 12 peat pellets and tray and dome. I also bought a packet of just the peat pellets peat pellets for any more seeds that I plan on starting.
These mini greenhouse kits would be a great craft for kids to do. They can choose what they want to grown and watch the seeds sprout indoors and plant them straight into the ground when ready. I'll definitly be doing that with my baby girl once she's old enough. She can have her own little plot of land for her garden in our backyard.
Oh yea, I found out what I have are
garlic chives.
Regular chives
are hollow in the middle but the ones I have are flat. I have 2 small pots of garlic chives growing and I cut some up to mix in with scrambled eggs for my baby girl and me to eat this morning. Yum! I love to put the garlic chives in just about anything. That's the way we chinese like to use garlic chives. I usually put them in scrambled eggs and in the meat filling for wontons or pan fried dumplings. Mmmmm! I need to make some pan fried dumplings. That's one of my hubby's favorite dishes that I make.
Several of the zucchini plants have quite a few flowers and one or 2 of them are opening up. I'm really excited now cause once the flowers are pollinated, I should start seeing the actual zucchinis. I am still seeing some whiteflies but the plants are doing fine so I will keep on misting the plants with water everyday.

Whiteflies

Did a search on the web and found out what the white bugs are that are on my zucchini plants. They are whiteflies. I wasn't surprised that marigolds are a natural way to get rid of these bugs. I remember I heard that planting marigolds are a natural way to control pests. I found on this website http://www.laters.com/plants/cucumber.htm that ladybugs like to eat them and that misting the plants with water will help. I think I already lost 3 of my zucchini plants to these whiteflies but I still have 5 other plants I'm hoping to keep alive. I'm all for natural ways of keeping pests away.

little white bugs on zucchini plant

Yikes, I went to transplant my zucchini seedlings into the ground and noticed there where tiny white bugs flying around when I moved the seedlings. Now to find out what can be done about them assuming I need to do something about them before they destroy my zucchini plants. If you happen upon my blog and know what to do about these bugs, please let me know. :)

Zucchini seedlings

I've got 8 zucchini seedlings now. I planted zucchini and cucumber seeds a few weeks ago in egg crates and have been able to get all the zucchini seeds to sprout but none of the cucumber seeds sprouted. Bummer. But I'm excited about my zucchini seedlings. I wonder how much zucchini can be yielded from 8 plants. I will soon find out and am quite excited. I'll definitely be giving my surplus to my friends. I plan on taking some pictures of the progress and will post them soon.

The Frugal Gardener

By: Rachel Paxton 

Gardening can be expensive. When you're on a tight budget, garden projects seem to fall way to the bottom of your list of spending priorities.

I love the outdoors. And I love spending time at home in our yard. We've never been able to spend the kind of money I'd like to for landscaping, but over the years we've found some ways to make a little bit of money go quite far.

Shop end-of-season sales. It's easy to remember to do this when shopping for clothes and other household items, but I forget the same goes for plants. You can get a great deal on outdoor plants and trees shopping at the end of the season. Even annuals that are almost out of season are a good buy. They won't bloom again until next year, but for the savings you're getting it's worth it to plant them now and wait until next year to enjoy them. You can also get a great deal on fruit trees at the end of the season. Don't forget to check out the sidewalks of grocery stores and neighborhood markets. They mark down the prices of plants significantly at the end of the season.

Divide and transplant. It doesn't take long for plants to start to take over your flower beds. I grow some herbs and daisies that seem to creep inches through the flower bed each week. Instead of letting plants like these take over the flower bed, transplant them to another part of the yard. Flowers like daisies are easy to dig out in big clumps and move around wherever you want them. In several years time, the investment of a few dozen flowers or flower bulbs can multiply into many times the amount you recently purchased.

Give and receive. It's fun to trade plants with friends and family. I've landscaped much of my yard this way. Iris bulbs from one friend, grape vines from another, it adds up fast! And all from people who were looking to get the excess plants out of their yard. After your yard has had a few years to get established, you will be able to share also. This is the best way to plant your yard with no expense at all.

Look for unexpected opportunties. One of our neighbors gets free sod from several local curb companies. After a job, they just unload the sod at his house. When he doesn't have a need for the sod, he gives it to us free of charge. We've put down several hundred dollars worth of sod at no cost to us.

Creative container gardening. I like to plant in containers a lot, but planters can be so expensive. Get creative about your garden containers. People use wheel barrows, tool boxes, kitchen sifters, colanders, old boots, children's wagons, baskets, and many other things for creative container gardening. Just make sure there is adequate drainage so the water can find its way out. See http://www.gardenguides.com for more container gardening ideas.

Weigh the alternatives. It's easy to get carried away in the vegetable garden. I get all caught up in having a little of this, and a little of that, often spending more than I had intended to and growing vegetables that cost next to nothing at the grocery store when they're in season. For example, green peppers in season you can get for 4 or more for $1. That's maybe not worth it to me to grow them. Tomatoes, on the other hand, are definitely worth the effort and will save us a lot of money throughout the summer.

You don't have to have a lot of money to have a nice garden. You just have to be creative and look for opportunities. Make the decision that you will only spend what you can afford, and you will still end up with a beautiful yard you can be proud of.

Article by:

Originally published at Suite 101. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of What's for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. For recipes, tips to organize your home, home decorating, crafts, holiday hints, and more, visit Creative Homemaking at www.creativehomemaking.com.

Article Source: www.ladypens.com

My start in vegetable gardening

It’s time for me to finally get started on my vegetable garden and I thought I’d post news about my garden and all the info I find as I do research for my garden here in Florida. I grew up in NY with my mom growing a vegetable garden in our backyard and a flower garden in the front yard. I loved getting fresh zucchinis and cucumbers from the backyard. My mom grew tons of different things in our small backyard. We had zucchinis, chinese cucumbers, soybeans, corn, dill, tomatoes, chinese long beans, and I know there was more but I just can’t remember.
Oh we also had what I thought was chives for the longest til just recently. My mom came to visit and said that chives are hollow in the middle and what we have growing isn’t it. She has no clue what they are called in English. I’ll have to see if I can find in a search what I have growing. They look like chives but aren’t hollow. They’re flat. If anyone has an idea of what I’m referring to, let me know. =)