Garden Harvests - October 15, 2012

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This may be the last garden harvest of 2012 and the last from Georgia Home Garden 1.0.  The only thing I have left in the garden is eggplants and bell peppers.  The plants may produce for another month, but we are exactly two weeks out from closing on the house and at that point they won't be MY plants anymore. :( 

The eggplants have produced better than I could have expected.  My harvest of eggplant this year is over 55 pounds from only four plants!  This is the second year in a row the eggplants have produced so well.  I may only plant half as much next year because it is way more than we can eat.

I am so busy with the new house and working on various projects I may not have another garden until next spring.  That doesn't mean that I won't be posting though.  I am busy working on the landscaping at the new house and I am going to share more on that in future posts.  

Only half of what I have harvested

Bell Peppers

Garden Update and Harvests - August 2, 2012

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I just returned from our annual beach vacation to Florida.  There is nothing like being gone for a week from your garden and being so excited to see what has changed since you left.

As expected I had a ton of tomatoes that ripened on the vine.  I harvested 13 pounds of ripe tomatoes to bring my grand total over 100 pounds for the year!  I am super excited about my tomato harvest this year.  The next thing that changed drastically was my purple hull and zipper cream field peas.  The zipper creams have exploded with pods and I can't wait to start harvesting.

Now for the bad news, something decimated my zucchini plants.  I don't know what it was but it completely ate the plants down to nothing.  I don't know if they will bounce back in time, and I may try one more planting for fall harvest.  I heard from my neighbor that we got lots of rain while I was gone, so all in all not a bad week.

Purple Hulls on the left

Zipper creams on the right loaded with pods

Close up of pea flowers before they form into pods.

The zipper creams are sprawling everywhere.

The silver queen corn shot up while I was gone.  

I have neglected this batch so I hope I get a few ears.

Hungarian Wax Pepper plants loaded with peppers.

Jalapeno peppers, Bell peppers, and Hungarian Wax peppers

Huge batch of tomatoes, over 13 pounds.

Garden Harvests - July 25, 2012

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The garden is still holding on despite the record breaking drought and heat.  The zipper cream and purple hull peas are loving it, and I should have some harvests to show for it in a few more weeks.  Everything else is struggling despite my best efforts to keep things watered.  There is only so much time in the evenings and the heat is so draining I don't go out for long. 

I had a big harvest of eggplant this week

The tomatoes are still producing, they have even started to flower again.

More harvests of eggplant, bell peppers, and tomatoes

I harvested my first red jalapeno, I bet it is hot.  Giving this to someone at work.

Speaking of heat, my two potted habaneros are finally producing fruit.

These things just look wicked.  I can't wait to pass these bad boys out.

Garden Harvests - July 12, 2012

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This week the tomatoes are coming in fast and furious and so far I have harvested over 50 pounds.  The eggplants and bell peppers are producing well also.  I am over 200 pounds in harvest totals which I think is pretty good.

The last three days have brought heavy afternoon showers, which is good, and lightning which is bad.  Long story short, lighting struck a pine tree in my neighbors yard, literally 30 feet from where I was sitting and fried some stuff in my house.  I will have to post a picture of the tree, it is pretty cool looking.

The better boy and best boy tomatoes fully ripened and ready. 

Romas and a few better boys, time to make some more sauce.

Nice variety in this basket.

Eggplant, bell peppers, tomatoes, Hungarian wax peppers, and a jalapeno

Tomato Basket 1

Tomato Basket 2

Tomato Basket 3

Eggplants and bell pepper

Garden Harvests - July 5, 2012

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We finally received some rain in the last few days, and I am so thankful for it.  The tomatoes are coming in fast and furious now, and so are the eggplants.  We have been eating a lot of the tomatoes on sandwiches, especially BLT's.  My wife and I have really taken a liking to tomatoes now, we never ate them until a few weeks ago.  They do taste better than what I remember as a kid.  I am finding it hard to keep up and will probably try making some home made tomato sauce this week.   

Here are some tomatoes fully ripe on the kitchen counter.

A nice batch of tomatoes with an eggplant and bell pepper

Last of the squash here with a few more eggplants and more tomatoes

California Bell Peppers

Garden Harvests - June 27, 2012

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It was a great week of harvests from the garden.  I have finally started harvesting tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplants.  It was a nice change of pace from the usual squash harvests.  Speaking of squash, they are hanging by a thread and I will pull the last of the plants this weekend.  I had my second big corn harvest this week too, so my harvest totals shot up pretty good.  I am over 150 pounds for the year and climbing.  

We are still in a severe drought where I live in Georgia with no rain in site.  Many parts of the state have been helped with the tropical storms that have passed through but none of it reached us, praying for rain. 

Squash, Bell Peppers, and Tomatoes

I have been picking my tomatoes at this stage and letting them finish ripening inside.  I am afraid of them getting messed up by animals or bugs.  That green one fell off the plant while picking the others.

 

Eggplant #1 weighed 1.24 pounds

 

Eggplant #2, this one was long and slim.

 

Eggplant #3, this one weighed 1.44 pounds and was beautiful.

The color, shape, and size were picture perfect.

 

Corn harvested this week

Brings the total to 85 pounds for the year

 

 Here are a few ears I plucked during the week and they went 

straight to a pot of boiling water.  The taste was spectacular.

 

Here is the current drought monitor for Georgia.

It is much better overall, but I live in that band of red crossing the state.

Making My Bed

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When I was growing up I never liked to make my bed and I still don't to this day, but when it comes to making up a garden bed that is a different story.  Every time I prep a bed for planting I do it a little different and I learn something new in the process.  I think I have got my method down pretty good so here is what I do.  Some of this may be common sense to the veteran gardeners out there, but I wanted to share my method.

Step 1:  First you need a bed that needs some work like this one.  This is my snow pea bed.  I am going to plant eggplants and bell peppers here and need to get it ready.


Step 2:  You are going to need some soil amendments.  Most of the time my beds lose about an inch of soil every 3 to 6 months.  Most times I go to the big box stores and buy a bag or two of mushroom compost or cow manure.  This time I needed a truck load of something because I have another project that requires some soil.  My local nursery has an excellent "vegetable mix" as they call it.  It has everything you need and it only costs $42 dollars a yard.  That is the same price many places charge you for just plain top soil.


Step 3:  Work your soil amendments into the soil to level off the bed.  I like to take a board and screed the bed so it is nice and flat.


Step 4:  Next I lay down my weed fabric and tie my string grids to the bed.  The weed fabric is worth the cost and the little bit of extra time it takes to install.  This bed will not need to be weeded.  The only time I don't put down fabric is if I am planting something that is a lot of seeds and would be a hassle to cut a lot of holes, like corn or peas.  The grids are a carry over from the square foot gardening method, and I like to set them after I put my fabric down.  This makes centering and spacing the plants easier. 


Step 5:  Lay out your plants where you want them to go.  In my case I have four eggplants and four bell peppers each centered in the two foot grids.


Step 6:  Cut holes around your plants and plant them in the openings.  I mound my soil around each plant and water thoroughly.  I will add bamboo supports to the plants when they grow a little taller.