Overdue Garden Notes - a little long

After a few days of not getting home early enough to check on the garden, last night the cats & I wandered out to the back yard for a look-see. The (pop)corn stalks are starting to fall over - not sure if I should prop them up or not. I read that the ears can just dry on the stalks but letting them fall over might let the slugs get at them.

Speaking of slugs - they are starting to help me harvest the tomatoes (I'm NOT grateful!) So I picked a bunch last night, this time keeping the different type separate so I can compare taste. I've already decided that there's one type I'm not going to plant again:

l-r: 2 containers of Northern Exposure, middle container - Manitoba (Heirloom) and on the right, another Heirloom - Sunset's Red Horizon. These last ones are huge - I'm in awe that the plants can hold them up. I ate that ripe one in the back for supper, with just some basil salt & fresh ground peppercorn mix and a sprinkle of freshly grated Romano cheese - YUM!

It's these last ones that I don't know if I'm going to grow again - I look at them and think what a chore peeling them would be (for preserving)...and the plants are out-of-control, even though they're in cages.
And I don't know if I like the way some of them are ripening (see photo on the right). Hopefully, they'll even out. We'll see.

Last weekend I dug up a couple of the Yukon Gold potatoes plants - some of them were as big as softball! I baked 2 in my 'easy-bake oven' - my toaster oven (must be my age - easy-bake oven comes more quickly to mind than the correct name.) With some butter and homemade salsa - another YUM!

The turnip at the top of the page was delicious - sweet and juicy - the perfect appetizer. The purple beans were added to some picked on the weekend - I might have enough for a meal now. The deer have been enjoying some particular veggies from the garden: the beans, just the plants, not the actual beans, but w/o the plants, I'm not getting many beans! Luckily (I guess) I planted the shelling beans in the 2 inside rows, and they seem a bit protected. It's the green, yellow/wax and the seeds from Kathie that are getting munched.

They're also thoroughly enjoying the chard and, after recently realizing that I did indeed plant many more seeds than seem to be growing, my beets. They've been eating just the chard leaves, leaving the stalks as evidence, but there has been not trace of the beets left behind - which is why it took me a while to realize they were being eaten. Pulling them right out of the ground, they are! Guess I'll have to get some at the Farmers' Market if I want to make pickled beets.

But, that's all they're eating - they tried the a few zucchini leaves & stalks and the tops of a few radishes but prefer the beans & the chard - and the beets. At this point, I'll share. I did make some spray using garlic oil, Dr. Bronner's peppermint liquid soap, & water to use on my apricot tree when I noticed they were sampling those leaves. Have to mix up some more & reapply.

I found a 'mystery plant' at Home Depot earlier in the month that looked suspiciously like an elderberry bush - marked at $19.99 but rang up at $8.54. A lucky find! - except the few berries that were on it (it's about 3 feet tall) have disappeared & the tips are munched. Guess the deer thought it was a good buy, too! Definitely have to make some more spray this weekend!

I've been thinking quite a bit about why I haven't blogged more, and what I want my blog to "be"...I read so many good blogs that say so much about who the blogger is. I don't want my blog to be just 'fluff', and while I don't consider writing just about my garden to be without purpose, I want to say more about what I think about so many things. I think I'm a bit intimidated by the quality of the other blogs I read - they're such good writers! I don't know if I can express myself as well - I don't want to come off as an idiot (exaggeration, I know), and I certainly don't want to sound like a raving nutcase (that might be exciting, though...). I just need to get all those thoughts that are whirling around in my head down on paper...um, on 'keyboard', I mean. Something to work toward... (Hey, Kathie - I think I just found my Doing, Not Thinking goal!!)