Lil's Garden

  After the summer harvest, gardening was crazy. It was sooooo hot, and then the rains began. I'm not complaining. We need all the rain we can get. But just when we were ready to tackle the weeds, it would rain, and it was too wet to get out in the garden. Then the weeds proliferated. Because of the extreme heat, our work hours were from 8 to 10 in the morning. After that it was just too hot. Finally, we just took out the irrigation system and let it go. We still have jalapeno peppers  and basil "trees" with no irrigation.    We did have a good crop of pecans this year, and we got to them before the squirrels and skunks. This week we began again with a fall/winter garden. The BCS walk behind tractor and Robert made some lovely rows.  We decreased the size of the garden by about half. Our plan it to plant fruit trees behind the garden plot. We bought red cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli plants.  I got a few bare root strawberry plants.  And we have a var

  With the abundance of recent rain, our garden is overrun with weeds. However, we are still harvesting cucumbers, peppers, cherry tomatoes, cantaloupes, and watermelons. Does anyone have any dill? We also have basil and zinnias and a little okra. I just harvested a basket of mustang grapes this morning. They're in the pot making juice. There are a lot more, if anyone else wants to make jelly. They're on the front fence, and Robert mowed down the weeds so they're easy to get to. I'm happy to share!

 I returned from visiting the new grand baby in Alaska to find the garden water soaked and full of weeds. We have our work cut out for us cleaning things up, but we are finding some produce among the weeds. The tomatoes are just coming in. We have plenty of green beans and squash to share. Just let me know if you want some. Here's a great recipe for instant pot green beans. They are delicious. Ingredients 4 slices bacon, chopped 1/2 cup chopped onion 1 cup chicken broth 1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed and cut in half 3/4 teaspoon seasoned salt 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon pepper pinch of crushed red pepper flakes 1 tablespoon butter Instructions Turn Instant Pot on SAUTE mode. When hot, coat inner pot with cooking spray and add bacon. Cook until bacon is crisp. Add onion and cook 1 more minute. Hit "Cancel" and add chicken broth. Scrape up any browned bits on the bottom. Add remaining ingredients. Place lid on Instant Pot and set to Pressu

  Right now we have peppers, shallots,   peas,    onions,   zinnia, Swiss chard, sunflowers, (The zinnias planted themselves. I stuck a few Swiss chard and sunflowers among them, and I think a feral watermelon and some basil are in the mix. We'll see what happens in this unruly row. kale,    tomatoes (We made some nice supports for the tomatoes with rebar, t-posts, PVC joints, and string. Hopefully that makes the harvest easier.), beans (We also built a trellis for the beans with t-posts, chicken wire, and bamboo.),   radishes,  lettuce,   spinach, broccoli, cauliflower,  collards,   watermelons (They haven't made it up yet.),  potatoes,   corn (We just planted it this morning.),   and blackberries   growing in the garden. We also see a number of amazing creatures enjoying the blooms and blossoms in the garden.   In the little garden we have Swiss chard, collards, broccoli, cilantro, sweet peas, poppies (Almost all have gone to seed.), romaine lettuce, hibiscus, dewberries, lav

 We are finally getting some things in the big garden. The schedule was complicated by snowstorms and windy weather. Here's what we've planted so far: potatoes  collards  broccoli and cauliflower lettuce kale  peppers They all seem pretty happy for now. We just hope the wind doesn't blow their heads off and that the deer prefer the salad in the rest of the field to our little garden patch. I'm waiting one more day for the big wind to blow by before I put the tomatoes in the ground.    Some of them are already making tomatoes in their little bitty pots.   I bet they will like to stretch out their roots in the warm moist soil. The feral zinnias are back. We have decided to just let them go for it in their two beds. I planted some sunflower seeds among them and a few Swiss chard plants that I had.  We also planted pea, radish, spinach, and beet seeds, but they haven't come up yet. The little garden continues to be a joy. The poppies have popped.  The Crawford lettuce i