Since my previous update on the first harvest of our garden, we've been constantly harvesting more from our garden, so we've been busy working on garden stuffs for the past few weekends. As the summer temperature continues to increase, it's getting tougher to stay out too long in the garden. But fortunately, just picking veggies ain't bad at all as compared to pulling weeds. Plus, this is my type of weather so it's actually nice to be able to wear shorts and t-shirts. =)
July 10 (Fri): Let's see what we've got in the 3rd month of gardening...new additions this month are tomatoes, corns, carrots, peas, and cabbage, while zucchini, squash, and cucumber continue to produce more. =) Love the colors of the veggies!!
The bush beans are really coming in fast and since we can't eat 'em all, we're gonna preserve it by shelling it. My goodness that was a whole lot of work!! Stir-fried some younger beans with tomatoes...it's good!! =)
We also picked a whole lot of corns and it took 4 of us one whole evening to shuck, clean, and blanch all 107 corns!! All these are in the freezer now and hopefully it will last for awhile. After all the hard work, these are gonna taste good no matter what...haha!!
Made more pickles from the cucumbers...this batch is bread & butter pickles.
July 2 (Thurs): As mentioned in my previous blogpost, we're planning to plant more broccoli in the fall so I've started another new tray of seedlings. We've planted more than 60 plants now and haven't even finished using one small packet of seeds!
Day 3 & 6 after planting the seeds. Haha as you can see, I've been 'monitoring' their growth closely...lol!
July 5 (day 15): These are the first batch that we planted on June 20. Growth after 2 weeks.
July 8 (day 18): Noticed that some of the plants grew too tall and are losing support so I came up with all sorts of way to revive them. Moved some into a bigger pot (broke one stem in the process of moving), used wire ties (recycled from bread packaging) and plastic forks to support those thin stems.
July 10 (day 20): Mom helped to transplant the plants into plastic cups and added more soil as supports. We now have an 'indoor' garden in the house...lol!! So far the plants seem to look pretty good, hopefully they'll continue growing bigger and stronger before we eventually move them outdoor. =P
P.S. Since we're both rookies in gardening, we've been getting crash courses from mom (especially on the preservation methods) and learning as we go. So whatever I'm updating here is mainly based on the results of my 'experiments' and I'll keep updating on the progress along the way. =P And for those who are wondering if Alabama is turning me into a farmer, let me put it this way...I'm unleashing my potentials in many areas that I've never explored...lol!! And most importantly, we're tapping into all the readily available resources here to eat healthier and save more! =)