Weekend Update

I've been picking my peas and green beans. Unfortunately, of everything in the garden, those are my two least favorite veggies. I'm looking for some good recipes for the peas. The only problem with the green beans is learning how to cook them from fresh. As I find resources for this stuff, I'll post them to the right of this site. -->

I've collected about 4 oz of peas and 3 oz of green beans so far. I only took the green beans off of one plant (there are 4) because I want to taste them to make sure I didn't pick them too early before I go picking them all.

I finally got around to replanting my cilantro and oregano. They're sitting outside now but I'm nervous just knowing they're out there. Mr. Squirrel leaves the basil alone now that it's big and fills up the pot. I think he really just wants some dirt to dig in. I might bring the cilantro and oregano inside until they're bigger. Speaking of herbs, I had spinach caprese salad for lunch last week...with my own basil! I wish I was using my own tomatoes too but hopefully I will be soon enough.

And I think I will because...

I have tomatoes!! I didn't count but there are several on each plant. I feel like once these start getting red, they're something Mr. Squirrel will love to try. I might need to stock up on the cayenne pepper in the near future.

Since the chicken wire isn't keeping my pests out, I'm going to cut it up and try to turn it into some sort of trellis/cage-- something like this, I suppose. I'm not sure of the purpose of the one in the picture, but I'm going to put it around my peas, cucumbers and tomatoes to keep them under control. They've grown so large that they're shadowing other veggies and killing them. They need to follow the rules and stay in their own space!

And speaking of pests, the bugs in my garden are crazy! Mean-looking bees, big ass spiders, lightning bugs hanging out until dusk, beetles upon beetles upon beetles, and creepiest of all, earwigs. Blech! Just thinking about the earwigs creeps me out. I'm not sure if anything is doing any damage though. There are some tiny holes in the leaves of my cauliflower/broccoli but interestingly, I've never seen any bugs on either of them. I also have a couple funky looking leaves throughout the garden. I'm not sure if it could be from bugs, disease, or something completely natural. Again, more research needed.

This Thing is OUT OF CONTROL!!

Seriously. Look at that! It used to be a box of dirt! There are no weeds in there...it's all plants... that will hopefully grow vegetables. We've had very wet and warm weather lately and obviously they love it!

The squirrels are still eating my strawberries, but check these puppies out:

Peas! And...

Green beans!

I ate one of those sugar snap peas and it was fantastic. So crisp and so sweet!  I can't believe I've actually grown food! Edible food! My bounty has officially increased by one pea pod!

Progress

Can you believe that was just dirt a couple months ago? Everything is making good progress. The only exception is the peppers which are a little slow. They're speeding up since I thinned them down to one plant per square though. I'm beginning to think that one plant per square was plenty. The peas and lettuce (four per square) are really starting to take over the nearby squares.

I'm already thinking about what I've learned and how I'll do it differently next year. Ha! And I've only gotten 4.5 strawberries from this thing so far!

My strawberries are doing okay. I've gotten a couple more berries from them but no more big ones like the first one, which was eaten by the squirrel. I got these two this morning. They might be small, but they're so much more delicious than anything you can buy at the grocery store!

My green bean plants are starting to get little flowers. I believe flowers mean beans are on the way. Yay!

Herb Troubles

First, my basil is doing fantastically and I'm looking for a pesto recipe to use some of it up.

However, the oregano isn't doing as well. I only ended up with tiny sprouts in my oregano pot. In fact, they may have even been weeds. I've replanted the oregano.

The cilantro was doing great. Until Tuesday morning...

Needless to say, the cilantro needed to be replanted so I did that today. I dumped out the soil in the pot and found a peanut shell. Unbelievable! He was just trying to bury his loot!

I talked to my neighbor, who works at a nursery, about the squirrels. She said that they ate all her peppers last year. Great. She also said that cayenne pepper is the best way to keep them away. Okay, then I'm on the right track. I just need to be more diligent about putting the cayenne on the garden/pots.