Garden Treasures & Updates

Yellow Zucchini + Prolific Yellow Straightneck Squash

Exciting Harvests

The other day I picked our first ever, homegrown squash and zucchini! After losing two plants from the storm before last, I was afraid we wouldn’t get to enjoy these delicious fruits. This past week I’ve collected one squash and 2 zucchinis.

Another tiny treasure we decided to harvest is our Dark Opal Basil and a couple snips of Blue Curled Kale (to fix over fried eggs for breakfast). Our Rosemary and Thyme is still hanging up to dry from the other day.

I plan on making homemade pesto with our basil at some point. Never tried it, due to me being lactose intolerant (most have parmesan in it). It looks so good though!

Other Soon-To-Harvest Goodies

Our peppers are doing amazing so far, and a lot of them have set fruit. There’s a few varieties that have been slow to do so, but it’s mainly bell peppers and the Habanada Sweet Peppers. The Buena Mutala Hot Peppers are prolific it seems like, there’s so many on one plant!

We have Pumpkin Spice Jalapeno, Mild Jalapeno, Habanada Sweet, Purple Beauty, King of the North, Italian Sunset, Gatherer’s Gold Sweet, Txorexero, and Pippin’s Sweet Honey. I think I listed them all 😅 Since placing bone meal at their bases, I’m seeing a lot more blooms and pepper growth!

Two of our tomato plants are forming fruit finally! They’ve set more blooms and have kept them (they’ve been falling off), after giving them bone meal. Black Krim and I think the other is a Gobstopper Cherry Tomato.

We have tomato seedlings we’re fixing to have to transplant. I picked varieties with shorter sow-to-harvest times. I’m hoping they’ll do good and we’ll get more tomatoes out of them. The handful of plants we have in the beds were transplanted late and had their growth stunted because of it.

I’ve noticed the past couple days there’s been cabbage worms eating our kale plants. Not too much of a problem (yet). We’ll be harvesting leaves as we need them now that they’re mature enough. We like to use it in smoothies, cooked with eggs, salads, and soups.

Pests & High Heat

We’ve been dealing with so many pests this season.. First it was flea beetles, then hornworms, now it’s some other type of caterpillars eating everything possible. I’m definitely planning on buying mesh covers to place over everything at some point. It’s gotten too tedious to check and pick every morning/evening.

I still haven’t found – I’m assuming – a hornworm chilling around the pepper plants yet. There was a pepper munched on, as well as, several surrounding leaves. I looked all through the plants and couldn’t find any bug, unfortunately. Hopefully I’ll catch it soon!

I wish the preying mantises would relocate to the garden and stay there, instead of our porch lol

Another issue we’re having is that it’s been getting way too hot for most of our plants. Even in May it was already hitting the high 90’s.. I thought it may have been something I was doing, because a lot of plants either has stunted growth/if any at all, or wilting.

Lately it’s been close to 100F with a heat index of 105-110, including high humidity. It’s been so hot and humid here, it feels like you’re wearing and breathing it. I’m tempted to buy some shade coverings for some of the plants at this point. Anyone else dealing with extreme weather?

Flower Power

Our lillies have officially bloomed! Including the ones we propagated last fall. The bees are enjoying them very much. Just had to share these vibrant beauties with you all!

Update on the Chicks

All 11 Prairie Bluebell Egger chicks are still thriving and full of energy! We upgraded their brooder set-up to give them more space (plus they are a pretty flighty bunch). We bought a pop-up pin off Amazon and it’s worked out perfect for us.

They’re able to run around a lot easier, and seem to really enjoy it. There’s four now that loves to fly out and perch on the top’s rim when I go to change out their water and food dispensers. One has even become my buddy and takes initiative to cuddle with me lol

The chicks will come up to my hand now, thanks to a little bit of mealworms here and there. The yellow ones are still kind of skittish, but for the most part they’ve all gotten use to me. Here’s a picture of my buddy the other day, she’s gotten so big!

We have ordered their coop and plan on having their outdoor set-up ready within the next week or two. It’s been storming here again, so it’s put a damper on tasks that need done outside. Nonetheless, we’re excited to get them outside soon and watch them explore their new space.

Berkey Light Water System

I tried out WordPress’s new “story” option. I wasn’t expecting it to be just like a post – just with “story” effects. It’s cool I suppose, if you’re just wanting to post something quick and simple.

Anyhow, if you haven’t seen it, this is it! We’ve been using it for probably a week or so now, and we absolutely love it. The quality of water is so much better than any water we’ve tasted (varieties of bottled water, city tap, etc..).

We have hard water (well/spring), and thought this would be a good investment to have. It makes cooking, filling our thermal bottles for work, and filling pets’ water bowls a lot easier. It’s simple to assemble and prime the filters, and doesn’t take long to get fresh drinking water from it.

It’s great for emergencies too due to its filtering abilities. Which is peace of mind for sure. And if you have cats, you know the box can be useful of course! [Winchester and Max approves]

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Keep on growing 🌻