My Little Green Frog

Aren't tree frogs supposed to be in trees? We've had 3 this year who have decided to take up residence in our back yard. They must be here for all the tasty critters flying around! Good for them. :)

Funny though, the trellis is NOT the best camouflage for these beautiful green frogs. They somehow love it and I find them here every morning .

Don't Forget To Save The Seeds!

Something today that many of us, myself included, take for granted are seeds. We expect to go to the store and pick out our seeds each and every year. The hard truth of this is the fact that because we have steered in that direction many of the heirloom seeds that were highly valued by our ancestors have been lost forever.

I'm trying to learn to save seeds. It not only is frugal, but a way to keep many seeds into circulation that have up to this point been in the hands of only a few.

One of my favorite books is Saving Seeds by Suzanne Ashworth. This book is based mostly on vegetable seeds. There are other books on the market that special in other types of plants. With all of the hybrid seeds on the market, getting some good information is such a huge help.

Look what you can do with all of the overgrown okra, lol. I've got plenty of mature pods to dry out and let pop open. I should not only have plenty for my garden next year, but some to share.

I'll post more information on saving seeds later.

Tomatoes Galore

Another added bonus with the cooler temperatures is that the tomatoes are back into production. The plants are growing everywhere! Next year I will definitely make the trellises higher. Some of my plants are about 5-6 ft tall and sprawled out everywhere. The weight of the vines have cause some of them to split, but thankfully they still are alive and well!

One of the tomatoes that have done the best are the small ones shown. These tomatoes have gotten larger in size than before and may be the size of a cherry now. I'll have to ask my friend who gave the tomatoes to me last year what type they are. They are really delicious, especially in pasta salads. Yum!!

What's Bloomin'?

Moderate temperatures have brought back the feeling of near springtime growth here. The strange weather we've had this year had postponed much of the blooming and then the onset of 100 degree days in the summer made them come to a near halt. Plants grow better when temps are below 90 degrees. In fact, that is part of the reason lawns slow their growth in the peak of summer, not just because of less rain.

I really had given up on getting a show of blooms on my Morning Glories this year. Within the past 3 weeks all I can say is, "Wow"! I have several places where they are planted here, by choice or not, that are doing wonderfully now. The Sulphur butterflies are sure enjoying the added nectar it brings.

Zinnias, zinnias and more zinnias are blooming here. I'd saved the seeds from last years plants and planted them around our place. They are such a joy to have. I love to see how many bees, butterflies and hummingbirds stop to visit my zinnias.

My Floribunda hybrid tea rose is doing remarkably well this year too. It's bloomed nearly the whole season. I'm pretty shocked actually. Last year we had so much rain the poor things suffered with black spot and powdery mildew to the point I thought it would never recover. It's doing much better.

The Mexican Bush Sage is new to our garden this year. I have had high hopes on its performance ever since I laid eyes on it in our Master Gardener's educational garden. It was so hardy that when it was dug up, they took a chain saw to it to divide the root ball. We each took home pieces of it. Mine has done quite well and I like the fact the grasshoppers have actually left this alone. The beautiful purple flowers feel like velvet to touch. What fun!

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends...

Hey, I take all the help I can get when it comes to gardening. Seeing my precious plants devoured right before my very eyes is quite a traumatic experience. Ever since I've started growing my plants organically, I've taken on a whole new outlook on what I will tolerate in the garden, yes even spiders.

Grasshoppers are a really big problem here. It truly gives you a new perspective of the plague of locusts described in the bible. They can eat nearly any and everything that's growing. I once thought that grasshoppers wouldn't eat tomato or squash plants, well I know now that they will. After they've taken out the rest of your crop, they'll go after them. It's just not their first choice. :)

My best spider friend has been the Black and Yellow Argiope, aka "Zipper Spider". It is named that because of the zipper pattern in makes on it's web. This spider has been such a huge help to me. I've seen them set up their webs throughout my garden plants and catch away. They are truly the fisherman of the air. They go where the food is plenty for them. I'm thankful for their help!

My latest spider friend is one that has just appeared here for us this year or at least that I've noticed. It's the Green Lynx Spider. I was a bit surprised when I first saw this one. It is camouflaged so well and doesn't build a web. It's a hunter rather than a fisherman. Quite a beautiful spider as far as spiders go. They are native to the southern US and Mexico. I think though, the reason I've just noticed them is that this year they have been eating plenty and are really large. I read they were only suppose to get to 5/8 inch, but this one's body is just that, maybe larger. Let me get the ruler...hmmm

One thing I've really noticed about growing organically is that you have to focus on balance in nature. If I want the good insects like honeybees, butterflies and such, then I need to allow other insects that help my garden too such as spiders. If I sprayed to kill some of the bad insects, then I also lose the good ones too. Being selective on what I do is the key. Yes, I am careful and wear gloves when I work with my plants because I am aware I have workers I may disturb, but I sure am thankful for the help. Here's to free labor!

Holy Jalapenos Batman!

How many ways can you use jalapenos? Well let me count the ways, 1,2,3... When the scare of salmonella came over the news for possibly tomatoes, then jalapenos I thought to myself... "This was the right year to be growing both of these." At least if I poisoned myself it would be my own fault, lol.

The late freeze this year caused me to replant 6 more jalapeno plants. I just "knew" the half-frozen and dead ones just weren't going to make it! Boy, was I mistaken. They not only made it, but are my best performing crop, next to my okra. I've been in panic mode all summer wondering how much stuff I could possibly make with these. I mean, I like jalapenos, but to add them to everything was not going to go over well with the family.

Well, in steps "jalapeno jelly" as project #1. Now I used to be a skeptic as to why in the world would people want to eat this stuff, "yuck"! But now admittedly I'm a convert. Yes, some people still eat it like other jellies - with peanut butter but, to me that's so far not my first choice. Using it as part of an appetizer is now my favorite. You spread the jelly over a block of cream cheese, then serve it with crackers. It's REALLY good that way! It's even appealing to those who don't really like "hot" things too. The taste of the jalapenos is what comes through. The jelly can also be as part of a glaze for meats, especially chicken. Who would've thought?

The main reason I planted jalapenos was for the delicious pico de gallo. How much of that can we eat though? Pass the heartburn medicine..

I have starting stringing the peppers and drying them. I'd heard of doing this for other types of peppers, but hadn't thought of it for these. They turn red like the others and are quite attractive. I plan on using them later on for other things.

Out of desperation I googled jalapeno uses and it seems I've only scratched the surface of pepper possibilities. I may decide to pickle a few..who knows!

This makes me think of the tongue twister, "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers...". I wish some of my peppers were pre-pickled! lol

Bunnies!

Our newest members of the family - Jane (top) and Tarzan (bottom)

Chicken Town

Wow, things are really changing here. The original group of chicks we bought are now 15 weeks old. We hopefully will start seeing eggs in the next 5-10 weeks. Seems like a long time, but really the time so far has flown by. The girls are now eating nearly any and everything they can and their voices have changed to really deep. Funny thing, we had named a few of them and now we can't find them in the crowd! They've all changed so much in appearance and behavior. There is one of the brown ones we call, "Penelope". She is the loudest one and from what we can tell is at the top of the pecking order in the group. Nothing gets past her!

The black and gold chicken really stands out though. Her name is "Goldie" and she is a Golden Laced Wyandotte. She's a bit stand-offish. Not mean or anything, she just doesn't come up to you like the others wanting to be petted. She's sweet to everyone and I think she's pretty low in the pecking order. The only ones lower are the new chicks. :)

See our newest chicks of the bunch? These are Barred Rocks. We've had them for a while and they are about 8 weeks old. I had wanted these chicks originally but everyone was out of them. I think they are beautiful and really friendly. Since we've moved them in with the rest of the brood about 2 weeks ago, they have nearly spent all of their time in the coop. That has been their territory- by force! The older ones hardly allow them outside. They're brave girls though and I laugh when the smallest of the group makes near suicide missions out into the chicken yard to get scraps. She will literally snatch food right out of the mouths of the older chickens and run like lightning to get back into the coop! Fun times. :) Who said living in the country is boring? lol.