Pickle

Pickling cucumbers is a great way to preserve fruit from your garden. Pickling cucumbers are smaller than the variety of cucumbers you would put in your salad.

I have never pickled anything before, but the concept is pretty simple. Keep everything sterile; add water and vinegar, salts, and spices. Seal in a mason jar.

When planting cucumbers, you should always remember that cucumbers like good drainage. Build a mound of dirt and plant at the top of the mound.

Calories and Nutritional Information for Cucumbers

Ambrosia Melon

This will be my first time growing a melon. The melon is of the ambrosia variety, which is a close relative to the cantaloupe.

Melons are ground spreaders and take up a considerable amount of space. To combat this problem I have built a trellis in the shape of an “A” for it to grow up and down. The trellis is simply made out of cattails from the river next to my garden.

Growing vertically can save space and allow you to fit more plants into your garden. Saving space in your garden is always important, especially for someone like me who has a small urban garden.

Calories and Nutritional Information for Cantaloupe Melons

Angiosperm

Garden vegetables are in a huge category of plants called angiosperms. The life cycle of an angiosperm is simple:

GERMINATION. Angiosperms start as a seed and germinate when the weather has warmed and rainfall is adequate.  This part of the cycle usually takes place indoors or in a green house starting as early as February for fruits like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, etc.

VEGETATIVE GROWTH STAGE. Once the seed is germinated the plant goes through the vegetative growth stage. The vegetative growth stage starts indoors and continues after last frost when the vegetables are transplanted outside into your garden.

FLOWERING STAGE. Angiosperms then produce flowers. Angiosperms usually flower for a few weeks to a month during beginning/mid-summer.

FRUITING STAGE. Once the flowers become pollinated, they will turn in on themselves and start developing into fruit.

The fruits contain seeds which don’t get digested by our stomachs. Animals eat the fruit and the seeds spread.

Growing Jalapeno

My Jalapenos, like the tomatoes, are looking a little small due to the cooler weather. Almost all varieties of peppers like warm temperatures.

I ate my first Jalapeno today, pretty spicy. Picking the peppers will cause the pepper plant to change into a more flowering/fruit producing growth and away from vegetative growth.

You don’t want to wait too long to start picking your peppers, but the larger the plant gets the greater the yield will be once the plant goes into complete flowering/fruiting growth.

Calories and Nutrient Information for Jalapenos

Gardening ideas pictures

The month of June has had lower temperatures and increased rainfall. Tomatoes like warmer weather. Colder temperatures cause the plants metabolism to slow and which in turn slows growth.

Since I started with soil full of rich composted material, my tomatoes are looking better than I would have thought.  My father’s tomato plants were planted about two weeks before mine, and are about a foot shorter and still don’t have any tomatoes over the size of a golf ball.

This is just another example of how rich composted soil and full sun can increase your yields even during tough growing months. Hopefully the good weather stays, and I will be picking tomatoes in about two weeks.

Calories and Nutrient Information for Tomatoes

My Green Beans are grown and ready to eat. A little pinch at the top end and pull is usually enough to harvest them. I love there sweet taste right off the plant. Green bean fries are also great. Just flower, egg, roll in breadcrumbs, and fry.

Calories in Green Beans – 22 calories per 1/2 cup

High in Nutrients, Especially Vitamins K, C, and A.

This left us with the burden of purchasing additional finished compost for use in our gardens.During the last 3 years, the leadership team, headed by current president,
Tim Horn, has started managing our compost in rows that are
turned 4 – 8 times per year.

In June, we ground up all of the compost and plowed last year’s stock into large piles in each composting area. We are mixing NITROGEN with the compost and covering it with black cloth to ‘cook’ as a hot compost pile during the summer. Once the pile cooks for July, August, and September, we will be able to uncover at least two piles in October for addition to our gardens.

-Fenway Garden Society Summer Newsletter 2009 http://fenwayvictorygardens.com/forms/Summer-2009.pdf

Growing Beans

Beans! Growing green beans in your garden is about as easy as it comes. Place them in a glass of water for 24 hours and most of them should germinate.

After this, just dig a trench in your garden about 2 inches deep and space them about 6 inches apart. Wait 50 days and eat. I love gardening, it’s so easy.

Easy Gardening

Nothing makes gardening more satisfying than your first harvest. This Snow pea is a gardening delight. I picked it last weekend and it was delicious. Peas are easy to grow.

Before you plant them you should germinate them. Every gardener has their tricks, but I find that simply putting them in a glass of water for 24 hours works wonders.

If you want to get a little more complex with your gardening, place them on a wet paper towel, fold it over, and put in a Ziploc bag for a day or so. Once most of them have sprouted little tails transplant them into the ground.

Note: Peas grow up! I use a lattice made of string but a few sticks crossed together will work too. Another idea is to grow them next to a chain link fence or any other vertical object that they can grab on to.

Composting…yum. Unlike popular belief, compost doesn’t smell (sorry). I could talk for pages about composting. We could go over different types of bacteria, optimal temperatures, carbon: nitrogen ratios, etc. You’re in luck, I’m not going to do that (yet).

Here is the secret to composting…. Ready??… Put leaves, veggie scraps from dinner, and garden leftovers into a pile and wait. That’s it.

You don’t need an overwhelmingly complex composting bin bought at Super Joes Magic Compost Corner for hundreds of dollars. I have made bins made out of left over wood and chicken wire. Most common type by far is just an ol’ pile of leaves. Any of these types will result in compost.