A New Season

Hello all:
It's been a while since my last post. I was pretty pleased with my first serious year of vegetable gardening last year. I learned a lot and have some new ideas that I want to implement this year in hopes of having more success than last year. I just completed a 170 page design project. I am relieved and ready to get back to my gardening and blogging. One of the things that I have done which I'm hoping will really help is that I got rid of this bush that was not very attractive and took up a lot of useful ground space. I now have an area to plant my zucchini's and tomatoes in the ground. Also, although we were not very happy when our neighbors behind us had to cut down some really tall trees that provided so much privacy for us, my garden is now getting all of that morning sun that it so needs.
In case you missed the post last summer, I planted a peach tree. I thought that I would have peaches last summer but as the grower explained to me, the tree spends the first season developing it's root system in its new home and that's where all of its energy is focused. This year I am happy to say that I have tons of peaches! So much that I had to cut off a few branches that were loaded with young peaches. The reason for cutting them was that they were so heavy they almost broke the main branches. This morning I also had to place a net over the tree because the fruit as it matures is getting softer and now the birds are getting to enjoy them before we can. The peaches don't seem to be getting very big, my guess is that in a season or two as the tree matures they will get larger. (I will have to do a google search for more details on growing peaches.) I'm looking forward to fresh peach smoothies and I also saw on the Today Show once before a chef was grilling them. Sounds delicious, huh? Here are some photos of my little peach tree.

The tree in early February started blooming. 

These are the fruit in April.

Lots of color. Getting sweeter, so the birds
are enjoying.

Placed netting over the tree this morning to
 protect from birds and possums.

Apple Walnut Pancakes

I've been preparing apple pancakes for going on a year now since I bought this new blender from Costco. It came with a recipe book and in it I found the recipe for whole grain apple pancakes. The reason I'm writing this post this morning is because for the first time since I've been making these pancakes, I was able to use apples that we grew! I was thinking as I was preparing the mixture this morning, how rewarding it is to prepare meals with fruit and vegetables whose origins you are responsible for. When I looked at the apple as I washed it and sliced it, I thought about the trip my husband and I made to Target (that's before they gave up their garden department), how we wrestled it into the back of my mini-van and how we watched the little white blossoms change into the cutest little apples. I also enjoy being able to share my fruit with friends and family. One thing about it however is that the tree produces a certain amount of fruit at the same time and once that batch is picked, there are no more until this time next year. :(  I have friends that come back to me after tasting my apples wanting more, but sadly most of the time I have to tell them that there are no more to share.

Here are the whole wheat apple walnut pancakes that I prepared this morning. If you are interested in healthy living/eating I encourage you to try these. Keith loves them (so do I) and we can enjoy them guilt free several times a week and the best part for me is that they are quick and easy to make.

My Bounty

The summer is winding down and soon some of my plants will no longer produce veggies/fruit.  It has been a great learning experience and something I plan to continue doing.  I will start researching to see what types of veggies I can grow during the fall season.  In the meantime I have many of my plants with fruit and vegetables ready for picking so that's what I did this morning.  My veggies are not the biggest but the fact that I grew them makes them so very special.  Take a look at the plate of fruit and veggies that I picked today and see how many you can identify.

For tonight's dinner I will be using 4 of the items in this picture.

A Sad Day in the Garden ):

So yesterday morning I was doing my usual inspection of my garden and felt particularly proud of my cucumbers that were starting to develop. Now last week I noticed this ugly white powder was all over the leaves of the cucumber plant. I recognized it as being a mildewy fungus like the variety that had attacked the zucchini plant about a month ago. I went and purchased a bottle of plant fungus killer and applied it on the cucumber plant. Although it left ugly stains on the leaves, all seemed well and hopefully it was doing its job. Now back to yesterday, I was so excited to see one of the cucumbers that was aprrox 2 1/2 inches long. It was really cute and prickly which I did not know about young cucumbers. Here's a picture I took of it.

 Shortly after taking this picture I decided to do some grooming and remove some of the dead leaves and a few of the ones with a lot of the powder still on them. To my astonishment a couple of hours later when I looked out my kitchen window, the branch with this lovely cucumber had wilted like you would not believe! What happened in that short period of time that traumatized the plant, I have no idea. Look at it now, just a day later.

I've gone online to do some investigation and one thing that I've learned is that I should not be wetting the leaves of my plants when watering.  This increases the chances of diseases developing on the plants. As I have said in the past, this is a learning experience for me. I enjoy challenging myself and will not give up. Next years crop will be bigger and better. 

Fresh Strawberries for Lunch

After eating my lunch I looked out my kitchen window and noticed the vibrant red strawberries in my garden and decided to go grab a handful to top off my lunch. Although they are a bit on the small side, they were still quite yummy. Did you know just how beneficial these little gems are?

* One cup contains 13% of the recommended daily requirement of dietary fiber at only 43 calories.

* They help lower blood pressure.

* Curbs over eating.

* Phenols in strawberries fight against many inflammatory disorders such as osteoarthritis and asthma.

* Research has shown that 3 or more servings per day can decrease the possibility of contracting age-related macular degneration by over 1/3rd.

* One cup of strawberries contains an incredible 136% of the RDA of Vitamin C.

* One cup contains 21% of manganese, an essential nutrient that acts as a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent.

So, have I convinced you to add more of these delicious little berries into your diet! :)

A Visit to Daddy's Garden

A few weeks ago I went to visit my dad and I was amazed when he showed me a couple of zucchinis from his garden. The largest was at least two and a half times the size of the ones from my garden. I asked him to take me out to his garden so I could look around, take notes and compare to mine. What I learned that day was the significance of plenty of soil along with plenty of direct sunlight. He had one zucchini plant that was probably 4 to 5 times the size of my potted zucchini plant and had produced so many vegetables to where he was calling people to give them away. I am not discouraged knowing that I don’t have any open space to put my plants directly into the ground. What I will do in preparation for next season is invest in a few really, really large deep planters to make sure my plants have plenty of soil. This is my first gardening experience and I really get a kick out of going into my garden, picking some fresh tomatoes for a salad, picking zucchini and then a short time later watching my family enjoy it on our dinner table. I have learned about the health benefits fresh mint has for the digestive tract so I go out daily and pick a few sprigs for my water or tea. Gardening is time and labor intensive but when I’m in my garden looking at little flowers on vines one week and then a few weeks later watch as these flowers turn into beautiful vegetables, I just sit there and think, how could someone not believe in God when you look at the intricate detail involved in the creation of food for our bodies.

The smallest one is about the size of the zucchinis from my garden.
 It's hard to tell on this picture but the largest one is huge!

Another visitor to my Garden

Last week my friend, Paula Bass stopped by to visit my garden and get some samples.  :) I was happy to share with her some green tomatoes, oranges and mint. She gave me a good tip on making mint tea. Usually I take a few fresh leaves and add them to my tea. What she does is boil the leaves. So, I like this idea because I like the idea of mint being beneficial to the digestive system. So, I tried it last night and it was very refreshing. I plan to have this on a daily basis in the evening before bedtime. Hopefully it will help my digestive system.

I was a bit disappointed because I was not able to share any zucchini. (As you may remember from my earlier posts this is a learning experience for me. Although I grew up watching my dad grow gardens, I never understood all that it takes to make a successful garden.) I've noticed that my zucchini plants have stopped producing and in my reading and speaking to my dad, I should be getting so many zucchini's that I have to give them away! Next planting season, I will use much larger planters because I didn't consider how large these plants get. I have them in very shallow containers; maybe 6 - 8 inches deep. I also noticed the leaves had a lot of white spots on them, I assumed that it was the oil used in the organic pesticide I made. Later I learned that it is a fungus which I should've treated immediately or it could kill the plant. :(

Well, with the few zucchinis that I was able to pick and a few given to me by my dad, I made some really good dishes. Hopefully my plants will produce more because these are some really tasty, low calorie/low fat ways to prepare zucchini. Here are a few pictures of the dishes I've made.

Recipes for these and other great Weight Watchers friendly, delicious dishes may be found
at Gina's Skinny Taste