Bush Bean Harvesting and More Blueberries are On The Way

Green beans are my favorite vegetables and I always have to grow them in the garden every year.  It wouldn't be a garden if I didn't have my favorite food in it.  As you know bush beans were planted before I started my pole beans.  Although the pole ones take longer to produce fruit anyways, this just adds to the fact that I will be harvesting the bush beans first.

This is what I did today because there might be some rain coming tomorrow that I would like to avoid if I am able to.  I always try to harvest anything before a rain if I can.  I always find that this is a great way to help out my plants and keep them producing flowers throughout the season.

Check out the beans that I collected this afternoon.

I also noticed that there were plenty of more blueberries that needed to be harvested as well.  Some of the older ones turned to a dark color which means that they will taste much sweeter than any of the normal ones that I picked.  They should all be sweet for the most part, but these dark ones will have an extra something that I will notice when I eat them.

Here are the dark ones so you know what I mean.

Three pounds of blueberries can be found right here.

There are many more vegetables that are starting to begin producing in the garden and the season will get really busy soon.  I might have to start writing more posts during the week.  Come find out what other vegetables are growing in my garden.

What Has Been Happening in My Garden?

If you are wondering what has been going on this week with my garden, then you need to read the rest of this post.  I will be discussing a few things that have been going on including some events that have taken place and what plants I have left to transplant into the garden.  I also was able to accomplish some tasks this week as well.

Last week I was able to get my tomatoes, squash, and sunflowers into the garden with some great success.  This week I only had melons, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and some late growing tomatoes left to be added into the garden. 

Melons and peppers are what I was able to get done because they can take a while to adapt to the soil compared to other plants.  This coming week I will finish up with the rest of my fruits and vegetables and after that I will add my flowers to the soil.

Watermelon

Peppers

So far only the bush beans and corn that were planted earlier have been showing signs of life.  The pole beans should be coming up very soon and I would think sometime this week they will begin their sprouting process as well. 

Corn

Beans

Other than this it has been a pretty normal gardening season to start the year.  Some strawberries are starting to turn red and they will soon be picked maybe by next week if the weather is good.  I will keep you informed of what is happening in the garden in future posts.

The First Planting Outside for 2014

Today I am here to discuss the first seeds that I have started outside this week in order to get the garden season going.  Corn and bush beans are the first that I planted, but I also had enough time to put carrots, celery, and pole beans as well.

I didn't fill the entire two rows with corn seeds because I want them to ripen at different times to prevent them from staying on the stalk and getting tough to eat.  If they ripen at the same time I will have about fifty ears of corn that I will have to eat and this is not something I can do. 

This year I am going to plant them at different times.  Basically once the first set starts sprouting I will then plant some more.  Now each section will ripen at different times and I will be able to eat them when they are good and ready.

I am also using seeds I have collected from previous years because these are heirloom corn seeds that I bought from Burpee.  They have been great and have produce very large and delicious ears that I can plant every single year.  All I do is save at least one ear and have it dry out for a month and then the next year remove the seeds and plant them in the soil.

I used about five feet from the two rows which will end up with corn plants.

I also planted some short rows of bush beans because I prefer pole beans because if done correctly you will have a much larger yield with pole beans than the bush types.  I had some extra room next to the rows where my pole beans are and decided to plant some bush beans anyways.

Celery was something that I decided on doing for the first time this year and it would be a good idea to plant it somewhat early because they are not good with hot weather.  They are similar to lettuce in that they tolerate some hot weather, but cannot withstand too much.

Carrots are very simple and do not need that much work except in the beginning.  When they are small they can be overtaken by many weeds and I will have to make sure that they are not near any weeds.  A good mulch will help out with this.

The two rows on the left have celery and carrots.