Garden updates!

Not much to say about it, other than we're enjoying the salads at the moment. Can't wait for the tomatoes to turn red so we can add them. Squash has lots of blooms on it as does the zucchini and the fruits are finally starting on those. In a couple of days the beans will have enough that I can add them to what we're having for the night, just no enough for us to have just green beans. They'll have to be mixed in (like added to a soup). Check out the pictures below! I took the pictures from my bedroom so you could see how big the plants have gotten. I don't know if the eggplant is going to survive since the zucchini kinda went crazy. (It's the plant on the right. No I didn't do anything special to it. I honestly don't know why they do that to me. When ever I plant the stuff it goes wild on me and we end up with lots of zucchini bread frozen for the winter. Its a favorite with my family so I'm lucky there. But I didn't do anything except put it in an area that I know holds more water than normal. It gets sun for only about half the day. I didn't add any fertilizers, or use anything for bugs either. We're working on animals in science and the habitats of those animal. Our youngest is really into bugs so I can't really kill them. The purple cabbage is a first this year but it seems to be happy. There are eight plants in the middle there and I'm a little worried that they're going to crowd each other out. I'm not sure if the carrots are still under there or not. And the same goes for the onions. I guess I'll find out this fall, lol. The beans on the far right side are all happy as well. And as you can see the lettuce and spinach is looking sad since we can't stop ourselves from picking at it. I need to put some more in. My wonderful parsley is in the round container. The chives and oregano keep disappearing (I think thanks to our youngest daughter) before they can really get going. I've put in two sets of seeds and they'll start and then they disappear again, lol. Our hanging gardens aren't liking all the rain here lately. You can see the yellow leaves on the tomatoes an cucumbers. Although I don't think we'll put cucumbers in them again. They don't seem to be doing very well. The tomatoes all wanted to grow upward and have finally started to turn upside down due to their weight. I think they also needed much more sun. We don't really have a place that we can put them that they would of gotten a lot of sun. I'm glad that we got a plot. I added a bunch of tomato plants out there. Oh well this is the girls science project that goes along with our history on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Well we need to know that just because a science experiment doesn't go the way we had hoped that there is still something to learn. The flowers on tops are beautiful. The primrose on top of our oldest's closed up because we had yet another rain starting. Enjoy the view as we do!

Herbs!

I admit I like the convenience of the dried herbs in the store. I don't like the price sometimes. And I'll admit that I'm a parsleyholic! I love parsley. I know some people say it doesn't have a taste. I agree if you buy the cruddy stuff that's grown in the hothouses, or the dried stuff it's cruddy and it takes a lot to be able to obtain even a little bit of taste. But parsley that that has been grown out in the fresh air, warm sun, and cool dirt is completely different! Then you have all the varieties(link says more than 30 different types): Hamburg parsley, parsley bush, Italian parsley, and even a toxic plant called "fool's parsley" but it isn't a parsley at all only looks like it. Then is has many common names such as parsley breakstone, garden parsley, rock parsley, persely, and petersylinge. There are many uses that parsley can be used for both internally (although pregnant woman shouldn't use it at all and limit handling since it's been proven to induce uterine contractions, I missed it greatly during both of my pregnancies and those with kidney problems should use caution also due to it's ablitity to increase blood flow to the kidneys) and externally. Check out the link by click this parsley. There are basically two type of parley when you come down to it: those with curly fringed leaves and those with flat leaves. The most common type of parsley that most cooks prefer to use is Italian parsley with the flat leaves. That is what I prefer for everything. The taste is more earthy to me where the curled parsley has a much milder taste and has a bit of bitter taste to me, although I do like to add a bit of that to tea because for some reason the bitterness seems to be lost. Hence the reason I grow it every summer and try to continue in it the house. (Only for some reason when a plant comes in my house it's a death sentence for it.)

I put it in everything too. Chicken, fish, pork, beans, lentils, beef, salads, soups, tea, vegetables, casseroles, sauces, and I'll eat it fresh from the garden just cause I can. So yesterday I grabbed two of my large flower pots and planted my herbs. In the first pot I placed a bamboo rod (cut to fit) so that I could see where it would be split for Chives and Oregano. And then....... the other has all Italian parsley. I put in an entire package of seeds! Yes I know please don't tell me it was way to many (I got the look from hubby so I know) but just think of everything I can do with the thinnings! You can do this in much smaller pots and many people grow them right in the kitchen windows, and around the house in other windows. I simply can't seem to grow anything in a house except kids and our marriage! And that's fine by me, fourteen years and our two miracles soon so we must be doing something right.

So tomorrow the last bag of potting soil goes into little rectangle pots (found at the dollar tree last fall for 25 cents a piece) that can be moved around to where we need the protection from our marigolds! I only wish that I could of found the French Marigolds instead of the African Marigolds since the French ones are much stronger, check out the link for more information on that. But they are very difficult to find for some reason. Many bugs like the African Marigold also (not stated in the article just an observation) but it still keeps them off my plants! So with a troupe of neighborhood kids, dirt, pots, and seeds they'll get started! And some mommies will have dirty, but tired kids!

Make a mess with yours this week too.