Tag Archives: yellow crookneck squash

June 5, 2021 · 9:36 am

Friday’s Harvest

We had a good harvest yesterday. My spinach output is dwindling with the warmer weather and soon will be finished, so I’m getting as much as I can and freezing it so none will be wasted.

I’ve never actually done much with yellow crookneck squash before, so this is a lot of fun. I have a lot of little bitty squashes coming on. I decided that the ones above were large enough to harvest. I have a spiralizer tool that will make them nice for sauteing this evening to serve with some pork chops. :0)

It looks like I might have a good sweet onion crop this year. I won’t actually know until much later, but things look good right now. I also have some celery that I grew from cutting off the bottoms of celery I bought at the store. The stalks are ‘spread out’ rather than like the ones you see at the store in the tight groups, but they taste fine, so I’ll take them.

We have small green tomatoes and lots of blossoms on our tomato plants. We have two brick planters that we converted to square foot garden planters. I’m hopeful we’ll have lots of ripe tomatoes to slice and enjoy soon.

I need to do some weeding, but it’s getting dark outside, looking like it’s going to storm. Maybe I can get something done between raindrops…

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May 29, 2021 · 1:02 pm

Garden Progress?

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The tall plant on the left of the picture is lettuce that has bolted. I still managed to harvest some lettuce, but pulled this plant, and others out because the leaves will be bitter. The combination of the suddenly much warmer weather and all the rain we have had lately brought my lettuce harvesting to an end.

My poor spinach plants will do the same kind of thing soon, since they are an early spring plant. I’m going to harvest from the remaining plants as long as I can because the spinach can be frozen.

These yellow crookneck squash are cute, aren’t they. I don’t know what I’m doing here, but I’m having fun watching the sweet little things grow.

I had to pull the other two cabbage plants, and I still need to do a lot of weeding to get the garden in reasonable shape. I didn’t take pics of the tomato plants but they have little bitty green tomatoes and lots of yellow blossoms on them. I’m really hoping we have a good tomato harvest this year. Ripe sliced tomatoes are one of our favorite things.

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April 7, 2021 · 9:22 am

Garden Progress 4-7-2021

broccoli
celery
leaf lettuce

spinach
tomatoes
Yellow Crookneck Squash
Zucchini

Things are looking very happy right now. We are under a possibly severe storms warning most of the day, so I’m HOPING that the storms are just rain and wind, rather than hail.

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July 23, 2020 · 10:23 am

Rich in Tomatoes

 

Yesterday’s tomato harvest was really nice. We’re still getting all different sizes of tomatoes, since the plants are stressed due to our weather. We’re getting deeply into summer now, so hopefully we can give them enough water to keep them producing. We are beyond spoiled, looking forward to having fresh, ripe sliced tomatoes with lunch and dinner every day. :0)

Yesterday we were checking on our irrigation system since it’s lethally hot and we haven’t had any rain in awhile. We found one planter that we had rebuilt recently where the holes have NOT been drilled into the PVC pipe that brings it water!  We will remedy that today. (I moved my elephant ear plants from the front porch where they were not happy to the newly rebuilt planter. It would be NICE if I also provided water.

My plants in the garden continue to get larger and produce blooms, but no zucchini or yellow crookneck squash yet. I’m starting to think the ‘plants’ are all I’ll get…

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July 12, 2020 · 9:28 am

Good Morning

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My husband is out mowing now – even though it’s too wet – because the rain has been such that there is NEVER a good time to do the job. It will have to be enough. Since the heat index today will be in the area of 110 degrees F., I’m glad he is out there getting the job over with now. (The weather people says it will get REALLY hot this coming week!) Right now, though, it is still cool enough to have the doors open and the ceiling fans on.

My zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants are still looking healthy, but no actual veggies growing yet. The celery I planted is still alive and I have two more celery bottoms in water in the house. The onions continue to look good. I’ll go out later to see if we have more ripe tomatoes.

I worked on painting a new design of wooden earrings yesterday in my art room. I’ll post pics later.

I am hoping for a quiet day today.

I hope that YOUR Sunday is a nice one, too.

 

 

 

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July 6, 2020 · 10:24 am

A Visit to the Garden

The zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants are looking pretty good, though none have started to produce actual veggies yet.  I will have to make time to weed out there very soon.  The sweet red onions are continuing to get larger.

 

This is today’s haul of tomatoes. I really don’t know why we’re getting so many little bitty tomatoes, but I’m grateful we can enjoy them with our meals.

It’s really humid out today. It’s 80 degrees now, which would be wonderful, but the humidity is 78%, making it feel like a sauna the minute you go out. We have had the doors open to enjoy the morning, but are going to have to close up, or I will melt into a puddle onto the floor in front of my computer…..

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June 27, 2020 · 9:41 am

Progress in the Garden 6-27-2020

I recently got caught up on weeding our raised-bed, square-foot garden. In this picture, you can see that I have onions in most of this planter box and part of another. I read that the ones which have shot the greenery up and have bloomed are the ones we should eat first, because they won’t dry and store well. I have also read that it doesn’t matter that the others are losing their greenery. They will continue to get larger if I just leave them where they are.

 

 

This is another wide shot of the garden. It’s hard to show you the whole thing at once. What you are looking at is SIX 4’x4’x8″ wooden boxes with drain holes set into metal supports about my chest level. They are tied together with hoses, with a sprinkler in the center of each box, so we can water each day for a specified time. (Later on in the summer, the sun will be so strong that it doesn’t matter how much you try to water, things will simply burn up.) For now the plants are happy.

I have planted zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. I will add some radishes at some point, but I’m keeping things simple this year. The plants have gotten larger, but haven’t shot out vines yet.

It took me two days to get everything weeded and under reasonable control.  You can see the size of the onions.

I also have empty, weeded squares now, where I can plant radish seeds. My two little bitty celery plants are still alive. I have no clue when I am supposed to tie them up (this is supposed to result in the nice celery stalks you get at the grocery store. I’ll see if I can find some information.

I showed you the tomato plants yesterday. We are looking forward to enjoying some sliced tomatoes with our dinner tonight!

Today will be hot and humid. Right now we’re enjoying have the doors open and a nice breeze coming through. Later today, though, we’ll close up, not only because of comfort, but because the dust cloud from the Sahara is due this afternoon and tomorrow.

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June 22, 2020 · 11:28 am

Veggie Garden is Half Done

Yesterday I spent about an hour weeding in my raised bed, square foot veggie garden. We built six 4’x4′ boxes and installed them on metal supports, so they are like tables. They are about my chest height, so I can do almost everything I need to do, from planting, feeding, weeding, and harvesting, without having to bend over double or get down on my hands and knees.

We mix up “Mel’s Mix,”  a soil alternative that is a combination of peat moss, vermiculite, and as many different kinds of compost as we can find or create.

The garden is as protected from critters as we can make it, having a high fence around the perimeter, and then chicken wire around the bottom. We have a door gate.

We fixed an irrigation system on a timer, so the veggies are watered each day for a specified time.

 

Right now I’m trying to grow yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, and sweet red onions.  I will also try some radishes soon. Yesterday I planted some celery that I started in my kitchen.

 

I got three of the six planters weeded yesterday, and will try to finish the job today. So far, the plants look happy.

 

This is one of the two celery plants. I never really thought of celery as “cute,” but I think these are. :0)

We also have the two brick planters of tomatoes. We have bright yellow blossoms and lots of small green tomatoes. We are hoping for a good crop, because fresh, sliced tomatoes from our garden is one of our favorite things.

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June 2, 2020 · 9:42 am

Start of the Summer Garden

Yesterday I planted three yellow crookneck squash plants and 4 zucchini plants in the garden after weeding and prepping since I pulled the spinach and lettuce plants out.  I gave the new plants LOTS of room because the vines of all of these spread out all over the planters. I want to give them all the room they need. I have developed a taste for both of these since I spiralize them to use in place of pasta and rice on my keto eating plan.

I can clean and use the spiralizer on them, put them in individual serving sandwich bags, and then put the bags into a gallon freezer bag. I can then pull out what I need and quickly microwave MY ‘pasta’ or ‘rice,’ and cook the regular stuff for my husband when I making spaghetti or one of my ‘sauce over pasta or rice dishes.

 

 

I listened to a video that taught me more about growing and storing onions. He said that the ones that grow tall and make a flower are not good for long-term (over the winter) storage. Those should be eaten whenever you’re ready, but should be eaten soon after pulling. The others are fine to try to dry for storage.  (You can see my onions in this picture.)

Here you can see that some have a ‘bulb’ on top. These are the ones the man was talking about that should be pulled and eaten soon after harvesting, rather than trying to prep for storage.

With all the rain we’ve had, the tomatoes got really big and bushy quickly. They do have some bright yellow blossoms, and if you look carefully, you can see a tiny green tomato.  At this point, I’m just going to prop them up the best way I can and hope for the best.

 

This is the ‘nook’ planter, where 4 plants have also exploded in growth. With three weeks or so of pretty steady, heavy rain, things got out of hand. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we actually get tomatoes, rather than just a whole lot of greenery.

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