Thursday, June 30, 2011

Homeschool Village Garden Challenge

This evening we spent a fair amount of time in the garden. It has been neglected because of wet and then hot weather. Today we hit 100 degrees so an evening of weeding is what we had to do.

 (see the empty bed back there? Swiss chard is now planted.)

The turnips we pulled last week have been replaced with swiss chard seeds. My mom says the plants are beautiful reds and purples so I can't wait to see them. Not sure how you eat them, but I'm game!

A couple garden posts ago, I talked about our worm problem. Someone suggested using soap and water and spraying it on the plants. I did that. However, I think they did not like it or something, especially the cauliflower because the leaves are now all brown. 


We went out and tied all the cauliflower leaves (what there was left) around the cauliflower heads to blanch them. Some were already turning purple and while you can eat that, I read that the purple parts are more bitter. So its best to stop that as soon as possible.


The little one is not a fan of gardening this week. She's not really a fan of heat though so you can imagine what she feels like today. She does, however, enjoy harvesting things! We found several LARGE squash today. They're special striped type squash. I can't wait to cook with them. Tonight I found this Squash Bread recipe, hoping its similar to zucchini bread. I'll let you know.

I've been reading the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and it is an eyeopener. I plan to teach the little one the difference between organic, heirloom, genetically modified plants. I don't think she had much of a clue where our food came from before we planted a garden. We plan to shop more organically and locally from here on out. Read the book, wonderful.


 

Our tomatoes are growing so wonderfully, although they're like a wild fire bramble bush!  Hubby tied up the plants he could, by scrounging around for sticks to use. He got a bit inventive when he found a broken old broom handle. 

Pretty soon we'll be doing a fall planting. Things you can pick in the fall such as lettuce, spinach, peas, beets and swiss chard. I'm looking forward to beets. Have you seen some of the ones you can plant? Stripes, like a candy cane! I can't wait. No one in my family will eat them but me, Yay me.

Believe it or not, I'm already thinking of next year's plantings. I've decided to go with organic heirloom vegetables and have been ordering catalogs. I shouldn't be so eager for another planting. I should be crossing fingers for this year's crops! lol

Feel free to follow me through Google or Facebook to be updated about my gardening and homeschool adventures. I'll follow you back as well. Have a great weekend!

* Linked to Homeschool Village Garden Challenge *

2 comments:

learningtable said...

Just signed up to follow you through Google. Thanks for the peek into your garden. My squash and zuccini plants all got moldy and had to be pulled out, so I don't get to make zuccini bread this time :(
I'm thinking we may do a Fall garden too. It's been too much fun to wait for a whole year to do it again!

Zonnah said...

Swiss chard is beautiful you are going to love it!
I read that book earlier this year and was as impressed with it as you are :)
I was told just today that if you spray your plants with soap and water it is best to do it in the evening so that it does not burn the plants. Also, I am wondering if maybe you used too much soap in your mixture. Well, at least it was just the leaves.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...