Last year I did not have good experience with growing my squash and zucchini.  They were overcrowding the rest of my garden plants, so I transplanted them to a different location, and they did not like that at all.

This year I had a better plan, and gave them more growing room in my newly expanded garden patch.

I planted four zucchini plants and four squash plants, but one of my zucchini plants is different from the rest.  It has two tone leaves, and bears same kind of two tone zucchini, as you see in this picture.

This is my “odd” zucchini plant with spotted leaves, and it is a much bigger plant than the regular zucchini plants.

A close up view of the spotted zucchini leaf.

These are my regular zucchini, from seeds in same packet as the spotted one…go figure.

These are my Summer Squash plants; blooming already, but not producing yet.  They had a late start, but it is worth the wait.

I love  zucchini and squash with sauteed fresh garlic and onions.

This year I planted some corn, for the first time.  Hopefully the birds will let them grow to maturity.

I planted the one that is mixed with yellow and white corn on the same cob….should be yummy!

My granddaughter loves getting out the sweet peas out of the pods,  and eating it fresh.  Very sweet tasting little morsels they are!

Please share your gardening experience with all of us.

I planted Yukon Gold potatoes  in my garden this year.

To encourage all my gardener friends out there to try growing potatoes in  their gardens as well, I had a post on how to grow potatoes.

Today I wanted to update you on the current status of my potato plants.  They are about 15 inches tall now, and starting to form flower buds.

I would also like to remind you to check your potato plants for Potato Beetles, because I found about 10 of these little guys on my plants, and a couple of leaves already had eggs laid on them.

Most of the time these little pests are not very visible, since they tend to hang under the leaves, to eat and to lay eggs.

They have to be removed immediately, and destroyed.

Since I keep my garden organic, I do not use any chemicals, so  I hand picked them off  (gloved of course), placed them in a plastic bag, squashed them, and discarded the whole package in the trash.  I was not going to leave even the squashed ones near my garden, in case any of the eggs were still alive.

I also, removed the couple of leaves with the eggs on them, which are orange in color, very tight together, about 1 millimeter long, and planted perpendicular to the leaf surface.

If you do not spot these early enough, they will grow very quickly into a salmon color larvae, eat your potato leaves, and mature into full grown beetles.

Remember my self-seeded tomato plants , well, with the warm, rainy weather, they are doing very well.

Since they were self-seeded from fallen down tomatoes from last year’s crop, they grew in clusters, and now I replanted them to give them more room to grow to maturity.

I have about 12 free Cherry Tomato plants in my garden this year…lots of savings… as these are always quite expensive at the grocery store.

I will keep you posted on the progress of my veggie garden, throughout the growing season.

Please share your gardening stories.

I already bragged about my free veggies from my garden, free potatoes and tomatoes.  Today I will show you my FREE peppers.  How cool is that?

Honestly, these peppers are a product of my veggie kitchen scraps which I save and bury in my garden, as part of composting to enrich the garden soil.

Low and behold, once the numerous seeds sprouted, I was not sure what to do with all the seedlings.  At first I did not even know they were peppers, since I never grew peppers before, and was not accustomed to seeing their seedlings.   I weeded most of them out, but saved several of the stronger ones to experiment with growing them to maturity, and fruition.  As you can see, they did very well.

This is a close up of a flowering green pepper plant.

Tiny green peppers began to form.

A close up of a baby green pepper.

Here are some of the FREE green peppers, and some are turning red and yellow.  I read somewhere that peppers which have three knobs at the bottom, are sweeter than the ones that have four of these.  The four knobbed  ones are more suitable for cooking.

As exciting as it was to watch these grow, one needs patience to wait for the mature pepper, as their growing season stretches from April, when they sprouted,  through the end of September, and they still would probably be growing until the end of October, if I let them.  They look fairly large, but in reality they are more on the  medium size.

I also told you before about my experiment with an artichoke plant, which is a perennial, thus just growing this year, and will not bear an artichoke heart until next year…hopefully.

I started this plant in early April, indoors from a seed.  Here it is in mid June, and to the right of it is the same plant right now.   It surely has grown quite a bit and got much stronger.  I am looking forward to its maturity next year.

I also planted pepper seeds in a pot, and was hoping to harvest some red and yellow peppers, but instead, these turned out to be very small and suicidally HOT in flavor.  I actually gave them away, as I do not cook with such strong flavors. Don’t let the size fool you; they are tiny, but very pungent!

Gardening season is coming to an end already, and soon it will be time to get the yard ready for it’s winter snooze.

With all the frequent rain showers we experienced lately in our area, my garden is in its glory, and thriving.

If you love gardening, as I do, you will agree that no matter how much, and how often, you water your garden, it does not measure up to one good rain fall, and the plants just seem to grow in front of your eyes soon afterward.

This season’s  harvest already began in my garden, and, with great pleasure, I was able to pick some baby red beets, dill, chives, summer squash, zucchini, green beans, and basil.

My raspberries produced about a pint of fruit this year, and today I was able to pick a few blueberries already.  I am very excited about having fresh berries and herbs from my garden, and to share them with my granddaughter.

Don’t you just love the freshness of these veggies and fruits…..and best of all….I know these have not been sprayed with any chemicals.

Tip: If  you wonder what can one  do with red beet leaves, I have a recipe coming up in my future posts.

I already showed you some of my flower patches, and I mentioned my small organic garden, which I started two years ago. All my plants are cultivated in a mix of mushroom soil and organic gardening soil. I do not use any additional fertilizers, and definitely no pesticides.

I grow perennial herbs and fruits, and annual vegetables.

This is my organic garden.

Here are some of the plants in my garden:

Parsley, Basil, Dill Weed, Oregano,Green Beans, Potato Plant, Red Beets

The fruit group includes:

Blueberry Bush Blueberry Flowers Green Blueberry Fruit

Raspberry Bushes Raspberry Flowers Raspberry Green Fruit

Blooming Strawberries Blushing Fruits First Harvest

My vegetables selection changes annually, but mostly consists of: Tomatoes, Zucchini, Summer Yellow Squash, Red Beets, Cucumbers, Green Beans, and this year I have added a couple of potato plants and Sorrel plants.

I will share some pictures of these as the “fruit of my labor” begins to show a little bit more.