Garden Update

One of the 2 types of green beans we planted have finally yielded a small crop.
These are GoldRush variety beans....

No, they are not ailing, they are suppose to be yellow-green in color. lol  I'll be cooking these tonight.

And in the bed out front we picked these over the weekend....

4 good sized squash. 
I grilled 1 last night for dinner(cut into slabs for Hubs and I)but have 3 left.   Tomorrow we'll have a fish fry and I'll fry up some slices of squash too.  It's like fried zucchini but yellow.

And speaking of zucchini(how can you avoid speaking of zucchini in the Summer?!)......here is what I made last week for dinner one night.....

We call it Lemon Chicken but the proper name is "Lena's Chicken".  This recipe comes to me by way of an old friend of my mother's.  The origins past there are unknown.

It's Chicken thighs dredged in flour and lemon pepper mixture(either the no salt variety or a mix of salt/no salt ones), then pan fried until the skin is browned, but not cooked all the way through.
The veggie is a mix of onions and zuke slices with a can of tomatoes(use crushed or whole) in the pan you browned the chicken in(after you pour the leftover oil out).  Put the chicken back in on top of the veggies and put a lid on the pan.  This simmers covered for 45 min. while you fix your rice separately.

Then eat it.  It is a mighty tasty way to get rid of all that zucchini if you are tired of fried zuke and zuke bread.

I need to thin out my Collard Greens soon.  I'll probably do that this weekend and use the thinnings to make a small batch of greens.  The young leaves will be more tender but they won't be as sweet as letting the first frost get to your collards before you pick them.

The tomatoes are quietly doing their growing thing.  The peppers and salad are not.  We are still waiting on the other variety of green beans, the Romano ones, to bloom.
It's been a very weird Summer in the garden.

Sluggy

Garden June 18th Update.....22 Days

With this unseasonably warm weather for June, the garden is starting to take off!
I snapped these photos on Friday, 12 days after the last set of pictures I took.

You can see the tomato plants here have shot up.....they need cages already.
This is what they looked like 12 days earlier....

The eggplant plants are just hanging in there.....

These tomato plants are not growing as fast as the ones at the other end of the bed.  Less sunlight and the soil is not as nice....

The green beans and squash/zuke plants have started coming in at the front of the house.....

And here is the end of the front bed....

The holes in the center of this shot are where the evile chipmunks have dug up the sunflower seeds every time I replanted them, dang them!!
Something buglike has been eating on the collard plants on the right in the photo.  I need to make up some soapy spray to drive them off.....those leaves are for MY MUNCHING Pleasure, not yours so bug off!lol
I guess I'll replant some of the cuke plants I need to thin out in the back bed and put them in here.

More bean plants and the salad greens spottily coming in....

Here is what the salad greens looked like 12 days earlier for comparison.  You'll notice the green beans weren't 'up' yet....

The aforementioned cuke plants.  #1 son sowed these and I do believe every single seed took!  40 cuke plants in the space of oh....3 feet!lol

These collard plants the bugs haven't dined on...yet!lol

And the cauliflower plants just about ready to start heading....

Here is what the collards and cauliflower looked like 12 days past....

Notice how the weeds have begun to take over too......ugh.  I have a very hard time bending down and weeding this bed as it has a definite slope and my old body has a hard time keeping my balance while bending over to weed.  I may need to look for some kind of weeding tool with a long handle.....I used one at the CSA we use to belong to but it's not a cheap tool.

So how is your garden growing?
Are you getting any good eats out of it yet?

Sluggy

Spring is Early in My Yard This Year

When the weather hit 80 the other day(yes, I said 80 in Northeastern PA in early April!) I went outside to see what poor flowering plants had been lulled into blooming already.  Just so you know if you have never lived around here, early April can be snow weather time at this latitude and elevation.

So here is what I found.....


The perennial tiny flowers(don't know what they are) in the front yard are up.

The flowering tree on the side of the house is in full bloom, as is the white flowering tree on the far side of the back yard.

That is another of the same tree to the left in the photo.  That 'tree' sort of branched out and doesn't have a main trunk, but lot of branches so it's more of a bush.  I know nothing about this sort of thing but I'd love to be able to 'fix' this bush so it looks like a tree.
Anyone??


The Forsythia bush I showed you all HERE in 1 week's time has filled out to be this.....

And my prized Lemon Magnolia Tree still has no leaves showing yet this year but it has budded and is blooming like crazy!

The tree is young and only about 6 foot tall.  DH bought it for me 3 yrs. ago for a Mother's Day gift since I so miss the Magnolias from where I grew up down South.  This hybrid was hardy enough to grow up here in Yankeeland.  This type doesn't produce a white flower like a true Magnolia Tree but I still love it.

When the flowers open up they smell just like lemons.  I hope the next few nights in the 30's don't do in my blooms....

I won't show you the disasters that masquerade as gardening beds here.  Maybe next weekend we can start cleaning those out.....maybe......lol

What is going on in your yard?
Show us some photos!

Sluggy