Archive for June, 2008
Making Squash Pickles
Posted on June 22, 2008, under Uncategorized.
2lbs Firm Squash
2 Small onions
1/4C Salt
2C Sugar (or less)
1tbls Celery Salt
1tbls Mustard Seed
3C Cider Vinegar
-With just enough water to cover, let the squash, onions, and salt set for 1hr. Drain but do not rinse, combine sugar, vinegar, mustard seed, celery salt and bring to a boil. Pack squash and onions in jars, cover w/ vinegar liquid. Put them in a large pot with water up to the top of the jars and boil for 10 - 20mins.
-Only had 1 1/2lbs of squash. Went with recipe as is. Canned 2 pints and 3 half pints.
-Just realized as I was typing this entry out that I completely forgot the sugar. Oops
Update 6/20/2008
Posted on June 20, 2008, under Uncategorized.
Susan planted two types of pumpkins out at our garden at my parent’s house. Cinderella pumpkins were one type, not sure what the other type was. We also weeded the corn by hand. Made a wall around the squash plants and gave them plenty of water. Picked some more squash from the garden. Plan to make pickles this weekend.
Irrigation system seems to be working great here at the house. Will check soil on all container plants to make sure they are getting good coverage.
Raised Bed status
Posted on June 19, 2008, under Uncategorized.
Row 1 = 4 catnip plants
Row 2 = Thumbilina Carrots
Row 3 = Thumbilina Carrots
Row 4 = 3 German Queen Tomato plants
Row 5 = 3 German Queen Tomato plants
Row 6&7 = Nothing
- Carrots don’t seem to be doing anything at all. Soil wrong maybe? They seem to need sandy soil and I have compost.
-Catnip appearing more healthy. Perhaps due to a lot of rail we’ve gotten lately.
-German Queen tomatoes growing good. No bad spots on them. Twice as tall as when I purchased (~2weeks)
Raised bed
Posted on June 8, 2008, under Container Gardening.
Determined to grow something here on our property in town I’ve built a raised bed out on one side of the house. This area gets the most sun of any location in our lot except for dead in the center of our front yard. But, since we are on a fairly nice road putting a garden out there was out of the question. I built the bed out of 8′x10″x2″ treated lumber. The bed is 8′ long by 4′ wide and 10″ deep. I was looking for 12″ lumber but all they had was the 10″ so I picked that up instead. I think it’ll work. At the back of my parent’s garden is a little area where they have been dumping the leaves and grass clippings from mowing the yard over the past several years. I took their rototiller and tilled up one end of it and then filled the back of my truck up with the fertile soil. It took two loads to get the bed really full but I think it’ll be worth the effort. As of right now I have one row of catnip (4 plants) and two rows of carrots planted. I may pick up some more stuff to try out later this afternoon.
My Two Plots
I seem to be having marginal success with my container garden here at my house so my dad offered to give me two plots out in his garden. One plot is 73′x24′ and the other is 28′x24′. In the larger one we have planted red potatoes, great northern beans, cucumbers, okra, a few different kinds of peppers, 28 tomato plants and 6 yellow squash plants. In the smaller plot we’ve planted it all in sweet corn.
Here’s a pic: (kinda hard to see the first plot as the shade had moved in)
