Gardening, anyone?

If I get a lot of tomatoes this year I will either canning them or making crushed tomatoes out of them and freeze them like I did last year.

Lori - thanks for the heads up on how big they get. I'll have to definitely keep that in mind. It won't happen anytime soon.

Mommyof2 - how do you freeze your tomato's? I am presently dehydrating and putting in olive oil. But have dehydrated and then freeze. I am SO loving my tomato's this year. Only growing cherry and roma's.

Gardennerd- so sorry to hear about all that is going on with your dad. Wishing all of you better days sister.

Scottie, great picture!

And I am stil LOL @ the racoon post Jazzy.

Teka, I like all the different containers and flowers.

Gardenerd, sorry to hear about your Dad. Sending positive thoughts your way.

Lori, your garden is doing fantastically. I don;t see any cukes on my plants yet

MOmmy, it won't be long until you have those tomatoes.

I walked around the yard Sunday and had a light lunch...one small peach (the only one I found with no insect damage) an Asian pear (from the poor tree with the horrible virus) and an apple. My fruits never get very big here so it takes about 4 of mine to make 1 store bought sized fruit. I also managed to snag a handful of blackberries and a couple of my fall gold raspberries. Half my pepper plants have blooms or tiny peppers. There are still 3 or 4 that just don't seem to want to grow at all. :-( I see my blooms on my zukes and a couple of the melon plants so it won;t be long until I can make some fresh zucchinni bread!

Selected a new frig this past weekend and it was delivered yesterday. i think I am in love. LOL I hated giving up my old one because it worked so well for the past 16 years until just last week. Now people are saying you are lucky to get 5 or 6 years from the appliances.?!HUH!? I spent too much money to think this one won't last.

Scottiemom1 - my FIL used to put fish in a 5 gal. bucket and call to a blue heron. Eventually this big bird would come by calling him and eat out of the bucket. The heron remained nervous, but we could sit and watch from about 20'. Always fun to watch them eat as they will flip the fish around head first so the fins and such slid down easier. Sometimes a very large fish might appear stuck in his throat but eventually he would get it down the throat. National Geographic at home : )

Jazzygirl, Heidibird - thanks for your good wishes. Its one of those things that I truly didn't plan on. One of those stages in life no one speaks about. We get married, we have children, we get the children to adulthood, we celebrate the empty nest with our spouses as a new normal comes, we plan on retirement AND the surprise is about the time the kids leave, we have parents that need more care and/or we loose them. I only regret I don't live closer but am blessed I have a brother that has majorly stepped up to the responsibility. So my trip will be to hopefully give him (brother) a break. And to care for my Dad, as he well deserves all the care I can offer.

I have been lurking for a while and enjoying the posts and photos. Thought it was time to join the fun.

I garden with a friend at my house. We have a decent size plot which we have been working on for several years. Each year we try something new. This year it is tomatoes in straw bales.

We came back from business in Atlanta yesterday. Of course, after loving the doggies, opening mail, I ran to the garden.

Got our first tomato. It was a cherry tomato that I divided in half for our salad!

Coach Vicky

Welcome SummerRain. You have an amazing garden. Next year, maybe I'll try growing a few veggies in boxes on my deck. I don't have anymore sunny room in my backyard to plant a vegetable garden.

Scottie

Finally have a handle on the garden and pots. Need more tomatoes since I never did find the Juan Flamme (orange red beefsteak type). This is probably the last garden here since we will move in April - or be traveling to places for four months at a time or so to each then onward. Am meditating on how to make my garden portable. My favourite garden pot is actually a farmhouse sink full of thyme and two mini peppers. That will not travel. I will probably have to just take a few flowers in pots and do the organic farms and markets as we travel. That will be fun.

Love the blue heron photo. This morning there were oodles of baby ducks or two sizes in a stream near here. We drive every day and look for birds adn wildlife.

SummerRain, what fun to be gardening with a friend.

Lori - last year I had to buy special pruners for my tomatoes, they were glorious. Pruned them twice. Didn't much know what I was doing but took off the tops to a height of four feet then pruned out the sucker branches.

Tip - I learned on the Juliet tomatoes to have a few cookie sheets to slide beneath before trying to pick, they fall to the ground too easily. Less to pick off the grass.

The babies are here! I was petting 2 of them while they were busy eating lol

Hi flaviarose! It's good to see you! I'll have to try your recipe and get me one of those gadgets. It sounds yummy!

Keep an eye on that zucchini. It likes to double in size overnight (and get tough while it does). It grows really well here and is left on people's desks at work anonymously because it's really prolific. I seem to remember okra being that way in OK. Here it's so expensive I sent my brother a photo of it and the price ($2.98). Just not hot enough here for it.

I know a few people with air fryers and they swear by them.

We're going to my HS reunion in the fall. Our dinner is at a barbeque place. I looked at their menu and they have fried okra as a side. I could eat a big plate of that and skip the rest of it. In Tx we could buy frozen already breaded okra. Here we're doing well if we can find it for Hoppin John on New Year's.

Thank you Wren and Scottie. I put the cart before the horse and bought an air fryer cookbook to see if things looked complicated to make. Maybe I'll invest in one in a month or so and see how it does. My problem is my tiny galley kitchen doesn't have a lot of counter space. I love kitchen gadgets but would hate to have to store things in the garage.

Zukes were still tiny last night. Plants were starting to droop too. :-( I checked for squash bugs but could not find any so am hoping it was just the heat of the day that did that.

Here's an updated picture of my straw bale garden. It's gone crazy this past week! Unfortunately I'm not going to get any zucchini this year. The plants are big and healthy but the blossoms just fall off.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July weekend and please stay safe!