Garden Update: 3 Sisters Garden & Square Foot Garden

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Quick Update! Back in March I posted my garden plans using the 3 Sisters Method, as well as some square foot gardening. I thought I’d post some pictures so that you could see how it grows in, and also so that you could visualize how it all works out. To see the original post with the garden plans, go HERE.

Here’s an update on how the 3 Sisters Garden comes together:

3 Sisters Garden
To see any photo larger, just click on it!

I did end up supporting the corn with some garden stakes. We had a few days of heavy rain and wind, and it fell over. I am really enjoying the nasturtium this year. I’ve never grown it before. The leaves as well as the flowers are pretty. And then there’s the fact that it does double duty keeping pests away.

Nasturtium at dusk after rain.

Here you can see the beans climbing up the corn…those 3 sisters!

Here’s a view of one of my square foot garden beds:

Original garden plan found HERE.
To view any photo larger, just click on it!

So far. so good! Everything is coming in nicely. We’ve already eaten a bunch of the lettuce. One night I wanted to make tacos, but had forgotten lettuce. Then I realized I had lettuce in the backyard. Perfect!

Here is how I train the cucumbers to grow vertically:

I also use twist ties left over from bread bags. Be careful not to break off the heads of the vines!
Pretty soon the cucumbers will be ready!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy gardening to you!

 

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Caring for Blueberry Bushes

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So I pruned my blueberries a few weeks ago. Super Important. You will not believe how much blueberry production will increase if you’ve never pruned before. More branches and growth do NOT equal more blueberries. For more info on how to prune go HERE. If the plant is using all of its energy and nutrients to feed leaves, guess what it won’t be doing? That’s right, making blueberries!

Now is the time (I’m zone 7) for all of the flowers to cover my bushes. And time, too, for the very important work of bees. Without the bees and their pollination, the blueberries would not be possible.

A busy bee at work pollinating my blueberry bushes.

//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.jsThis essential pollination is why you should have at least two varieties of blueberry bushes planted. Next to each other.The cross-pollination will greatly increase the production of blueberries. Some varieties won’t produce at all without cross-pollination. Side note: this is really the only time of year bees will be attracted to the plants. So if you have bee sting concerns, don’t worry!

All of these flowers will soon be blueberries!

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During the time of year when the bees are pollinating the bushes, I also like to fertilize with Epsom salts. I let 1/4 cup dissolve in a couple of gallons of room temperature water, and then I divide it between the two mature plants. (I planted 3 new ones this year, and I’m not going to fertilize them this year.) Epsom salts provide magnesium, which blueberry bushes like. (Your tomatoes and bell peppers like it, too, BTDubs.)

Okay, so are you ready to see my bushes? I hesitate to post a picture because it doesn’t look like these two could actually produce the gallons of berries that they do. Here you go…

These guys are in full sun on the south side of our house.
They love to be mulched, so there is pine straw covering the soil. 

Can you believe it? They don’t look like much, but they are big producing bushes!

If you want to read more about my blueberry care and other blueberry related posts:

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Pie

Misc. Blueberry Nonsense

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Blueberry Investment: Blueberry Pie

The birds left a few blueberries for us to eat. We only have two bushes, so when we manage to actually get some ripe berries before the birds, I really try to use them wisely. I froze several small baggies for smoothies or for using in muffins. We ate a quart or so for snacking, and the kids ate a bunch off of the bushes. After that, I’ve been hoarding them. I wanted to make something delicious and I knew that would require a great investment of blueberries.

This is what 5 cups of blueberries looks like. For what? A pie. I don’t know why it had to be a pie. I’ve never baked one before. Which is ridiculous, considering the number of pie plates that I own. I looked on the web for the easiest, simplest recipe that I could find. I picked this one.

Pour one tablespoon of lemon juice over 5 cups of blueberries and set aside.

Mix one cup of sugar, half a cup of all-purpose flour, 1/8 teaspoon salt, & 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.

Add the blueberries and gently stir together to coat the berries. Next use pre-maid pie crust to cover the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Fill the crust with the berry mixture and dot with 2 tablespoons of butter. Use the remaining crust to cover the pie. Trim the edges, crimp, and cut slits to vent.

I know, I know. It’s not pretty. But I did it! My first pie. And I didn’t burn it!

You simply have to have it with some vanilla ice cream. So good.
XOXO,
Abby
P.S. I hope one day my pies will be this beautiful. And isn’t this pie plate to die for? Love it. 

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I "garden" at Publix.

I really, really want to be good at gardening. The planting part is easy. Next when little plants germinate and poke their green heads out of the ground there is a huge feeling that something wonderful and amazing just happened. Then comes the growing part. Things happen then. Strange, gross, frustrating things.

We have blueberry bushes. The thing about blueberry bushes is that they take a few years to really get going and produce fruit. Within that time there won’t be a single bird in your backyard.

You will know when your bushes are going to explode with berries, because the year before that you’ll notice one or two birds. You will proceed to Home Depot and buy a scary looking owl to keep the birds away. It will work.

The following year your bushes will literally have dozens, even hundreds of green blueberries just waiting for the sun to ripen then. But the birds will come, and they will land on your owl. And they will poop on it. They will steal your blueberries. All of them.

If it’s not the birds, then it is bugs. I don’t even know if “bugs” is the correct term, because half of the time I cannot even identify the alien looking creatures crawling out (yes, out) of the food I am growing. Imagine my excitement when tomatoes actually start growing and butternut squash spring off of the vine.  And then I find this on a squash:

It doesn’t matter what it is. It’s gross. Nothing within 12 inches of where this was found will be eaten. I may even (once I get the nerve up to put my hands back over there) pull up the whole plant. Why? Because it’s gross. And we don’t eat Gross for dinner.

Hi, I’m Abby. And I garden at Publix.

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Perfect Pink Peonies

There are many, many times where I have told y’all that a certain project is super easy. Or, perhaps I’ve said that “the hardest part was getting started.” But there is one kind of project that frustrates me to no end. And yet, I keep going back.

*sigh* In theory, I love gardening, and I’m fabulous at it. In reality, well, not so much. Gardening for me is like one big science experiment. Sometimes the experiments work. But most of the time the science experiments end up getting annihilated by weird, alien-looking bugs that devour my plants in the dark of night. Any bug within a hundred mile radius with an appetite for squash, tomatoes, or peppers has found its way into my backyard. And laid eggs. Did I mention that I.Hate.Bugs?!?! (This should probably be titled, “The bugs. THE BUGS!!!: Part I)

I might be about to make a gardening mistake. But I’m going to do it anyway. Through Pinterest, I have fallen in love with peonies. They are beautiful, sophisticated, and delicate. I want them. The problem? I’m in the deep south. I’m in the land of “full sun” and heat. Peonies don’t like the land of “full sun.”

Today I went into Walmart looking for a hard to find shade of lipstick, which could not be found. And on my way out of the store, empty handed, I found myself staring at a shelf of flower bulbs. Perfect pink peonies.

There, at Walmart, was a cultivar, “Sarah Bernhardt” that is supposedly hardy to zone 8. I’m zone 7.

I didn’t walk out empty handed. I’m going to give them a try. Stay tuned.

XOXO,
Abby


photo credits:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2422/3615244765_5a167c1d95_b.jpg
http://arosynote.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-look-for-living-room.html
http://www.burpee.com/perennials/peony/peony-sarah-bernhardt-prod002366.html

Abby Smolarsky1 Comment