Sqasharoni and Cheese
Our Fridley garden has continued to pump out summer squash and zucchini and we have been using them as often as we can. I hope you enjoy this recipe. Using summer squash instead of noodles is an easy and yummy substitution when making homemade macaroni and cheese. I’m not a fan of Easy Mac, but I really like this recipe whether it’s prepared with noodles or with squash. We use the Joy of Cooking’s “Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese” recipe, and stepping in right after they have cooked the noodles. To make it work well you need the equivalent volume of…Read the Rest
Dealing With Squirrels and Other Critters
When Squirrels Attack I like squirrels. They’re cute and fun to watch as they scamper all over the yard. They annoyed me a little bit when they followed me around the yard as I planted beans, digging up the seeds as soon as I had turned my back. When they chewed open several plastic Easter eggs and a toy baseball it was just a minor inconvenience. But eating my radishes out from under me was more than I could take. A week or so ago I pulled a handful of radishes from the garden right before watering. I rinsed them…Read the Rest
We’re doing grape!
The two grape plants we put in a few weeks ago are doing quite well. They’re holding on to the fence nice and tightly, unlike the pole beans which are holding on to everything except the poles they’re suppose to climb. One of the grape plants (the Valiant) has a couple of bunches of tiny little grapes. They’re about the size of the head of a round headed pin. I wasn’t expecting to get any grapes this year, so if we do, it’ll be a fun surprise. The neighbor’s rose bush has been slowly creeping through the fence. We have…Read the Rest
Untimely Deaths and Midnight Burials
Dead Tomatoes Despite my excitement about gardening, it turns out I’m still a novice. In fact, I killed off most of the rest of our seedling tomato plants. I had been growing them in the basement under lights, and brought them outside to harden off. Unfortunately I left the lid over the plants while I was at worked, and I ended up with a pile of steamed dead tomato plants. I’m probably going to have to go buy some pre-grown plants at this point and transplant them. Dead Blueberry Bush One of our blueberry bushes didn’t take root. The leaves…Read the Rest
Calvin vs. the Hose
Despite the recent rain, my garden was extremely thirsty when I got home from work. Here in Fridley, MN it was in the mid 90s and sunny for a good part of the day yesterday. My plants were very happy with the heat. Most of my bean plants popped right up, and my squash and pumpkins are looking good. The tomato plants, which live in the sunniest part of the garden, are kind of sissies and were looking a little bit floppy. About 30 minutes after a good soaking they had popped right back up. Here’s my garden helper, Calvin….Read the Rest
First Fruits and Good Signs
As I was watering the garden and plants this morning I was happy to see that we are making progress on several fronts. Our raspberries canes are budding, giving me hope that maybe I’m doing something right. As a novice and insecure gardener, I need that affirmation. Sorry the picture is fuzzy. Even with the macro focus setting my camera kept focusing on the fence instead of the raspberry plant. Our apple trees are pretty new. We planted them last fall, and they are probably about 5 feet tall now. We aren’t expecting to get any apples for the first…Read the Rest
Herb Garden, Flowers, and The Garden of Misfit Seeds
As I mentioned previously, Saturday was a busy day and I didn’t have pictures for everything that we did. Here’s the rest of what happened. The last intentional planting of the day was the herbs. In the right planting area below we planted Basil, Thyme, Oregano and Cilantro. The Basil will eventually take over the whole plot, but that’s OK. We’ll enjoy the other herbs till it does. The left planter in this picture is part of what I’m calling The Garden of Misfit Seeds. We had a lot of seeds left over this year. Partly since I didn’t know…Read the Rest
The Risk of Frost is Past, Now Get to Work
I decided that the risk of frost for spring 2010 was past as of Friday. Victory Seeds places the average date as the 21st but I’m optimistic that we’re done before the average for this year. That means that it’s time to plant all those seeds that say “Plant after risk of frost has passed”! That lead to a very busy and productive Saturday. After an outing to the Como Zoo with the kids, I stopped by Linders to pick up a couple of Valiant grape plants. They only had one left, so I got it. I wanted and have…Read the Rest
The Fridley Farmer : Planting Blueberries, Lingonberry and Raspberries
Today is a very exciting day, our first batch of berries arrived! We planted a row of blueberries. Three North Blues and two Chippewas. Two lingonberry plants. Ryan helped plant the raspberries. We got 6 Autumn Britten raspberries plants and 6 Caroline raspberry plants. All in all a very successful evening. Made all the more successful because our friend Erik is in town visiting and entertained the boys while I was getting the blueberries planted. We ordered everything from http://www.hartmannsplantcompany.com/. Their service was great, with fast and knowledgeable e-mail responses each time I had questions.
The Fridley Farmer : Planting, round two
Last Tuesday night was a flurry of garden activity. I was two weeks late getting the tomaotes, peppers, rhubarb and eggplants planted, and it was time for the cucumbers and pumpkins to be getting planted. The peas were due to be planted outside as well. So, racing against dusk we planted the peas in the garden. We planted three kinds. Garden Pea Maestro, Snow Pea Oregon Sugar Pod II and Thomas Laxton, all from Burpee. Ryan had a really good time helping. He wanted to rake the dirt, hoe it, plant the seeds and water it all himself. His enthusiasm…Read the Rest