Friday, June 10, 2011

What's Blooming Now

Here is some of the flowers that are blooming now








Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Squash Bug Hunt'n

You have to really stay on top of these insects now a days.The way I do it is to make it fun,make it into one of your favorite hunts.Do you like deer hunt'n?Do you like to coon hunt?How bout fish'n?Make it like that.Take your special equipment with you.The point I'm stressing is to make it FUN..Heck wear your camos if you want to..Here is something I like to take squash bug hunt'n with me,a simple device ,a mirror on a stick.You just take a piece of wood and fold a piece of duct tape over so you have two sticky sides and tape mirror to the wood..



Now lady's I want to talk to the fella's a minute so pleeze skip down and do not read the next paragraph.I will put it a different color so scroll down to the white writing and read from there..Pleeze.




Alright guy's I know what your thinking.Tom where can I get a mirror like that?Easy,your wife,girlfriend,mother or sister will have a make-up bag(like a little suitcase)usually you can find this under their bathroom sink.Look inside and find a compact(like a little plastic wallet type thing)it flips open ,take a pointy knife and pop the mirror out.Now there is gonna come a question one day,maybe tomorrow or next week,month later when she says ,do you know what happened to my compact mirror? Here's what you do.Play dumb,you say whats a compact?Trust me it will work,they are ready think we are dumber than a coal bucket..

Alright Lady's Welcome back and Thank you for not reading that paragraph.When you catch the squash bugs you can squish them between your fingers but try not to breath in,they smell,if your squimish, you can carry a pale of soapy water around and put them in there,that will work just fine but I get a bit of satisfaction out of squashing them(no pun intended)Also if you find their egg clusters pick them off and destroy them,You can use a piece of tape for this or your fingers which ever.If you have children or grandchildren get them involved,they make great squash bug hunters and I am a strong advocte for making future gardeners out of children.That's where all gardeners come from..HAPPY HUNT'N










Today's haul,one nest of eggs and two squash bugs mating(bonus) that was all I found on 14 plants not bad..

Monday, June 6, 2011

Vegetable Garden V

I've been off for a while.My father is very ill and I have spent a great deal of time at the hospital and working.The vegetable garden is growing,I have been terrorizing squash bugs,trying to keep them in check.You have to really get aggressive with these bugs early on or they will terrorize you.But  for now I have them near killed out and I have been picking their eggs off the leaves and squishing them.No squash yet but I see beginnings of flowers.Summer squash is one of my favorites that I grow.And I can't wait for my poor mans crab cakes made from the summer squash,tastes just like  a crab cake..Ive been thinking about them for 9 months now,lol..and I also like squash pie,I think its better than pumpkin..I harvested beets yesterday,first time growing them.I just did a little patch of them to see if I liked them.I had heard there was a huge difference in beets fresh out of the garden picked that day and ones you buy.I have never been a huge fan of beets,the only way I had eaten them were pickled and only if I had to.So I pulled some yesterday and roasted them in a roasting pan in olive oil for an hour in the oven and let me tell you now I am a huge fan of beets,they were awesome.Not at all what I expected and now I wish I had grown a huge patch but I'm gonna have to put in another crop of them before the year is out.I highly recommend roasted beets..