Garden Update

Our backyard garden continues to flourish, with the following developments.

1.  Our Ambrose hive is bursting with honey and bees, so Devin prepared and installed another box atop their hive today, giving them more room to build comb for honey.  The nectar is flowing in central Texas right now, and we are hearing that a strong hive can fill an entire box with honey in just two weeks–that’s 30 pounds of honey.  We’re hoping for a great year.

2.  Our burgeoning grape clusters were stripped by an enterprising bird this weekend.  I think it was one of the cheeky bluejays that hang around our yard; they also eat bees and steal tomatoes.  Rascals!

3.  Our berries are ripening fast but not fast enough to beat the birds.  We tried picking them before they’re fully ripe, with the hope that they will ripen indoors but have learned that berries don’t ripen much after picking.  Our other option is to cover our bushes with screening, but we have not yet made that a priority.

4.  Our squash are producing the proverbial overabundance.  We have at least 4 large Tatume currently sitting on our counter; the Tatume is a hard-shelled Mexican squash, almost like a small pumpkin, so I am going to steam two of them and see how they mash with butter.  And, of course, we have one enormous zucchini that escaped our notice until it was HUGE.  Here is a photo of the squash that got away:

I’m thinking zucchini bread and zucchini bread and zucchini bread; I will probably have to remove the seeds of this monster because they could be pretty woody, so we’ll see how much zucchini I actually end up with.

5.  Our hot weather plants are starting to really flourish.  Our basil is growing beautifully and recently supplied us with tasty marinara for lasagna and tasty pesto for pasta.  Our tomatoes are loaded and ripening fast, though we are bringing orange tomatoes indoors to ripen on the windowsill, in view of the ongoing battle with the bluejays.  Our cucumber vine has given us two beauties now and is working on many others.

6.  No pullet eggs yet, though Penelope is back to laying.

This appears to be our best garden ever, and I know it is due to the efforts of my valiant husband, who invested effort into starting our seeds in a tray under a grow light and who also installed a drip irrigationt system in our garden.  Thanks, darling.