How does your garden grow?

[MustafaMc]

You can just eat them raw in a salad. They have a very mild, sweetish flavour.

Here are a few recipes for stuffing and cooking:
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/stuffed-squash-blossoms-10000000653517/

http://www.seasonalchef.com/recipe0805b.htm

Some of the batters ask for beer - but that's optional and can be replaced with other liquids, such as milk. I think the addition of beer just makes it a slightly lighter and aerier batter.

So, could I eat them fresh out of the garden like I do cucumbers and tomatoes? Thanks, I have sent the recipies to my wife. Surely, she can find something to replace the beer with though like you said milk maybe mixed with honey.

 

[MustafaMc]

What we presently have growing:

Tomato - Better Boy, Nyagus (purple), Cherokee Puple, Green Zebra, Jetsetter, Sunmaster, Heatwave II, Top Gun, Roma (paste)
Pepper - Bonnies Best
Potato - Yukon Gold (yellow flesh)
Asparagus - Jersey Supreme
Cowpea - Queen Anne (blackeye), Holstien (black & white like the cow), Ozark Razorback (red & white), Dixie Lee, Mississippi Puple (very low germination)
Bush Lima - Thorogreen, Nemagreen (nematode resistant - low germ), Wood's Prolific, various outcross selections from Henderson (HOC)
Pole Lima - Persian (dark red with black splotches), Florida Speckled
Green Bean (snap) - Contender (favorite), Bounty, Gina (Roma type)
Dry Shell Bean - Perigion, Black Perigion (selection), Yin Yang (black & white like Chinese symbol)
Okra - Clemson Spineless, Louisianna Short, Blondie (selection)
Watermelon - Sugar Baby, Yellow Doll
Cantelope - Honey Rock, Athena (selection from hybrid)
Squash - Barq (name of local root beer - no alcohol - I like), Horn of Plenty (favorite), Sundance
Cucumber - Sweet Slice, Sassy (pickling type), Classy (pickling type)
Sunflower - Summer Sensations, JG-1 & 2 (ornamental type), Velvet Queen
Sweet Corn - JLPse+1 (purple kernel high sugar), JLPStalkse+ (same with red stalk), JLse+1 & 2 (yellow high sugar)
Gourd - Apple (shape like Apple, size of soccer ball), (Birdhouse-type did not come up)
Runner Bean - Scarlet Runner (dying from disease)
Blueberry - Misty, Briteblue, Climax, Tiftblue
Blackberry - Pime Jim, Prime Jan

 

[Snowflake]

Masha Allah. Awesome. So do you never need to buy produce from the supermarket brother Mustafa?

 

[MustafaMc]

Assalamu alikum, Sister Snowflake. We do buy some vegetables from the grocery, but it is more of what we don't grow. My wife processes the squash, okra, sweet corn, green beans, cowpeas, lima beans and tomatoes and we eat them during the winter.

 

[BadOlPuttyTat]

such a lovely garden, although I do not have a green thumb and what a nuclear bomb is to humans I am to plants. If plants had a judicial system I would be charged for mass murder against "potted kind". hew I just that bad of a gardener

 

[Muhaba]

^i used to be a bad gardener too until i read: jealousy is to love as water is to roses. a little keeps it alive but too much kills it. and that made me realize i was over-watering my plants.

always ask the person you buy the plants from how much water that particular plant needs. then hopefully you won't go wrong.

 

[Snowflake]

Assalamu alikum, Sister Snowflake. We do buy some vegetables from the grocery, but it is more of what we don't grow. My wife processes the squash, okra, sweet corn, green beans, cowpeas, lima beans and tomatoes and we eat them during the winter.

Wa alaykum assalam wa rahmatullah akhi Mustafa,

Masha Allah, that's wonderful. It gives me so much pleasure to see and hear the benefits of growing one's own produce. I heard that the tomatoes in the supermarket don't contain lycopene because they are picked before they have ripened. Masha Allah you source your own. I'm going to try growing some insha Allah.

 

[Kyle]

Hard to garden living in an apartment, but I have previously grown Watermelon, Squash, Corn, Potatoes, and Carrots. Oh, and of course Tomatoes. Living in Texas, the weather is hot, so I'm sure what I have grown is at odds with what Europeans have grown!

 

[PouringRain]

So, could I eat them fresh out of the garden like I do cucumbers and tomatoes? Thanks, I have sent the recipies to my wife. Surely, she can find something to replace the beer with though like you said milk maybe mixed with honey.

Try replacing the beer with a seltzer water or sparkling water.

 

[MustafaMc]

Hard to garden living in an apartment,

Yep, that would be difficult. If you had a patio, then you could plant a few tomato plants.

but I have previously grown Watermelon, Squash, Corn, Potatoes, and Carrots. Oh, and of course Tomatoes. Living in Texas, the weather is hot, so I'm sure what I have grown is at odds with what Europeans have grown!

Yes, Texas gets hot, but not as hot as Arizona. I lived near Phoenix for a couple years a tried a small garden, but only the okra grew very well.

 

[MustafaMc]

Try replacing the beer with a seltzer water or sparkling water.

Thanks, I will tell my wife.

 

[MustafaMc]

Masha Allah, that's wonderful. It gives me so much pleasure to see and hear the benefits of growing one's own produce. I heard that the tomatoes in the supermarket don't contain lycopene because they are picked before they have ripened. Masha Allah you source your own. I'm going to try growing some insha Allah.

Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatu'Allahi wa barakatu, Ukhti Snowflake. Yes, it is as Allah (swt) has willed. There is something to be said for growing one's own food that gives a deeper appreciation for Allah's (swt) bountiful blessings. Another benefit is that I control the pesticides on the garden to practically nil. There is not much that compares to picking a ripe tomato off the vine and eating you right there. Over the weekend I dug the potatoes and picked 2 varieties of green beans. In a few days we will have fresh squash, in shaa Allah.

Glo would have a better idea for what would grow best in UK. It is also about trial and error to find out what works for you. Insha'Allah, you will have a nice garden.

 

[jameelash]

salam,jazakullah glo.wonderful garden mashahallah and something for us to learn

 

[MustafaMc]

We have gotten about 5 inches of rain in less than 2 weeks. Normally, the garden would have needed a couple of irrigations, but this year seems to be much wetter than normal. ... and to think I just finished connecting the drip irrigation system to our water line.

Insha'Allah, we will harvest green beans, lima beans, cowpeas and squash in a few days.

 

[glo]

^
We are having a very wet year so far too, Mustafa.
I have noticed that the native plants (cabbages, broad beans, lettuces, carrots) really love it - but the ones who are used to warmer weather (tomatoes, squashes, courgettes, sweetcorn etc) are struggling a little bit.

The plants who thrive the best in this wet weather seem to be the weeds! ^o)

 

[glo]

Insha'Allah, we will harvest green beans, lima beans, cowpeas and squash in a few days.

In a few days??! I hope you enjoy them. :statisfie

We have started picking the very first broad beans in their pods and mange-touts. The strawberries are very nearly ready, but could do with a few more rays of sunshine ...

 

[MustafaMc]

I have noticed that the native plants (cabbages, broad beans, lettuces, carrots) really love it - but the ones who are used to warmer weather (tomatoes, squashes, courgettes, sweetcorn etc) are struggling a little bit.

I have generally not grown the cool season crops as in your first set, but God willing I will begin, perhaps in the raised bed with the asparagus. I did plant some potatoes that did pretty well, though.

The plants who thrive the best in this wet weather seem to be the weeds!

Praise be to God that I have been able to stay on top of the weeds and keep them from going to seed. I have added mostly composted gin trash to our garden to increase the organic matter and I brought in some weed seeds from there. I also added 4 huge truck loads of a sandy soil that apparently brought in root-knot nematodes. I have noticed that the cowpeas are resistant to the nematodes and I rotate crops around different rows of the garden. The clay soil is now much easier to work from the addition of sand and gin trash.

 

[MustafaMc]

In a few days??! I hope you enjoy them.

I got a little anxious and picked one of the squash and a couple green peppers yesterday and we have already picked a mess of green beans.

We have started picking the very first broad beans in their pods and mange-touts. The strawberries are very nearly ready, but could do with a few more rays of sunshine ...

I haven't triaed broad (fava) beans or mange-touts (snap peas), but we did have strawberries that didn't seem to do well for me. I remember my dad had a garden and strawberries when I was about 4 years old. He had taken an 8mm movie of me where I kneeled down, picked a fresh strawberry, ate it and then wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and had an expression of pleasure and satisfaction.:statisfie

 

[glo]

Now is the time when we are just starting to harvest the first fruit and vegetables.


The strawberries are just ripening:

And the raspberries are not far behind:

And the apples have turned from this ...

... into this ...

...into this:

They won't be ready for picking for some months though.

 

[Snowflake]

Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatu'Allahi wa barakatu, Ukhti Snowflake. Yes, it is as Allah (swt) has willed. There is something to be said for growing one's own food that gives a deeper appreciation for Allah's (swt) bountiful blessings. Another benefit is that I control the pesticides on the garden to practically nil. There is not much that compares to picking a ripe tomato off the vine and eating you right there. Over the weekend I dug the potatoes and picked 2 varieties of green beans. In a few days we will have fresh squash, in shaa Allah.

Glo would have a better idea for what would grow best in UK. It is also about trial and error to find out what works for you. Insha'Allah, you will have a nice garden.

Masha Allah brother, my thoughts too. Those are the reasons I wish I could grow my own produce. The mention of potatoes and green beans reminds me of a delicious potato and green bean curry we enjoyed recently. Do you and your wife eat curries? I could forward you some easy recipes if you like.