July 15, 2011 - Summer Lettuce, Fall Planting & Super Sack Suckers



So far the lettuce is holding up well and may possibly get us through the entire summer.


The last two heads of spring planted lettuce are surprisingly sweet. The heads are huge, but there is so much slug and earwig damage I've been getting just over a pound of edible leaves from each plant, and the rest feeds the compost pile. None of the spring lettuce bolted, so it was all used.


The summer planted lettuce has grown large enough that I'll be harvesting outer leaves any day now. This bed is filled with Summercrisp and Red Sails.


Fall lettuce has been started inside. It looks like 18 of 20 are growing.


The Walla Walla Sweet Onion bed has been cleaned out and amended with composted manure. Bush beans (a single row) have been planted to the left, carrots (a triple row) on the right, and the lettuce seedlings will be transplanted down the center when they are large enough. The beans are already beginning to emerge, but the weather is turning hot so carrot germination might be a bit iffy. I really need to cover the rows, but slugs have been such a problem in the garden this year, I hesitate to give them another hiding place. This is a fairly cool, semi-shady area, so maybe the carrots will be alright.


The next bed, to the south of the former sweet onion bed, will be the next one cleared. The single remaining (huge) broccoli plant isn't giving me enough side shoots to warrant the space it takes, and the onions don't look like they are going to do much more growing. There are still two cabbages behind the broccoli. They will likely remain, and another planting of bush beans will fill the rest of the bed.


Some of the small onions have already been pulled, and are drying on the patio next to the bundles of basil.


The poor beets are so infested with leaf miners, I might just as well pull them out so I don't have to look at them! I have no idea what to replace them with....probably more bush beans!

At the rate I'm planting and picking green beans, I soon should have a freezer full. I bought a new vacuum sealer to replace the Reynolds and ZipLoc hand pump types I previously used. After conning us into buying those things, they stopped selling the bags! For just $17.99 and $5 shipping, I bought an electric "sack-sucker-sealer" that works great.


My new hands free sack-sucker- sealer.


I found I can cram a lot of green beans into a quart sized bag. I've also sack-suck-sealed broccoli, sweet & sour red cabbage and pea pods. But it's the green beans that will get the most use, because Annie and Otto love them. What? Doesn't everybody grow and freeze gourmet baby French beans for their dogs to eat?


29 comments:

  1. Ever since the storm I've found I've been babying our labs quite a bit more... the female, Laylah, became super picky and wasn't eating so I've had to get inventive and share lots more people food to mix in w/ their dry food to keep them happy.

    They're my big ol' hairy babies.. what can I say!?! :P

    I'll be posting again soon.. I promise!

    *hugs*

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  2. Wendy, I'll remember that promise! Hugs back atcha.

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  3. Your garden looks so much more organised than mine! Where did you pick up your sealer? Do you blanche your beans first? This is the first year I'm getting enough beans to preserve them and I'm trying to figure out how!

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  4. I love those "super sack suckers".I don't think a day goes by that I'm not sealing something, or opening one of the bags from the freezer.
    And I knew a lady who made Spanish Rice for her dogs EVERY DAY. If something would have happened to her, I think those dogs would starve. I don't think her son would have stood all day at the stove.....
    :D

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  5. So, you like that sack-sucker sealer? My daughter has one, a Food Saver or something like that. Seems to work well, but there's an awful lot of plastic involved. I've been debating.

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  6. This has been a the worst year I can remember for slugs! I've been hand watering most of the garden to help curb them.

    I'd be growing beans for the dogs too. I used to have my mother send me pannetone for the cat! She liked it even more than catnip.

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  7. Your lettuce has been stupendous! I'm waiting a few weeks to get the fall crops in. That food saver thingy looks nice, I have one but I don't like it very much.

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  8. Looks like you are really accomplished at successive gardening. Your produce looks great. I'm doing a bit better this year at successive plantings, but your photos are reminding me to get out and plant some more things. I still have a bit of empty space.

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  9. We had a dog that was allergic to dog food. I had to boil vats of rabbit and mix it with rice and broccoli for years.

    Any idea how vile boiling rabbit smelled? I broke down and cried several times.

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  10. I can't see the damage on the lettuce. They look really healthy in the picture. I started some lettuce too. Your garden is so organized and beautiful!

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  11. I just made some homemade dog food yesterday for the first time. It included the too-tough green beans, carrots, brown rice, and left-over turkey and pork. He loved all but the beans.

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  12. Wow! The idea of starting fall stuff already! I just got my first real tomato, I can't imagine starting fall plants already. I guess it was a good reminder! Thanks Granny! :)

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  13. Your garden is coming along nicely. I love the new bag sealer. We were wondering what to put in the place of our spring onions. Maybe bush beans is a good idea. Do they need a trellis and lots of sunlight? This spot is shady and we haven't got much room for a trellis.

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  14. Do you blanch anything before freezing or no?

    (I've been a silent reader for a while. Hello!)

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  15. Nikki, yes I do blanch the beans. I put them in boiling water for 3 minutes, drain, plunge into ice water until thoroughly cooled, drain again, then spread them out on a towel covered cookie sheet and freeze them solid. Once they're frozen, I bag them. That way I can take as many or as few out of the bag as I want.

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    Sue, I'm seriously thinking of putting my toaster oven in the laundry room and the super-sack-sucker out on the counter. I know I would use it much more if it were in a handy location.

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    Dianefaith, the FoodSavers are probably a much better product, but they are quite expensive and the plastic bags cost more than Rival. I hesitated a bit about the plastic too, but I used ZipLoc and a lot of food freezer burns in them. This plastic is so heavy, it's actually washable and reusable. Of course, I wouldn't reuse one that had contained meat, but breads, fruits and veggies I'd have no problem. The bags just get a bit smaller each time you have to cut the tops of to empty them. Oh, they are boilable, steamable and microwaveable too.

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    Ed, my Annie is so overweight that her diet consists of mostly green beans with a bit of chicken and a tiny bit of dog food for crunch. Both of the dogs love their veggies, raw or cooked.

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    David, I like the vacuum sealer, but I need more freezer space already.

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    Sande, I'm really not very good at successive planting! I'm usually tired enough of caring for the spring and summer garden without worrying about a fall garden! I'm just pushing myself to do it this year. I challenged myself last spring to keep the lettuce growing from spring until frost. Having a record breaking cool year helps.

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    Ribbit, I know how boiling rabbit livers smell. When Amy was a baby she loved them! Rabbit livers and spinach were her favorite foods (yuk). We had a neighbor who raised meat rabbits and kept us supplied with rabbit meat.

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    Charmcity, the outer leaves are completely chomped and when I bring it in to the sink earwigs will scurry everywhere as I pull off the leaves. They get swooshed right down the garbage disposal! I shouldn't have planted it so close, then I turned right around and did the same thing with the summer lettuce. I just cannot bring myself to set the plants in a foot or more apart!

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    Langela, that's surprising. The beans are so mild tasting, you'd think he'd like them. Mine even love them raw.

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    Megan, I feel the same way! I'm just getting the first few tomatoes, and pulling the first few carrots, it doesn't seem like time to start all over again!

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    Jody, bush beans need no trellis, and can be planted about 4-6" apart in all directions. They bear their crop over about a two week period, but I've found if you cut them back by about half when they finish bearing, they will usually blossom and give you a second crop. The only problem with them is that it's back breaking to pick them. Probably the garden chore I dislike the most, and the reason I like pole beans better. However, pole beans take a long time to crop, where bush beans are fast. It's already too late for me to plant pole beans.

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    Diane, hello! Yes, I blanch some things like peas, broccoli and green beans, but not peppers. Scroll up to my comment to Nikki to see the process.

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  16. You do keep busy don't you.:) I remembered you saying that the your dogs liked beans and will definately try to stuff some down our Rowdy dogs gullet in a couple weeks when ours are ready.

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  17. Granny, I think that Cookie, Annie & Otto are the best feed pets on the planet! My kit-kats just eat cat food.

    We are so loving our vaccuum sealer also. I don't use the bags, I get rolls and make the packages as small as I can. I just read that you can re-use the bags. Just wash them out really well, dry and use them again. That would definitely save some money!

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  18. LOL, robin, granddog Kobi loves to come for dinner with Annie & Otto!

    Yes, I was just telling dianefaith (above) that they are washable. I also have rolls that I'm using for smaller amounts, but finding the quart size perfect for the beans. Looks like that will be about a week's supply for the dogs, so I only need 52 of them :-O As I cut the tops off of these quart bags, they will be reused for smaller amounts the next time around.

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  19. Mr. H., I'll bet Rowdy will eat just about anything after working up an appetite with all of his digging!

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  20. The sealer is a great gadget to have in the kitchen! Jealous! I have leaf miners attacking my beets also. Frustrating! I am loving your lettuce, it's beautiful.

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  21. My folks cook for their dogs everyday. Mine at dog food. Not people food except for treats. But they did get a lot of treats. Especially carrots.

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  22. Huh... Labeling my freezer bags with a date....That's probably a good idea. >_>

    Nice huge load of greenbeans. Hoping to get that for the fall ^_^

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  23. Meems, leaf miners are made in Hell! They are my most hated garden pest, even worse than slugs.

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    Daphne, Annie loves carrots. If I pull a short stubby one, I'll just toss it over the fence for her to chew on. As long as I'll toss them, she'll grab them and chow down.

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    Ben, it does help to know if it was frozen in 2008 or 2011, and if it's green pepper strips or green beans ;-)

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  24. ha! you're a great fur-mommy, granny. i'm trying to get our cat to eat veggies in her food. so far she likes pureed carrot but refuses to go near zucchini. i wasn't going to give her new food until she at least tried the zucchini mixture, but i caved shortly after. i'm a sucker for hungry animals!=)

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  25. ...but we won't talk about how i feed the strays and how they thank me by pooping in my garden.=)

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  26. Kelli, Annie and Otto will not eat any summer squash, but they do like butternut or pumpkin IF I put a little sprinkling of brown sugar in it. Of course that's a rare treat for the little chubbies.

    We won't talk about it, but give and ye shall receive, LOL!

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  27. Sack-Sucking-Sealer .... say that three times really fast... I double dog dare ya! LOL!

    Our greenbeans are not on yet. I just pulled the rest of the garlic and some of the onions today ( they are drying down) and planted up the fall broccoli and cabbage starts in that bed. Usually those go in after the peas are harveted - but this year the peas are so late maturing, the plants could not wait any longer to go in the ground.

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  28. Sack-Sucking-Sealer
    Sack-Sucking-Sealer
    Sack-Sucking-Sealer

    There, I did it, Kitsap! Do I get a prize?

    I went shopping with my Amy and the granddaughters today, and it wore me out! That was harder work than a day in the garden ;-)

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  29. The beans look great, and I love your sack sucking sealer :o)...the bags are expensive but you can use them again after cleanings.

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