Today’s Vegetable Harvest

I suppose it has been a week since the last vegetable harvest, at least for the pole beans. Today I walked away from our garden at Farm Chastain with enough beans for the family, 3 ears of Silver Queen corn, and one of Silver King. I also picked a cucumber for Martha and some squash for this week. The corn was a little early to be picked but it sure was good. I think it has another 10 days of fattening up to go, but I ran across several worms which made me nervous so I went ahead and picked some for dinner. Picking the green beans is a challenge for sure, they are super healthy so there is a ton of foliage to get through to find the beans.

I am most proud of the corn. If I were to be stranded on an island it would be a must have for me. You can also see a yellow pepper in the picture above. It needs a couple of days to sweeten up, but also looked in danger of getting eaten up out there, so I went ahead and picked.

We had two watermelons growing nicely only to come back today to find them totally rotted out. Not sure what got to them, but they were super nasty. I'll spare you that picture.

Thanks,

Carson Matthews

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Tomatoes and Green Beans

Over the past couple of days I have noticed some of the green beans getting pretty big in the garden. This morning I picked a couple of handfuls of beans and two pretty red tomatoes. Tomorrow night I believe we will be having green beans, tomatoes with basil and a cucumber for dinner!

Stay tuned for more harvesting.

Carson Matthews

Straight Eight Cucumber

After picking a few of the straight eight cucumbers this summer I have realized mine are not going to resemble either of those descriptions. A straight eight cucumber is supposed to be long and straight, about 7-8 inches. The first fruit was really fat and short, and while I waited on it to grow, it turned yellow and became compost food. This time I picked it when it looked about right, just not straight or eight. Here is the picture I got of it. On the right side you can see it oozing from the fresh cut. Click on the image below to see the hi-res version on my website.

Based on some articles online this shape is due to a lack of bees getting their pollinating on. I have definitely noticed a lack of bees this year for some reason or another.

Thanks,

Carson Matthews
www.CarsonMatthewsPhotography.com

We’ve Got Fruit

The Matthews back yard garden is starting to produce fruit in the way of tomatoes, cucumbers and squash. Below are some pictures of the progress. We are still waiting on the zucchini and green beans to start fruiting. Not pictured below are the bell peppers which are starting to change from green to red, and now have a purple tone to them.

First Cucumber in the garden

The flowers should stay above the grate with the fruit hanging down below

Cucumber bud

Cucumber flower

Squash

Green Tomato

May-June 2016 Garden Update

Over the past couple of weeks I have added some growing structures for the tomatoes, squash & cucumbers.

I have harvested lots of strawberries, but for most of them a slug has been getting to them first. I added some natural wood charcoal ash around the raised beds as well as epson salt around the plants which will hopefully take care of the slugs.

I added some stakes to the pole beans, cucumbers & tomatoes and all seem to be shooting up as a result. The blueberries are starting to get their color which has the kids really excited, hopefully they will be ready to go soon.

Blueberries

Tomatoes & Basil

Pole Beans

Thanks,

Carson Matthews

Spring 2016 Back Yard Garden Update

At Matthews Farm, 2016 will be the year that I defeat the squirrels and chipmunks. Each year my garden has grown bigger and bigger, and each year more critters come out to enjoy the harvests the night before I come out to pick the fruits of my labor.

This offseason I decided to build real cages around each raised bed, and my strawberry & carrot bed has a hinged top as well. The other bed cages will be organic, as in they will grow with the crops as needed. I plan to build trellis’s for the tomatoes, cucumbers & squash, and keeping those caged in will be an ongoing process.

Below are lots of pictures of the evolution of the garden, the planted crops, and some early seed bloomers (pole beans) that will grow in a bamboo teepee. I am also quite proud of the set of sawhorses that I built thanks to direction from familyhandyman.com.

I’m looking forward to a summer full of fruits and veggies from the back yard!

 

Garden coming out of the Fall

the first cage going in

First Raised Garden Cage

Right of Passage Sawhorses doing their thing

Strawberry Patch Cage with Top

Faithful Sidekick Cody

Nifty hinged top

tools of the trade

Finished Cage Top

Broccoli

Blueberries

Strawberries

Green Beans

Green Beans

Strawberry Patch

DIY Soaker Hose

Strawberry Ready to Eat

Vegetables and diy soaker hose

Blueberry Patch

Matthews Farm

Thanks,

Carson Matthews

Matthews Back Yard Farm to Table

The back yard garden is still kicking and provided the Matthews family with green beans and tomatoes for dinner last night. The Atlanta summer heat was not very kind to the garden, and while we enjoyed lots of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and cantaloupe, the green beans, full tomatoes and peppers just couldn’t get it going. With Fall coming, the super hot days seem to be behind us and the veggies seem to be thriving.

Here are some pics of our recents harvest of green beans (if you can call it that):

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I’m hoping the tomatoes continue to flourish through the Fall!

Bite of My Tomato

  

Dear Mr or Mrs Squirrel, if you are going to take a bite of my tomato, at least do me the favor of eating the whole thing like you do with the blueberries. This was my first tomato of the year, ready to be harvested… The square off continues.

June 17 Raised Garden Update – We have Fruit

Forked Strawberry

Here are some pictures of the garden today. The strawberries have been coming along nicely, but more than not the underside is rotting in the mulch. Apparently that’s why they call them ‘straw’berries, because they grow best when mulched with straw.  Well I found another trick that I did today that is pretty nifty and may just do the trick.  I found the idea on GardenWeb to put plastic forks under each strawberry or group of strawberries and drape the vine through the fork tines keeping the strawberries off of the ground.

Cantaloupe

Below are pictures of a bell pepper, cucumber, fat blueberry, and a bee hard at work on the cantaloupe. Speaking of cantaloupe I think this is my first fruit. There is a lot going on in there and this bulb seems to be the furthest along, and closest thing to an actual fruit.

Cucumber

Blueberry

Bell Pepper

Bee in Cantaloupe

June Raised Garden Update

Here is a photo update of my back yard raised garden beds. Everything is growing like crazy, the most fun to see progress for me personally are the cantaloupe, cucumbers, strawberries and pole beans. Earlier this week I built a structure out of bamboo for the cantaloupe to grow up and spread out. We will see how that fills out.

Henry and I tried the first strawberry last night, and while a tad sour, it was still very tasty. We are looking forward to many more.  My ultimate goal is to make my smoothie with all ingredients from the garden. On that day I will celebrate!

Here are some pictures of the progress:

Swimming at Chastain Pool

Last weekend we took our new GoPro out for a spin at Chastain Pool. We had a lot of fun trying it out and getting some underwater footage.

 

Carson Matthews

Thanksgiving Turkey Preparation Timelapse Video

Here is a iPhone 6 timelapse video of our Thanksgiving turkey preparation on Thanksgiving morning. After this it went into the Big Green Egg for several hours and came out perfect!

Timelapse Compilation of Sunrise and Weather

Here is a video compilation of time-lapse videos out of our front window. Our house faces East so we get great sunrises and a consistent look at clouds and storms moving through.

Sunset over the Chattahoochee River

Here is a picture of the sun tonight as it began setting over the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta. This shot was taken from the East Palisades Trail of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area looking west to Cobb Parkway as it crossed the Hooch.

Nikon D800, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8

70mm f/8.0 5 frames processed in Photomatix and Lightroom

Saturday Down South

Saturday Down South