6.28.10 Harvest

Hi all! We just came back from New Orleans! It was a real blast, but I'm happy to be home. While we were there we tasted all the delights of Nola and I look forward to making some of my very own gumbo and seafood boil.


Although I harvested as much as I could before we left, we still came home to all this! None of these cucumbers or squashes were there before we left, so I was surprised to see many of them. I pickled the smaller of the cucumbers and made salad with the larger ones which had gotten a bit more tough.


The zinnias are really blooming now and I'm seeing more and more patty pan squashes. I pick the squash even if they are on the small side because it's supposed to encourage the growth of more squash. They taste better when they are small too.


This squash looks like one of those trolls from the 80s.

The raised bed is overflowing. I cut my tomato plants back a lot! They are really tall too and I see lots of tomatos developing. The pepper plants are also starting to develop more. The cucumber vines have climbed over and through my neighbors fence. I hope I will still be able to harvest them.

6.22.10

Today there was lots in the garden to harvest!


The tomato plants are surprisingly tall and beginnin to fall over. They are taller than the supports, so they will be needing some extra tall stakes.


Basil and I were checking out the summer squash plants.


Here's the raw harvest. I harvested the summer squash while it was still small (which is recommended) for several reasons. They taste better and will encourage growth of new squashes.


Washed and trimmed. I cooked the pole beans and packed them up for lunch. I used the squash and eggplant in a pasta dish. Then I made pickles with the little cucumbers.

6.20.10

Things are emerging each and every day. I can't keep up!


The fairy tale eggplant is starting to emerge. These are great drizzled with olive oil on the grill.


19 pickling type cucumbers! These will make a variety of pickles.

6.19.10

Seeing signs of tomatoes


Bright lights swiss chard


Garden bed. I had to tie string from my crab apple tree to the pole bean supports to allow them to continue climbing. They won't cling to the fence because it's aluminum and gets really hot.

6.18.10

6.15.10

6.14.10

Mr. Toad paid me a visit

Someone paid me a surprise visit yesterday. As I was checking on the cucumbers, I looked over and here is this toad just sittin' pretty on my voilas and squash. I hope he's eating the pests that have been making holes in my zinnias.


If frogs say ribbit, what do toads say?


Of all the patty pan squash I started from seed, only a few germinated successfully for some reason. This is the 'green apple'. It looks so cute!


Here's the bed it's in. I tied some string from the garden bed to my neighbor's fence. I hope they don't mind! Shhhh! There are lots of little cucumbers, so I had to make sure they were fully supported. I can't wait to eat my first cucumber this season.


'Bright Lights' swiss chard. Sadly, none of the reds or pinks germinated...the yellows are really prolific. It seems like that's all I get. Some of the leaves were burned and I noticed birds made a nest nearby and their poop were burning my swiss chard, so I transplanted them elsewhere. They look a little sad right now, but I hope they come back.

The summer squash flowers are very prominant now.

Basil's birthday 2010-06-12

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2nd Week of June, 2010

It's been a cool week with temperatures around 59F. That made it really easy for me to go around and do some garden maintenance. Everything is growing in beautifully now. Once the zinnias bloom the bed will look so colorful.



Raised bed - Things are really taking off. The tomatoes have flowers, but I haven't seen any fruit set yet. There are lots of pole beans which are delicious. The pickling cucumber vines are really taking off and could use a few more supports.


Upclose with one pickling cuc.


There are lots of little cucs. They are going to make great pickles!

My herb garden on the side of the house is looking so beautiful with the mix of salad greens, chamomile with their daisy-like flowers and the flirty red nasturtiums. As I have been harvesting the salad, I have been tucking in some basil I started from seed. I'm going to let everything go to seed this year, so it comes back next year.

The squash bed is overflowing with squash bushes. There are grape tomato and hollyhock seedlings that have emerged which I'll transplant over to the right of the squash bed. Along the edge, I tucked in a giant apricot cutting zinnia to give the area some color later in the summer.


Each plant has lots of little summer squash. They are so profilic!


In the flower garden, the asiatic lilies, day lilies and field lilies are blooming. So are the Achilles and the Phlox look like they are beginning to develop their flower heads.

Squash and Pole Beans

The south bed with my extra squash and tomato plants are doing really well. The lavender is blooming and attracting some big bees.


I took a closer look and each summer squash plant has about 3-4 baby squash forming. I'm going to have a lot of squash pretty soon. I can't wait. I'm so happy that each plant has squash forming. I have to start looking up some new recipes, so that I'm ready for them.


Pole beans. For the first time, I noticed we had quite a few filet pole beans. The more I pick, the more it will produce. Whatever I can't eat, I will freeze for the future.

In other news, the fairytale eggplant are forming clusters of flowers. I hope this means clusters of eggplant soon. I've harvested a lot of lettuce, parsley, and dill. I can't wait to have tomato soup with dill.

The other day..

Cucumbers have begun to form.


The lilies are blooming. This one is from my mother's garden and they are really multiplying this year. They are really stunning.


Hollyhock mallow

June

Wow, is it June already? Things are taking off so fast that I can't even post about it in time. I took these pictures today. The ones I took a few days ago are already outdated and I have yet to post them.


Here's the bed with the cucumbers, zinnias and squash. I'm having a bug problem eating away at my zinnia leaves. I don't know what it is, but at least it's the zinnias they are eating and not my vegetables. Although it's a shame that there are holes in leaves for such a beautiful flower.


I staked the tomato plants, pruned the leaves back, harvested the remaining two heads of celery and planted the rest of my pepper plants. I'm tempted to purchase a pepper plant from the nursery. They seem to do better than the ones I started at home. The pole beans have really taken off too. I trimmed the side shoots back to promote vertical growth. It's good for air circulation too.


Last year, I talked about how I extended this garden bed to put shade plants in the back and sun in the front. It has grown in so beautifully that it's my best looking bed. It's the most settled in. I don't need to do anything to it. I could definitely divide the hostas a little and spread it out more, but it's so much work so why ruin a good thing, right?


Another view: The purple flowers are hollyhock mallow. It was a great buy. I purchased one the first year and each year I'm getting new plants from the seeds that fell from the previous year. It's one of my husband's favorite and it's quite the show stopper in the garden.

This weekend, I trimmed the spent Iris stems back. They get all brown and they die back, so I might as well cut them. The balls of Irises look better once the brown parts are trimmed back. I've also been doing a ton of weeding and hopefully my husband is going to mulch this week.