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.

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.

Broccoli Heads

I was wondering when the broccoli would start forming heads since I really need to make room for my tomatoes. I stumbled outside today and to my surprise, they have heads!


I have 8 plants. Once I harvest them, I'm going to thin them out to maybe just 1-2 plants. I'm going to keep the 1-2 plants for the side shoots which form more baby heads of broccoli. I'll freeze them for the winter.


Pickling type cucumbers. I thinned them out to 4 plants. I don't know where I'm going to plant the English cucumbers this year. I also have Armenian cucumber seeds too. Oh my!


Pole beans are really developing. I'm not sure if I'm suppose to cut the first two sets of leaves back to promote upper growth. I'll have to look into that.


Here are the Patty pan squash, yellow squash, watermelon and sunflower seedlings. When the squash get a real set of leaves, I'll plant them out into the garden. I'm not sure where yet either. They get so wide that there is never enough room.

Happy Hump Day

We had a quick down pour of rain this week which helped move the veggies along in their growth. It looks like they had a growth spurt.


No tour is complete without a cameo by Basil. That's a raspberry plant next to him. They grow like wild fire, so I'm going to keep it in a large pot.


Pole beans are coming around. I staked them with a 6' pole which isn't enough. I just assumed it will go up and across the fence.


Broccoli plants are getting pretty big. They are about 10-12" across now.


My neat line of sugar snap peas. That's garlic in the very front of the photo.