Harvests

6.30.10






7.2.10


7.5.10





Here's the current tally:

• 62 pickling cucumbers
• 11 pattypan squashes
• 16 fairytale eggplants
• 30 summer squashes
• 9 handfuls of pole beans

I've cut the kale out entirely to make room for my eggplant. Also, they were getting eaten by some pests which I didn't want to infest the rest of my crops. I've also cut the pole beans back. They were getting so tall that it was shading some of my other plants. Next year, I will make a tall teepee for them.

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.

6.15.10

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.

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.