Hum

We grew Cardinal Climber flower (Ipomoea multifida) specifically to attract hummingbirds and it worked like a charm!

The overall harvest from the garden was plentiful.  This past weekend I picked any remaining vegetables and pulled many spent plants from the ground.  Winterizing the garden, if you will.  A few Brussels sprouts remain as they're still yielding tasty sprouts.  As for the plants I hacked down, I decided to cook the greens from the plants.  It seemed like such a waste to ignore so much of the plant.  I'd not ever eaten Brussels sprouts greens but figured that like collards, kale, chard, etcetera, they'd be super yummy.  Guess what?  They are!  A 1:1 ratio of water and chicken stock, olive oil, two strips of chopped bacon and Penzy's Shallot-Pepper Seasoning (coarse salt, Tellicherry black pepper, shallots, tarragon and bay leaves).  The greens smelled heavenly while they simmered away and they didn't have to cook for nearly as long as I thought they might need to.  After an hour and a half at a rolling simmer they were tender and delicious.

Garlic cloves will be planted this coming weekend for next July's harvest.

I've already begun making plans for next year's garden design and what will be grown.  Without question, less tomatoes and more of an overall variety of vegetables and flowers.  Since the garden plot is established I can focus more intently on what to plant and where.  Compost will be ready, too.  Glorious.

Tomato Jungle

Lesson for next year's garden?  Plant fewer tomato plants.  A personal garden doesn't need 15-16 tomato plants.  The plants are so large and heavy with fruit that one row of tomatoes is literally laying on top of the next row of tomato plants!  Any minute we're going to be knee deep in tomatoes.  S'okay.  We're not opposed to canning homemade marinara sauce.

Speaking of tomatoes, we harvested our first today.  A few of the Beam's Yellow pear and five Black from Tula!  So.  Darn.  Tasty.  The cucumbers keep coming and they're beauties.  Pickling several jars is on tomorrow's agenda.  The Georgia Flame and Poblano peppers look great and seem to grow at least an inch per day.  The celery, leeks, beets and romaine lettuce are all doing well, too.  Overall, we're pretty pleased with our first official vegetable garden.  A number of tweaks will be made next year but mainly to the soil and incorporating individual raised beds within the garden plot.

Enjoy the latest series of photos.

Butternut squash

We're loving all the dragonflies that visit our yard.

Naked Lady lilies

Poblano peppers

Sunny sunflower with not one, but two bees!

Chewer!

See the little nubs near the stem and on top of each leaf arm?  Those are very wee Brussels Sprouts!

Leeks

Sunflower Row.  It's hard to capture the size of the sunflower that's closest to the fence.  It's at least 10 feet tall!

Hot July

Everything seems to be growing several inches per day this month!  The cucumbers are harvesting like crazy.  What are supposed to be pickling cucumbers have been growing rapidly and being picked and eaten like standard cukes.  The skin is a tad bit tougher than a standard cucumber but that's not a bad thing.  Crunchy and delicious!

Hundreds of tomatoes hang from the limbs of the plants and at any moment we will be knee deep in Ponderosa, Black from Tula and Beam's Yellow pear tomatoes.  Homemade salsa isn't far behind either.

The backyard is blooming everywhere and looking lovely.  The pictures speak for themselves.

Baby ants?

Blowing out a rainbow.

Garden friend

Garlic Harvest!

A 22 bulb harvest.  The garlic now hangs in bunches in our basement to dry for a week or so.  It smells like a godzilla sized bulb of garlic is down there.  Delicious.

Happy Independence Day!

Nearing harvest time for garlic

It may look like your garlic is dying from lack of water or too much water or... something, but it's doing just fine.  If the stalks look solid and healthy and only the fronds are beginning to brown and wither, this is a sure sign that the garlic is nearly ready to harvest!  Fret not.

Flower gardens

The weekend before last a long flower bed was established in the backyard. All of the flower seedlings have been transplanted to this space and have already doubled in size! There is plenty of room to add several more varieties of flowers in this space. In addition to adding more flowers, we will be planting a red raspberry bush as well as a few dozen strawberry plants in this space.

Early this afternoon, as I was standing in the kitchen looking out at the garden, I noticed the appearance of scapes on the garlic! Scapes, if allowed to mature, will flower. But we don't want that; we want all of the plants energy to go toward bulb growth not flower growth. So, armed with scissors I headed out to the garden to snip the scapes from the plant.

The scapes smell heavenly. Even if you munch on a portion of the scape you can taste garlic. Not just a hint of garlic either; the scapes are packed with flavor. I plan to dice them and use them when making pesto.

As I was walking around the garlic bed snipping off the scapes, little did I know that I was making a very handsome toad nervous. On my fourth and final walk around the garlic (I took some pictures before actually cutting the scapes) a short *hop-hop* caught my eye. Let the record show that I adore toads and was naturally thrilled to have one hanging out in the garlic bed. I said to the little guy, "I'm not going to hurt you but I will take pictures of you as long as you let me." He obliged me while I inched the camera close and set it on the ground in front of him. He even sat still while the lens moved closer toward him as I zoomed in. The camera had a hard time focusing on the toad because there were so many things to focus on. The result is that the toad is a little blurry but the photo included here still captures a very cute amphibian.

Look at these thighs and the girth of the belly!

The front yard is looking very pretty. The goldenrod plant has bright yellow blooms all over it, and a couple of our iris' have flowered, too. So far, a yellow iris with orange beards and our "root beer" iris. This iris is brown and has rust colored beards. It's scent actually smells like root beer! This photograph isn't the best but it does give you an idea of the flowers wonderful coloration. A second bloom is on the way so we will aim for a more pleasing composition next time.

We hope that you're enjoying the sun, heat and your gardens, too!

It's a garden!

It's official!  We have a sizeable vegetable bed and herb bed established, complete with transplanted seedlings.  We decided to establish the garden bed in a different location of the yard than where we began tilling.  The ultimate deciding factor was the gardens proximity to the water barrels.  

The garlic is booming and is a little more than a month away from harvest time.  Judging by the size of several of the stalks, we should have many large beautiful bulbs of garlic come July.

 

The rock divider separates the vegetable garden from the herb garden.  Transplanted sage plants look lovely in their new location.  Very tiny leek plants are planted there, too.  Soon basil, thyme, oregano, dill, marjoram, tarragon, rosemary, parsley and mojito mint will fill the remaining space in the herb garden.

More photos coming soon of the existing flower beds in the yard as well as a new bed we're going to establish in the back yard this weekend.  We have one remaining flat of flower seedlings that need a new and permanent home.  Gosh, I enjoy this time of year! 

Ready to till the soil!

Greetings!

My Pop brought his tiller over today and showed me how to operate the it.  Before we got to grilling burgers for our Mother's Day supper, we made two passes in the area where John and I plan to establish our vegetable garden.  I'll finish the job next weekend and hope to transplant all of the seedlings then, too.  I'm so thrilled about this project!  I've been dreaming about having a large garden for years and years and the time has arrived.  I feel like there should be a ribbon cutting or champagne toast just before the first seedling goes into the soil.

Enjoy the photos.