Spring is near

The first day of spring is one month away!  Surely helebores and crocus are beginning to awake in their earthen bed and will possibly be blooming by this time next month.  John and I are especially excited about the arrival of spring since we planted one hundred or so various flower bulbs and tubers in the fall.  The bulbs were added to existing flower beds as well as a newly established flower bed on the north side of our front porch.  The new flower bed wraps around to the front of the porch and connects to another flower bed there.  The bed in front of the porch doubled in size and is filled with all sorts of bulbs and tubers.  If the squirrels don't disrupt the bulbs while digging to bury their own treasures, the three flower beds that flank the front porch will be ever-blooming spring through fall.  We're so excited to see the display!

It is nearly time to begin planting seeds in flats for all of the vegetables that will be transplanted in the garden.  John and I have big plans for the backyard and hope to establish several new flowerbeds back there this year.    Until we have photos to share with you of this year's blooms, keep warm and be safe.

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.