Hi Mom, It's Me: update

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Garden That Was - Summer's End 2010

Above is a pic of a salad I made using Zavory peppers from my garden. They are my favorite pepper. They have the flavor of a habenero, without the heat. They are yummy! Usually they don't make it into the house before I eat them.

The following pics were taken Sept. 7th 2010.
The garden doesn't look anything like this right now.
First of all, the flower beds are gone and in their place I have a huge swath of black mud.
Yay for rain, not.
Second of all, most of the garden was hit with frost a couple days ago, so everything is wilted over and dead.

2010's tomato walls were bigger than ever.
However, next year I will plant fewer plants.
I promise.

Flower beds and Catty and Tibby.

More of the garden.

Next year, I will be taking out the bed with the blue chicken in it.

I think I might move the arch.

Once the morning glory started to grow on it, I couldn't see my pond from the house.

Flower beds. All gone. Goodbye flower beds.

Closer view of the tomato walls.

Back view of the tomato walls.

Middle of the garden. Tomato walls.

It's a jungle!

Side view.

Tibby in the jungle.

Chinese 5 color pepper.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Garden Update: July 2010

At this time of year, there are so many things ready in the garden at the same time.

The peas are almost done. I will pick the final harvest today and pull out the vines.

The onions are almost ready to be pulled and cured for winter storage.

The cucumbers and tomatoes are literally hanging on the vines.

I pick a big bowlful every other day.

The peppers are just starting to ripen and turn colors - red, purple, orange and yellow.

The summer squash is also producing a bunch of nice fat squashes every day.

I didn't take a pic of them, but the eggplant is really, really producing well this year.

Yum! Lots of eggplant = lots of tasty winter meals with roasted eggplant.

The carrots, kale, lettuce and broccoli are also producing huge daily handfuls.

Kiwi and Tansy are happy about lots of fresh bunny munchies!

They are especially loving the big bunches of fresh basil I pick for them every morning.

They also like to eat flowers: pansy, rose petals, phlox and hollyhocks leaves (I like the flowers too much to share with them!).

Looking at the garden from my deck, facing south-east.

Looking at the garden, facing south-west.

In the foreground of this picture, you can see my attempt at a second crop of peas.

They produced about 1/2 a cup, but only grew 1 foot high.

The spring planting grew 3 1/2 feet high and produced about 6 cups.

6 cups is not enough peas! I always want more peas!

Unfortunately, they take up vertical space in the garden and I have trouble finding more room for them to grow where they won't be shaded by other vertical growers.

Facing west.

I let some volunteer radishes grow and go to seed in the path.

They are supposed to keep squash vine borers and other pests away.

It worked last year, but it does make the path very messy looking.

Tomatoes on the left and green beans on the right.

Everyone else seems to be picking their green beans, but mine are not ready yet.

Boo! I love green beans!

Tomatoes.

There was a wilt of some kind that attacked my tomatoes, but I sprayed them and mulched them with grass clippings and they seem to be doing better.

Cucumbers on the trellis.

I love picking a cucumber hanging eight feet up in the air.

So funny!

In this pic we have from left to right - tomatillo, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, painted lady beans, green beans, basil and more tomatoes. There is also some kale, but you can't see it from this angle.

Can I just say I'm glad that I made all my paths 3 feet wide?

All that fussy work this Spring, setting out the beds, was worth it.

Chinese 5 color peppers.