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.

They are starting to change color!

Looking east.

Can you see Catty? She is underneath the arch on the left side.

In this pic - peas, onions, strawberries, kale, eggplant, broccoli, tomatoes, summer squash, sunflowers, green beans and radishes gone to seed.

That's all folks!

I hope you enjoyed the update.

If you have an update on your garden, please leave a link in the comment section, so I can check it out. :)

Garlic Harvest 2010

Here are some pictures of the garlic I harvested last week.

These are from the USDA test cloves that I was sent.

I cut the tops off and they are drying in front of a fan. Last year I made the mistake of leaving the tops on so I could 'braid' the garlic.

Garlic lasts for longer if it doesn't have the tops still attached.

These pics do not include the garlic I grew from cloves that I saved from previous harvests or the elephant garlic.
I have a lot of garlic!
This year I promised to plant less garlic, but it didn't work out that way!

Friday's Harvest & De Nile

More Veggies!

I'm loving this endless summer.

The temp. is 80-85F during the day

and 50F at night.

It's better weather than we had in the actual summer.

I know it will all have to end some time soon, but

until then I can live in denial.

For example:

On Tuesday I thought,

"It's so weird - the trees are all losing their leaves.

What's up with that?"

Oh, duh!

It's called Fall.

NO! NO!

Summer will last FOREVER!

*sigh*

I like De Nile.

Cucumbers.

I gave these to my mom.

She's making Virgina Chunks, a sweet pickle.

They're Ok, but I'll more of a dill person.

More tomatoes.

I'm running out of space and recipes.

Nice problem to have.

Peppers.

Finally.

The little one on the left is the

best pepper I have ever eaten.
They are called Zavory or Yummy,

but I can't remember which is which.

The little pepper has a hot bite to it

and then it is tropical sweet with

overtones of mango and pineapple.

So good!

Onions and carrots.

I need to plant more onions next year.

These are Copra onions.

I grew them last year and

they are a looooooong keeping onion.

I gave some to my parents and my mom used up the

last one in July.

It was as fresh as when I pulled them last fall.

Tomatoes again.

That biggie in the left corner is a

Striped German.

It weighs 2 1/2 lbs!

Tuesday's Harvest

A few pictures of Tuesday's harvest.

The tomatoes were canned into 2 kinds of soup.

The red /pink tomatoes were cooked down

and then I made Vegetable soup.

The white/yellow tomatoes were cooked down

and then I made Curried Potato soup.

All of the broccoli was added to the curried potato soup.

And I didn't find a single caterpillar in the broccoli.

The summer squash was shredded and turned into yummy patties.

The 4 giant squash went to my girls.
Thank goodness for chickens!

The small cucumbers were eaten

and the too big ones went to my girls and Carol's chickens.

Her chickens can eat a cucumber in seconds flat!

The eggplants were roasted and

frozen.

Some of the chiles were used in

the curried potato soup.

And most of the beans were too

tough to eat.

I should have picked them sooner.

So, I sifted through them and

picked out the tender ones to give to Carol

in exchange for some eggs she gave me on Monday.

A good trade back!

I gave her a little bit of everything peppers,

beans, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, ect.

Cheddar Chiles

Check out my harvest!

All of the vegetables pictured have been processed and stored.

I used the chiles to make cheddar chiles.

Wash chiles.

Slice in half and remove seeds.

Place center up on a cookie sheet.

Fill center with shredded cheese.

Bake at 450 until cheese is bubbly.

Eat warm.

Also, freezes very well.

Harvest Time...sorta

A pictorial tour of the week's harvest.

Onions

Tomatoes!

I have an outdoor sink - that I got for free!

It really comes in handy for washing up the harvest.

Potatoes

Yum.

The purple ones are so sweet, yet still potatoey.

They were still green, so I just took 2 tiny ones from the top.