Sunday, June 26, 2011

Lotsa garden pics

Finally, after two weeks of doing nothing in the garden because of rain and mud and more rain and mud, finally I was able to spend a few hours this afternoon mowing and hoeing.  The weeds had gotten to the point where a scythe would have been handy.  There still are quite a few left, but it looks a whole lot better than it did.

So, without further ado, here is what is growing in my garden.


Broccoli, and lots of it!  I probably have about twenty broccoli plants.  I'm going to try to freeze quite a bit of it this summer.


A few pumpkins for the boys come Halloween time.


Yellow crookneck, round French, sebring and black beauty summer squash.  Yeah, I know, that's a lot of squash.  The tiny plant in the front is a round French and the ginormous ones behind it are black beauty.  They are obviously much larger than any of the other varieties.  Also, they are the only ones not already affected by some downy mildew.  Next year, I will only plant black beauty.  Probably.


Cucumbers.  Miniature white variety.


Hubby helped me put up a trellis (cattle panels, of course) for the cucumbers.  The sunflowers on the end of the bed get to enjoy the trellis too.


Pole beans in the fore-foreground, basil in the fore-midground, beets in the back-midground, and garlic in the back-background.


The pole beans are Fortrex variety.  They are starting to climb already.  The tallest is about three feet high.  I also have some yellow wax bush beans planted.


Here are scarlet runner beans at the base of my archway.


I planted a 4'x12' bed of Little Marvel shell peas.  The pods on these are just starting to fill out.  My snap peas matured faster than the shell, and we've been harvesting those for a couple of weeks now.


Rainbow Swiss chard.  I have about ten of these plants.


Hale's best cantaloupe.  The boys insisted I grow these again.  I'll try to do a better job of judging ripeness this year, and elevate the fruit off the ground so the bugs don't get them.


Here's a long shot showing a few chard in front, followed by a couple of cabbage, followed by some broccoli, followed by Brussels sprouts, followed by a lot of cabbage.  Pole beans and more broccoli to the right.


The tomatoes are doing well.  No signs of blight so far.  Knock on lots of wood.  I planted San Marzano, mortgage lifter, striped German, celebrity and large red cherry.  Thirty-four plants total.


 Cayenne, California wonder, alma paprika and jalapeno peppers.  Marigolds in front.


My golden raspberries are having to share their space with volunteer dill.  I didn't get around to planting dill this spring, so I'm letting these volunteers grow.


A few Hansel and fairy tale eggplant


Lots of cosmos, some planted but most volunteer.  I know now not to bother starting any seed indoors.  They are serious self-seeders!


For the past few weeks our yard has been FILLED with these blue damselflies.  They are literally everywhere.  I attribute it to the fact that we have lots of tall grass around our yard.  You won't see these beauties on a manicured, sprayed lawn.  Other than being lovely to look at, these guys eat tons of insects including flies, gnats and mosquitoes.  They are magical to watch.


I'm growing two varieties of Brussels sprouts this year, a few red Falstaff I started from seed and some Jade Cross I bought at a nursery.  The red Falstaff stem is on the right.

After a few hours in the garden, Benjimouse came outside to help pull weeds.  He lasted about two minutes.  Mostly he just wanted to play swords with wooden stakes, drink my lemonade and take some pictures.  




I so enjoyed working in the garden today.  Yes, it is still a weedy mess, but thanks to the rain (the neverending rain) everything is lush and green.  Hopefully tomorrow afternoon will be as lovely as this one, and I can continue plugging away at it.


Yeah, I may not be looking the best after four hours in the sun and the dirt, but believe me, I'm feeling pretty darn good.

4 comments:

Mama Pea said...

Gosh, Jo, yours is the most advanced, disease-free garden I've seen in Blogdom yet! Congratulations and thanks for sharing all the gorgeous pictures. You have some very big, healthy plants going there. You must have avoided taking pics of the weedy areas (if you really have any!) because everything is looking FANTASTIC!

In a few more years, those boys of yours will be big enough that you can tether them out in the garden and have lots of enforced child labor help! (Why does it never really work out that way???) ;o}

Mr. H. said...

Loved the garden tour.:)

Erin said...

Jo, everything looks GREAT! I'll be looking to you to see what to do with all my squash, I think I have more than I can handle since I don't normally plant any LOL! We have lots of damselflies and dragonflies this year too, I love them. I've heard enough bloggers sing the praises of Fortex beans that I think I'm going to try them, as much as I hate to admit it, bending over and searching through the bush beans is killing my back this year, so I may say goodbye to my beloved yellow wax beans. Thanks for all the pics of your lovely family, all working hard too, it looks like!

Jo said...

Mama Pea -- Disease free, hah! I've got blight and I just saw my first cabbage worms. Plus the lower leaves of my beans are turning yellow with brown spots. Blight or a fungus??? Who knows at this point. But thanks for the compliment! And yes, I did avoid taking pics of the really weedy areas...

Mr. H -- Thanks! I'm growing sunchokes this year, which were given to me by Frustrated Farmer Rick, who originally got them from you. So I'm proudly growing something from your garden in my garden!! Thank you!

Erin -- Yeah, right now I have about two dozen baby zucchini growing right now. It'll be on the menu for every meal. Zucchini oatmeal, zucchini sandwiches, zucchini soup, zucchini ice cream, zucchini casserole, ...