Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Garden Update

I realized I haven't given a garden update in awhile.

I had a volunteer in my tomato garden this year. I could tell it was some kind of squash or pumpkin. Now I can see it is a pumpkin.





The other day I went out to pull it out so the tomatoes would have more room. I thought it would be an easy task. Just snip each vine and carefully pull it out. Hmmmm. That wasn't how it worked out. As you can see, it is still thriving amongst my tomatoes.

When I went out and started the removal process, I realized it was completely entwined around everything and removing it would damage my tomatoes greatly. I also found that it was doing an awesome job of holding the tomatoes upright. I found a new type of tomato "cage".




This morning I went out to add some pulverized egg shells to each plant, a trick I learned from Granny, to help with blossom end rot. I almost had to crawl on my belly to see where each plant went into the ground! And I had a pretty good idea where to look for each one to begin with. What a jungle. However, my "Oxheart" heirlooms are doing fantastic again. I'm so glad last year wasn't a fluke!




The "Sweet 100s" cherry tomatoes are getting huge. This variety is so sweet.


I've never grown celery before, so I had no idea what I was doing. Obviously. I'm guessing it should have been harvested earlier? It's pretty anyway. So is the rest of this garden. It's mainly peppers and herbs. I love the colors and textures here.




The cucumbers are flowering really well and I look forward to eating them.



Last night we picked our first bush beans. And a single, sad-looking green pepper.



We also picked our first red potatoes. I've never grown potatoes before. This is only a quarter of the ones planted, but the first to be ready.



We also picked sugar snap peas. This is what was left after the kids shoveled them into their mouths as fast as they could while "harvesting" them.



My gardens have been a bit neglected this year due to some "issues in life", but they aren't doing too badly considering they were planted  late and the plants were left to overrun each other.

4 comments:

  1. Everything looks great! Sometimes I think the semi-neglected garden is happier than the overly-tended garden. I try to keep mine weeded, but otherwise let everything just "do its thing"! Do keep those potatoes out of the sun, though :-D

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    1. Mr Farmer said I needed to leave them in the sun to toughen the skin a bit for storing. You could barely touch them without the skin sliding off. It was just a couple of hours and they feel much better now.

      Weeding? What's that? Just kidding. The kids and I get out there and try to keep up with it. The raised beds make it easier than the flower beds which are so dry and solid right now that you can't pull and weed if you try.

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  2. Your garden looks so green and pretty, and those little potatoes are making my mouth water. I know they are going to taste so good. I have been having a difficult time finding good-tasting potatoes in the store lately. I don't blame the kids for snacking down your sugar snap peas, they look delicious!

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    1. Some of those potatoes were pretty big. I was surprised. And so sweet and "clean" tasting.I can't explain the clean taste, only to say it tastes clean.The store-bought ones have a gritty, dirty taste to them, I think. I don't buy red ones so I was surprised when I saw they were almost $8 for 10 pounds. We dug between 10 and 15 pounds!

      The peas are just about done now. They will be missed.

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