A Garden in August

August brings the best days of the garden- tomato days!  I can't remember exactly when they started getting red, but I'd say it's been almost two weeks since the first lone tomato was ready. The different tomato plants have been ripening at different times/speeds; I don't know if it's due to the different varieties or different placement in boxes.  One box has all small tomatoes and those have been coming fast and furious.  I've already roasted two batches- of course we have a new oven and I burnt the first batch since this oven actually works!  Some of the big varieties are coming now- although considering what I planted they seem way too big.  I generally only plant medium size tomatoes and I have some extra large!  In one box the six tomato plants got so big (even with pinching new growth) that they fell over in their cages after a couple of rainstorms.  It is going to be very hard to pick those!

It's not only tomatoes though.  We have some new wild blackberry bushes in the back and they have been producing like crazy.  The cucumbers are going strong.  Too strong- I ran out of some spices for pickling and got behind on them big time.  Oops.  My tomatillos are losing their husks and turning purple finally.  They look very cool; I can't wait to try them.  Potatoes and sweet potatoes are doing whatever they're doing underground, I guess we'll see in the fall.  Squash and watermelon are going strong, sending out vines everywhere, and the peppers are picking up steam.

A purple husked tomatillo- beautiful

Big tomatoes are turning red

These little Sweet 100's have been coming on strong

A big little watermelon

The tomatoes in the back box have almost entirely engulfed the front box

Wild blackberries popped up in the back

Some pepper action

Garden 2014

The garden has been doing very well so far this year.  We added two new boxes and dug a firepit in the middle.  The strawberries have come and just about gone.  It was close to three weeks from beginning to end.  For the middle two weeks, I was picking a minimum of 4 cups a day! I tried a lot of new recipes, almost all of them were winners.

In addition to all the usuals: tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, kale, peppers, peas, beans and herbs, I like to try out a few new varieties in the garden each year.   Last year it was corn and kale.  Kale was a winner, the corn is out.  This year we're trying out purple cauliflower, Adirondack Blue potatoes, purple-husked tomatillos and sweet potatoes.  The first three are doing awesome; the sweet potatoes just started to do something, and only some of them.  Next year I'm definitely doing more potatoes, they are so easy. The tomatillos have flowers everywhere, so we'll have to see how they taste.

Two of our three varieties of kale

The potato mound just started to flower

For the first time, my cilantro actually looks good

Lettuce followed by green beans and purple beans

The Juliet tomatoes have set fruit

So has the pepperoncini

There is one small cucumber, but dozens of flowers

Tomatillo with lots of flowers

The third kind of kale and basil

 One of the tomato boxes in front of last year's compost pile; in that dirt are more and bigger tomato plants than those that I started in March!  We are going to be swimming in tomatoes!

Red raspberries have just started as the strawberries are winding down

We also have tons of wild black raspberries

Our firepit is right in the middle of the garden boxes

The Garden is Going

In spite of my lack of constant care, the garden is still going strong.  The string beans have produced like crazy, we have a great crop of kale and corn and the tomatoes have taken over, completely covering the carrots and beets!  I'm moderately happy with the amount of basil we have, but once again, the cilantro is disappointing.  Maybe I"m doing something wrong?  My cucumbers are weird this year, the three plants I grew from seed are producing slightly white cukes and the one I bought from the garden center is producing yellow ones!  Not so good.

The sprawl

Mr. Stripey

A baby cucumber

Lots of kale

A good days' harvest

I'm already planning for next year though, since I can do that while inside holding a baby!

Today in the Garden

Red raspberries and shelling peas!

I ate one yesterday and today there were a bunch, and lots more to come.

I've had a couple of pods already, but they are coming in quickly now.

Against All Odds

Against all odds my fruit and vegetable gardens are doing pretty well this year.  In terms of reaching my goal of buying very little produce from the grocery store year round, the gardens are not doing well.  But in the context of "I had a baby during the planting season," they are doing great.  I had to give in and buy most of my tropicals from the local garden center, but for the most part, I'm happy.  I don't have nearly enough of anything for my goal, but I will have a little bit of everything (except zucchini- oops!)  Considering that caring for my gardens and preparing the harvest takes an average of an hour a day, this is the best I can do this year!

The raspberries are starting to turn red! 

The green bean plants are flowering

1 tiny tomato so far

The vegetable boxes are filling out

The flowers in the strawberry patch are blooming

 Poppies and bachelor buttons are my favorite combination

The strawberry plants are still producing well.  I've been getting a bowlful every other day for the past couple of weeks.  Some are snacks, some are breakfast and some are dessert!  I'll be sad the day I pick the last one.  At least the raspberries will be ripening up then.

I bought Special K just to have something to put the strawberries on

A strawberry-rhubarb coffee cake- delicious!

Today is the Best Day of the Year

The first strawberries are ripe!  Although, there was one ripe yesterday, but no photographic evidence because I ate it in the garden.  These ones I shared.

Here are a few cute pictures from last week.

Just finished a bath.

Smiling!

What an outfit!

Ryder and I all dressed up at my cousin's wedding shower.

Emma sitting with her cousin and the bride-to-be at the shower.

Our Little Plot of Land

Despite some delays to the garden and yard work this year (ahem...Ryder!), we are getting things on track.  I may have to buy a few vegetables this year, but I got most everything in the ground or in the pot.  We have been cleaning up the yard like mad the past month- it's great to have 1/3 of an acre but the weeding is never ending!

Outside in the garden boxes I planted snow peas, shelling peas, 2 varieties of kale, 2 varieties of carrots, spinach, beets, 3 varieties of beans, corn and lettuce.  Inside in the window we have 6 varieties of tomato (which sadly may have been planted too late to make in into the garden this year), bell peppers, Jalapeno peppers, butternut squash, watermelon, pumpkin, zucchini, 2 varieties of cucumbers and brussell sprouts.  All in all, I'm pleased with how everything except the tomatoes are going, considering that everything was a month late (ahem...Ryder!).

The tropicals are inside- the squash type plants are doing great on the end, tomatoes not so much :(

The boxes look barren, but really all the veggies have just sprouted.

The strawberries I planted last year have spread and are doing awesome- 2 weeks til the first strawberry of the year?

The front and back yards are looking very tidy and our side lot is really coming along.  A lot of grass is growing and we have some bulbs and other flowers coming up.

A lovely orange-pink tulip in the front garden

Johnny-jump-ups are my favorite-this one is inconveniently located in the tomato box

 The alliums are just blooming

The bulbs come up in the strawberry patch that is our front garden

The strawberry patch goes the length of our yard

 The back of the house- we used gravel around the foundation

The side lot is tamed and turning very grassy