End of July 2013

Sunny day - finally!

South garden

Beurre de Rocquencourt yellow wax beans are starting to grow and ripen.  Ate my first one today.  Yummy!  Also a red cabbage and a few underdeveloped cucumber plants in this picture...

Kohlrabi

Several lavatera (rose mallow) flowers have opened.  :)

Flower bed

Chocolate mint with some rainbow Swiss Chard in the back.

Bed of determinate tomatoes, which take up much more room than I had expected.  Also in there, but not very visible, are Genovese basil, Opal basil, marigolds, and nasturtiums.

Another packed bed.  A melon plant on the left (swamped by nasturiums), summer savory, two eggplants, and two peppers.

Carrots, leeks (hidden, at this point), nasturtiums, and squash - either Buttercup or Butternut, I can't remember!

Tene's beans draping over the side of the container, beets, and parsnips in the back (not visible).

Raised bed of greens.  They had a slow start but are thriving now.

I don't think I have posted pictures of this bed yet this summer.  I think of it as the "miscellaneous bed".   Marigolds, an eggplant, two or three peppers, a sunflower, two dahlias, and some pac choi that was ravaged by hungry insects.

The strawberry patch, with two big nasturtiums.

Indeterminate tomatoes at the side of the house, along with a few peppers, Morning Glories, marigolds, and an eggplant.

Continuing along the side of the house, more indeterminate tomatoes and an eggplant.

Black Krim tomatoes.  I can't wait for these to ripen!

Opalka paste tomatoes.  I think of these as "Gnome Tomatoes".  They're very pointy.

Corn, melons in the black container, and the apple tree.

Pumpkins

More pumpkins

Vittoria eggplant (a hybrid)

Ping Tung eggplant (heirloom)

We Need Some Sun

It has been another rainy week.  The rain barrels are full.  The potato patch is completely saturated and we're on the verge of losing our third potato plant.  We dug up the potatoes from the first two that died and managed to get 5 or 6 potatoes.  A few had to be composted because they were rotting.  Usually by late July, we are well into drought conditions and water usage restrictions have been imposed on the town.  What a wet summer.  I can't remember the last time we had a solid week of sunshine.

Two of the dahlias have finally bloomed.  I love the orange one! 

The purple dahlia is allllmost open.

A few pink lavatera (rose mallow) buds have formed.  Notice the cabbage moth hanging out on a leaf in the first picture!

Rogue potatoes growing out the side of our compost bins. Butter emerged from nowhere to supervise.

The first sunflower (rogue, in the potato patch) is starting to open. 

Butters snacking on some grass beside the cabbages.  (Summer savoury is growing in the little plastic container beside the cabbage.  It is one of the herbs that is supposed to deter cabbage moths).

Morning Glory

The first Morning Glory of the summer appeared this morning.

More Scarlet Flax in the flower bed. 

Baby Carrots

R. thinned the carrots today.

The dahlias look like they will open soon.  :)

On The Hunt

While out and about this morning, I discovered that the cucumbers have several flowers on them.  I am surprised, as the plants are still so small.  It's a good sign, though!  I also put in a few bamboo stakes at the end of the rows of Anasazi beans. The runners are stretching up and over, threatening to use the adjacent rows of wax beans for support.  Hopefully, they will wrap around the bamboo instead.

I'm knocking wood as I write this, but despite it having been a REALLY rainy summer, it hasn't done much to damage/slow down the garden (except for the peppers).  The only thing that ended up being decimated by bugs was the pac choi.   It is ruined for eating, but will make great compost.

The BLEEEEEEPing cabbage moths have recently emerged from whatever corner of hell they usually call home and can be seen fluttering around the cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and kohlrabi.  They look so pretty, but the worms that result from the eggs they lay are disgusting.  *shudder*  I can be seen dashing through the yard - sometimes in a nightshirt and no bra, a sight to behold, I assure you - wildly waving my butterfly net around trying to catch the moths so I can squish them.  I don't want to use pesticides, if I can help it.  I hope the neighbours understand my efforts to be pesticide-free.  And if they don't, too bad.  The sight of me on a moth rampage with my cellulite showing and the girls untethered is a fair trade-off, considering the amount of pot smoke and swearing I have to put up with during the summer months!

  

Melon Flowers and Purple Alien Vegetables

One of the melon plants has started putting out flowers...

...and even a mini melon!

This is my first year growing kohlrabi.  I received some seeds from a friend who knows I enjoy gardening and who raves about how delicious kohlrabi is.  I'm looking forward to trying it.  It certainly is an odd looking vegetable.  I expected it to grow like a beet or a turnip, with the bulb portion growing in the soil.  Apparently, it grows above the soil, between the main leaf stems.  Neat!  These are going to look like UFOs.

 

Though this poor tomato plant looks a little feeble, it is producing fruit.

The first tomato to turn red - a Black Krim.

Strawberries

Dry bean pods (Tene's Beans) are starting to form.  :)

 

It's hard to see in this picture, but the Anasazi beans have started to put out runners like crazy.  Hopefully, they will use each other for support and won't sprawl all over the other vegetables in the garden.

Unsupervised Wanderings

No furry assistants joined me outside this afternoon while I perused the garden.  They must be snoozing somewhere in the shade.


Some beet greens I picked and steamed this morning.

Some broccoli picked this morning, to be steamed for supper tonight, and cauliflower we picked and blanched yesterday.

More Swiss Giant pansies (and my snazzy new garden clogs, as well).  The large pansies are pretty, but I think my favourites are still the small purple, yellow, and white ones that grow in bunches.

Summer Savory

Current bush

Lacinato ("dinosaur") kale, with collards behind it and Red Russian kale to the right. 

   


Opalka paste tomato.  Neat shape!

Marigolds

Calendula

Lilliput Zinnias

Nasturtiums in the strawberry bed.

Three of the green cabbages have looked sickly...

...thankfully, others are more robust!

Red cabbage

Anasazi beans (no flowers on them, yet).