Our zucchini plants have finally started to produce, but so far, only female flowers and no male flowers to pollinate them! This is completely backwards. Usually, there are loads of male flowers and we have to keep an eye out for the female ones. I have no idea why this is happening. As far as I know, last year's zucchini, which I saved seed from, was an heirloom variety. Then again, I got the original seed in a trade, and you never really know what you are getting in a trade. We decided to try pollinating them using male flowers from the North Georgia Candy Roaster, a winter squash. The little I have read on the subject tells me this isn't supposed to work, but the zucchini is growing anyway. Maybe I have a hybrid?
Speckled Roman tomatoes
The cabbage seems to be coming along well. I have three or four varieties of green cabbage - some started from seed, some bought as transplants from the greenhouse. I have generally lost track of which is which, though the cone-shaped cabbage (Jersey Wakefield - the first picture below) is a variety I grew from seed.
Shasta daisies and Scarlet Flax
My poor little eggplants. Look how small they are!
Our one cucumber. Hopefully, there will be more to come!
Red zebra tomatoes
Our apple tree is loaded this year. I gather we are among the lucky ones, as many people's apple and crabapple trees were zapped by the snow in May and lost all their blossoms.
Lots of crabapples, too, and they're starting to ripen...
The first poppy
The broad beans (Windsor Broad) are LARGE.
The pea patch is a bit of a rat's nest, with several of the rows having grown together. It will be tricky to harvest the first batch, but well worth it.
The shallots are a lot larger than I expected them to be.
Bee and Grasshopper Are Friends.
Looks like we'll have lots of peas this year! *fingers crossed*
Dahlietta
Swiss Chard going to seed.
A recent gardening assistant. We don't know his name, but he is very affectionate and drops by often. Likes to sleep in the pea patch. We called him, "Floofy".
The Painted Pony beans are starting to produce flowers.
Butters, our neighbour's cat and occasional garden assistant at our place.
Feverfew
Parsley
Parsley and sage (at the top) in the herb dryer.
The flowers on one of the ball dahlia plants have begun to open. All my dahlias so far are white!
Lacinato kale (with some limp looking onions along the front of the bed).
Lettuce
R.'s potato experiment seems to be going well...
Finally, a squash-to-be (North Georgia Candy Roaster) and some tendrils/curlicues.
Some red lettuce, carrots, and marigolds beneath one of the tomato plants.
Windsor Broad Beans
The crab apple tree is loaded with fruit this year.
Lettuce and carrots
Summer savoury
Harris Model parsnips
Two zucchini plants, some nasturtiums, and a few sunflowers. Our summer squash (zucchini, Gelber Englisher Custard, Scallop) are all behind. This time last year, we had several large squash, ready to pick.
Rainbow chard in the middle, wooley thyme in the foreground, creeping thyme to the left, silver mound at the back.
Epazote (herb) - a little yellow from all the rain we've been getting.
Mazarini tomato - this is big! I hope I end up with a whole bunch this size...
...but for now, the rest are about the size of grapes.
Lou, stretching it out on the apple tree trunk.
The apple tree is also loaded this year. Last year, there were 13 apples on the entire tree. There are three times that many now.
The south garden (peas, Windsor Broad beans, Pomo Roma and Early Annie tomatoes, dahlias, and a Gelber Englischer Custard squash)
The broad beans are about 4 feet tall and are starting to flower.
Second dahlia of the season. :)
South side of the house - shallots, assorted garlic, white onions, dahlias, cucumbers, tomatoes (Red Zebra, Bonny Best, Deep Space Black Paste, Early Annie), Whirligig zinnia, apple mint, feverfew, parsley.
Rainbow chard, parsley, orange mint, begonia
Two Early Annie tomatoes in containers. They are doing well and they remain compact. If the tomatoes are nice, I will definitely grow these again next summer.
One of Bea's favourite places to snooze - in the shade on the storage bench, behind the pansies!
North garden - cauliflower, red and green cabbage, broccoli, Flagg pole beans, garlic, Calima and Derby bush snap beans, Ireland Creek Annie and Butterscotch dry bush beans, Ping Tung eggplants, Amana Orange tomato, Early Annie tomato (I think - forgot to label!), marigolds, Cupcake zinnias, Mexican Torch sunflowers, Russian Giant sunflowers, assorted lettuce.
Canadian Wild Goose beans (dry/bush)
Cabbage bed and Painted Pony beans (dry/bush)
Sage, parsley, Painted Mountain corn, and Giant Musselburgh leeks.
Kanawake Mohawk beans (dry/pole), Mary Ison's Little Brown Bunch beans (dry/bush with runners), and Harris Model parsnips.
Detroit Red beets, assorted lettuce (heirloom), assorted carrots (heirloom), Speckled Roman tomato, sweet peppers
This bed looks pretty bare at the moment, as only a few of the Buerre de Rocquencourt snap beans (in the middle) germinated and the zucchini plants are still small. Also in this bed are Sunspot sunflowers, nasturtiums, and cattle beans (dry/bush).
Part of the potato patch
The ever-expanding currant bush!
The newest furry garden assistant; a mellow, affectionate, long-haired fixed male who pops by for pettings and the occasional treat. We call him Floofy. Has a tattoo in his ear and smells of fabric softener or scented laundry beads when he has been home between visits. He is a lover, not a fighter. Unfortunately, most of the other cats in the area don't appreciate - and barely tolerate - his company.
More garlic forming curly scapes.
Long-time garden assistant, our neighbour's cat, Butters. She wants to come in the house. Not a good idea. So she is curled up in our planter of pansies, right outside the living room window at the front of the house...
