Summertime and the Living is Beany

The squash and zucchini may be rotting due to all the rain we've had, but the beans have exploded. I picked a few pounds of green beans and Dragon Tongue beans this afternoon.

We are waiting for the tomatoes and Nardello peppers to start turning red. The edamame pods are looking nice and fuzzy and might be ready in a week or less. Can't wait!

Fail Blog

One of the reasons we started this blog is to document some of the recurring problems we've had in the past. A particular problem is an assumed bacterial wilt of some sort that affects our Yellow Pear tomatoes. Apparently the bacteria can stay in the soil for years, which is probably why I've had this problem for years. This year it was particularly bad (sad), and I've had to rip up the plant before we even got any fruit:

The Amish Paste tomato is also questionable, but not suffering as badly as the Yellow Pear (they are on opposite ends of the tomato side of the garden). It's wilted-looking but still green and growing, if slowly.

The other three tomatoes (Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, and Pink) are looking beautiful along with the carrots we planted in between!

Behind the tomatoes are the Christmas lima beans which are doing their pole thing all across the fence:

On the squash side of the garden, I've picked a handful of green beans and we have some fuzzy little edamame that will soon be ready!

Sometimes I Kill Plants Too

It's tempting when writing this blog to post pictures of everything looking perfect and growing along just fine. Inadvertently I've been leaving out the plants I've killed off already, because that's not nearly as much fun to discuss or photograph! A few things that haven't gone well so far...
-- Chamomile, night-scented stock, marjoram, and parsley seedlings keep dying, despite repeated attempts at starting seeds.
-- Sunflower seeds I saved from last year haven't sprouted.
-- Birds ate half my spinach seeds or transplanted them into other pots.
-- The first Amish Paste tomato that I planted died and had to be replaced.
-- My Amish Paste and Yellow Pear tomatoes are starting to suffer just like they have the previous few years. I suspect some time of viral/fungi disease. It has rained a lot but I don't think that's the only problem.

Amish Paste tomato wilting:

Yellow Pear tomato leaves curling up:

In good news, we have several baby zucchini and squash, Nardello peppers, and lots of bean flowers that will soon be producing delicious food!

The strawberry harvest was also plentiful (now it's over... wahhhh....) and I made several delicious treats supplemented by farmers' market strawberries, including:

Strawberry lemon basil sorbet

Strawberry buttermilk pancakes

Strawberry ice cream (with strawberry sauce and chocolate cherry biscotti)

Updates from Kevin

Kevin sent me some beautiful pictures of our garden while I was teaching today!

Dragon and green beans, peppers, squash, and zucchini:

Tomatoes:

Squash and zucchini:

Lavender:

Beans and peppers, cucumber along the fence:

Lavender with edamame:

Bean flowers:

Pink tomato:

Ronde de Nice zucchini: