Beach Time

Kevin and I are heading to the Outer Banks with my family for a much-needed, relaxing vacation. We cleaned up the garden before we left, and hopefully everything will be alive when we return! The oppressive heat has been tough this summer. The large tomatoes have been taking so much longer than I remember. Perhaps we'll get some ripe ones when we return. In the meantime, we've got a nice handful of cherry tomatoes, our first Nardello peppers, and of course squash and beans.

Stuffed Zucchini and Squash

We've been doing a lot of garden work on weekends in between music camps and gigs. Here's the successful, colorful harvest from yesterday. First successful cucumbers in a while!

Although Kevin does most of our cooking, I especially like to cook when we have fresh produce from our garden. I bought two round squash from the grocery store, then added our homegrown Ronde de Nice (the light green one). I stuffed the squash and baked them in a covered baking dish. Delicious!

Summer Begins

It's officially summertime! Although last week was busy traveling around for Phish tour, I'm very grateful for a few extra days to get some weeding done before the craziness of music camps.

The Cherokee Purple tomatoes are looking gorgeous but still green. I've heard that the intense heat can keep them from ripening, so it may be a while before we see purple/red ones.

Summer savory is doing well -- now to find some good recipes for it! I've heard it's good with beans, and we have a plethora of those so that should be perfect.

 

Eggplant is doing well, but no flowers yet.

Lots of cucumber flowers -- a big improvement from last year. Hopefully we will get some cukes soon!

Red burgundy okra is as big and beautiful as always. We've harvested one or two small okra. More will come later in the month.

The Ronde de Nice zucchini are so cute. Our squash has been struggling with blossom end rot, so I added some more calcium to the soil, but I probably need more. So far this is the only successful zucchini, although we've had more summer squash.

Dragon tongue beans are out in full force.

Countdown to Harvest Time

After some much-needed weeding, the garden is finally back in shape enough to take some photos. Or at least half of it is. I'll weed the other half of the garden next weekend.

First, the potted herbs and plants are doing pretty well. Here's basil and lemon basil:

Beautiful tarragon and behind it some thyme and remaining chives:

And my marjoram actually survived this year! I'm hoping it will make it through the winter like the oregano does.

The squash is starting to take off -- I'm not sure if it's the yellow squash or the Ronde de Nice zucchini, but I guess we'll soon find out.

Here we have three Red Burgundy okra plants, along with some bushy marigolds and some beans in the background.

The Merveille des Quatre Saisons lettuce is still going strong, despite the heat (and the weeds).

Fingerling potatoes experiment is still going. I think the leaves are supposed to die and then we can harvest potatoes!

Here you can see (roughly left to right) Nardello pepper, Dragon carrots, jalapeño pepper, Cherokee purple tomato, cucumber near the fence, and Pingtung Long eggplant.

And from the other side, marigolds, a cherry tomato plant, tiny pepper plant that's not doing much, two edamame plants and a nasturtium, and Cherokee Purple tomato.

Here's a closeup of one of two cucumbers. I'm hoping they survive this year and avoid that rot or disease that killed a lot of squash and all the cucumbers last year.

La salade est merveilleuse

Just a quick update -- the lettuce I tried this year, Merveille des Quatre Saisons, really is a marvel. It has withstood some 90 degree days and hasn't even started to bolt. It's definitely the most successful green we've grown so far. The colors of the leaves range from a lovely burgundy red to light green.

Sadly, the strawberries did not fare as well this year. With all the rain in May (and some pests), we only gathered a few handfuls. The ones that survived were tasty though. Next year I'm going to try putting a ring of eggshells around the strawberries to protect them from slugs.

Drying Out

After about a month straight of rain (not even exaggerating), we are finally seeing some growth from the plants that didn't drown. I'm sure a lot of seeds were washed away or eaten by critters, but we're seeing some of our plants survive and sprout. The strawberries are mostly getting eaten by slugs or bugs, but we've managed to salvage some from the pests once they finally ripened after the rain.

A row of dragon carrots:

Merveille des quatre saisons lettuce:

One small okra starting to grow:

A squash plant:

Starfire Signet marigolds:

And some nasturtium leaves:

Kevin created this fantastic salad today with strawberries, Merveille lettuce, sage and marigold flowers from our garden; fennel, mizuna greens, spring onions, and beets from the farmers market; fresh fava beans from Mom's Organic Market; and a delicious dark cherry balsamic that I got for my birthday.

Springtime is Here

Lots of things growing and it's not even planting time yet! Here's some arugula:

And some thyme that hopped over to a new pot:

And beautiful chive flowers:

Not sure if this is chamomile or a flower/weed...

The radishes have yielded quite a bit in only about a month.

In Like a Lion

We've had a week of beautiful weather followed by cold winter weather. I guess the groundhog was wrong.

Indoor seeds are going strong! Except for the onions I tried to start in flats underneath a plastic cover. That was a complete waste -- I'm not sure what went wrong since nothing even germinated.

Seed Savers Exchange also delivered my seed potatoes!

I have to let them sit in a sunny place for a week or two to sprout, then I cut them into pieces with two eyes (or just use some of them whole since they're fingerlings). Then we are ready for trash can potato experiment!

Seedlings Continued

The seedlings started to sprout consistently! Here are some Cherokee Purples.

The only ones that did not germinate well this year were the eggplants. Only one made it.

I also started some breakfast radishes outside. I've never planted radishes before but I heard you can plant them in Maech when the weather is still cold and they'll be fine. They are starting to sprout!

Our potted chives, thyme, and oregano are coming back strong. The chives look particularly good.

Seed Starting

On a beautiful Sunday last weekend, I sat outside with Kevin and Peach and started some seeds. Herbs go in the egg cartons and peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant go in the yogurt cups. I started parsley, sage, thyme, lemon balm, basil, lemon basil, marjoram, and lovage for herbs. Others I will direct seed when the soil warms up. I also planted Nardello peppers, jalapeños, McMahon's Texas pepper, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and pingtung long eggplant so far.

Peach enjoyed hanging outside and observing the neighborhood.

Yesterday I saw some thyme and basil seedlings coming up!