Weekly Update: June Week 4

Things continue to grow like crazy... We've been short on sunny days which would probably help things out even more... but even so the tomatoes are packed with fruit and the eggplants are loaded with blooms. After a relatively slow start the cucumbers too seem to be rallying... of course they tend to like the wet weather.

I had to spend part of the weekend attempting to tie up some of the tomato plants that have really just gone hog wild. The cherry tomatoes now TOWER over everything else at a good 8' tall if you can believe it! there are a ton of blooms, so we'll have to see how that turns out. (When they said indeterminate they meant it!) I've already got them staked as much as I can, so now its just about trying to keep them from flopping down on top of everything else. CRAZY!

Speaking of crazy... here's a current snapshot of the nasturtiums in all their glory taking over the obelisk in the center of the garden:

The obelisk is 8' tall... (about 7' above the level of the soil in the planter bed.) You can see the nasturtiums are quite happy! I planted a mix of plants, but it looks like all but one of them are the orange blossoms (one is yellow). Either way, they're very pretty, but need trimming EVERY week to keep them from just absolutely turning into a nightmare!

To the left of the nasturtiums you can see the towering tomato plants I mentioned above. Hard to tell from this perspective, but they really are about 8' tall!

Also in the front of the planter box you can just make out the small metal plant markers that I worked on installing in all of the beds and potted plants in the back garden. Nearly 120 in all. Mainly so that Jason can figure out what everything is :-)

The other new additions were out front. I replaced one burning bush that fell victim to an unfortunate weedwacking accident, and replaced the dying potted pines with some caladiums which will bring a bit of color to the area and also hopefully do better in the shade.

The former pines were re-potted and taken out back in hopes of rehabbing them before winter... We'll see!

Read More

New This Week: June Week 4

It's all about the beans! This week marked the first harvest of beans from the garden. Altogether I managed to harvest just over a pound of beans from the bush beans. This was just from the first planting which was about 5 square feet of beans. As you can see from the photo, a pound of beans is actually quite a few! We took a few over to Jo last night. We ate some of them fresh from the garden and I put the rest of them in with some summer squash tonight to make pasta primavera. Yum! It looks like this crop will still have about three more harvests left. The bush beans in the other bed are just now beginning to set beans, so they should be ready in another week or too. I've also spotted a few baby beans on the purple pole beans. Can't wait to try those!

Read More

Weekly Update: June Week 3

Now for an official week 3 update. Much has gone on this past week despite the crazy rain! I'm just going to post a few notes and snapshots to summarize the high points. We're two weeks out from the Fourth of July and it looks like a real possibility we'll have actual home-grown tomatoes for the 4th! Let's just hope for at least a couple days of sunshine to ripen them up!

And in no particular order:

File under AMAZING and bizarre... This week amid all of the other beautiful bolero pansies I had a completely BLACK pansy bloom! I've never ever seen an all black pansy in my life... the other buds on the same plant are just about to open and they look like they'll be all black too... so it seems like its not just a fluke! I'm going to try and see if I can save the seeds from this one for sure!

The hydrangea continues full speed ahead and has now gone completely pink, a VERY bright pink! Seems to be very happy!

After a relatively slow start the coleus are also up and growing and starting to look a bit more robust... filling in the planter a bit more now which is nice!

On the vegetable front the peas continue to get taller and taller every day. They're officially about 7 feet tall now. I had to add two 8 ft poles for the one pair after they proved too much for the original bamboo stakes that I had added to the tops of the tee-pees. Any higher and ladders will be necessary to reach the top!

Hard to see, but the photo on the left are the two groups with the new 8' poles. The photo on the right is the other set of peas but they've been left to their own devices since it's really one BIG giant mass of peas and cherry tomatoes. After my earlier post saying how fast the peas were racing ahead of the tomatoes, the tomatoes have come back with a vengeance.... They are actually now taller than the peas believe it or not... its one massive HEDGE of peas and tomato!

Lastly a few more flower shots... the orange one is from the nasturtiums growing on the obelisk in the center of the garden and the purple flowers are my heliotropes... now blooming beautifully. Nothing like the smell of heliotropes on a summer evening!

Read More

Weekly Update

I'm not sure this counts as an official update... but I did want to post a few snaps of the not-as-edible sights around the garden as well lest you think there's nothing but wall-to-wall veggies around here these days!



(Left to right)

• My beautiful pink hydrangea... I've been trying to grow one for 3 years and have never been able to get one to bloom. This is a new plant this year and it seems to be quite happy!
• Really neat white and purple lilly.
• A mystery plant from Lowes... I believe its some sort of Dahlia.
• The salvia and pinks (and Grant) before they got flattened by the rain.

(Left to right)

• Amazing Bolero Pansies I started from seed. They are so beautiful on the deck.
• The reincarnated scotch broom in bloom. I replaced the pinkish one that was here with this lovely orange one after an unfortunate pruning incident left the old one too top heavy.
• Another mystery plant from Lowes... I believe its some sort of Dahlia as well... this one takes full sun like a champ...

(Left to right)

• The coreopsis' blooming in the pots along the road. I started these guys from seed and they're just blooming like crazy! There is also some purple fountain grass in there, but its all it can do to keep up with the coreopsis!
• The hostas... not blooming yet.... but thinking about it!
• The redesigned front bed. Two sky pencils and easy touch holly in the back and three roses in the front... The far corner is all that was left of the ground cover after I ripped out the three OVERGROWN arborvitae that were such an eyesore. I'm planning to let it fill back in across the front as a border.

Read More

New This Week: June Week 2

So the post are a bit out of order... but I couldn't miss this! The peas continue to grow like um... peas. They're absolutley rediculously tall... and thanks to the relatively mild weather they're still blooming like crazy. I wanted to get up a few snapshots of our first two big harvests. We probably could have saved up and had a couple of more large batches already, but somehow the fact that we have to walk right past them every time we go in or out means that a BUNCH of them have fallen prey to snacking and never made it into the house. They are SO good just fresh right off the vines!

I'm hoping they'll keep bearing for at least a little while longer!

The first batch!

Batch #2

Not bad for just 4 square feet of peas!

Read More

New This Week: June Week 3

I've been traveling again, so running a bit behind!This past weekend was the final leaf lettuce harvest and the harvest of the most delicious turnips ever. A few highlights:

The largest of the bunch, just bigger than a baseball.

The entire batch after the tops were trimmed. Pretty impressive considering we had 18 pretty good sized turnips from just 2 square feet!

A HUGE bowl of turnip greens just waiting to be cooked up!

We cooked a big batch up on Saturday night. The turnips were sliced into rounds (like scallop potatoes) and placed in a foil packet with some butter, and fresh rosemary, thyme, and dill (from the garden of course!). Then I tossed the packet on the grill and grilled them for about 10 minutes. The ones on the bottom of the packet caramelized beautifully and together they came out just absolutely delicious!

The greens were just wilted down in a big stock pot. Just rinsed them really good and threw them in. No extra water or anything at all. As they wilted down I used the kitchen shears to chop them down into more manageable bite sized pieces since I put them in there stems and all. As they came to the end of the cooking process I stirred in some shredded Parmesan cheese and fresh ground pepper. DELICIOUS and easy!

Read More

New This Week: June Week 1

So running a BIT late with the weekly update.... but decided I'd go ahead and post an update. Each week I'm planning to do just a short post about what's new from the previous week. This week... the new arrival is PEAS!!! Yum...

There have been blooms for a week or so and last week the first of this summer's sugar snap peas appeared!

They seem to be pretty happy!

They've outgrown their original supports which were about 5 feet tall. I've added another 5 ft bamboo stake to each of the supports, and as you can see the group on the right is already almost half way up that pole as well...

If you look closely you can ALMOST make out the cherry tomato vines growing up between the two pea towers. It's been quite a race to see which would win the race to the tops. The tomatoes took an early lead, but in the last two weeks the peas have really passed them up.

I've been traveling all week, but Jason reports that the peas that he's picked are delicious! Can't wait to try them when I get back! Turnips should be coming out this weekend as well! YUM!

Last week I planted another 4 tomato plants and 6 pepper plants to fill in spots vacated by the cool weather crops. A few more spaces are going to be vacated this weekend, so I'll have to come up with something else!

I've been using my compost from last year as I do the replanting. The stuff looks great, nice and rich! So far the new plants seem to love it!

Read More

Weekly Update: June Week 1 - Back In Action!

So my best intentions of providing week by week updates on the garden progress have OBVIOUSLY been derailed by 12 weeks of intensive traveling for work, finishing my MBA, and doing a freelance costume design... I know... excuses, excuses!

I am actually going to try and get back into the swing of things and dedicate Monday nights (nothing on TV) to updating the blog... 

So for now... I'll just post a quick update and a bunch of photos to catch you up to speed....

Since last check in:

• The four raised beds were completed (and filled with a custom soil mixture.... a process that took MUCH longer than I anticipated or ever dreamed!

BEFORE: (Last Summer)
AFTER: (Earlier this spring)

• Everything survived the jumpstart in the basement and one very late frost scare and is now up and running...
• Some mysterious force killed the rabbit that was threatening the success of my early starts... (all I know is I went out one morning and it was dead...)
• The first harvest has come in... some radishes and lettuce...

• The peas have outgrown the Pea-Tees (well tee-pees... but I thought I'd be cleaver...)
• I'm now trying to figure out what I'm planting AFTER the first harvest... Somehow I missed that part of the planning process!

That's it in a nut-shell... more to come! Some photos on the way!

Read More