Garden Update...The Veggies

Hello All-
As promised, here are some photos of my veggie/herb garden, as well as my cherry tree.  So far everything is doing quite well, with a few surprises. 

Earlier this summer, the tomato plants I purchased looked awful.  The flowers they had got black and fell off.  Then all of a sudden, we noticed that they were blooming again and this week I noticed we had tomatoes growing!!!  What a wonderful surprise!!!  Hubby reminded me that they always perk up in July, but I wasn't too optimistic...little did I know!!  We'll see if they grow into anything worth eating...if not, the composter will have a good feast!

A while back I had bought a "cheater" cucumber plant at Lowes.  We must have gotten 10 or so good sized cucumbers from it, but it is now looking pretty bad.  It still has a few flowers on it, so I haven't given up hope, but I'm not holding my breath for any more.  I do have photos of the cucumbers we got, but they are on my phone...I'll have to post them another day...

Since I last posted, we have been eating lots of peas!!!  We got a bunch of hail the other day, so the pods were all marked up, but they still tasted great!!  I felt better about their appearance when we went to the Farmer's Market and saw that theirs were marked up too.  Thankfully the new crop we've got growing look awesome and show no signs of hail damage. 

While my Mom was in town, we also picked a few onions for some fresh salsa.  Again, I have a photo of the one we picked, but I'll have to post it another day.  The tops of the onions all got pretty messed up from the hail, but the onions were super tasty!!  I still can't believe how potent fresh from the garden onions are.  They gave quite a bite to the salsa we made!  In this photo you can see some of the onion tops peaking out.  We'll be picking more of these guys this weekend. 

As for everything else, we planted more radishes and they just started sprouting.  My lettuce is forming tight heads, so once we finish up the salad fixings we bought at the store, I'll be picking some fresh stuff.  One of my broccoli plants flowered, so I've cut it back to encourage a second harvest.  My Swiss chard looks great and I can't wait to toss it up with some pasta.  My three different kinds of beans are off to a bit of a slow start, but they seem to grow in spurts. 

Let's see, what else??  Oh, my zucchini and summer squash are doing well.  I have a small summer squash forming and my zucchini is getting ready to flower.  My spinach isn't growing as fast as I'd like, but I think we'll still get a decent harvest from it.

I think that's about it for the veggies.  I did buy a "Salsa Planter" at Home Depot the other day on special.  I missed having peppers in the garden, so the pepper/basil/tomato/cilantro/chive combo plant was just what I needed.  For $10.99, I thought it was a good deal.  It was a bit underwatered when I got it, but I expect that it will perk up soon. 

As for my herbs, they are growing really well.  We used a bunch of them this past week when we roasted a chicken, and hubby used some more when he made an herb paste for a rib roast.  I don't know about you, but I think food tastes so much better when you know the ingredients were grown in your own backyard.

Right now we are keeping an eye on our cherry tree to see how it does.  It is loaded with fruit and they seem to be growing, so fingers crossed that they have a fighting chance against the birds.  I'd love nothing more than to can some of the fruit for us to eat after we move. 

So, for edible "stuff" in the garden, I think that about covers it.  I'll keep you posted on how the tomatoes do in the upcoming weeks.  We are supposed to have a cold snap soon, so hopefully they weather the storm okay.

Happy Gardening!!

Sharon

Garden Update...the Fruits of our Labor

Hello All-
I just wanted to share a few photos of some of our early crops.

Not too shabby, eh??

Next week we should have more strawberries and I'm hoping that the gooseberries start to change color.  They are looking full grown, I'm just anxiously awaiting their beautiful pink color to come out!!

Happy Gardening!

Sharon

Garden Update...Happy Summer!!

Hello All-
So the sun has been out for 2 whole days now!!  I was able to sneak out today and snap a few photos of the back gardens.  Unfortunately the mosquitoes are so bad that I haven't been able to get out and weed yet, so don't mind any stray pieces of grass in the photos.

First up, I had started some cucumber seeds inside this winter and once I put them outside, they fried in the sun.  So, after searching high and low for a replacement plant, I found a beautiful one at Lowe's.  For $14.98 I was able to get a 16" pot that was caged and full of cucumbers!!  Here are two of the ones we plan on eating next week.

Next, in my side flower garden I have a few edible items.  Last year I planted a gooseberry bush, and it has taken off this year!!  Growing up, my Memere and Pepere had a beautiful gooseberry bush, and during games of hide-and-seek, I could always be found snacking away.  Pepere swears that gooseberries grow better next to currants, so once we move to Edmonton, I think I'll be getting one of each.

My strawberries and chives are doing great too!!!  The strawberries are just now starting to turn red...I can taste them already!!  We have been eating lots of chives, and we even sampled the flowers.  Just a warning...chive flowers, though delicious, are really potent!!  Use sparingly!!

My veggie garden has been doing really well, despite all of the rain.  I was worried about my beans, as they weren't sprouting, but apparently they like wet soil since they took off once the rain came.  The two back boxes in the photo below have wax beans and green beans.  The box between the onions is full of purple beans.  Hannah can't wait to try those!!

Our peas are getting big and we're anxiously awaiting flowers and pods.  Hannah is a big fan of eating peas off the vine, so we're hoping for a crop before we move.

In the rest of the veggie garden I have 2 types of tomatoes growing, onions, Swiss chard, lettuce, radishes, summer squash, basil, spinach, zucchini, and broccoli.  I also have some asparagus that I think needs 1 more year before we will get a crop. 

Our lilacs are just starting to open, and we can smell them inside.  Our cherry tree has already flowered, and I'm hoping that the fact that the rain knocked a bunch of the flowers off, that we don't have a lousy crop of cherries again this year.  Thankfully I saw a glimmer of hope with a few cherries starting to grow.

So there you have it...despite the fact that we're preparing to move 3 hours north, my garden hasn't suffered too bad.  Fingers crossed that the house sells quickly, but that we can also get a taste of our hard work before we are officially gone.

Cheers and Happy Summer!

Sharon