Sunday, July 8, 2012

More On My Plate #37

Lance with new crop of radishes
I'm so excited about the garden today. We're seeing even more vegetables make it to our table and promises of more to come. The size of the radishes are phenomenal with our second growth that we were able to keep relatively bug free. You wouldn't think bugs eating the green part above the ground would have that much impact on the root below ground. But wow did it.

Blackberries before ripe
We lost hundreds of blackberries to the frost, but a few bowls of late bloomers made it only to be eaten daily by the birds before they ripen. We can't afford the netting that keeps birds out and lets the bees in this year. We at first wrote this off as a no-blackberry-year, but Lance had the idea to cover and save what we can. Today we're going to cover the bushes with row cloth. They're done blooming so the bees don't really need in. Maybe we can salvage a bowl or two for us humans!

Purple basil
July 1st, we harvested our first peas. Since then we've had a few more - enough to add to our salad. I've found I like peas better this way than shelled and cooked. Oh, and a really good new taste treat - a bite of grilled meat and a bite of basil. So good!

Some of our crops, like endive and salad lettuce, have gone crazy multiplying.

Here are a few pictures of what beauty I find among the rows. Makes me feel rich even though we aren't.




Endive gone wild
Salad lettuce gone more wild











Our first sunflower
Dill now going to seed













Beautiful red chard
Pepper!!

8 comments:

  1. I'm so envious. We have a townie garden and space it at a premium so I squeeze tomato plants, herbs and peppers inbetween the flowers.

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    1. That sounds great, Maddy. Those are the best 3 things to have!

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  2. Our garden is pretty sad this year, between moving and illnesses, etc. A couple hours a go Hubby brought in a couple handfuls of green beans (the cute bunnies next door have had quite a feast, I guess) and a jalapeno pepper. I need to ask him if we'll have any tomatoes.

    Love your sunflower!

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    1. Gardens are so at the mercy of animals, weather and we humans. We've lost quite a few things. We're just now getting tomatoes because of and early frost and had to replant. At least your bunnies are eating well!

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  3. Your prolific garden makes me a bit ashamed. I've a large garden and used to have a massive veg/fruit area which I stopped using when I worked full time. I sort of said to myself I'd get back and grow more this year, BUT I didn't. Your radishes are enormous and a great challenge for me to do something next year. (though in Scotland we'd never get them so big!) Well done for all the hard effort involved, Brenda-they definitely didn't grow themselves.

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    1. Thank you, Nancy. Most of the credit goes to my son. The garden is his full time thing. I am now limiting myself to a couple of hours a day so that my next book gets written. If I had an outside job too, I'd never get in the garden. But you are very right about the effort it takes.

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  4. Everyone's hard work is paying off and looking delicious! Congratulations! For a learning year, Lance has proven himself and next year has great promise for large quantities.

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