Vegetable Garden Glory Days

 August is high time for the vegetable garden.

Everything is green and lush and billowing.

Also, the gardener is still watering and even weeding, on occasion.

 

Overview

 

This view out my kitchen window every day made me so satisfied.

That's a lot of goodness going on out there.

 

Starting from the top left: 

Basil has gone to seed without me drying any.

However, I was able to freeze some.

Tomatoes producing enough for fresh eating.

 

So many marigolds!

They became a Wall of Cheerfulness that just keeps going and going.

I love it!

 

Not pictured: my pole beans, which did not climb the poles as they were supposed to (even with help from me!)

 

Middle terrace:

 

We've got a few a pumpkins hiding under there: some minis and some just small.

 



 

The cosmo jungle.

You are looking at the reason for such small pumpkins, right here.

I love it so much, I decided to keep it.

There also a few zinnias in there on the left.

Also, there are onions hiding amongst the jungle foliage.

 

Cucumbers still going, but production slowing down.

Zucchini also slowing but going.

 

 Bottom Terrace (minus the kids' gardens):

 

oregano and zinnias

One of these days I'll get a photo that truly represents how many bees are on the oregano when it flowers. Many, many bees. Also, wasps, including these very scary-looking 2-inch long all black ones.

Bean patch.

This is a mixture of purple, yellow wax, and regular green beans.

Good for daily snacking.

 

Yay beans!

Carrots bushing out and looking good.

Sweet potato actually flowering!

It's pretty, and it's huge and bushy.

The rest of the potatoes are about done, but I'm going to wait to harvest them for awhile longer.

We should have at least another month before frost hits.

Late July Vegetable Garden

Everything is filling in and getting bushy.

We're harvesting beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

...And the occasional beets, carrots, and onions.

Love it!

 

Bottom terrace:

(kids' gardens will be in a separate post)

 

Oregano, beans, beets, carrots, potatoes

 

Middle Terrace:

 

cucumbers & zucchini

 

cosmo jungle

You can just barely see the big, fat onions peeking out in front there.

They don't seem to mind the takeover.

 

Pumpkin flowering amidst the jungle.

 

Mini pumpkins and beans

The peas were still limping along, but I pulled them out.

The pumpkins needed some space to run into that wasn't covered up with cosmos, anyway.

 

 

 Beans in front, new beans coming up on the left, pumpkin vines behind.

And of course, those glorious marigolds up top.

They are so bright and cheerful!

 

Top Terrace:

Basil is going to seed, with marigolds right in front looking amazing.

The tomatoes aren't very tall, but are producing several small fruits consistently.

Another view of marigolds and basil.

The cosmo jungle, from the top.

So beautiful!

Mid-June Vegetable Garden

It's already heating up and the warm-weather crops are starting to come on!

Spring veggies are struggling.

 

Overview.

My daughter's garden.

Oldest son's garden.

We've been harvesting beets, spinach, and swiss chard from the kids' plots.

This oregano has since been chopped back, and the stems/leaves dehydrated.

1 1/2 quarts this time.

spinach, carrots, beets

Our unseasonably hot June has meant that these are struggling.

I did finally put down compost between the rows, which has helped some with water retention in the heat.

Potatoes looking great and starting to flower.

 

Middle Terrace:

These pole peas are also struggling.

My mini pumpkins coming up.

 

Regular pumpkins starting to get some growth, as well.

The feathery plant in the background is a self-seeded cosmo.

 

Onions, more volunteer cosmos, plus a few zinnias just starting to poke through.

 

My youngest son's garden patch:

beets, carrots, and peas, looking bushy and healthy

 

I think the cucumbers are going to love this hot weather!

They're starting to climb the trellis.

 

After getting some new seed from a friend, I finally have a few zucchini growing.

 

 

Top Terrace:

Tomatoes, basil, thyme, and marigolds.

Starting to fill out a little.

 

This is strawberry season, but I have not gotten any pictures of it.

We have not had as good a harvest as last year, but have had some.

Vegetable Garden Update

 

Finished planting vegetables yesterday.

It's about a week ahead of when I usually do it, but we've had such a warm spring, I think it'll be fine.

I've got some new things I'm trying this year, and plenty of old favorites.

 

Overview

The right-side of the bottom terrace are my 2 oldest kids' garden.

They deserve a separate post, which is coming soon!

 

spring veggies (& oregano!)

So you can see my spring stuff is up but most of it is still very very small, with the exception of the potatoes.

 

 

Here are my 'Green Arrow' peas.

They must have gotten washed under the oregano a bit; I know I didn't plant them that close!

 

I didn't take a picture of the middle stuff--the swiss chard, carrots, beets, and spinach.

They're still so small I don't think they would show up very well on camera yet.

 



potato patch

 

These lovely beauties are doing grand.

They doubled in size with the rain yesterday.

 

This just came up within the last few days.

Can you guess what it is?

I had forgotten I had planted it.

I stared at it for at least 5 minutes trying to figure out what it could be.

The leaves are so different, but I know it's not a weed....

It's a sweet potato!

There was one from the grocery store that was practically growing leaves in the potato bin in the kitchen, so I plopped into the ground on a whim.

Here she comes!

I'm super excited about it, actually.

 

Middle terrace

 

sugar snap pole peas + pea sticks!

These are doing the best out of all the spring stuff so far!

Look at them go!

 

I just planted some bush beans along in front of them.

Next down on this terrace (not pictured because it's still just dirt right now), I put in 9 mini pumpkins around the legs of a tomato cage, "pumpkin on a stick," and one hill of jack-o-lantern pumpkins with plenty of space on either side to ramble.

I'll let you know how the tomato cage trellising works out.

Then come the onions, also not pictured, and I planted 'Cut and Come Again' zinnias between the onions and the little walkway.

Ok, here what's next:

 

Adam's garden in front, plus burpless cucumbers along the trellis, and one mound for zucchini in the back to finish off the terrace.

 Top Terrace

 

The berries will get their own update, so here's what we planted over the last couple of days:

 

View towards the neighbor's

 

pole beans 'Kentucky Wonder'

common thyme: Thymus vulgaris

Italian basil

marigolds

5 Cougar Red tomatoes

2 Sun Sugar tomatoes (both looking very sad and droopy at the moment) 

 

view towards the strawberries

 

I think I've got more types of staking and trellising this year than I've ever had!

The pole beans are a new one to try. I grew them once in Missouri, but haven't ever done them here.

The bamboo poles were 8 feet long, so probably about 7' now that that they're in the ground. I hope that's tall enough!

 

My plan for the herbs is to dry them and perhaps make our own Italian seasoning at the end of the summer. Our oregano is so prolific, we need to do something with it!

 



Garden Evaluation: Herbs & Vegetables

Overall, I was late getting just about everything in this year.

Spring veggies didn't go in until May 1, and with the garden expansion still going on, the summer veggies didn't get in the ground until the end of June.

Even so, we had some success.

Let's talk about it.

 

Oregano: Even with having divided this last fall, we still harvested quite a bit. I cut them back in June again, then we dried them. This time we dried the whole stems in the dehydrator, then stripped and crumbled the leaves afterword. It was much faster that way! We ended up with a pint, which I gave to a friend, since we still have a lot from 2 years ago.

 

 

Other herbs: I planted some basil and pineapple sage in a pot. They started out strong, but were done about mid summer. Surprisingly, I couldn't find any rosemary starts to buy this year. So we were a bit sparse on herbs.

 

Peas: I did 2 packets, one each of 'Little Marvel' and 'Oregon Sugar Pod II'.
We really enjoyed these this year. The kids got many big handfuls to snack on. Every year I think--we need more peas! I wasn't super thrilled with my trellising. I need to figure out a better way to do that this year. The peas had just about pulled it down by mid-season.

Potatoes: 5 hills 'Yukon Gold', 4 hills 'Viking.' Smaller harvest than anticipated this year. Once again we had some hills that just rotted without growing at all. However, I'm going to try Monty's (yes, first name basis with my friend Monty from Gardener's World,)  potato planting method next spring and see if it makes a difference. Namely, chit the potatoes first, plant the whole potato, and space them a little further apart.

 

Spinach: 2 varieties: 'Tyee' and 'Olympia Hybrid.' We were loving the spinach this year! I need to plant it further apart so we don't have to thin as much. Or start it from seed earlier in February and plant out when it's a little bigger.  

 

Beets: 2 varieties: 'Chioggia' (red/white striped) and 'Cylindra.' We got some this year! None were very big, and I'm not sure if we just picked them too early or what. We like the Cylindra best. Chioggia looked better raw, but by the time you cooked them, it was just kind of a dirty white color. I learned how to roast them and that was my favorite way to eat them. I want to try them again next spring.

 

Carrots: Our carrots struggled! First we did a Rainbow Mix and Scarlet Nantes, which I just scattered, but hardly any germinated. So next I did a couple furrows of Danvers Half Longs. We got some here and there, but didn't ever harvest enough at one time to process or freeze.
The multi-colored ones were very sweet and good-tasting. I want to try those again. 
Next spring I'm going to do rows. I just haven't decided if they're going to be all along the front, or several short ones going front to back in one section.

 Beans: I found a tri-color bean mix, with purple, green, and yellow beans. I had two separate bean patches going, which both produced a steady yield. Enough for snacking.

 

Tomatoes: Mostly 'Oregon Spring' with some 'New Girl,' and 2 'Sungold'. We had good yields this year. I made some salsa to can, and I also had enough to do several batches of homemade tomato sauce, roasting them in the oven with onions and garlic.
Marked difference from last year--I'm crediting the compost and manure we added before planting.

Peppers: We harvested several small ones, all green. Once again I am underwhelmed by the peppers here. I didn't do any kind of plastic cover on the ground, though.

Zucchini: Our one plant up top produced for us this year. It was nice! We had enough to make some zucchini bread and some to eat, too.

 

 

Pumpkins: The kids especially enjoyed these this year. We had enough for each one to carve one for Halloween. We harvested probably 8 or 9 minis, which were brought in as decorations. Eventually, we ate the minis.  There was one variety that was particularly yummy and one that was really stringy and not very good. I don't remember which was which. Darn!  The perils of waiting to evaluate things. I think next year I will plan a meal to eat the minis soon after Halloween.

Squash: We harvested 2 butternut squash. One we just ate a few weeks ago and it was quite tasty. The other got rotten in storage before we got to it.

Cucumbers: These were a no-show this year. Died right off within a couple weeks of planting.

Watermelon: We actually harvested a few baseball size watermelons this year! They were good, but I think next year if we do melons I want to try cantaloupes instead.



Veggies & Berries Update

Bottom terrace:

 

spinach & beets

As mentioned in the previous post, we have already been harvesting spinach.

I thinned the beets once; I may need to do it again.

 

Potatoes growing full and bushy.

I love growing potatoes.

I guess its my latent Idahoan genes coming out.

(We didn't move up north until I was 8.)

They are certainly big and impressive for this early in the gardening season; it's very satisfying. Plus, with this rain we've had today, they must have grown another 4 or 5 inches.

 

tomatoes & peppers

Haven't seen much change since I planted them.

 

Cucumbers

 

Middle Terrace:

carrots

So, all my carrot seeds must have washed over into this corner the first time around.

I replanted a bunch (in furrows this time) of Danvers Half-Longs.

I may end up with more carrots than I know what to do with.

 

 The peas are gaining height; no flowers yet.

 

Oh, several of my squash and pumpkin seeds are up as well.

No pictures of those.

 

  

Berries

 

Our raspberry patch is still going strong!

The berries have started forming.

Maybe 2-3 more weeks?

strawberry patch

 

These plants are just loaded with berries, as well.

Nearly all green, and mostly smaller. 

My daughter picked this ripe one and we all shared it.

It was divine.

Long view of the patch.

Bring on the berries!

That's what I say.