Because of our warm spring, we planted two to three weeks earlier than normal, and so things are really moving for our veggies. Here are some photos.
This herb barrel has rosemary, two varieties of thyme, Greek oregano, and two bolting and flowering cilantro plants. Both of the thyme plants and the rosemary have been recently harvested, so they're sporting a "shaved" look. The cilantro, because of our ridiculously hot weather, has bolted and I let it flower so that I can let it dry and then harvest the seeds as coriander.
This barrel has a Sweet 100 cheery tomato plant in the middle and which is then surrounded by three Genovese basil plants and three more chive plants. It's interesting, because the basil in this barrel never does as well as the basil in the garden. It's good, but the leaves are smaller and tougher, and have less flavor. I know the all-day exposure to sun may have something to do with this, but the only other thing I can think of is that the soil in the barrel may need a little amending. Thoughts?
This is one of three basil plants planted between four tomato plants in the garden. It's about 14 inches tall and at least a foot wide. The other two are just like it, and maybe even larger. Beautiful!!!
On the right side is a pink banana squash (squash pie, here we come!), under that are two wonderful sage plants, and then to the left are Early Wonder beets. Mmm!
On the right are more Early Wonder beets, just beyond that are Scarlet Nantes carrots, and the teepee has the best beans in the world - Kentucky Wonder - growing rapidly and happily. To the left of that is the world's five hugest parsley plants fronted by yet more beets.
I've harvested some of these beets already, but there are a few that aren't quite ready yet. Behind them is the humonguous parsley row, which is flopping over on three more thyme plants and three more rosemary plants.
Here are a few of the beets that I harvested that day. They range in size from 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches in diameter and are beautiful! Truly, there is little more satisfying than growing your own food. I'm going to be pickling and canning these little babies very soon.
For some reason I didn't get photos of my other four tomatoes. I've got a Cherokee Purple, a Mr. Stripey, a Roma, and an Early Wonder. All have good-sized tomatoes on them and they should be ready to start harvesting in a few more weeks. Yay for home-grown summer tomatoes!
As a plug, I'm reading Joel Salatin's Folks, This Ain't Right currently. He runs Polyface Farm in Virginia, and was featured in the documentary "Food, Inc." I'm really enjoying a lot of his thoughts on child-rearing, families, gardening as a family activity/industry, and commercialized agriculture. If those topics interest you, I'd suggest you try him out.
By the way, there are two more new posts below this one. Read on!
2 comments:
Your garden looks fantastic!!
Jessica, everything looks GREAT! What a beautiful garden. And since I've seen where you live, I love being able to picture where things are!
We tried a new recipe with fresh roasted root veggies, and the beets were everyone's favorite. Just quarter 3 or 4 beets (skins on), cut 2 or 3 sweet potatoes into chunks and mix with chunks of carrots and some rutabaga. Mix with olive oil (2-4 T) and fresh herbs and bake at 400 until tender. Everyone ate until they couldn't eat anymore.
As far as the basil: are you interested in learning how to compost? I've found that when we use our own compost to fertilize, we are never disappointed with the results. If you start now, you can have a great stockpile of it to fertilize this fall and let it sit all winter. By spring you'll have beautiful soil! Ben is the true compost master. I can answer some questions, but he is the master. :)
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