Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Garden Update… First Fruits!

Well, first veggies, actually. 

When we came back from our trip, our garden was HUGE.  That’s what 11 days of heat, and rain will do, says the plant biologist. 

Garden - July 15, 2011Green Onions

Our cucumbers and zucchini really took over the place and I can’t wait for their harvest. The beans and peas look really good too, and the peppers and tomato plants are growing.  Our slow-starters this year (basil, green onion and eggplant) are plugging right along as well. 

Beans and Peas Sugar Snap Peas

Have I mentioned this is our first time gardening?  Well, it is.  And, although I mentioned to Frog Prince that we should have put up a small trellis for the beans and peas to climb up, we didn’t do that.  Instead, our plants are quite healthy – and are climbing over one another.  Fun for the picking. 

Zucchini  Beans

We have a few baby zucchini starting to grow.  I can’t wait to taste the first one!!  We did, however, taste our green beans last night!  After taking a quick peek mid-day yesterday, I knew we’d need to pick those beans.  Beans don’t care if it feels like 117 degrees outside, that the humidity is 82 degrees and the actual temperature way over 90, they still need picking.  Frog Prince and I sweated it out and speed picked these beans.  We were still roasted and drenched in 10 minutes.  Never before has my neighbor’s sparkling blue pool looked so tempting….

Green Beans and PeasGreen Beans

The beans were quite awesome, if I do say so myself. 

We’ve also had some garden visitors. We heard that deer don’t like marigolds, so we planted some around our peppers {last year the deer lawn-mowed our peppers}, and that in combination with liquid fence {man… that stuff reeks} seems to have kept the little guys out of our garden.  We don’t have rabbit issues because we have nice patches of clover in our yard that keep our one lone bunny at bay.  Why no more rodents?  You can thank our resident sharp-shinned hawk and owl for that one! 

Unfortunately, the curious little fawn here somehow got herself trapped in our neighbors fence.  I have absolutely no idea how she got into the fence – her front two lens and most of her body was through the fence, only her two legs stuck on the other side.  Our neighbors carefully rescued her and she was just fine, but, we haven’t seen her or her family since.      

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How is your garden doing?  Any first fruits or veggies? 

Linked to: Frugal Gardening 101

10 comments:

  1. My garden is doing great too! I'm so excited. I haven't had a garden in years. We made a trellis for my cucumbers...they are monstrous now! I had to add more (off to the side) to the trellis last night! They're going to make a LOT of pickles!!!

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  2. Oh that poor deer, I'm glad she is okay!

    I'd love it if you linked this up on Garden Tuesday!

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  3. What a lovely garden you have! Looking forward to seeing your great recipes with your harvest!

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  4. Your garden is looking great! Mine is still pretty small, but I got a late start and my altitude makes growing difficult anyway. The squashes are getting bigger, peas & beans starting to climb, so I'm guessing we're about 2 weeks away from our first harvest. Can't wait!! Your beans look great. isn't harvesting in the heat a drag????

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  5. My poor neglected garden isn't doing well. Washington has had far too much rain and too little sunshine for its liking. Our peas have done amazing and we have one tomato growing. lol

    A good tip instead of building a trellis in the horrid head just buy the round metal tomato stabilizers (like $2) and put those around your peas, cucumbers, and beans. 1 per 2 plants works

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  6. I don't have a garden per se but am growing two tomato plants in a bucket. Despite the heat, they are flourishing with daily watering. The cherry tomatoes are the size of small plums and the yellow grape tomatoes are the size of, well, grapes!!!! Delicious too!
    Leslie

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  7. That looks great! My tomatoes are doing incredibly well and so are my peppers. Everything else is only so-so.

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  8. Your garden is looking great! This year I planted my regular garden and added leeks (OMG! Fresh ones are amazing!!!), fava beans and kale. The kale has already been featured as a chip, a pasta sauce and ravioli filling. I can't wait till the eggplant and tomatoes are ready.

    We despise the deer! They don't bother my little garden since they have our WHOLE FARM to mow down. Lol.

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  9. Oh no! Glad the fawn was able to get out. It's our first year with a garden too. The learning curve has been pretty big, but we still got tons of cucumbers, yellow bell tomatoes and eggplant (earlier season in AZ). My herbs are also going out of control! We're already talking about what we want to change up next year :)

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  10. We are having so much fun with our garden this year, too! We've definitely learned a lot for next year, too.

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Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear from you; especially how you're finding JOY in your kitchen.

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