Eat Your Veggies!

The moment I've been waiting for since I started those first seeds on March 1st. Pretty much everything in the garden is ready for eats.

Have to pick pole beans every couple days. These are my garden favorite.

My Big Beef tomato plant is bursting with fruit.  Finally, the tomatoes are starting to turn, and this year, my Big Beef are living up to their name.  Nice slicing sized.  Happy plants.

The cucumbers continue to creep.  This year, they are producing in batches.  I get 10 cukes all at once then nothing, then 10 more then nothing.  I hear this is normal, but in the past, I've had them producing less more regularly.  Go figure.

Loads and loads of peppers.  This year, I may have enough to leave on the plants and turn red.  In the past, I've picked them green because the plants didn't produce as much as I wanted to eat.  This year is a different story. I've got peppers coming out of my ears.  That means I get to eat some green ones while the rest stay on the plants and turn sweet sweet red.

And it's official.  Four zucchini plants is too many.  I'm picking 2-4 zucchini a day.  Giving lots of it away.  Note to self:  Never plant more than 3, and even that's too much.

And (not pictured) I've pulled in my carrots and am trying a succession planting of carrots in the same spot.  Normally, it would be too hot for them right now, but the zucchini plants are big enough to keep them mostly in the shade.  I started them a couple weekends ago, and am just now starting to see the seedling sprout.  Cross my fingers.  Another batch of carrots would be great!

It's Officially Summer (Almost)

I love to use the summer solstice as an excuse to mark progress in the garden. This is a good garden year as the weather warmed up much earlier than normal. My bell peppers are extremely happy. In this mix are Ace and Lipstick, seeds left over from last year that still germinated just fine.

Looks like I'll be eating cucumbers in the next couple weeks.  I believe this variety is called Corinto.  Again, seeds from last year.  Gotta love the quality of  Johnny's Seeds!

The green beans are flowering.  These are Fortex, my favorite variety of pole bean.

The monstrosity of the garden, zucchini. 

I love the flowers they produce, such a beautiful yellow against those big green leaves.

Carrots are ready to start coming out, I just need to plan the right dinner for them.  I believe this variety is Nelson.  I grow both Nelson and Napoli and forget which ones I planted, but they are similar.  Both medium sized varieties so much more delicious than the carrots in the store!

Tomatoes are producing, but they're all still green.  I'm guessing I'm still probably a month out before I see any red ones.  This year, I'm growing Brandywine, Big Beef and Cherokee Purple from leftover seeds of past years.  New to the garden this year are Early Girl and Martha Washington.  Looking forward to those!

On the west end of the garden, my tomatoes are 3/4 of the way to the top of the trellis.  Here I've got the Big Beef and Brandywine.  The little one to the left is my Cherokee Purple, which is not happy this year.  It's got leaf curl and the blossoms are dropping.  Not knowing what the problem is, I've cut it back, only keeping a couple stalks that have tomatoes on them.  I'll monitor a bit but will most likely pull the plant if it doesn't improve at all.  My fear is it could have something that spreads to the other tomatoes, so it's not worth keeping.

Thus is the situation I have every year with tomatoes.  I always seem to lose one or two to something.  I never know which one or why.  I've grown Cherokee Purple two years before this and it's been one of my best producing varieties.  This year, it's tanked.  So who knows?

On the east end, I'm growing the New Girl and Martha Washington.  These aren't quite as tall as the ones on the west side, and I've been pruning them more so they aren't as full.  But both have tomatoes, so we'll see what we get.  They are my two new varieties this year, so that's something to look forward to!

And the nasturtiums are making their way onto the path.  They're the only flowers I grew this year among the vegetables.  Often I do marigolds, but they would have required more water, and with the drought, I decided I could do without.

June Garden Update In Video!

Memorial Day Weekend Garden Check-In

Yes, this blog is still alive! And Memorial Day Weekend is a good time for a check in to see what's cooking. Here in California, the word of the season is "drought". Thus, I've cut way back on how much I'm planting this summer. I've also mulched heavily to hold in water as much as possible. I've left one bed vacant, same with the wine barrels and a few other areas where I normally try to tuck in extras. I'm also enjoying a reduced amount of work, planting less. In that effort, I opted out of planting any salad or cherry tomatoes this year. Though I like them, they take too much time to pick!

In this bed I've got pole beans, carrots and zucchini.  As usual, I planted way more zucchini than I need.  Some things never change!

A peck of peppers, sharing a bed with tomatoes (not shown).

More tomatoes, cucumbers, and nasturtiums that I suspect are going to take over all the pathways like a 50's monster movie.

No veggies along the fence this year, but it's not without flora.  Clematis, climbing hydrangea, passion flower and potato vine are providing a gorgeous summer screen from my neighbor's yard.  Below them are the remnants of my bearded irises that have just finished blooming.

A Cedar Waxwing

I looked out my kitchen window this morning to find a whole flock of these birds in the bird garden.  I managed to snap this shot before they all flew away.  The bird wasn't listed in my bird guide, but I was able to find it pretty quickly.  A Cedar Waxwing.  Absolutely beautiful!