Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Garden Update

 Ah, my garden. I love my garden. I love growing things and I love harvesting things.

There has been one huge, hot problem lately that has kept me from doing much in the garden. Heat. It is HOT. I can handle high temperatures, but this is high temperatures with humidity. I'm starting to sweat just thinking about going outside.

These pictures were taken at the beginning of the heat wave when my precious garden was somewhat weeded and under control. All of my bean plants in these pictures had not been eaten by Japanese Beetles. My tomato plants were still in their cages and the weeds were not taller than the kale. Sigh.

My tomatoes are crazy now. Like five feet tall crazy. I have never grown tomato plans this large. They are loving the heat and I'm going to be loving salsa and homemade sauce soon. We have an insane number of plants this year (around 50) and I am hoping we planted enough to satisfy us until this time next summer.

My squash is happy in this heat too. I have a few tiny butternut squashes and can almost taste the squash soup I will be making in a few months. The pumpkin vines are doing well and I'm ready to roast the seeds and puree the pumpkins.

The rest of the garden is not worth mentioning at this point. Except I'm going to mention it anyway. I planted a drying kind of black bean this year and they are producing. I might have enough to make a pot of soup. Maybe. I doubt I will grow them again unless they are so incredibly delicious that I crave them in my dreams.

My green beans are ruined. I went out there today to pick some beans, but the plants aren't producing much anymore probably largely due to the fact that all of the leaves have been eaten by bugs. If I was still motivated, I would pull the beans and plant more peas and carrots. My onion and carrot patch looks terrible and my kale and swiss chard patch is full of tall weeds. I can't even see where I planted six pepper plants.

I'm not complaining too much though because a lot of the garden has been very successful.



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