The Big Harvest Begins

Well, Mike is sure starting to see the fruits of his labor. Here are some pictures of what he's pulling form the garden lately. And since he loves to try all these strange different heirloom tomatoes, I thought I'd give you a view inside our kitchen to see him talk about all his exciting different varieties himself!

Thus far we don't really have enough of a surplus crop to start hiding unwanted zucchinis in friends' unlocked cars, but we'll see. One of these seasons, we most definitely will!

the tomatoes


Chinese red noodle beans
like green beans but purple and longer

Clockwise from top: Chinese red noodle beans,
yellow cucumber, yellow tomato, another tomato, beet

As above with a long sweet pepper added in

carrots and tomatoes

Other exciting goings-on in our garden and kitchen: basil drying in the food dehydrator, garlic drying on the shelf, fava beans (still on the bush, of course) drying on the kitchen table. The potted basil is wilting because we don't water it (I think we're due for a storm soon), the chocolate mint came back after becoming all crispy during a mini-drought on the deck. A zucchini has grown across the garden gate, preventing our entrance from one side, and the strawberries are still trying to give us a berry or two. All in all, I'd say it's turning out to be a successful gardening season!

H O T --- H O T --- H O T

What a hot day! You know it's bad when the heat advisory goes until 11 pm... HOT! The best part is that the air conditioning is back! The capacitor needed replaced, a simple little 10 minute fix after a couple days of 90+ degree heat in the house! SO THANKFUL for a/c!

The plants are also struggling a bit in the heat, especially since we are NOT daily waterers. I think I take the survival of the fittest mentality to gardening-- if you have to be watered every day, you don't belong!

Here's what's been happening:

EARLY JULY

blooming leek
saving for seeds

traveler tomato!
so weird- you can pick off chunks to eat as you walk around

tiny tim tomato


the veg garden

our friends' garden
Mike helped them build this, and they let him plant stuff
that we didn't have room for, since the community
gardens sold out for the year!

fennel

delphinium

daisies

blueberries
birds got them all again this year! oh well.

heirloom lettuce and pansies

Gerbera daisy


garlic, now hanging to dry


MID JULY

the first of the ripe tomatoes from the garden
otherwise only had a few from pots so far
a shady veg garden is just not as productive, especially early on!


strawberries!
haven't had fruit since early summer,
but are starting to go into production again


banana peppers
just had these in dinner!


chervena chushka peppers
can't wait!
these are my favorite


pot of calendula and banana peppers


the front yard garden
just don't have the time to work on it
to keep it always blooming!


Love these persian carpet zinnias
perfect with a little fun-colored coleus

one of my containers
the third coleus died :(


zucchini!!
I love zucchini
this is an heirloom round variety I haven't had before.
Last year they got about this big,
then the squash vine borer got 'em.
HOPING for a small harvest
before they all die again this year!


Garage side garden


coneflowers
so pretty

my beautiful container gardens

I'm amazed at how long these big, plastic containers
can go without being watered
but now the plants are starting to show the effects of being dry-
better work on that daily watering habit!


RECIPE FROM THE GARDEN

Cooking from the garden is a blast, but I don't have a lot of time and energy to make fancy thingsfrom scratch. To make a delicious garden pasta salad, pick herbs, peppers, tomatoes, or whatever you have from your garden:



Cook up a boxed cold pasta salad mix:



And add vegetables:



I love this stuff! Really good way to enjoy your produce, even if you only have a small handful of a harvest from your pots on the patio, like I do!


SEED SOURCES

In case you were wondering where else we got seeds from this year:

Amishland Seeds
(most of our tomato seeds came from here)

Botanical Interests
(got our zucchini, lettuce, beets, carrots, fava beans here)

Seed Savers
(beans, peppers, flowers, lettuce, kale, etc came from here)

Dear Summer, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways....

I am totally in love with summer right now. Smell of fresh hay mown fields, grilling meat and campfires, basil on your fingertips after brushing the herb garden, sun so hot and bright you can't wait to find a pool, fresh lemonade and homegrown salads, and the absolute best: perfect nights of 72 degrees with dancing lightning bugs. It doesn't get any better than this!

Mike and I took a trip to St. Louis for a friend's wedding last weekend. In addition to getting to see bunch of old friends from college and attend our friend's beautiful wedding, as well as a surprise visit with Mike's family, we were able to see both the St. Louis Zoo and the Missouri Botanical Garden. Both were awesome! The days were soooo hot, we actually sought out the penguin house at the zoo while waiting for the wedding reception to keep from sweating to death (good idea, Elisa!). Unfortunately, we forgot the camera! But here are the highlights from the giant botanical center grounds:

-- Daylily garden. Seriously. I don't even like daylilies that much, but there were thousands of varieties, some which were really cool looking, each one different!

-- Rose garden: actually not that picturesque in the middle of a sweltering day- there's not shade and it's just a bunch of similar looking plants that don't look very showy in bright light, but it smelled wonderful. I'm interested to see how other rose gardens are done. I think they should be landscaped more, maybe with some filler plants.

-- The Climatron tropical garden dome: it's just cool to wind around inside and look at exotic plants, orchids growing in natural conditions, etc. And yes, it was cooler inside the tropical garden dome than outside!

-- Waterlilies! Have you seen these things before? They're no ordinary pond lilies. They're like 6 feet tall, and so beautiful! How did I not even know these things existed?

-- A jasmine plant, that smells exactly like jasmine tea!

-- Patchouli plant in the herb garden. Smells exactly like patchouli. Sometimes it's interesting to see how the products we're familiar with are pulled directly from nature!

And tons more. I'm looking forward to going back, and finding time to visit other botanical gardens!