Gorgeous Greenery…How My Garden Grows…

Fava Bean Blossoms...

Here are the promised photos from my garden, courtesy of one of my resident photographers, Jim.

The fava bean blossoms above are quite unusually-coloured…beans will be light brown when I get them.

Scarlet Runner Bean Blossoms...

These bean plants are supposed to grow 6 – 10 feet high…Dad pounded some poles in for them the other night.

Chinese Cabbage...

 My Chinese cabbage is doing well…regular green cabbage looks good too!

Mennonite Purple Stripe Runner Beans...

 We’re going to have a freezerful of pretty beans this summer!

Pea Blossoms...

My peas are thriving…already a couple of feet high and clinging to the strings Dad installed for them.

Yin-Yang Bean Blossoms...

 Strange…the black and white beans have plain white blossoms…

Blue Jay Bean Blossoms...

 More colourful beans!

Bull's Blood Beet Greens...

These are pretty sparse…luckily, Dad planted beets in his part of the garden too!

Front - Mild Mix Greens, Back - Tat Soi Greens...

If you look closely, you can see the holes in the leaves where the bugs have been munching them…we’ve already had several salads.

Silverbeet Swiss Chard...

 Not much Swiss chard either…Jim loves that!

Mixed Lettuce...

The mixed lettuce is almost ready to start picking…pretty contrast between dark and light…

Tomatoes Planted From Seed in Late May...

I’m hopeful that I’ll have some heirloom tomatoes after all (bought some plants as a backup just in case, but they’re neither heirloom nor organic!

Autumn Beauty Sunflowers...

The pesky critters have been chewing holes in the sunflower leaves too, but it doesn’t seem to bother them.

Pea Pods...

 Today, I was delighted to discover these pea pods on my Sugar Ann peas!

Scarlet Nantes Carrots...

These carrots are smaller than they look (about 3 inches high)…planted them between the pea plants.

Rutabagas?

I think this is rutabaga, but I’m not sure…Jim was snapping so many photos, I kind of lost track!

Cauliflower...

This is definitely cauliflower!

Not pictured: pumpkins, squash, cucumbers (their leaves look like demented doilies – they’ve been ravaged by insects); purple brussels sprouts, broccoli, bunching onions (forgot to photograph them); purchased tomato/pepper/chive plants (cheating!); spinach (last year’s gone to seed).

I’m optimistic that we’ll have good results from our garden this year…we could all benefit from more vegetables in our diets!

Everything’s Coming Up Roses (at least in our yard!)…

I spent the evening in the garden again last night…rain was predicted for the next six days, so I felt the need to get rid of as many weeds as possible.  Dad and I hoed and weeded the entire plot.  His hoeing style and mine differ (is there a right way to hoe?).  He wore gloves, I didn’t…I got a blister, he didn’t.  I’m kind of proud of mine…another “battle scar” from the garden (along with the four wicked bug bites I got the other night – still don’t know what bit me, but the bites were UGLY!).

Here’s the photographic update from one of our resident photographers, Anna:

The broad beans are being left alone by whatever's chowing down on my yellow and green beans...

Tiny little broccoli...hoping we get some - everybody loves it!

The bush beans seem to be doing well...

The replanted cabbage is thriving...

The carrots are just coming up...planted them between the pea plants...

 

The replanted Chinese cabbage looks great...

 

One of the biggest green bean plants...

Lettuce...

Gourmet Lettuce Mix...

Mild Greens Mix...

One of the eight Morning Glory plants that are up so far...

Peas are doing amazingly well...starting to send out little viny tendrils...

These are pole beans...

 

These are going to be Purple Brussels Sprouts...surprising that even the plant has a purple tinge...

Rutabaga (I think)...wondering if someone rearranged my popsicle sticks labelling my rows...

These are my Autumn Beauty sunflowers...the whole row came up beautifully...

These are Tat Soi Greens...doing very well...

Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Winter Squash...

Red Kuri Winter Squash...

I’m still waiting for tomatoes…there are a few, but I don’t have any real hopes for them getting big enough to bear fruit…will probably end up buying plants.  Cucumbers are just poking their heads up out of the soil, and pumpkins should be up soon (only planted 3 pumpkin seeds).  No sign of the sweet peas I planted…seed may have been too old.  There are a few beet greens up, and almost no chard.  I haven’t seen the bunching onions I put in either…

I was muddy and sweaty when I came in last night…stripped off my “holy pants” (see this post for an explanation: https://writerwoman61.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/getting-down-to-the-nitty-gritty/) and put them in the garbage (after a small ceremony), as I had managed to make a hole on the other side – my finger went right through the worn denim.  I had a bath to get the grit from between my toes, and soak my weary bones…

I slept soundly all night until my alarm at 5:30 a.m. – didn’t even get up to go pee!  I was exhausted.  First stop this morning was the medicine cabinet for ibuprofen…my arthritic hips and feet were protesting.  It felt good though…