Vegetable Garden Tour

A tour of the vegetable garden is long overdue.  I’ve been hosting guests, working at my day job, contending with weather, and so on.  But enough excuses!  At long last, here it is!

Vegetable Garden in Late July

Here are pictures of some of my runner beans.  There are Trionfo Violetto plus some Painted Ladies in the background.

From farther away, you can see how the beans are climbing this support. (Below) I think I need a taller one!  The flowers on the left are Scarlet Runners. From a recent post, you can learn how to make my yummy Spiced, Pickled, Dilly Beans here.

The above bed also houses potatoes and peas.  In the photo below, the peas are in the foreground on a trellis with more runner beans.  The  beautiful pea flowers are in the in the front and to the left.  This pea variety is a Sugar Magnolia Snap Pea.  The seed packet says it “produces peas even in July heat.”

One is emerging into a pea already!  Look at that deep purple color.  It’s a tiny one, but still….

I also planted some green peas.  Here they are!

Finn the Legume Lover

My sweet dog, Finn, LOVES peas!  Here he is anticipating his little treat.

Getting closer…..

I tried to get a shot with the pea pod in my hand but he was just too fast!  Here is Finn snatching it out of my hand.  It disappeared instantly.

Cucumbers

Onward to a different garden bed!  How about some cucumbers?  I have a few types.  Here are the Silver Slicers, which are white when ripe.

Here is one that got caught in the corner of the bed.  The end became a little oddly shaped, but it will still be fine.

Here are my Marketmore cucumbers.

Now for the pickling cucumbers!

I really want to show you one of the cucumber trellis’ that Farmer Joel built for me.  This is repurposing at its finest!  We had an old garden trellis and some old ski poles.  Add a couple of zip ties and viola!  Note the lettuce and Borage toward the bottom of the frame.

Carrots

And now for some carrots.  Those carrot tops pictured below are Purple Dragon.  I also have some Danvers carrots planted in another row, which look rather similar.

Peppers

In the same bed, I’ve planted peppers, both bell and jalapeno.

Tomatoes

There are tomatoes in this bed as well, along with marigolds, parsley, and garlic.  My tomatoes are struggling a little bit this season.  Some of them were attacked by flea beetles.  Last year, the tomatoes didn’t do well at all, so this year is definitely better.  Here are some green cherry tomatoes.

Squash, Pumpkins, and, hopefully, Corn

Now for “Two Sisters.”  I was going to do a “Three Sisters” bed, but I decided to place my beans with the peas and potatoes because they make good garden companions.  I planted a few corn seeds, but probably too little too late due to our extra-long winter.  Now these little corn stalks couldn’t hold my pumpkins and squash if they wanted to!  (Also, corn in grown in small quantities needs help with pollination.) My pumpkins are the Jack-O-Lantern type.  The squash is the ever-popular Zucchini.

 

Melons

I also planted a couple of Sugar Baby watermelons in there.  The melons are doing really well, which is unexpected!  The only other time I got watermelons to grow was when I didn’t plant them!  That is correct!  They sprung up in the garden beds and in the compost one year.  You see, we’d had an outdoor gathering and served watermelon.  The seeds didn’t break down, apparently, and we got melons. We saved some of those seeds, so there you are!

Brassicas

Finally, the Brassicas.  The red cabbage, the Brussels sprouts, the kale, and the beets are all doing quite well.  I planted chives in and around these lovely plants.  For a instructions on how to address a Brassica pest issue, check out this post.

The cabbage looks a little sad because I spread the makeshift pest repellent, (organic, of course) and then it rained!  A lot.  Oh well.  It rained hard enough to wash away all the protection on the Brussels Sprouts, so then this happened.  (At least it’s just the outer leaves and not the little sprouts themselves.  I will have to be diligent about plucking away the offending creatures.

Eggplant

And finally, out in the cold frame, we are growing a few eggplant and garlic.

Here is the garden on the west facing side.

Here is the garden on the east facing side.

Here is a view of the garden from the outside of the fence.

What is growing in your garden?

Blessings!

<3

Wendy