Wordless Wednesday, from today, 3/4/09

August 2008 in my Vegetable Garden

I had trouble limiting the number of pics for this post, so will not be enlarging them.  They will enlarge if clicked on.

The first 4 pics are from August 4th. This area is just inside the entrance, and it shows my funky hose guides protecting the Freecycle marigolds.

I can't remember what kind of cucumber this was.  It's to the other side of the entrance, on the other side of the 4' O Clocks and other flowers.

The tomatoes were starting to ripen. The squirrels got my first ripe one, though.  Can you see the Monarch Butterfly near the swamp milkweed?

The next 5 pics were taken August 13. Here's a volunteer Cleome prettying up an area that's not so pretty. This one did not get as big as the one in the front in more sun.  (This is the north side of the garage.)

I didn't mention this before, but I have had trouble the last few years growing cucumbers because they get diseased from something given to them by cucumber beetles, and die after getting a small harvest.  If anyone has any organic solution to this, I may try it.  I'm thinking I've heard of one before, but can't remember.

The sunflowers were blooming, and the larkspur and holly hocks were finished. The tomatoes were ripening on the bush to the right. These were a smaller, heirloom kind, but I can't remember the name. They tasted good.

When I first started digging in the garden after we moved in, a neighbor guy came over and told me I wouldn't be able to grow tomatoes, because of the disease in the soil.  They do get diseased and die, also, but I get a better harvest than the cucumbers before they die.  I try to take off the bottom and diseased leaves, but don't always keep up.  The globe thistle on the right was blooming now.

The zucchini was blooming here. I decided not to put the pic of the one that had a zucchini on it, around the 21st.

I must not have gotten pics of the dill that was growing.  Here it is, after having gone to seed. I have dill in the herb garden as well as the veggie garden.  I dried lots, and have been using it. There were a lot of Painted Lady butterflies this year, and they loved the verbena that seeds itself all over.  This was the summer I paid more attention to the butterflies and learned a lot of the names, but I'll need to get my books back out to remember what some of them were. This was taken August 15.

I enjoyed taking pics of bees, and other critters, too.  I am excited for this summer and using my new camera.  August 17:

When onions have formed skin, it's best to avoid watering them.  I've mentioned they can be picked at any time for use raw or cooked.  I also chopped a bunch, and froze them on a cookie sheet, then put them in freezer bags.  I just ran out of them a couple weeks ago. If you have the kind for keeping, they should stay in the ground until the stems are dry all the way to the onion. I put these and the garlic I harvested, which are shown on the right, in my basement to store.  I would bring a few up to the kitchen at a time.  The onions were used up by the end of December, and I still have some garlic.  Some of it has dried up, and I need to be using the rest of it soon. This was taken August 20.

The Black Eyed Susan and Lemon Balm volunteered to grace the entrance to the garden, and shared space with the cucumber that grew through the fence. This and the next pic were taken August 21.

I'm not sure if I found out what kind of caterpillars these were.  I got lots of comfort and hand holding through letting the caterpillars eat some of the leaves of my plants. I was assured they would not kill the plants.

The next 3 were taken August 28.  Here's my lovely kale and peppers. I left lots of room between plants after the lettuce, potatoes, and the like were harvested so I could apply compost.

The rest of the pics were taken August 31. The zucchini was still alive. I usually lost them to the worm that gets into the stem.  I kept putting dirt over the stem, and that seemed to help.  The hollyhock is bushy, and stemless, because I had cut the stalks down. I put them in a pile next to the compost pile, because I didn't want the seeds in the pile.  

That's the dill and verbena bon. to the left of the zucchini.

Peppers, tomatoes, etc.

The sweet potatoes were still growing here. The rose in the tub had been in the ground, but I didn't like where it was, and don't know how to prune it properly, so I put it there a couple years ago. That's the entrance to the garden next to the rose. I think I'll move that next year, as it reached out and grabbed me a few times last year.

My husband said we start Daylight Savings this weekend.  Spring has to be around the corner!

July 2008 in my Vegetable Garden

It is currently 14 degrees fahrenheit, and the snow from Friday night is not melted yet. The highs for the week are supposed to be a bit warmer each day, and by Thursday, it is supposed to get up to 66. The snow should be melted by then, until the next time it comes down. I have been enjoying visiting as many of your blogs as I can, and staying up too late in the process sometimes. When spring gets here, something is going to have to give. I know there are others feeling like this, too. There are so many great blogs and bloggers, that it's hard to keep up.

I am invited to go to a friend's house today to join her and some of her friends in looking at seed catalogs. When I told her I buy my seeds locally, but could bring my computer and we could look at some online catalogs, she said that would be fine. So, just in case I get to show anyone my blog, I wanted to go ahead and get July's veggie garden post up. (When I exported the pics, I added 500 to the normal 1000 pixels, but it doesn't look like it caused these to be as clear as they are in iphoto.)

At the end of my June post, I said I would show the perennial sweet pea vine. This pic was taken July 5th. The white building is our garage.

July 5th, the self sown larkspur and hollyhocks were in full bloom, and I had been picking some of the onions to cook with, giving the others more room to grow.

The tomatoes were starting to form, and the self sown bachelor buttons were blooming.

This pic of the sweet potatoes I grew in the tub on the driveway side of the garden was taken July 6th. The lattice fence to the right of the bed frame is a couple feet to the north, creating the entrance to the garden.

The next 6 pics were taken July 7th. This is what's on the other side to the right of what was pictured above. Here were self sown larkspur, 4 o' clocks, a clematis that was distressed, and a pot of phlox and pansies.

I am always so busy, that I don't always make good use of the rhubarb, pictured on the back left. I just discovered a couple years ago, that garlic scapes, which are the seed heads on the garlic, are edible, and delicious. They should be picked before they uncurl, so I was a bit late with these, but ate them anyway. This hard neck garlic is on the left, in front of the rhubarb. I talked Larry out of throwing the green chair away, because it is broken, and have enjoyed having it in the compost area.

I don't remember what kind of eggplant I put in, but it didn't do well after the first harvest. The peas to the right were almost finished. There is a globe thistle plant in the upper right corner that I put there to harvest the flowers for drying. That's Swiss chard in the middle, and some marigolds I got from a person on Freecycle near the tomato plant. I haven't kept up with Freecycle, and need to clean out the mailbox I have that in, because there are probably a thousand messages I keep forgetting to check. I also gave away some perennials to someone on Freecycle last year.

This is a self sown moonflower in the pot, and some violets near the bench.

I battled purslane all summer, but concentrated on keeping in out of the onions. I didn't cook it, but munched on some, and let some come in with the salad fixings.

The sunflowers I moved from the front bed are growing near the larkspur, which dies out after it's finished blooming.

This pic, taken the 14th, shows the growth of the sunflowers, and the hollyhocks and larkspur still blooming. There are green tomatoes on the plant to the right.

This pic, taken the 19th, and shows the garden from the street. The swamp milkweed, white liatris, and day lilies, have added their blooms.

The sunflowers were even larger by the 16th, which seems to be the last day in July I took pics in the veggie garden. There's another sweet pea growing on a plant stand.

Some years I mulch, but there is always something I don't like about what I mulch with. This year, I applied compost a few times throughout the season. If you have a mulch you like for your veggie garden, please share it in a comment. Thanks!

I have the news on, and it sounds like some of you who don't normally get snow are getting quite a bit, and those farther east are expecting even more. Stay safe everyone!

Update: I enjoyed spending time with 6 other women today. We visited, and ate and ate, and then some had to leave when the rest of us got out the seed catalogs. We didn't decide on anything to order together, but had great fun looking at plants and garden accessories and gabbing some more. I was able to show them my blog and a few other blogs. They were quite impressed, but not enough to want to spend their time that way. LOL