Thursday, August 20, 2009

Veggie Garden Update-August

I can say with all the rain New England has had this summer, the peas have been prolific, the picture below was taken August 1, we were over run with peas please!
We ended up eating these pictured but further down you'll see where we canned more peas. The peas are all gone now but they were a pleasure to grow and eat them this season.


By the 5 th of August we were getting tomatoes, oh yummy! Honestly! There is nothing better than a fresh tomato just picked from the vine...unless of course it's corn.


More tomatoes by the 8th.


And come the 13th we were lucky enough to share our salad with a fresh cuke. My very first cuke ever! I'd grown them before but they were either underdeveloped or bitter. Not this one, it was satisfying. Madame was gone at the time and missed the excitement about my first EVER (did I mention that!) cucumber. She smudged it in her fathers face, well! It hid for quite a while!



A hundred beans! Understand that my kitchen sink is one big ole' sink! It took hours to prepare these! And as of this update, there are many more.






Here is what we did for the first time, again. It's not the actual canning that exhaust you, it's the prepping of the veggies!


When Madame arrived home we had fresh zucchini and a fresh salad again, we had salad another time between the 15th and today, I have plenty of lettuce for further on....and my husband found another hidden cuke for the next night!

My gourd finally bloomed, three times! Hopefully I'll have a few birdhouses this year but I'm not holding my breathe on it. Pretty flower.



More tomatoes, I forgot to photograph the two large ones we had the other day, I made a zesty tomato and cuke mixture. It was good.
Oh yah, basil for sauce.....
Oregano for the same sauce. Boy! It was delicious! I had no idea what a strong flavor fresh herbs can have.


I haven't picked the parsley yet, can ya tell!?


It'll be a short while and the carrots will need canning. We keep pulling and checking them, if they get to the size they are supposed to....it will be a first for me again. I had no luck with carrots before and gave up on them, at one point I planted them in straight peat moss, only to be disappointed again. These are about 1 inch long right now.

Beans, in dire need of picking.

Plenty of flowers on my tomatoes, although the last row...the one next to the fence, all the plants have creased over and are virtually touching the ground. I have to look closer at them, I think the deer maybe eating over the barrier, and basically.....when we smelt skunk in the middle of the night, we discovered he had crawled into the composter, buried his exit and got irritated, thereby spraying....It was a bittersweet satisfaction at the fact he'd stayed away from my garden and as I was picking a heavy boiler lid up off the ground to cover the composter, I got the general idea how upset he was!



No blooms on the potatoes yet. *sigh* I will change things next year if this experiment doesn't go well. They grew like crazy only to stunt like this for the last month.Some more hide and seekers.



Our buttercup is growing like crazy and has had about 20 of these little fruits, but then they lose the blossom and rot away. What's with that?
AND it has taken forever to get summer squash, as of this post, this is what is growing.

This next crop is doing well,


Did mention corn? Yep, as tall as me, it grows fast!

In a week or two we will be shucking. Madame will be proud.


This is the last photo with everything green and growing, sob. Come September, things will be different for my garden. Hopefully we will still have greenery to look at and maybe a few more veggie.
In the meantime...my grass looks good! C&G Design

9 comments:

Kathleen said...

Oh Dawn, all those veggies look so good. Nothing like fresh peas, corn, tomato, and green beans. I have never tried canning vegetables...only stuff like pickles, jam, salsa and applesauce. I wonder how Debbie's garden is doing? (thanks for the sympathy regarding my dental experience) Hugs, Kathleen

Roses and Lilacs said...

Your garden looks huge. You've really gotten a lot of produce from it.

I used to can and freeze but not so much anymore, it's a lot of work;) After looking at your beans and peas I'm thinking about planting a few next spring.
Marnie

tina said...

That is a mighty fine looking veggie garden! Not to mention all the produce. Wow! I have to disagree with you on the canning. For me it is the steaming and sterilizing and all the heat-usually in the middle of summer! But look at it this way you'll have plenty of nice veggies this winter.

Protector of Vintage said...

Congrats on growing such a wonderful garden!! Everything looks delicious. I planted just one tomato plant. (I'm the only one in the family that likes them). Mine have not ripened yet...getting anxious for a good BLT. Have a nice day!

CC said...

Your garden looks wonderful. All those fresh veggies...yummmmm. Isn't food wonderful straight from the garden....

Birgit said...

Oh your garden is just wonderful and so big! This is our first garden this year and it's quite small. I already know that I want to plant more green beans. We lost all of our tomatoes and green peppers as we tried starting them from seed with no luck. :( We've been eating cucumbers, so fresh, crips and sweet! Our Carrots are still very small and only one summer squash plant survived so I have one lone little squash growing. It's okay, we're learning and I'm loving the process of it all!
Thanks for stopping by to visit me! I enjoy visiting other blogs, especially from Maine.
Hugs~ Birgit

Debbie said...

Hi Dawn! Woweee! What a garden! I am so impressed with it! Fantastic job my friend! Funny...my yellow crookneck squash is doing the same thing as yours! Once again, I don't know how you find the time...you're canning too?? Wow! You should be very proud of yourself....great job! I will get photos of mine soon.

Lola said...

Fantastic, Dawn. You are one busy lady.

Skeeter said...

For such a cool summer, you sure had a lot of crops to munch!