The Garden (aka The Jungle!)

We were so busy planting I didn't get any beginning pictures of the garden. Just a shot of a proud little radish farmer, where you can see the start of the planting and a lot of dirt.  This is the day we planted the beans and squash. We wanted enough to share and knew we could feed any extra produce to the chickens, so we really went to town, planting as much as we could possibly squeeze in!

June 18, 2012

We got a late start to the garden this year. At the beginning of summer about the only thing growing were the peas, a little lettuce, and some radishes which we planted the first week of April. The Sugar Snap Pea variety likes to climb and gets about 4 feet tall here. This is a shot mid-June with Hanna to give an idea of how tall they are.

June 18, 2012

About two weeks later, the peas are even taller and fuller. We have been picking peas off them for several weeks, and they are just about done producing in the heat.


 

July 5, 2012

 This is a row of purple podded pole beans with Mammoth sunflowers in the background. These ended up being one of the favorite beans of the 11 varieties we grew this year.

 One of our original favorites (and the best of the three purple striped varities we grew this year), the Rattle Snake Pole Bean. We will definitely be planting these again.





 This is what it looks like under a row cover when you don't get it weeded. The weeds are totally out of control!

July 10, 2012



The same row after it has had a chance to grow, been weeded and the cover removed. There are peppers in there!


 This is a section of the terraced beds, with the only cabbage that made it from an entire row of direct seeded cabbage seeds. (Next year we will have to try starting them in pots.) The spiky leaves are an artichoke, with strawberry leaves in front of it. On the left are carrots and kohlrabi. Some people call it the "wide row method", but I call it the "plant the heck out of it" approach. The way I see it, the more plants in one area, the less room for weeds!

 

 Hard to capture, and a little blurry, but a humming bird is sitting on the fence.

Another humming bird. In the background there are squash, pole beans, and more sunflowers. (Double click on the picture for a larger view.)

A month later here are the same sunflowers. Not the mammoths, but still very tall.

 

 

 

We tried two varieties of sweet corn. Next year I want to do Indian corn or popcorn.

About a dozen hills of squash.  I thought a couple of these were bush varieties. Turns out they are all vining and rather vigorous a that! So they took more room than anticipated. They ran through the fence and onto the lawn.

 A couple of the varieties had rather large leaves.

 One of the 14 different squash we planted this year. Cannot wait to taste them and see which we liked best! (I think this variety is "German".) Next year we will try our favorites plus the ones we didn't have room for.

We planted three different varieties of bush beans on the terrace. This is the yellow french bean called Beurre de Rocquencourt which I really liked. The green podded Provider was also a favorite. (The variety Bountiful was not.)

This is Rebecca's patch of garden. There are Jeminez pole beans (a pretty pink streaked bean with nice flavor) and Cherokee Tomatoes behind the parsley and flowers. (Turns out the beans needed a taller trellis. I am thinking they need about 6' because 4' wasn't tall enough.)

A close up of the pink streaked pole bean. This one showed up in the row of yellow pole beans, but is similar to the variety above.

It is always fun to have Little Lizzy in the garden.  It is a game of hide-n-seek every time. I call out and sometimes she answers and sometimes not, then I have to track her down. She likes picking the green tomatoes, and anything else she can reach.

 

Joseph claimed this section of terrace.  He wanted herbs and flowers, which he picked out.

Here is Joseph's basil (which grew ridiculously huge), petunias, beans on the left, blanketflower in the upper right corner, and hungarian hot wax peppers in the middle.

  Our peppers did incredibly awesome! This variety is called Lavender and is purple on the outside, white on the inside. A fun addition to a relish tray. (It turns green when cooked.)

Our garden has kept us pretty busy, but has been a lot of fun as well. One of my goals this year was to save  some of my own seed from what we grew. I was able to save some lettuce seed to grow next year, and I am hoping to save several varieties of bean seed as well.  We are about ready for a break, and know frost is on its way. Soon almost everything will be harvested and done for the year, but we will have lots of yummy veggies stored up for winter. I am already dreaming about what to plant next year!

(Pictures taken by Amiane and Makala)