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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Garden.




Our garden is not nearly as plentiful as last year. Our only consolation is that a farmer nearby and a local greenhouse both told me their gardens are a bust too. So I don't think it is something we did. Our cherry tomatoes are plentiful and ripe, but splitting. Our big tomatoes are big and plentiful, but green and don't seem to be in any hurry to turn red. Our lettuce was less than stellar. Our jalapenos and cherry peppers were eaten by a resident pigeon, who was in turn eaten by an owl. I was a bit startled to find a headless pigeon not too far from the shredded pepper plants that morning! Here is a picture of one pepper out of two that struggled to grow after that feeding frenzy.

The success stories were sugar snaps and beans, though they were not as abundant as usual. Our radishes were awesome-nice and spicy! And the cucumbers-they seem to know no end and no boundaries. I came home from Hot Yoga last night to find The Bird Man making bread and butter pickles! A first for us! We are hopeful that the onions and potatoes are doing well. We harvested the garlic. Can't wait to use that! This was our first time planting garlic. And the Butternut (LOVE that word. Butternut and Sugar Snap...great sounds and great visuals...and they make my mouth water)is plentiful!!! WOO HOO!!! We devoted a lot of the garden to butternut squash last year and harvested two. This year, we gave it a few square feet and it took over and there are so many baby and teenage butternuts on there already. Butternut Risotto is on the menu when the first one is ripe! Butternut Risotto and a bottle of Gewurztraminer. I can taste it now :-)



What is growing in your garden this summer?


p.s. i used the word "plentiful" 4 times!!! FOUR times. i need to dust off my old college thesaurus.

7 comments:

Amy F said...

I usually grow basil every year, but this year i never got around to it and now it is AUGUST! can you believe it!

windrock studio said...

But what a cute little winking gnome!
I agree with loving sugar snap and butternut anything, makes my mouth water!

Anonymous said...

That gnome cracks me up, I was actually telling my husband about it like a week or two ago! We saw a gnome on tv and I said, you know, I have this blogging friend.... lol. Our tomatoes are going nuts! I've probably already harvested 25-30 from just 4 plants. Today I picked one that weighed in at 1 lb 1oz! I ate the whole thing then felt kinda sick. LOL.

Anonymous said...

Lemon balm, lavender and spearmint are in the garden this year! When you mentioned the pigeon all I can remember is the very descriptive story I got about the head and the pepper blossoms/leaves. The butternut (love the word too) looks beautiful!

I see the gnome is waving "hi!" Hahahaha!

Christine Altmiller said...

we never know how our garden is gonna grow, do we ladies?
love reading all your comments. thanx for stopping in :-) slowly i am embracing the blog.
and mandy-i have tomato envy!

Unknown said...

Sorry for your struggles. Our hot banana peppers are going like gangbusters (a word I love :-). That's the only "produce" we can do in pots on the balcony in the wind. But the thyme, basil, sage, parsley, & chives have each gone all Audrey 2 on us. I see vats of chili & pesto in our near future.

Love the pigeon story. Circle of life. Gotta love having raptors around. We're enjoying now regular sightings of our neighborhood falcon.

Unknown said...

Is that gnome really in your garden? Watch for daughters flipping the bird out the back window while driving down the highway! HA!