Out in the Garden

After all the rain, heat, and humidity lately the garden has finally begun to take off. As you can see, it isn't very big. This is our first year to garden here and preparing the soil was no small task. Earle was still on crutches at the time, recovering from his knee surgery. Shawn took over the rototilling responsibilities. Then we raked out the sod chunks and tilled in several bags of peat moss and some fertilized garden soil. Still the soil hardens and cracks in the sun. This clay soil devoid of nutrients is a bit of a nuisance, but next year will be better after we are able to amend the soil some more.

I am growing: heirloom tomatoes (courtesy of Gretchen), wild Mexican cherry tomatoes, zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, spaghetti squash, bush beans, lettuce, radishes, spinach, and Swiss chard. Of course there is only a small amount of each, but this way we get to see what does well here and what doesn't.

We planted the spinach too late in the year and the heat made it bolt before it got very big. Julia and I had spinach salads last night with our only helping of spinach this year. The birds ate the lettuce seeds so it never came up, just a couple little spots. The radishes are already gone. They did pretty well and are always easy to grow. I intended to plant more of them, but never got to it. Just yesterday I noticed the first tomato plant setting fruit and there is a tiny yellow squash too. It got a very late start under poor conditions, but we may get some veggies yet!

Lovely yellow crookneck squash blossoms.

Pretty pinky-purple bean blossoms.

Containers on the deck with ripening peppers, cilantro, and thyme.

An annual, container plant I just couldn't pass up at the nursery. It is called a black-eyed susan vine. It is taking off up the trellis as promised and is a delightful plant!

Julia's plate of homegrown spinach salad from last night, complete with homegrown radishes.