More around the garden shots

Just a bunch more pictures of what's going on in the garden. It's really hard to capture everything at once. Here are some up close shots of the tomatoes blooming in what looks like a large bunch of flowers, and second shot is my "tomato alley" or maybe more like a forest once it really grows out.

Hanging pot of Red Striped tomatoes with baby tomatoes in them - I picked up pots on a whim from local store 3 weeks ago but they got sick at first so now they're on the road to recovery.

Carrots are doing really good now after all this rain - on the side of them are some zucchini and eggplant on the back.

Yellow squash preparing to bloom so hopefully I'll have some good grilling soon.

More pretties - foxglove is finally blooming! And one of my eggplant also has buds on it.

           
More squash is starting to really pick up - this is Honey Bear squash by the large trellis mixed with running beans; and by small trellis is my cantaloupe starting to grow. Japanese Truffle tomato on the far right side peaking in.

I asked my  honey to pose for me so you can see how my potatoes are doing. Just for reference point - he's 6'2" in height. That's 5 feet tall fencing behind him with snap peas climbing over. It's just too bad I don't have enough soil to hill them or I would have had great harvest. But it's ok, i'll just settle for few baby young potatoes.

New planting of strawberry from this spring has some berries ripening for snacking.

Border of the garden inside with strawberries and running beans by the fence in the picture on the left; and second bed with a mix of peppers, tomatoes, greens and onions on the right.

First cauliflower has formed and pretty decent size too! it's not as large as from store but I'll take it.

More broccoli and cabbages are on the way if the bugs don't finish them off. I really need to pick more of that salad to give them space to grow.

And lastly my "volunteer" tomatoes in the old garden. I have no heart to pull them out.

Beacause I know what was on this spot last year,  this should be offsprings of Yellow Pear.

End of May pretties.

Just few pictures of how the garden looks at the end of May. It's nearly summer time and for past few days with temps in 90's it felt more like mid-July. It's also been raining pretty much every day so while it's good for greens not all plants were happy. But I'm focusing on positive so enjoy the pretties from the garden. Here is the side shot of large garden (ignore pulled weeds).

One of the 7 rose bushes that I planted this spring decided to bloom and it's very lovely color!

Snap Dragons are in full bloom and making me happy. I just wish more survived the transplant.

Love the vibrant color on these flowers - they are very striking eve from distance.

Here's one I on the left that I have no idea what it is. Anyone has any suggestions? White snap-dragon next to it on the right side.

Blueberries! Can't wait for them to ripen but have to make sure birds don't get them.

My "runt" tomatoes that are growing very nicely and very large broccoli plant that yet to form head.

Mix of creeping phlox, nasturtium and bush beans.

Strawberry failure

There are times that we succeed in the garden and there are those times that makes me want to throw in the towel when things just don't come out the way you hope they would. This year I have several of such things, and one of them being my strawberries.  I have a bed full of them - some are Alpine and some are regular. Alpine are doing ok on production size and flavor, but regular type is just abysmal. Maybe it's because of the cold/hot/cold spring or two weeks of rain, or late frost - I have no idea. But they are tiny, watery and tasteless. Here's my "bumper" crop of whole 5oz of it - and that includes my Alpines in it!. And I should be picking by baskets full by  now. Most of the bed is moldy from too much rain so not sure if I'll get much out of it later or not - because as I type we're having one heck of a storm moving through the area which will only add more water to the over-saturated garden.  If this doesn't get any better I'll be ripping out the whole bed and planting something else in there - like carrots for winter.

On the more positive side - the new batch of strawberries that I planted in new garden is doing better in growing, and while I don't expect large crops from it, it did surprise me with few of the early berries. It's promising sign for next year, pending Mother Nature won't get too crazy with us

Harvest Monday

First I want to take a moment to remember why we have Memorial Day - thank you to all veterans who protect us with their lives.

Another week full of greens - I had to pull quite a bit out of the bed because it got really hot very fast and many letuces decided to bolt - my arugula, spinach and bok choy all have been pulled out.

First baby beets and some of my kohlrabi was pulled as well and beets were roasted - YUMMY!

 I plucked more of the Romaine lettuces but left the core in to keep growing - 1 lb .4oz

And some more spinach - this is the last of the preseeded that I planted in March. There is a strip of spinach remains that was planted on 1st of May - 7.9oz picked.

Lettuce has been picked couple of times, first batch was 12.7 oz - mostly soft buttery lettuces.

And more was added later in a week as I was cleaning bed from snails and had to clear from under the cabbages and broccoli to give them more room to grow - 6.5oz picked.

First garlic scapes were picked today with some sideshoots of broccoli. I hope it's going to start growing garlic bulbs now.

Beets came up to only about 2.2 oz total after I removed green tops. I probably should have waited couple of weeks more but I really wanted to see the taste when it's roasted.

And Kolrabi bulbs came up to just about 8oz - not going to plant them next  year.

I can't wait to see some other harvests come this way - peas, beans, potatoes and maybe some cucumbers should start growing in few weeks.

Heirloom addiction

I'll be first to admit the obvious - I'm addicted to the heirloom tomatoes and peppers. Can't help it - they just really tend to be very good taste wise. Today we went to the local place that had an heirloom sale - tomatoes, peppers, greens, squashes - they were all there. And plenty to choose from. Of course I couldn't resist the temptation and got a tray filled.

I picked up Black Brandywine - yes, I know I have my own but I wanted additional ones. Also on the tray were Black Stripe Zebra, Black Prince, Aunt Ruby German green, Striped German, Black Truffle, Subarctic and Black Pineapple. Then there were Purple Beauty pepper, Chocolate, Pinot Noir and blushing beauty peppers. I can't help it - I'm definitely addicted. Now I have to find space for them. It's a good thing that I cleaned out some brassicas so I can plant some of these now :)

First tomatoes forming!

We should have had some formed earlier but the low 30's temperature that we had two weeks ago really did more damage that I thought. All tomatoes that were in flowers dropped them all and didn't bloom for another week afterwards. Now they're all blooming and we have first ones formed!

This is Roma tomato plant that has 3 baby tomatoes hanging. If anything I hope at least to have some for tomato sauces once they're all really start to produce.

 You can always pinpoint Cherokee Purple by it's first bloom - always a double one.

One of my tomato plants is truly a puzzle to me. Not sure which one this is, but it decided to have several stalks instead of one main one. Go figure, I've never seen plant like this before.

Mortgage Lifter was full in bloom before and after cold spell it dropped off all blossoms, so I'm very happy to see it again starting to bloom and looks like it will have a cluster of them.

Beware of the Deadly Mushrooms!

Something showed up on my lawn this week that I wasn't happy to see at all - the Green-spored Lepiota. Or in mycological world known as Chlorophyllum molybdites. Very poisonous to both human and animals and can easily kill cats or dogs if swallowed. Another one to watch out for is Death Cap. You can find more details on the websites like this: http://americanmushrooms.com/deathcap.htm

 This is how it looks when it's young Lepiota just starting to open up.

 Lepiotas have very distinctive pattern of spots on its caps.

As you can see on the underneath of it it has a ring up close to the cap - another distinctive trait for it. Mature mushroom has green spores which also help identify it. If you have it on your lawn - destroy it and keep pets away from the area because even spores are poisonous and a lick of them can cause serious damage.

Around the garden after rainstorm

We've had rain on and off for past two weeks, with exception of the weekend when it was actually nice and warm. While some of it is good for garden, too much of it is not. I'm looking forward to a nice dry weekend again. But for now here are some beauties for you.

Lovely baby from the small garden - it's first after planting it 3 years ago.

And another peony bush also in bloom by the driveway surrounded by Iris

First to open on it was a bit beat up by strong storm but it's still pretty

this one is just starting to open up!

peas in the small garden are in bloom but I have no idea if it's snow or snap peas. I think it's snow so my hubby will be happy to have them in his meals.

Alpine strawberry in the pot on the patio - one of my favorites. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it will be good year for strawberries because they're getting moldy before getting ripe and very tiny for some reason.

White Rhododendron is in bloom and bumblebee is having fun with it.

Very large blue iris on the back of the house - desperately needs to be split and moved in fall.