Sunday, August 1, 2010

Garden fresh

Good Sunday morning and Happy August 1st! I cannot believe it is already August. This summer is flying by too quickly. After returning from taking our Newfoundland dogs for an early morning walk in the forest before the day got too hot, we decided that since we were up and outside we'd do a little weeding and checking of the garden. Gabe and Paige (my two adult Newfies) went inside the house to nap after their walk in the woods. Noah, my puppy, stayed with me in the garden to "help" with the weeding.
In just a few minutes I picked plenty of vegetables for tonight's supper.

If you have followed my blog, you'll remember our little "friend" in the photo below. This is the groundhog, who we affectionately named HOUDINI who nearly destroyed my garden. Three times I replanted and resecured the garden fences and three times (an many times in between) Houdini came and feasted on my tender young vegetable plants.

Houdini destroyed ALL of my broccoli and califlower plants. Sigh...we will not get any this summer from my little garden. However, for as much as he loved my peas and beans I managed to have a couple of rows to survive.

My husband and I have such a hard time picking enough peas for a meal because we enjoy standing in the garden and eating them like candy fresh out of the pods. I think peas are such sweet vegetables that come in their own bright green packaging.

So I WILL be getting a few peas this summer. Probably only enough for meal to meal but (sadly) not enough to freeze for the winter.

My carrots are doing well but they will not be ready to pull for another month or so.

In previous years I've never had a great deal of luck with growing green peppers but this year I have a bumper crop of green peppers. They are just this weekend getting ready to pick. In fact we ate our first one last night and oooohhh how good!

More peppers on the vine not quite ready but soon will be.

Mr. Houdini again (above). I planted cucumbers THREE TIMES!! ALL three times Houdini ate down to the ground the cucumber plants as they tried to grow.
I gave up on the cucumbers, but by God's grace and a lot of sunshine and good weather (and Houdini finally leaving them alone) my cucumbers are growing again. I'll not have enough for pickles or even many at all since they are just now starting to blossom, but I just had to take a picture of the cucumbers that my husband and I have named "the little cucumbers that could." They are getting a lot of yellow blossoms on them and hopefully I'll at least get a few cucumbers to eat before winter sets in.

Tomatoes I have! There are hundreds of beef steak tomatoes as well as grape (cherry) tomatoes. The plants are so loaded with fruit that the cages collapsed so this morning my husband is resecuring my tomato plants for me, while trying not to break the vines.

I really do enjoy my little garden. This year was quite frustrating loosing so many vegetables to "Houdini". It appears that Houdini has left and moved on now. Praise be! Now I can enjoy my garden produce in peace.

Until next time....
Cheers!

Jennifer

10 comments:

  1. HUGS!!! LOL I love hearing about other going ons in your life Jennifer. Thanks for the update on Houdini; I'm glad that he was only visiting/passing through. Now I know your garden will thrive!

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  2. Well, that little stinker. He should be able to hybernate after eating all your veggies. I hope you end up with some "end of Summer" crops for a few meals. I enjoy the photos. Paige looks content. My fave is cherry tomatoes. I can eat a bushel straight from the vines.

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  3. Ah, what a lovely post - adore your vegetables - but I love Noah even more - he's at that so endearing in-between stage. As I only have peas of the sweet variety I'm planning on knitting some soon - watch the blog! PS If you're ever this side of the pond do drop in to say "Hello!"

    Hx

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  4. Your blog is entertaining reading Jennifer and I enjoy it. Love the pics you take and those vegies look delicious. Please Houdini has moved away.

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  5. Your garden looks beautiful. I think Houdini agrees too!

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  6. Love the photos Jennifer and thanks for visiting my blog and commenting. It's so encouraging when ppl drop by and stay to browse and leave a comment.
    The lavender recipe you are going to try sounds delicious. Let me know how it goes.
    As for your tomatoes.....yummo. I love tomatoes but cos it is now winter here the tomatoes in the shops are tasteless! In summer they are plentiful so roll on the warm weather, although we haven't really had a real winter yet as it is still warm most days. Hoping for rain for our farmers as they badly need it at the moment.
    Thanks again for dropping by.
    Patricia Perth Australia
    www.lavenderuses.com

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  7. I love your post. I love the images that you share. I can see that you are taking good care of your garden. All crops are so green and healthy. I love that dog.

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  8. Congratulations, Jennifer, on winning one of the IO $25 Gift Certificates for doing the FS/IO blog hop! You should have received your certificate in you email by now!! Have fun shopping!

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  9. Noah is getting so big! Why doesn't he take care of that little houdini character. Love all your veggies. I can just imagine you're busy putting up all that yummy produce now.

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