Vegetable Garden 2008

The Neglected Garden – September 3, 2008

Our garden has suffered this summer as all of our attention from June 25th on has been given to our new baby boy. Somehow it's still managed to produce though! Nature is such a miracle! We've made 15 quarts of tomato sauce so far from our tomatoes, and they're still coming. Some plants didn't survive, however, due to the heat and our lack of watering. The squash, cucumbers and peas didn't live nearly as long as they did last year. But the tomatoes did fantastic, as well as the peppers and green beans. Our new rhubarb plant is going strong, and we picked one mini-cantalope and have one butternut squash on the vine. So how can we complain when we barely did any work to deserve our bounty?

Mini-cantalope

Things are Popping – June 13 , 2008

All the gardeners out there have probably noticed that the heat earlier this week really boosted their garden plants and flowers. The only plant that's not such a fan of the heat is the peas... and unfortunately we planted ours late this year, so they're just starting to produce. I'm hoping they can hang on a few weeks longer so we can get at least some harvest from them. There's nothing like fresh peas!

My new rhubarb plant in the top left corner is doing great. Around it are broccoli plants.

The asparagus has gotten taller than me!

So far I've counted 15 artichokes on just this one plant (there are two others)!

Look at how big that artichoke plant is...enormous! Contrast it with the picture below from last month! What's it going to look like in August??

The tomato plants we grew from seed really perked up this week.

The garden is growing...what a great feeling!

The Garden is Coming Alive – May 1, 2008

Although the garden looked barren just a month ago, it's already been transformed by sunshine, warmth and rain into a productive space! Three of the five artichokes I planted last summer came back, the garlic shoots are sticking way up, and our strawberries are starting to flower. The most exciting thing so far has been our asparagus, which we planted last year. The perennial needs three years to become completed established, and we're on year two. That means we can pick from a third to half of the spears that grow. (Starting next year we can pick as much as we want.) We've already eaten it for dinner once, and we thought the taste was far more flavorful and fresh than any we'd had before. If you like asparagus, you really should consider growing it in a your garden!

Our tomato, pepper, broccoli and herb seeds are growing in the bathtub once again. This year I used seed-starting soil from Burpee, and so far I'm happy with the results. We're also using a mini-fan to create circulation, and I placed the light closer to the plants as well. Those two changes have made a dramatic different over last year's seedlings, which were leggy and droopy.

For those who are interested, this is our vegetable line-up for this year's garden:

*Perennial

It's these early pictures that seem so hard to see...but for the discerning eye, it's peas and spinach.

The two-year-old asparagus

The artichokes are already huge!

White flowers are blooming on the strawberries