Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Garden Update

I've been down and out for the past week with bronchitis (a chronic condition for me thanks to a Girl Scout camping trip when I was eight). Thus, my garden has gotten little to no attention. The good Lord, however, has been keeping things growing during my absence. I decided it was high time to post some new pictures and show of His handiwork. Please excuse any weeds and refer to the excuse in my opening sentence of this post.

The garden is below (overrun with yellow squash, zucchini, and pumpkins). My mom may have been right when she said the squash needed more space. Cucumbers are on the far left, the dark green plants are zucchini with yellow, acorn, and Hubbard squash behind them, tomatillos and butternut squash to the right. Tomatoes are farther down, then the cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and pumpkins.
Here's Brian admiring the squash from the opposite side. I may have gotten carried away...
On a sad note, this past weekend I entered my garden to discover that ALL of my beets were gone- vanished into thin air (all 3 rows!). All that was left were a few hoof prints. We're surrounded by thousands of acres of corns and beans and the deer find their way to my beet patch. Alas. I hope they enjoyed all three varieties (which would have made a delightful and colorful beet salad). Check out the damage:
I thought that I had lost all of my cabbages to worms early in the season, but I have eight that pulled through! I don't know that they'll look like when I cut into them, but they are beautiful on the outside. Cucumbers are doing especially well. I harvested 22 pounds on Sunday and made lots of pickles. There are plenty more that I haven't yet picked. Not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of them, but I think this coming weekend I'll make relish. Here's the cucumber patch. The pumpkins look AWESOME. I am having a few tomato issues. The plants (all 30) look really good (well, except for the ones too close to the squash that are kinda getting overrun), except I have very few tomatoes actually forming. Maybe the hot weather we're having this week will encourage them along. And finally, the dogs enjoying a snack of over-grown cucumbers. They're very helpful pups (just not very good at keeping deer away).

2 comments:

Ryan + Louise said...

I LOVE YOUR GARDEN!!! I can't believe we're not making it to Iowa this summer to share in the fun. My one consolation is that maybe you'll bring a hubbard squash in october. Please? Baby food for a YEAR!! We miss you.

laura said...

wow, that garden is crazy! i like it! v. sad about the beets, we have been enjoying eating some here the past couple of weeks, tasty stuff. i think next year i'm going to do a container garden (too much lead in the soil).