June 4, 2010: Garden Photos

I got a bit camera happy again this week, so here are (a lot) more photos of the early June garden.


Contender bush beans and the indeterminate tomatoes are really growing well and looking healthy. The raised beds are providing them with good drainage in all this rain. Before long, all those ugly green buckets should be completely hidden by the beans.


The lettuces are the stars of the garden right now. These are Summercrisp (top) and Red Sails.


Cracoviensis (bottom) and Bronze Arrow. I have so many more varieties planted....Yugoslavian Red, Australian Yellow, Drunken Woman.....I've gotten the varieties all mixed up by now, as I replant with available seedlings as I harvest entire plants.


One trip to the garden fills the laundry basket now, and this is from just one of the three lettuce beds. There is certainly enough being harvested to meet our needs, as well as to (over) feed the pet rabbit. My refrigerator runneth over with bags of greens.


Look at the size of this beauty! It dwarfs the toaster behind it.


Each leaf must be individually washed and inspected. I don't want any earwigs or slugs in my salads.


After trimming, washing and spinning it all dry, this harvest came in at 45 ounces.


The Kennebec potatoes are up to my shoulders, and beginning to blossom. They are a later variety than the Red Norlands, on the other side of this bed, but the Norlands aren't showing any signs of blooming yet. Last year, only one of my Norlands blossomed, and none of the Yukon Golds did, so maybe the red ones won't bloom again this year. Last year's harvest was a good one, blooms or no blooms.


The sweet peppers are chugging right along, and showing no adverse effect from all the rain. They are all showing signs of blossoms to come really soon.


I love the looks of these dwarf tomato plants. They are so sturdy and dark green, they could be easily used as a border in a flower bed. I have several varieties this year, all growing in containers. I hope they continue to grow well, and that the tomatoes taste as good as the plants look.


Gonzales cabbages are beginning to form tiny heads. Granny needs to get out the paintbrush and work on those boards around the raised beds!


Corn is growing quite well. The soil in these barrels is very loose, and every time we get a windstorm I have to go out and straighten the stalks and push the soil down hard around them. I might have to put a ring of fencing around them just to keep them in their container.


The carrots are putting some size on their roots. The seed mats did their job well, I didn't have to thin out a single carrot and they are perfectly spaced. There were no gaps in one variety, just a few in another variety, and rather poor germination in the third, so I'm blaming the seed, not the method of planting. I still swear by my seed mats!


Butternut squash and 5 plants of corn thinnings.


Slugs don't seem to bother the red cabbages, but they sure chew up the green cabbages and broccoli. I've been procrastinating on getting to the store for Sluggo, and I'll probably pay the price. Many of the green cabbages (and a lot of my flowers) are getting ravaged by slugs.


This bed of broccoli and cabbages doesn't seem to get the slug damage that the other bed, right next to it, does. I wonder why?


I didn't pull out all of my sickly beets last week, just a couple of rows to make room for more carrots. The beets that remain look like they might yet make it, so I'll give them one more chance. At least there's not so much leaf miner damage now. What I have noticed, when checking under the boards I lay over the carrot seeds, are a lot of wire worms collecting on the surface. I'm sure they are not contributing to the health of the root crops. I've even found a bit of wire worm damage on a few of my onions. I hope they stay out of the potatoes. Several years ago, they practically ruined my potato crop. I didn't grow potatoes for quite a few years because of these pests, but last year I had no damage to the potatoes at all. They sure did chew up the radishes this spring.


The raspberry canes are absolutely loaded with berries. So far, there have been just a few ripe ones, perfect for a snack while out in the garden. I'm still waiting for bowls full of them.


The Black Beauty zucchini is looking healthy, and growing well. The Grey zucchini, right next to it, not so much. I have planted new seeds of Grey, and they are just now poking through the soil.

There are a lot more photos that were taken yesterday, but I'm sure I've bored you all silly by now so I'll stop. Just take my word for it that the rest of the tomatoes are growing nicely and blossoming now. I am down 2 tomato plants since my neighbor and her pup killed one, and I gave another potted tomato to my daughter Amy (she'll kill it, I know...she can't grow plants unless they are made of plastic). That drops my tomato plant total to only 40.






30 comments:

  1. Ah, the Drunken Woman is showing her face and doing the walk of shame today! I bet Mr. Granny is happy about that, LOL - great photos, Granny!

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  2. Erin, I told Mr. Granny he was getting drunken Woman for dinner tonight, and he thought I'd lost it! He forgot it was a variety of lettuce I had planted ;-) He said he hadn't had a drunken woman in years.

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  3. I'd love to have your green buckets, because they look much better than white ones. "The kennebec potatoes are up to my shoulders" - so, they're about 3ft tall, right? Haha...J/K
    Granny - you have WAY too much lettuce. Maybe you should start raising rabbits?

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  4. EG, I'm not 4 feet tall! I have to admit I have shrunk in my old age, going from 5' 5-1/2" down to about 5' 4".

    I don't mind the green buckets as long as I can hide them behind something. I need to buy more of the cherry wood timbers to finish the planting area next to the garden shed. When I get it 4-5 boards high, and get the ends put in, the buckets should be pretty well hidden.

    I do raise rabbit (singular) and one is enough, thank you. I could never raise them for food after having one as a pet.

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  5. Thanks for the info on hot peppers I will keep that in mind if we ever get ours planted. Are you getting as much rain as we are?

    Anyway, you truly have a green thumb, everything is looking so darn good in your gardens.

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  6. I personally am never bored looking at veggie pics, so bring them on.

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  7. Mr. H., yes, the rain continues. We do get some sunshine between the showers, and it has warmed into the low 70s, so the garden isn't suffering. I have a couple of plants that are showing a bit of stress from all the water, but most of the garden is enjoying it. The raised beds and bottomless buckets drain quite quickly.

    For a complete answer to the hot pepper question, see:

    http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/2009/08/august-12-2009-theres-customer-service.html

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  8. Cheryl, did you see your pretty lilies on yesterday's blog?

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    EG, haha right back atcha, you huggable old redneck ;-)

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  9. Well, I have the full-frig syndrome here too, as we try and find room for lettuce and broccoli. Not a bad problem to have though, is it? Your lettuce is looking marvelous.

    Better get thee to the store for that Sluggo. I need to be reminded to actually USE the stuff, since I forget to re-apply and the slug population starts increasing again.

    I'm with Mr Granny - I've forgotten what a Drunken Woman looks like LOL!

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  10. Oh how we get carried away with the camera :-) Your garden looks lush and perfect!

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  11. WOW what an awesome looking garden you've got going! Why aren't your plants covered in insects and full of holey leaves? Do you do some sort of prevenative bug control thing that I'm missing out on?

    I'd LOVE to grow lettuce, but I've only been successful in the late fall/early winter months. I wonder if there's a hot summer lettuce I could try? The heat index has been near 100 degrees lately and we're all sorts of wilty around here.

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  12. I used to have to cook rabbit to feed our Malamute who was allergic to dog food. Boiled rabbit smells TERRIBLE. I would gag the whole way and finally started doing it outside because the stench lingered in the house for so long.

    Everything looks so nice, Granny! I'm always in awe of how much you get out of that garden.

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  13. Villager, Mr. Granny says he can go you one better. He not only forgot what a drunken woman looks like, he wouldn't know what to do with her if he had one! I told him, in this case, just sprinkle a little oil and vinegar on her and enjoy ;-)

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    Thanks, Dan. I ran out of batteries the other day, and had withdrawals!

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    Kate, I try not to use anything on the garden to deter pests, but yes, I do have awful holes in some of the broccoli and most of the cabbage, and Lowe's didn't have any Sluggo....so I guess I'll try some of Mr. Granny's beer. I'm having my usual problem with earwigs and pill bugs, and the slugs are bad this year.

    I don't have much trouble growing lettuce most of the year, as long as I keep it shaded once it gets hot. Red Sails holds up well in the heat, and I'm hoping Summercrisp will, too.

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    Ribbit, I used to cook (fry) rabbit for our entire family years ago. We had a neighbor who raised them, and every week he would bring over one or two for our dinner. It didn't bother me then, but now I'm sure I'd feel like I was eating Cookie! Now, just to make you gag, I used to boil the rabbit liver, then puree it in the blender with a bit of the broth, and feed it to my baby (Amy). She loved it! Me, I wouldn't touch anything's liver with a ten foot pole. YUK!

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  14. Granny -- everything looks so lush and green and gorgeous! Especially those greens!! Well done, as always.
    You might have written about this elsewhere but is the fencing between the peppers for staking or keeping critters away?

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  15. Gran, your garden is looking great! We have had SO much rain: I have emptied the rain gauge twice in the past week and a half. Many of my green beans that sprouted just before the rains came, are gone... guess they rotted. Still other things are looking good, especially the greens: asparagus, kale, lettuce, spinach, onions, leeks, broccoli... Hopefully the sunshine forecast for tomorrow will offer some reprieve from all of this.

    You and Mr G have a great weekend.

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  16. Fiona, it's for holding up the peppers when they get larger, so they don't flop out over the sides of the bed. I also put in those bamboo stakes, and will (or hope I will) someday get more to install horizontally to cage each pepper in. They get so very heavy with those big bell peppers on them, I do what I can to keep them from falling over and breaking.

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    Oh, Di, I am soooo ready for sunshine! We do get an occasional glimpse of it over here, and I must admit it's easier working in the garden at 70F than at 90F, but gosh, how about some 80-ish degree days! I think I'm growing toadstools that are larger than cabbages this year ;-)

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  17. I have also noticed that the early potatoes don't bloom for me. But both my mid season and main season have bloomed and are dying back already. I will leave them in the ground until late Summer to early Fall. The early potatoes have have all ready pulled up five but will wait a little longer before I pull any more.

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  18. Great lettuce! You seem to have the perfect climate for it. And everything else looks great too. I love the diversity of planting situations you have going on in your garden, the beds, the pots, the buckets... Lots of flexibility for you to plat with and find the optimal growing set-up for your plants.

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  19. Everything looks great Gran. I swear by your seed mats too. :) My carrots are taking a little longer than I expected. I spaced mine every 2 inches....what spacing do you use?

    I should really grow red cabbage. The plants are so beautiful. I'm so sick of slugs! They are the worst.

    Your potato plants look much bushier than mine. Also, do you trench them up or just plant them extra deep?

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  20. The garden is looking grand AG! As always, your peppers are bigger than mine, but mine are not too terribly far behind yours this year. You have a great harvest of lettuces going. We are too and salads are pretty much an everyday part of the menu right now. I think we will be heartily sick of them by the time the salad season winds down.

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  21. garden is looking awesome!! here in the coast (vancouver island) it's been cool and wet... today sun!! YAY... my garden is way behind yours.. ah well... sorta like kids, they all grow at different speeds :D

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  22. Hello,
    You got a beautiful garden, and everything grow so well.

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  23. Liisa, I'm getting itchy fingers. I'm ready for potatoes that actually taste like potatoes should!

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    Thank you, Angela. Actually, our climate is usually too hot to grow lettuce this well. This year the cool and wet weather have been great for the greens. Most other crops are quite behind last year's growth.

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    Thomas, I used the 2" spacing this year. Last year I did 1" and pulled every other one when they were just big enough for good eating. It works well either way, but the 2" spacing seems to make them bulk up a bit faster.

    I hill my potatoes. I put them in trenches and cover them with 3-4' of soil, then hill them as they grow. That bed didn't have enough soil, so I did use some shredded leaves and a couple bags of purchased soil on it. I'd have purchased straw, but I can't manage to lift those big bales to get them back to my garden area.

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    Kitsap, I am getting tired of the salads, but not of the lettuce on my sandwiches. I'm going to have to start giving some of my greens to the neighbor, to make more room in the fridge.

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    Roasted Garlicious, much of my garden is growing more slowly than it did last year. I suppose, if we ever get warm weather, it will catch up.

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    Thank you, Ellada.

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  24. Wow! Everything is growing like crazy even with your rainy, cool weather. Beautiful greens, perfect broccoli, heathy green peppers, and the potatoes! Wow they seemed to grow really fast. Soon you will be harvesting baby potatoes.

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  25. Rachel, shhhhh....don't tell anyone, but I did get four (just over a half pound) baby potatoes today! I'm just now getting ready to fix them for dinner. It was sunny, and 79 degrees today, and the cabbages and broccoli just kind of wilted down and looked a bit sad. They'll have to get used to warmer weather.

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  26. I'm trying potatoes for the first time this year but they are only about 6" high or so, I'm envious that you have harvested a few of the baby ones. And I'm also jealous of the beans. Mine are getting eaten as soon as their little leaves open, very frustrating! Your pictures are always an inspiration to look at, and love all that beautiful lettuce.

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  27. Linda, I hope your potatoes give you a really good harvest, and they really grow fast once they've started. I think freshly dug potatoes must be about my favorite thing in the garden! I cut my babies in chunks and tossed them with a tiny bit of olive oil, a bit of fresh garden onion, salt and pepper. Wrapped them in foil and cooked them out on the grill....delicious!

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  28. I had one of those slugs on my lettuce last week. I had quickly washed the lettuce and put it in the fridge. When I took it out I had a HUGE orange slug on it. How could I have missed a slug that big? I just don't know.

    I'm with EG too. I like the green buckets. They are a better color than most buckets you will find. I have a few your color and then I have a few that are darker green which is my favorite color.

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  29. Daphne, I had a baby slug right on the top of my already cleaned and chilled lettuce one day. I don't know how I missed it, but I'm glad I didn't serve it to Mr. Granny! The largest slug I've found so far was smaller than a dime. I sprinkled an entire container of Sluggo on the garden last night, I hope it works. I should have started it sooner.

    I'd like the darker green buckets. The beans are large enough now to hide the ones out in the garden, but I might spring for a couple of cans of Fusion paint next spring, and change the color on the ones around the patio. I wish they made it in terra cotta, but they don't.

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  30. I just love your garden Granny, so many things to take in.

    My yukons didn't bloom last year either, must be a variety trait or something.

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