Garden Look-See (picture heavy!!)

I was able to get some photos of the garden last night, while letting the ladies wander around our yard.  Our neighbour, we thinks, is building a fence out of pallets (waah!), and we've seen the dog a little less.  Maybe i am just getting to lazy again, but my gals love to forage too much for me not to give them a little time out of the confines of a tractor or coop.

carrot seeds!!

boysenberries

 I am a little disappointed with the boysenberries.  The ripe ones are extremely sour, which would explain why the birds haven't eaten them before we had a chance to try them.  The rest of this year, i am going to focus on improving this area (aka more coop litter and compost are headed this way) to see if we can improve soil conditions enough to improve these tasty jewels. :)  Especially because these are in a sloped part of our yard, where maybe the drainage is "too good". :)

The summer is still cool.  I think we made it out of the seventy's for a whole 3 or 4 days.  But nothing hot enough to tame the rhubarb or the peas, like usual summers around here.

We've been able to grow one head of cauliflower this summer too.  Out of twelve plants. :(  More research is needed.  :)  Maybe start instituting foliar feedings?

 Thankfully our squash is taking off.  Three zuccs and a yellow squash already, then these to go.  Maybe enough to make a ratatouille this weekend?!?

One experiment that turned out lovely this year was my edgings.  I read about potagers half way through the growing season and fell in love with the clean look of edged gardens.  Regardless of how garden beds ringed in boxwood makes me swoon, the last thing we need around here is more blasted hedges to maintain.

So i used a mix of radish and carrot seeds to outline the corn bed.  Radish is especially advantageous, because they sprout in like, a day.  Therefore, little people will not inadvertently step in a bed because they will see something is there.  :)  The carrots i knew we'd have use for, but the radishes...well, i hadn't ever had any luck with them because you have to keep them so moist.  This year in the PNW however...  Lo! and behold, Cookie the Veggie Hater discovered that she loves radishes.  The French way, of course, sliced, on bread with a shmear of butter.  My kid's eatin' veg...hallelujah!

black cherry toms

 Something on the horizon that is not peachy is the fact that Mother Nature seems to think it is September already.  The last few mornings, we've been waking to marine layers that block out the sun until lunchtime and last night they returned by dinner.  Ugh!  I hope we get some more tomatoes that these this year.  Next year, we will have to do something drastic about the tomato growing around here.  Either we need a small, portable greenhouse, or only plant early fruiting varieties. 



sauce toms



green beans, fall chard, and scallions

Onions are ready to harvest.  I may have planted a few too closely this year, so i'll be cooking those up this week for our hamburgers.  There are quite a few out there though that are the size of the one in the lower left of the picture.  Maybe i can try a braid!!

It sure will be nice to have a bigger place someday to grow all these things.  Won't have to feel like i need to squeeze it all in. ;)