Garden 2011 Update

Well it is down right steamy around here, but the sweet corn and tomatoes are loving it! For that reason and the fact that my husband's aunt has a swimming pool 5 minutes away can I tolerate temps in the 90s with 70-80% humidity.

I thought it was high time that I post an update on my garden. As you can see from the pictures it is bursting with greenery. No, most of it isn't weeds, but that doesn't mean we haven't been battling the grass. Ah that trials of a somewhat newly established garden.
Cubanelle Peppers (notice the haze...it's HOT!)

Lettuce was great this year, as was the spinach-although it got a bit weedy, making it hard to harvest without grass/weeds mixed in. Basil has be bountiful and I've been making pesto about once a week for a few weeks. I'm pretty disappointed in my peppers, as many of the plants appear to be lacking any peppers! The Cubanelle plant has quite a few that will be ready in a few days, but other than that I seem to have a bell pepper blight of some kind. Maybe they'll come around a bit late. I was excited to pick my first cherry tomatoes this week..even if there have only been 5 or 6 so far-the plant is loaded with green ones though! The potato plants are huge and I'm hoping that is a foreshadowing of what's to come when we dig them up. The onions are doing pretty good, although they aren't nearly as big as the ones my husband's grandmother planted at her house. I'm looking forward to harvesting some of my kale to make colcannon potatoes and when I do I'll be posting the recipe for this Irish treat!

As I believe I mentioned in my first garden post, I actually have two gardens this year. I need to take a picture of the one at grandma's because it's huge! My sister-in-law got 4 buckets of green beans last week and there are more to come, even after I picked a bunch on Monday. The cucumbers are exploding, but sadly many have gotten too big for pickles, but once again, there are more coming. The tomatoes are HUGE, but no red ones yet. I picked 6 acorn squash this week, but haven't tried them yet since it's been so hot and I didn't feel like turning on the oven to roast them. Maybe I'll try grilling them???

The sweet corn patch is looking great. We've gotten about 5-7 dozen so far and I froze 3 quarts today. There is so much more that isn't quite ready yet, but they'll be coming quick.

The bounty is just beginning for this year and I'll be buried in corn, tomatoes and beans in no time! Loving the summer's harvest and God's beautiful creation!

~Emmy