Last evening my hubby told me that he found some nasty tomato worms. That in itself wasn't unusual, what was unusual was that he found them on the green pepper plants. Well those naughty little things don't have much of a chance once I know they are in my garden. This morning I jumped out of bed and headed right out to the garden to start my hunt. It didn't take long before I had success. This little guy, one of two that I found, was about 3 inches long. He is now in tomato worm heaven with his friend.
How about a little tour around my vegetable garden today? Maybe it will encourage and inspire you to start your own home garden next spring!
Every year around the middle of August, my husband goes to a gladiola farm south of here and brings home the most gorgeous flowers. He buys them every week, until the season is over. He started doing it many years ago after I told him a story about my mom and dad. Daddy would wait until the glads were 25 cents a bunch, then he'd buy them for mom. Paul always reminds me that he only paid 25 cents a bunch! Last year, however, they stopped selling them, so I was disappointed not to see them displayed weekly on my fireplace hearth. This year, I planted about 100 gladiola bulbs that my friend Bertie Abraham gave me. I'm very excited to see what colors I get, it could be just about anything! The plants are growing nicely as you can see.
Here are our cucumbers, looking good, although the cucumbers don't seem to be as juicy tasting as usual, could be the heat.
The zucchini are doing well, just coming on too fast, can't eat them fast enough!!! Made zucchini soup the other day, it was pretty tasty!
The tomatoes have a lot of greenery, but not a lot of fruit. We know we were lacking nitrogen in the soil when we planted, but have since fertilized so we should see some improvement. I think we have about 32 tomato plants this year. My husband enjoys canning tomatoes, not me!
In this next picture I want to show you a creation by my genius husband. This contraption, which sits in the middle of the garden helps keep the hose up off the ground. It swivels around so that we can reach all areas of the garden without dragging the hose between plants risking breakage. It makes it so easy to water. Also, you may have noticed that we plant everything in ditches. This helps keep watering to a minimum, we just water in the ditches which also keeps the weeds at bay.
Next to the tomatoes are the peppers. We plant green, red (which all green peppers turn if you leave them on the plant long enough), purple, yellow and orange. Although my husband picked up the peppers this year so I am not 100% sure what we'll get!
Next to the peppers are beets and green beans. The bunnies seem to like the beets this year, so I probably won't have too many. Those little stinkers can squeeze through the fence and devour the plants very quickly.
In the last garden row you'll see my husband's beloved parsnips (with a few beets at the beginning of the row). He works so hard to plant them, then he thins them about 3 times, and weeds them. With painful knees it's not a pleasant job. Parsnips are best when harvested after the first hard freeze, so we generally harvest between December and February. I freeze what we can't eat so we have them on hand to cook with a juicy pork roast.
Paul always lets a plant go to seed each year so he has plenty of seeds for the upcoming year. Here's this years plant, almost ready to harvest the seeds.
This is my little patch of pea pods. All the ones you see on the vines were eaten this morning. They are so wonderful fresh, I tend to devour them right in the garden so they rarely make it to the table. I also planted a tasty Arugula plant in front of the vines. Arugula has a peppery taste and is great to spruce up salads. Some of this will get eaten tonight. Arugula, like lettuce, is a cool weather plant, so it's straining under these 98 degree days!
My zinnias, which I have planted across the front of the garden, are so resilient. They just keep on blooming and the blooms last a long time. I have yet to dead head these beautiful flowers. I picked a couple 10 days ago and put them in my guest bathroom, they are still pretty, amazing.
Well, that about does it. I hope that you enjoyed your garden tour. If you get out this way, do stop in, there's a zucchini here with your name on it!!!! Don't live nearby? Then visit your local farmer's market often!
Thanks for coming along today!
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