The View From Here - June 26th

The garden has really progressed since the last time I posted about it nearly two weeks ago. Everything is growing like crazy and it won't be too long before we're eating fresh veggies.

The cherries are a bit late this year. In previous years we have been able to pick a basket to take up north to my family reunion but this year, they just weren't ready. This made me frown (and I'm sure it will make a few of my cousins frown, too). Hopefully they will be ready when we get back.

Here are a few pictures of the garden (please note: I went outside to take the dog for a walk and planned to take photos on the way back. It began to spit as soon as I got outside so I decided to take the photos first. By the time I walked behind the barn to the garden, it was pouring. I still took the photos. As a result, please excuse the increasingly poor quality as the photos progress. It was a snap and go session).

The peas are beginning to make their way up the lattice. They are a bit late so hopefully we'll still be able to get some fresh peas despite this crazy heat.

The potatoes came up very quickly and started growing like crazy. Have you ever seen potatoes grown in old tractor tires? We decided to give it a try this year, so hopefully it turns out okay. You can read about the tire planting process here.

The tomatoes are coming along really nicely as well. Many of the plants are starting to show some buds. Because of the rain I couldn't get in close enough to show you.

The peppers are looking much the same as they did two weeks ago, just taller. More buds are showing up each day and all 18 plants look very healthy.

Here you can see more pepper plants as well as the Okra plants. The Okra are the four plants closest to the bottom of the photo. They were looking a little shabby last week but after some nice rain and high heat, they appear to be rallying up.
The turnip have gone crazy over the past two weeks. It seems everyday I can notice a change. Soon we will thin them out and attempt to transplant a few of them further down the row where the onions were supposed to be, but never came up.
The beans are getting pretty tall and since the last post, many more plants have appeared. We planted four rows and at one point it seemed as though only the far side of the rows came up. We weren't sure if we planted them too deep or what. So, we added a few more yellow bean plants and now the rows have filled in. We even had to pull a few plants out that were too close together.

Here are the beginnings of our carrots. We only have two carrot bunches, thanks to my expert weeding skills. The weeds were very heavy in this area and I got so carried away with ripping them out that I accidentally ripped an entire bunch of carrots out. Oops! At least carrots aren't my favourite veggie.

Beets. Soon they will be tall enough that I can pick the tops and boil or sautee them like spinach. Also, on the very edge of the photo you can see where the lettuce is coming. We have two bunches and they should be ready for picking within the next week or two. I am so excited to have our first "fully homegrown meal" of the summer!

Top to bottom: Squash, cucumber (very tiny in between the first and second mound), summer squash, zucchini. These plants are also going like crazy. I can't believe how much they seem to grow in one or two days. On each plant, we can see between 10-15 squash/zucs/cucs starting.

Here is the evidence of our first zucchini plant coming along. The cucumber plants also have a number of flowers blossoming, but with the rain I didn't take the time to get close up photos of them.

A view of the entire garden.

We're off today to my family reunion in Northern Ontario so I will be absent from blogland until Wednesday or Thursday. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you when I get back.