Fruits and Veggies

Late May.

Come along with me on a tour of my garden, nice and close up!

Carrot sprouts are peeking up through the compost.

The sage set to blooming--I will have to cut back all the blooms.

In the strawberry patch were surprises from the overnight rains.

A strawberry to pick!

There were lots of green strawberries, and beautiful blossoms as well.

My pea plants, sown much later than I would've liked, were sprouting up.  Hopefully I'll be able to harvest their delicious fruit before the summer heat sets in.

Baby pea sprouts.

Above and below, my green bean plants were taking root.

Tomato blossoms!

My parsley is looking beautiful this year.

This basil--columnar basil--is a new herb for me this year.  The leaves are smaller than traditional basil, but can be used in the same way.  They also taste the same as the traditional basil.  You may recall that a number of years ago, my traditional basil developed basil downy mildew, and I needed to find an alternative for the several years experts say it will take for the mildew to finally be gone in my garden.  I've had success with Medinette basil (not pictured but I'm growing it again this year), and I thought I'd try this variety.

Here's to a new garden and harvest season!!


Back to life,
Christine

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End of May in my garden

Here is a macro tour of my back yard garden, from today's wanderings.

Above and below, my Medinette basil seems to be thriving.  I snipped off the about-to-flower tops so the plant can bush out and grow larger.  There doesn't seem to be an issue with basil downy mildew, which my regular variety basil plants had last year.  From what I read, the mildew can remain in the soil for several years, so I'm anxious to see how this variety fares in my garden.  Ohhh, I can't wait for fresh basil, for pesto, for...!

I found some bright orange mushrooms growing in the mulch.

I have two new sage plants; hopefully they'll last a few years!

The tomato plants have lots of blossoms, and I'm looking forward to trying a new heirloom variety--black brandywine.

Amazing amounts of strawberries beginning to grow!

And, I picked a few ripe ones, too!  My very first, very small, harvest.

Back to life,
Christine

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August in My Vegetable Garden

August 18.

Whew.  I had just gotten a hold on canning all those tomatoes awaiting me after my trip to Lake Bonaparte.  Now it was time to bring my camera along on another harvest day, just a few days after the last one, it seemed.

The new basil plants I had purchased seemed to be doing okay, although they did show signs of the basil downy mildew that plagued my last batch of plants.

My squash plants were a little yellow still, but green at the ends, and the fruit was growing nicely.

There were little sweet red Fiesta peppers growing all over my two little plants!

And the Giant Marconi sweet green peppers were prolific!  I had never harvested so many in the three years I have been growing them.  I really love this pepper variety!

My three parsley plants were growing like bushes, and I harvested some to chop up and freeze.  Looks like I would have to do it again soon!

Some of my heirloom tomato plants were at least seven feet tall!  Standing there, I could barely see the roof of my house beyond the plants.

 Big Boy tomatoes.

Garden overview.

And, here's what I harvested this day:

And a quick follow-up, a few days later.  My peppers looked like this:

Back to life,
Christine

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Basil Downy Mildew

July 23.

It was high time I went out in my garden to harvest my basil.  Or so I thought.  Here's what it looked like a few weeks earlier:

Healthy and doing great.  I had already harvested a bit for caprese salad, but now it was time for a large harvest.  Or so I thought.  The leaves looked a little pale.  Upon closer inspection, here's what they looked like:

There were plenty of  good leaves, without spots or yellowing, and there were many "good" leaves with what looked like dirt on them.  I thought I'd simply wash them off and use them.  Then I researched a little on the internet, and discovered to my dismay that my basil plants were infected with basil downy mildew.

Ack.  Here is a  helpful link about this disease.  I decided to hack the plants down, spray them with neem oil (an organic alternative), and see what happened.

You can't imagine--but maybe you can--how sad this was to do in the middle of summer, when I should have had basil for at least two more months.  No caprese, no pesto, no home-seasoned spaghetti sauce.  This was a sad day in my garden.

I decided a few weeks later to dig them up and trash them.  According to the link about, basil downy mildew spores can survive in the soil for several years, so I'll need to be very careful where I plant future basil.  I may do it in the front yard garden next year.

When I went to Home Depot to purchase more garden Velcro tape (for my tomato plants which had fallen over yet again), I found one little pot of basil left for $4, so I purchased that and had Danny plant them in my newly dug up garlic bed.  Hopefully they'll survive; so far (early August) they seem to be doing okay.  I can't harvest anything yet, since I don't want to weaken them, but I'll be happy with any amount of basil this year.

A garden is a small slice of life.  There are so many rewards, but there can be setbacks and sudden downturns.  I need to make sure my trust is in the Lord, with both the amazing harvests and the barren times too.  It's not easy, though.


Back to life,
Christine

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Quick Mid-July Garden Update

July 16.

Here's a quick photo update of my garden!

My butternut and acorn squash plants started yellowing a while ago, so I started fertilizing them on a weekly basis.  Here are the plants in mid-July, still a bit yellow but with several squash growing nicely.  I'm praying they'll make it to harvest time!

Butternut squash.

The acorn squash looks better and greener than the butternut:

My tomato plants--especially the heirloom varieties--are growing beautifully.  These below, called Paul Robeson, are over six feet tall!

And below are my Big Boy tomatoes.

I really need to get out here to harvest my basil; the plants are growing like weeds!

Here's the garden, from my pool deck as usual.  :)

Back to life,
Christine

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