A Few Garden Pics

OK, so I found a couple of things to take pictures of. I have a fairly large pepper harvest coming up. This pepper is called "Sweet Chocolate" and was free seed that was sent to me when I placed an order with Baker Creek. This is the first ripe one that I've pulled off the plant and I haven't tasted it yet.


Here's what the other side of it looks like. I have a LOT of these peppers on my plants so if anyone local would like some let me know. Right now most of them are still green (and I'm sure they are great green) but eventually will ripen to this beautiful brown color.


This next photo is of the jalapeno plants. There are so many peppers on these plants. It's time to start making poppers and have a party!

Let me know if you need some fresh peppers.

Just Truckin' Along

There's been nothing going on here... I planted some stuff in the garden but it's too early to take pics. Then it got hot for a few days (the garden is a fall/cool weather garden) so time will tell if I ever have anything to take pictures of.

My wonderful cousin Nadine came for a short visit last weekend. To me she's like another sister. She and I met when I was 17 and she was 16 and we instantly hit it off. I wish she lived closer so that we could see each other more often than every 5 years or so. My husband thinks she and I should get away together each year to hang out. I'd like to see about doing The Amazing Race with her. We get along so great and when I'm not recovering from something I have a ton of energy, and I know that she does too. When she stayed with me for a few days in New York City a few years back we were unstoppable.

That's all the randomness I can pull out of my head for now.

I'll try to live a more exciting life. Oh, who am I kidding.

Starting the 2010 Fall Garden

I am lucky to live in an area where something can be growing year round. Well, maybe I'm unlucky because I don't have any good excuse to take a break. But, let's assume that I wouldn't want to take a break and that I'm lucky to be able to plant year round. :-D

Dave and I filled the newest bed with soil yesterday, and now we (or I) just have to prepare the other beds to receive plants. Right now the soil has settled and luckily we still have a small pile of new soil to put into them. The planting will start very, very soon.

Here are a few vegetable starts that I bought yesterday:

Those are (6) red cabbage, (6) green cabbage, (6) sugar snap peas, and (6) lettuce. Also yesterday I started seeds indoors for (2) celery plants, (2) collard green plants, (2) mustard green plants, two additional kinds of leaf lettuce (2 each), and three kinds of spinach (2 each). I will also direct seed some carrots, beets, another 2 kinds of peas. Finally, a few days ago I also direct seeded Brussels sprouts, 3 plants. That's what the next photo is of. Hopefully in a few weeks I"ll be able to show you some nice, healthy plants.

Below is basically an overview of the garden today. There are some parsley and basil in the near foreground. Then a row of 2 different kinds of eggplants. In the background are the tired tomato plants. They certainly gave me a bounty this year.


The eggplant plants look great but there aren't any eggplants on them. The temperatures have been cool and I didn't do a great job of shaking the plants to help them pollinate. Since I had them under a tunnel all summer long (for bug protection) that's what I was supposed to do since there was no wind or insects to do the job. I went ahead and uncovered them so that they can get some wind and full sun. These guys need heat to do their thing and I think the season will run out on them before anything great happens.


Soon (this week hopefully) I will harvest all of the basil for a big batch of pesto which I will portion and freeze. This will carry us through until next summer, easily.

This is an interesting tomato. Now, why would part of it still be so green?


Near future plans: Next month I will plant a bunch of garlic and it will be harvested next July. Also, we will put in an asparagus bed this coming spring. I already ordered all of the crowns.

Is it OK to let our dog chew on a stick?