I haven't posted much this summer about our Kitchen Garden. It's largely my husband's domain, although I designed and laid out the garden, and I help him by starting seeds occasionally, replenishing the mulch in the paths and the compost in the beds, plus other random tasks. But I confess that I'm usually so much more enchanted with the state of my flowers in bloom that I've largely neglected to post photos of the vegetables that we've grown.
Here are a few photos of our vegetable bounty from the last month or two:
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| A photo from back in July of the "greens" section of the Kitchen Garden: onions, celery, cabbage, chard, Brussels sprouts and carrots in the center. |
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| Okra in August. This usually grows pretty well for us (and it's delicious pan-fried in oil with onions and curry powder), but this year we allowed it to be shaded out by the numerous self-seeded sunflowers that grew up around the okra plants (so pretty!), and unfortunately the plants didn't bear much. We'll know better next year: Okra like sunshine! |
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| Pumpkins and watermelons last month. |
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| Potatoes harvested in late August. |
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| When we pulled out the superfluous sunflowers, we found this hoard of old cucumbers that my son had grown and left in a pile, which we thought was funny. |
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| Eggplant. |
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| Some beautiful tomatoes. |
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| The peppers did very well this year too. |
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Pumpkins against a backdrop of sweet corn gone over. We'll let the corn stalks stand
over winter to provide some windbreak for the chicken pen behind (to the south). |
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| Winter squash. |
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| Rainbow-colored chard. Quite pretty, I think. |
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| A photo of the overall layout of the Kitchen Garden, taken in July. The front two rows (eight beds) are for cutting flowers (my domain), although I believe that I'm going to downsize next spring, using only the first four beds on the left. I just don't need that many flowers, and I know I can grow them more efficiently (and with less work) in half the space. I'll have fun over winter re-designing these beds on paper and deciding which flowers I like best for cutting. |
My husband and I are still learning much about vegetable growing, and we make mistakes all the time. But I believe that we're becoming more knowledgeable each year, and the Kitchen Garden improves each season.
Thanks for reading! -Beth
Hi Beth, Looks like you and hubby had a very good harvest! I've never had luck with pumpkins - or squash for that matter - the squash bugs always get into my vines and kill the plants. Your potatoes look great too. I've never grown them. I tend to concentrate on a few things: my herbs, plus tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, spinach and radishes. Maybe I should bookmark this post for inspiration for next year. :)
ReplyDeleteBeth, It sounds like you're growing the most important things, the vegetables that don't take up too much space, taste best fresh and/or cost the most per pound if purchased in the store. This is just our hobby, one that we're still in the learning curve for: we don't always harvest soon enough, etc. But we live in the country and have the room, so we think we should have farmer-ish, outdoor growing pursuits. :-) Thanks for reading! -Beth
DeleteThe design of your kitchen garden is great and is not it nice to have your own harvest it tastes so much better.
ReplyDeleteJanneke, you're so right -- fresh-picked lettuce, tomatoes, etc. are just so much tastier than the store kind. Thanks for stopping by! -Beth
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