Shiny Cooking

Warning: massive photo post ahead. Like, 30 photos. All of my garden. Yeah, real exciting.

Inspired by the lovely Diana and her garden porn.

First, let’s try and get an idea of the scope of this garden. It’s roughly triangular.

Sheesh, it’s so big you can’t pick anything out.

At least now we can pick some stuff out. Looks like some big ass tomatoes.

Wow. Taking pictures at midday was so not a good idea. But see, we’re getting some perspective. There’s those tomatoes again, with a rogue muskmelon (we think) growing between the first two, oregano, rosemary, and peppers in view.

of cages and flowerpots

Parsley and basil, both nice and gigantic. I should make some pesto, shouldn’t I? The basil keeps sending up flower stalks and I keep having to pinch them off.

I fear the basil is in some sort of willful reproductive battle with me.

See that flowerpot? I used it to cover the basil after it was transplanted, when we got some low-temperature nights in early June. It was once that small.

Here’s an opalka plum heirloom tomato. I tried these and Amish paste last year, and the opalkas won by a mile. They taste great and they’re pure flesh — nearly no seeds and little juice. They’re great for sauces and supposedly paste too, but I’m not anal enough to make my own tomato paste.

I just might be anal enough to make my own ketchup this year, though. But seriously, if you’re going to try a plum/paste tomato, forget the overrated Amish, get an opalka.

The tomato cages? About five feet high. The tomatoes are kind of short this year due to the cool season we’re having.

aww, those poor beets

Don’t laugh at my poor beets. Please. The carrots are nice and fluffy though. Check out the dying peas to the right and their pathetic fence.

Many of the beets are showing this weird blight. I have no idea what it is, but it doesn’t seem to bother them. My gardening philosophy is, if it doesn’t destroy the part I eat, let it slide. However, if you know what it is, let me know!

broccoli gives good head

Ha, the broccoli leaves are getting chewed up too. Wait til you see the chard. But the plants are making damn nice heads. Which is a surprise, since they got chewed down to nubs by baby bunnies right after transplanting. They recovered. Obviously.

To the right you see a few of the 4 brazillion rogue tomatoes that came up. We saved a few because I have a soft spot for plants tenacious enough to come back. Even after I beat them down repeatedly.

See? I told you the broccoli gave nice head.

2 heads 1 cabbage. I have to stop making these dreadful allusions.

Oh! Check out the upper left corner! That’s my top-secret gardening trick. Throw all food garbage in the garden. Ha ha.

a leaf says eat me

Swiss chard. Lookin’ good.

Maybe not. The same little dudes who are snacking on the cabbage and broccoli leaves are chomping on chard. I just knew I should have begun picking it last week, when the leaves were still whole.

it wouldn’t be garden porn without a suggestive cucumber

Are camera angles the expression of our subconscious? I did not position the cucumber in any way.

We’re trellising the cucumbers and melons this year. Well, caging. Same diff. They seem to like it so far. Cukes are just starting to mature.

Check out the forest of dill. That’s what I was talking about in the dill dip post.

ha, she said melons

The Eden’s Gem melon, caged. It has a rogue tomato kind of invading it, but it seems pretty happy still. We decided to train up the cukes and melons because they keep getting hit by powdery mildew every year. I hope this helps.

My green bunching onions are all growed up now. They’re way big.

The hall of tomatoes. Two rows, about 10 plants total. We cut back this year. There’s stupice, Sudduth’s brandywine, black krim, eva purple, cherokee purple, opalka plum, and cherry roma. I think that’s all. I’m the only one who likes black krim. We got eva purple by accident last year and liked it a lot — it has beefsteak heirloom taste but looks as round and perfect as a supermarket tomato. Cherokee purple and cherry roma are new this year. Sudduth’s (pink) brandywine is the best. Tomato. Ever.

If you’re wondering why the rows are so far apart, we planted the tomatoes too close last year. They grew over the path and created a forested bier we had to walk under. A dark tomato tunnel.

Awww, check out the little kohlrabi!

Leeks. They’re much bigger now than they were. Which is good, because they kept being pulled out as weeds. “Look! There’s little onions growing here!” “Yes, those are leeks. Want to put them back in the ground?”

dill is the most promiscuous of all the herbs

Marigold and dill, together at last.

Marigold and tomatoes, together at last. It was supposed to be only marigolds. But again, my soft spot for plucky little plants won over.

weird, i’m all out of immature jokes now

Yellow onions. Soon they will be ready. Yesss.

i didn’t even know that was possible

The poblanos are getting big! All the peppers look really nice.

I let the last radishes go to seed because their little flowers were so pretty. To the right you can see the last of the lettuce.

I told you the radish flowers were pretty.

Two zucchini plants. Only it might be more like four, because we didn’t thin them. But they’re in two spots. Surprisingly, we’re keeping up with them pretty well. Only had a few monsters escape our eagle eyes so far.

Tomatillos and in front, an eggplant. To the right, two red cabbages.

halp! tomato disease emergency!

This looks a bit like something Kristen over at Gezellig Girl blogged about with her tomato. It died.

So far this is only on this one plant. Any ideas?

But let’s finish on a happy note. This little dude is almost ripe! It’s the first one! It’s on one of the rogue tomatoes too. Go rogues go!

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