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September 5, 2010 in garden porn • 6 comments
how does your garden grow? labor day edition
It’s Labor Day weekend, and the steamy, blowsy days of August are behind us, we hope. With the heat came fast growth, bringing us tomatoes and melons for the first time in two years. For ages after planting the garden in spring, each new crop was anticipated and loved: Look! Radishes! Kohlrabi! And now baby beets!
Then late July, August hits and everything is ready at once. Cucumbers. Zucchini. Sweet corn. Carrots. Green beans. Eggplant. Swiss chard. Onions. Peppers, sweet and spicy. And tomatoes. So many tomatoes. See those tall plants in the back? Those are the tomatoes.
There. A closer look. Yes, they’re six feet tall.
Rainbow chard. Swiss chard with prettiness.
I haven’t picked a leaf of it yet. That’s okay. It can stay until frost.
My Lacinato kale. Same deal.
show me something pretty already
When the lettuce bolted, one variety sent up such lovely flower stalks that I let it stay in the garden, even though (gasp!) it was no longer useful. Same for one of the red onions that decided to make a pincushiony seed head. Too cute to destroy.
And same for the garlic chives. I can still pick and eat them, too, in spite of the delicate white flowers.
I have four Genovese basil plants and two pumpkin plants. The basil and pumpkin are getting along for the time being, but the pumpkin would like nothing more than to absorb the basil into its vine-ridden maw.
The pumpkin also enjoys nom-ing on parsley.
Doesn’t this zucchini look like a tentacled space monster?
The poblano and jalapeño peppers grow tall on their supports like the tomatoes do. They’re also enjoying the hot summer and fruiting like crazy.
Dad’s cats love (fertilizing) the garden. It’s a myth that cats are solitary creatures. The cats do not care one bit about the garden…until a person is in it. Then they converge, they swarm, they pounce, they play, they get in the ever-loving way. Spaz, above, is a bit more mellow now, at least.
Whew. These pics missed so much, too. Nothing of the marigolds, parsnips, tomatillos, onions, marjoram, watermelon, dying cucumbers, carrots, beets, cabbage and I don’t remember what else. What’s still growing in your garden?
Man, that chard is frigging gorgeous.
Great garden!!! Looking forward to the fall, for sure!
Woohoo! Garden bounty! I’m from the Southern hemisphere so my garden is only just starting to explode. Mostly greens, one enthusiastic snow pea plant, leek, carrot, chives, calendula (with edible petals…mmmm), and waaaay more flat parsley than I know what to do with! I bartered some with the guy at the farmer’s market, and felt very farmer-y, heheh. Love your pics, and when you get to picking the Lacinato kale, I have a recipe I think you might like…unless you hate olives…
Oooh, I LOVE olives. Link me up!
Is there any trick to growing poblanos? I tried them for the first time this year and got huge plants with gazillions of blooms. I was super excited for a bounty, but got a gazillion dark, sweet, seedy pea-sized things instead. Not sure if it was operator error or a seed mixup. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated!!
Suzanne
Suzanne, that sounds weird! Doubt it was operator error, sounds like you got some bum seed/transplants. Maybe you got sold an ornamental type pepper or something. I know those have tiny fruits, but I didn’t think any ornamentals were poblanos. The seed I have says “Ancho Gigantea,” (ancho is what they’re called when dried) and the peppers get about 3–5 inches long.
I hope the plants are at least pretty! And sounds like they taste good at least.