Organic, Heirloom Garden Progress

Now that good weather is finally here to stay for awhile, my garden has been very happy. We didn't start getting warm weather until the first part of August and even then it hasn't been too hot. My plants seem to be really loving it. Right now we are harvesting the cool weather plants because we got a late start in planting, but I think in about 2 weeks we'll be getting some warm weather plants (I hope). We planted more than we need, but we are having a great time sharing with friends in neighbors.

We are so glad to have invested in these raised beds and took the time to put landscape matting between the rows. It has saved a lot of weeding time. The other item we splurged on this year was the watering system. It saves water and time!  

The top row is planted in carrots, still waiting for them to get bigger. As you can see, we've had lettuce coming out of our ears! We are now starting to harvest green-leaf chard and kohl rabbi. The next row down is onions and garlic. We are harvesting bunch onions, but the Walla Walla sweet onions are still very small.

I didn't know I had planted a banana pepper plant, but it is going great guns!

You can see some of the trellised green beans. I think we'll be getting some this week. I planted 100 pole beans, way more than we need, but that is OK. We'll share! In the next row, we have six surviving potato plants, and I lots of kale. I love kale in soups, but I think it is yummy fresh in salads, too. It is full of nutrition, too! Then you can see my pepper plants. I've got a lot of peppers on, but it remains to be seen whether they ripen up or not. I planted a whole bunch of sweet cherry peppers. Waiting....

So here I have corn, which is even taller since I took these pics last week, then I have 60 pickling cukes trellised. I got my first slicer last week and a few pickling cukes, but not enough to do pickles this last weekend. They are also way taller now then when I took this pic. And next , are the prolific pole beans. 

At the top of the garden, I have peas planted. They are finally taking off, and while I know it is late for peas, I'm hoping to get quite a few. At the bottom of the pea row, we have more corn that Josiah planted and three zucchini plants and a yellow squash plant. We've been enjoying fresh zucchini cooked in all sorts of ways. Of course, my favorite is fried zucchini in coconut oil.

The corn seems to be pollinating well.

We have a lot of green tomato sets, but nothing is close to getting red. I get the most impatient for red tomatoes. I love them! Can't wait to make some salsa.

I thought this corn silk looked so pretty.  The silks are starting to turn color and kernels are forming. So exciting! We've never grown corn before. Now if I can just keep Josiah from playing war games in the corn. Several stalks have been sacrificed. Urrgghh!

Even though our garden has been so late in getting going because of the cooler weather, I think it is going to produce more than enough. Hope all your gardens are doing great, too! 

God Bless,

Jackie