The garden neglect built.

If you noticed a dearth of garden posts this year, yes it's been neglected. I hadn't stepped foot in the poor patch of dirt since last fall not even to clear out the spent plants much less this spring to make space for this year's plants. But the other day I finally faced my mental block head on and stepped into the garden. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed myself. Yes me, the black thumb had a good time and in the great outdoors at that. Those who know me will know exactly how much of a stretch that is.

First, I checked on the herbs. I was surprised at the amount of plants that had overwintered. The rosemary my neighbor said would grow like a weed and take over my yard is doing exactly that and I'm giddy. My vision of being able to plant some in the front of the house and rid ourselves of that awful pampas grass might just come true.




The sage is doing well, all silvery green and bushy. I lopped off the blossoms that had sprouted in hopes of keeping the herb plant portion going strong.






No I've not taken up headshrinking in my spare time. Just a carrot that overwintered and is looking quite um, rustic. I found it along with two onions from last season, eureka!






I had heard that strawberry plants send off multiple runners that grow into more plants so last year when my seed didn't sprout I bought one plant. One teeny little strawberry plant that gave us a total of seven or eight strawberries all season. Meet my proud garden mom, she's sent off runners galore.




When taking these pictures most of the berries were still green but now we've picked a few handfuls of small berries and the plants are full of blossoms.




This lemon balm is the plant that won't die. It's hard to tell scale from the picture but it's about 3 feet across and I'm about to hack into it if any of my local friends want a bunch for tea (very calming kid tea by the way). I need to keep it from blocking the sun to the German thyme plant that cowers at its feet.






The oregano is also alive and kicking too. I just wish I had found some of the smaller leafed Caribbean oregano to add to the garden - this is the larger leafed Greek oregano.




I threw a bunch of swiss chard seed into the plot last year which came back as a volunteer plant this year.




Finally, my pride and joy - the blueberry bush. I spent all summer last year watering this baby on a daily basis since I'd heard that fruit production is dependent on how much water the bush receives the previous season. Seems all the effort was worth it. The blueberry bush is full of fruit and I'm jealously guarding it from the birds.






My high tech defense mechanism? A CD on a string. I hope it works because I remember the birds last year divebombing the bush as I watched in horror from a window.




Alas, there was a casualty. The smaller bush from last year didn't make it when a colony of ants set up their home in its rootball. Darn ants and their knowledge that I refuse to use chemical measures to rid myself of them. Well I've got news for them - it's called diatomaceous earth and I know how to use it.




Oh and just for kicks. If you've ever wondered what my hardworking, white collar techie husband does when he lets his hair down, here you go.



Nah, he does play computer games but in order to keep the neighbors from coming to our front porch with pitch forks he does this thankless job all summer long. Boy is he ever glad we moved out of Florida or this would be a year round thing.

One of the last garden updates

At least for the summer vegetables. I've had a good time watching the garden flourish this summer. Even though my tomatoes succumbed to late blight I was able to take off all the green tomatoes and eat most green while some finished ripening off on the counter. This latest walk through the garden produced an eggplant, a whole bunch of of peppers and some more tomatoes that managed to survive.

Almost all the herbs have done well but the basil and lemon balm have tried to take over the whole bed. This patch of basil is at least three feet across.




The lemon balm, at least two feet across. I need to harvest plenty of this to dry for the winter season. It makes a super calming tea.




A while back I noticed a vine growing out of the compost bin. Turns out it was a cantaloupe vine! The cantaloupe I'd been tending all summer died about a month ago and here was a cantaloupe vine growing all on its own out of the compost bin. It has at least three melons already growing and I picked one in my excitement only to realize I picked it just a tad early.






Can I bottle this time when all he wants to do is pick marigolds and hand them to me?




Baby holding a prized green tomato. I can tell she's itching to get into the dirt. In time, my dear, in time.

D, you rock

I swear if I were pregnant my next child would be named after the friend who gave me a bunch of jalapenos from her garden and the other friend who made the delivery. Why? Because I was able to enjoy these Pioneer Woman poppers for the first time.




Mmmmm. It's no surprise that in my "pantry staples" are things like cream cheese and bacon. So what else am I supposed to think when I get a bunch of jalapenos? I was going to be good and save them to make some pepper jelly but then the afternoon munchies hit and the oldest was begging to taste the jalapenos since he's been on a spicy kick lately. Poppers it was and oh my goodness. My throat is still a little sore but it was totally worth it.

Once they were out of the oven and only about five minutes into cooling, he begged to taste and popped one in his mouth.




Wait for it . . .

Wait for it . . .

Now! If you think that stopped him, you're wrong. Apparently Evil Knievel wanted more burn and he proceeded to eat his weight in jalapeno, cream cheese and bacon.




The younger one is not so fond of anything spicy so I figured he would sit this one out but once he saw the bacon wrapping he begged to try them.




Although he lunged for the water, he pressed on peeling the bacon and eating the cream cheese off the subsequent bites.




Mmmmmmm. I'm drooling just looking at these pictures and Pioneer Woman's suggestion of putting a couple of these on a burger has now become a mission.




In other pepper fronts, my jungle, um garden is producing. I braved the weeds to pick up these peppers, tomatoes and tons of herbs to make a lasagna the other night that according to Mr. Maricucu was, "the best one yet". I guess all that back breaking dirt hauling in the spring was worth it.

The garden, currently known as the jungle.

Last year I read Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. He mentions his experience in tending a community garden where residents rented plots for the growing season. Mel wrote that everyone would spend the first two months of the gardening season working the freshly tilled earth, planting and watering but that come midsummer, vacations and other things took priorities so that the neat gardens would be a mess of plants, produce and weeds. I remember thinking in horror, "If I ever had a successful vegetable garden there's no way mine would go untended!"

May I present my jungle, um garden. Now granted it's not been vacations or pools that have gotten in the way of tending the garden. Just a perfect storm of a week's worth of rain and busyness that has allowed me to put off wandering in it for a few days. Today I took a walk around to reaquaint myself. Care to join me?




In the first photo are the tomato plants in the veggie beds which stand taller than I do at about 5 1/2 feet. Below is the herb garden.




I'm pretty pleased with the strawberry patch. Only the one plant I put in live survived, the crowns that I planted never sprouted after the slugs chewed off the little bit of green they sent off. However, strawberries are thrivers and send off runners. My one plant has spawned two new plants and has sent off runners for two more. Now I understand why Mel mentioned planting strawberries in their own bed.




The crazy basil bush. Pretty obvious that in my neglect this week the flowers have sprouted and I just realized that I overplanted basil. To my local peeps, if you need some just let me know and I'll give you a bag.




The swiss chard. It's beautiful and I only planted the white variety. Next year I'd love to plant some of the rainbow varieties as well.




The tomatoes, ah the tomatoes. I kind of went overboard there too and I still hope to freeze some but I overplanted not knowing nearly how much tomato plants grow and produce. Especially for a home where only one person (me) eats fresh tomatoes at the moment. There is our first ripe tomato of the season and as I type it's hanging out on my counter waiting to join in a yummy pepperjack grilled cheese.




Of course there are many more tomatoes waiting in the wings.




Including these beautiful and delicious brandywines. Brandywines are my favorite variety, they have such character too.




Little bitty eggplants. This one is only about three inches long at the moment but I see many more blooms on the plants.




Remember the lettuce head I was afraid to pick? About two feet tall at the moment.




And definitely gone to seed but it's just gorgeous. Look at the deep crimson leaves!




This next part is called God creates a way. This pepper plant fell over a couple of weeks ago. I mean keeled over, laying down completely horizontally. I didn't have the heart to rip it up and my attempts at standing it back up were no good. Yet these cubanelles are growing as if the nothing was wrong with the plant!




I'm not sure if this vine is cucumber or canteloupe. Why? Because I didn't plant it, it's growing out of my compost bin. A few months ago I also had potato plants growing out of the compost bin from a few that had been tossed in.




Emerging bell peppers, my hand for scale.




Finally I'm growing rosemary! The seeds I planted and replanted last year wouldn't sprout so this year I bought one plant and divided it in two. I'm hoping to transplant some to the front entrance and replace some horrid pampas grass that the builders put in.




Fragrant, silvery sage. Have to be careful with this as a nursing mom since it does affect my supply but I'm itching to make some saltimboca.




Public service announcement to neat and tidy gardeners. When you're neat and rip up plants on schedule you miss out on letting the plants work for you. Here, my cilantro has gone to seed, the litte balls are coriander. Once the plant dries the seeds will drop and sprout next spring.




I'll admit I'm going to miss the garden in the winter, especially for the photos. I'm eager to see what will overwinter in our in between North Carolina climate. Oh and last night, the staple gun and I got to business.

Lest it revolt from neglect . . .

. . . let me update on the garden. I know I tend to go on jags where all I do is cook or sew or garden. It's just the way I am, haven't really mastered the simultaneous juggling of my interests so I follow them like a little kid in a candy store. Frivolously, yet wholeheartedly focused on that one interest du jour.

See that beautiful head of lettuce? It's the only one that survived what I affectionately call the slug massacre of 2009. It's so pretty that I'm sure it's going to bolt on me for fear of picking it. But in the meantime it perks up every time I give it a little water after a parched few days (much like today).


Here are the beautiful carrots. I love watching the carrots morph from little teeny frondy tops to huge bunches worthy of any bunny that might try to nab them. This time around we're trying to be patient and let them grow enough then slightly mature in the soil to get the sweetest carrots possible. Let's see how long I can hold off my oldest once he remembers these are carrots.




Look! A banana pepper! Oh yes, the pepper plants survived and look like they will produce quite nicely. This is the first pepper so far and I've been letting it mature while still keeping an eye on it daily to avoid having a bug beat me to the harvest. I find it interesting that such a short bushy plant gives such large impressive fruit.




Isn't this eggplant blossom elegant? Slightly purple tinged and hopefully about to grow a full sized eggplant. There is some bug evidence on the lower leaves but I'm hoping they'll lay off the producing area.




Ahhh, and the babied crop of my garden. The tomatoes. This one plant seems to be setting a nice amount of fruit and since all the tomatoes in my garden are of the indeterminate variety I've been trying to amass some tomato recipes in order to be ready for the continuous harvest.




Finally a little update on the kids' garden. The green bean plants are still producing enough green beans here and there to keep the kids hunting through the bushy leaves.




The tomatoes thrown in the corner are getting tall enough that I'll have to put a stake on that side of the box. I think these were brandywine which is an heirloom variety and pretty tasty.




A teeny watermelon in the forefront and the previous watermelons in the background. Seems the boys threw watermelon seeds in the box where the cucumbers were growing. My mom first spotted this little guy during her visit and the boys have adopted it giving me daily updates.