A sea of green

Last week was very busy with hubby on vacation, my birthday, the 4th of July holiday, and a short trip out of town. Whew! I think I need a rest!

Our veggie garden is in wonderful shape. It's the biggest and best garden we've had in years. It contains sweet corn, okra, green and wax beans, tomatoes (from Juliets to Big Rainbows), sweet and hot peppers, cabbage, brussels sprouts, potatoes, onions, lettuces (leaf, butter, and romaine), zucchini and yellow summer squash, winter squash, bok choy, eggplant, kohlrabi, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, radishes, sunflowers, and a few herbs. Almost all of it we started from seed in the house or planted directly into the garden. Not a pesticide, herbicide, or chemical fertilizer has or will be used on our garden. We've weeded, added organic compost from our compost pile, mulched to keep down weeds and retain moisture, and protected plants from munching critters with wire cages and fencing. Now we can finally sit back and wait for the harvest to come in.

A couple of weeks ago we consumed the radishes. They were a bit spicy from the warm weather! I harvested the first 4 summer squash yesterday. The cucumbers have blossoms and little cukes all over them. Won't be long! We ate a wilted lettuce salad on the 4th using some of our garden lettuce. Our neighbor told us it would be bitter from the heat but it wasn't in the least. There are some early peppers to pick and tiny green tomatoes forming. The bok choy needs to be picked. We may have a squash and bok choy stir fry for dinner tonight.

That's the fun of having a vegetable garden. You walk out to the garden every day and see what's ready to be picked. Whatever is ready becomes part of dinner that night.

Have you ever seen fennel get this tall? It's growing on either side of my wisteria. (I may have told you the story of my wisteria. I brought a start of it from my parent's house when I married. My mom planted a start of it from her mother's wisteria at her new home when she married. It's kind of a family heirloom. :-)

We have a few fruit trees too. Our pear tree is covered with tiny pears this year. The branches are already dipping to the ground. Our apple trees are full of apples. We need to find a safe way to protect the apples from worms. Our blueberry bushes have already produced 2 quarts of berries with more to come.

I guess you could say we have more of a farm than a yard. LOL! I'm a little old fashioned that way. I like to grow some of my own food. That way I know where it came from, how it was produced, and what was used on it. I won't have to worry about any salmonella bacteria on tomatoes from my garden. Grow your own! It's fun and the taste is great!