Weekend update

I got to pick my first tomatoes on Saturday.

Sweet baby girl

That first taste of garden-fresh tomato in the summer is priceless.

My scarlet runner beans are blooming.

Ever since I saw them in Denmark last summer, I wanted some orange bean flowers in my garden. I even planted some in my flower bed because they're so pretty.

My Jacob's cattle beans are blooming, too.

These are very pale purple in real life, but look white in the picture.

The squash on the hugul is still doing well.

I trimmed some of the radishes to give it some room to grow.

Before

After

We've had a lot of rain lately, but it looks like we're going to get a break this week and have a chance to dry out. I'm a little worried that my potatoes are going to rot.

Filling the freezer

I picked my second head of broccoli the other day. I only planted two plants, so that's pretty much the last of it.

I still can't believe I grew broccoli. Look at how nice it looks:

I didn't see any bugs on either of them. Even so, I let them sit in salt water for awhile after picking them.

Since we haven't finished eating the first one (despite a delicious broccoli cheese quiche), I decided to freeze the second one.

All cut up

Blanched and frozen

I've been freezing most of the peas, too.

Almost 3/4 pound!

So my one head of broccoli and small bag of peas won't really fill the freezer, but it's still nice to know they're there and I can eat good garden food whenever I want.

Around the garden

I've found myself getting somewhat forgetful about harvesting things this year. I was a little late on the beets, several of the peas were too big before I picked them, and I just remembered to check on the carrots yesterday. I've been having so much fun watching stuff grow, that I almost forgot that's not the last step.

The garden - June 25th

Yesterday, I managed to give the garden a pretty good once over and spotted a few things going on.

The basil is doing very well.

The zinnias are all blooming. This variety has smaller flowers than the ones I planted last year, but they're still pretty.

Quite a few of the onions have fallen over already. It seems a little early.

Pay no attention to the weeds

The radishes and lettuce have covered the hugel nicely. We've picked and eaten some radishes, but I'm mostly just leaving everything there.

There has been a lot of erosion, to the point that my squash plant almost fell off the end. It looked like this a week ago:

It's growing away from the mound, and its roots were coming out of the dirt. I tried to dig them down in and cover them with more topsoil. So far, it's working, and the plant looks much better. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Last but not least, I've got several volunteer tomato plants.

I'm gambling that I can pick the beans before these tomatoes become a problem. I might need these plants because a couple of my other tomato plants aren't looking very good.

Harvesting

I've been picking lots of things from the garden lately.

Peas

Broccoli. Now you see it...

Now you don't.

Cabbage

Beets

Look at how big the broccoli was:

The cabbages were clearly getting chewed on, but there's plenty left for me

I've been freezing the peas. I pickled some beets today and froze the rest.

Frozen beets

I think the broccoli and cabbage will probably just get eaten fresh. Yum.

On trend

Even after planting all the vegetables in the big garden and on the hugulkulture mound and putting some annuals in my flower beds, I couldn't resist the urge to do some more planting, so I combined two popular garden trends in one.

Wheelbarrow and potting soil bag planter

I planted flowers in the wheelbarrow last year but with my lax watering and the local wildlife digging around and chewing on the plants, they didn't do well.

I think the potting soil bag will help keep the soil from drying out so fast. I doubt anything can save the flowers from blue jays burying peanuts.

At least they'll be pretty for a few days.

Bean tower update

This post has nothing to do with beans. It's about the other way that my bean towers can be used.

This family of mourning doves thinks my bean towers are a great place to sit and watch the yard

Isn't that baby adorable?

First eats from the garden!

I ate all of the peas sitting on the patio Friday morning. They were delicious.

I could've been eating kale for awhile now, but I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to eat it. I planted it not even knowing if I like it. I think I'm first going to try kale chips and then I'll probably throw some in smoothies.

The radishes came off of the hugul garden. At the time I planted them, I wasn't even thinking of eating them. I just wanted something that would grow fast to help hold the soil down. They certainly grew fast. The mound is covered with a radish and lettuce forest.

I haven't eaten any of the lettuce. There are enough weeds mixed in that I'm not sure I'd want to try at this point. The squash is growing well, although it isn't spreading as fast as I expected.

The nasturtiums I planted on the north side of the mound are also coming along nicely.

So far, I'm happy with my hugul experiment.