Heather's Garden

And It's Tomato Time

Friday morning I was out in the garden as soon as I woke up.  And there was lots to do.  Most things looked great, SS2 watered well and a nice soaking rain hit early on Friday morning, but there was harvesting and weeding to do.  There were tomatoes (multiple varieties and cherry), beans, a zucchini, and a cucumber that day:

 

And on Saturday I found two more zucchini (cleverly hiding from me) and a handful of beans.  I have to admit that I haven't eaten any of the tomatoes yet, but hopefully tomorrow.  I can report that the long beans taste just like their smaller green bean cousins -- delicious!  Lee also harvested that last pot of fingerling potatoes (24 little guys) and they were eaten for dinner Saturday along with the beans, a zucchini, and a perfectly cooked pork loin.  So fun to eat a meal composed entirely of bounty from the garden and a protein from the store.

Lee rushed in from mowing the lawn and told me I should join him outside with my camera because there were butterflies all over his butterfly bush:

 

I didn't get a better photo of the yellow swallowtail, but I did get a great one of the black swallowtail:

 

I think it may just be calendar worthy.  What have you spotted in your garden this week?

A Little Local Color

We're still in south Florida (heading home tonight), but I thought I'd share some photos from our favorite day in Key West.  It's been so freaking hot and humid that we didn't get out to explore the way we normally would, so I didn't take out my camera as often as I normally would either.  But on Tuesday I actually took photos.  The hotel across the street from ours.  The rest wasn't as cool, but this part just got me each time we walked past it:

 

That was actually taken late in the day, but it seemed a good jumping off point for the post.  We started the day with breakfast at Blue Heaven.  During our 50 minute wait for a table I sat in the shade with my feet up staring at this:

 

Once we finally had a table I got this gem:

 

This guy clearly thought we were all invading his territory:

 

And honestly, I think we were:

 

We dashed from breakfast because Lee and I had a big adventure planned -- SNORKELING!  I'd never been and Lee is part fish.  He had a ball and I am glad I had the experience, but was not a big fan of the snorkel in my mouth.  I purchased a disposable underwater camera, so hopefully those photos turn out when I have it developed (and isn't it weird to say that?!).  My favorite part of the trip came after the snorkeling heading back in (the coral reef lies about 7 miles off shore) when they raised the sail and started serving the margaritas:

 

There was a huge Carnival cruise ship in the port.  Lee has a theory that the ship must be incredibly boring because the rails and windows were full of people watching us come back into port:

 

And this is my favorite photo from that day.  Lee and I on the boat after snorkeling:

 

More photos and tales to come (our drive from Marco Island to Key West and back, my mom and I visiting the butterfly house in Key West, and sushi!), but I'm off to enjoy our last day of vacation now.

Not At The Fling, But We Are Hitting The Road

My mom is turning 70 on Tuesday -- 70!  She's going to be horrified that I announced that here, but I think that she should be proud.  A.) She looks fantastic for 70 (probably for 55-60 too) and B.) Turning 70 and being in good health like my mom is something to be happy about.  So Lee and I are heading down to FL to celebrate with her and some other mystery guests.  Ironically, south Florida will be cooler than home when we arrive this weekend (everyone enjoying this heatwave?).  We'll be spending a few days on Marco Island then driving down to Key West -- where neither of us has ever been!

On the agenda is a visit to The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory.  Could there really be a butterfly only calendar in the offing this year?  Remember the fabulous shots of butterflies I got down in SC in April (or in this case a luna moth):

  

We'll also swing by the Hemingway Home and whatever else strikes our fancy.  Lee's been researching places to eat, so I'm sure I'll come back home a few pounds heavier than I left!

We'll miss all our garden blogging friends in Seattle, but as one said, "There will be other Flings, but you only have one mom."  See you soon, mom!  And not to worry, SS2 will be home and watering the garden faithfully.

At Least The Garden Is Flourishing In This Heat

And I am so excited about what the garden is producing!  So far we've harvested 3 good size zucchini and look what I found tonight -- a cucumber!  I'm going to give it a day or two before harvesting it:

 

The volunteer sunflower is blooming:

 

It's a much smaller flower than Lee and I expected, but pretty just the same.  It's stupid hot here, but not the worst weather we've had so far this summer.  I still have gardening to do (I didn't get to planting any of the poor little plants waiting patiently for a home) that I must get done this week.  I might just have to drag my lazy ass out of bed early one day this week and just get it done.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - July 2011

Carol's been hosting GBBD for ages over at May Dreams Garden, and now I'm a monthly participant after years of observing.  Once again some of my favorite blooming flowers have come and gone between bloom days.  You'll just have to take my word for it that the astilbe were stunning!  But at least the day-lilies are tall and proud:

 

I really love the yellow ones:

 

The old standards are doing the heavy blooming work in the garden, like the Endless Summer hydrangea.  It's a little bluer in real life:

 

All the hostas are blooming:

 

The volunteer sunflower will bloom shortly, but it's obscuring the blooming heuchera in this trio of containers:

 

And what would I do without impatiens in my shady dry garden:

 

The area between the veggie garden and the shed is giving us a new surprise flower every day.  If I could remember what seed mixes I scattered here I would share with you, but they were all Botanical Interests seeds:

 

And this is one of my very favorite things right now -- a very early blooming dahlia (none of the others show any signs of flowering yet, but good growth):

 

Did you see the blooming butterfly bush in the background of the dahlia photo above?  My arty shot:

 

And this is one that turned out almost exactly how I had envisioned it.  Nasturtiums and Swiss Chard:

 

Did you notice the empty pot to the right above?  Here are all the plants that I have to fill the containers that held the potatoes (long ago harvested and eaten).  This weekend, I promise patient little plants:

 

And this is one that I'm actually not too excited about.  The cilantro is flowering and we've only used it once -- ugh: 

 

But I am very excited about the flowers on the cucumbers.  Maybe I'll have a cucumber one of these days (2 zucchini already!):

 

What are you most excited about that's blooming in your garden right now?

Now That I'm No Longer Sweating

We had a bit of a heat wave here over the past few days.  Let's put it this way...I hadn't turned on the A/C (window unit in the living room) even once this year until Monday night.  I just could not fall asleep.  So I migrated to the couch and turned on the air -- BLISS!  But tonight the heat broke and I'm actually a little bit cold right now with no fans turned on and the TV heating up the room.  The heat has been fantastic for the garden though.  As long as we keep watering regularly (very little rain of late), we should continue getting nice harvests like this:

 

That's the first of the green beans and the first zucchini.  Plus a large bunch of tarragon and some hot & spicy oregano.  Since the harvest and the picture took place 2 days ago, they were eaten long ago and they were delicious!

What are you harvesting right now?

Breaking News From The Garden

We've had quite a bit of sun and very warm temps and finally some rain (I was getting tired of watering and frankly, not doing a very good job of it).  The garden is thriving!  I guess I was wrong about not getting beans while we still potatoes:

 

And that's an honest to goodness grown in my garden zucchini!  Long time readers will remember how much trouble I have growing zucchini which supposedly grows like crazy for everyone else in the world:

 

This may be the ugliest tomato plant ever, but it was only purchased for the early tomatoes and it looks like it's going to get the job done:

 

And the day-lilies have arrived:

 

They're so pretty:

 

Not all the breaking news is excellent.  The two rains we've had in the last 48 hours were strong storms and at least one appears to have been accompanied by strong winds:

 

But that was a blessing in disguise because the turned over leaves revealed cucumber beetle eggs on two different leaves (that I promptly removed):

 

And I was able to straighten up the plants (mostly):

 

The zucchini and at least one cucumber are sort of encroaching on the herb garden (note to self next year, plant the zucchini a little farther to the left).  We've been harvesting dill and cilantro and hoping they don't bolt in this heat (though I think I may have lost that battle already with at least some of the cilantro):

 

I think I successfully saved the kale in the raised veggie bed from the cabbage worms.  And the beets, onions, and Swiss chard are doing great.  Can you see the cucumbers starting to climb the trellis at the back:

 

One of the potato plants had what I have to imagine are Colorado potato beetle eggs on a leaf overturned by the storm.  I plucked it off, but not before capturing what may be one of my favorite photos so far this summer.  This is the best crop of the photo I could make, but it's still not quite perfect:

 

Another bright spot in the garden right now is the patch of flowers from the end of the veggie garden to the shed including the butterfly bush which is flowering like mad (note Lee's beautiful edging job): 

Nothing particularly special and some "native plants" mixed in, but pretty together:

 

And I don't know why this one dahlia is so far ahead of all the others, but it's really exciting to see it budding:

 

And I'll close with the biggest problem we've been experiencing this year.  Can you see it below?  I'll give you a hint, it's on the right-hand side about half way down the photo:

 

Yup, that's poison ivy in the middle of established plants in a container by the front door.  I don't know why, but it's been popping up all over the garden this year, damn birds is all I can think.  In containers (even containers of tomatoes in the veggie garden), in mulch all over the garden, the gravel driveway -- EVERYWHERE.  I've never had a reaction, in fact I didn't even know what it looked like until a few years after we started gardening, so I'm sure I waded through it often in the first 30 years of my life.  But not having had a previous reaction doesn't guarantee that I won't ever suffer the misery.  Lee can think of poison ivy and break out in a rash, so it's up to me to take care of it.  I have a two plastic bag system.  One on my hand like a glove, the other to hold the offending plants.  All is carefully disposed of in the trash and I wash my hands immediately with cold water and soap just in case.  Knock wood, it's worked so far, but I feel like I'm risking a rash every time.

What's the breaking news in your garden?

Loving This Trend

There is nothing like walking out to my garden with a bowl and a pair of scissors and walking back in with most of  that evening's dinner.  Lee's out of school for the summer and has actually picked up some landscaping work a few days a week.  He's so beat when he comes home that I couldn't possibly expect him to prepare dinner for us, so I've been trying to pick up the slack in the kitchen a little to avoid getting take out all the time.  SS2 is being a good soldier and helping me out in the kitchen and hopefully I'm sharing what little expertise I have with him along the way. 

After a long hot day of work Lee doesn't want a really heavy meal and we don't want to be in a super hot kitchen either!  Last week SS2 and I tried making gnocchi -- SS2 asked for gnocchi and I looked around for a recipe that would include some fresh herbs.  I found a recipe that had a butter thyme sauce, so we did it with our lemon thyme.  It was okay, but I'm not sure the amount of effort that went into making the gnocchi was equal to the enjoyment level of the dish.  But for Tuesday's dinner I had a very specific dish in mind.  I love a modified nicoise salad with seared tuna on top, so that's what we did (yes, I know Lee's presentation would be prettier):

 

From our garden: mesclun mix, dill, red potatoes, and in the red wine vinaigrette: red onion and dill.  I wish our beans were ready (currently just starting to flower) because I couldn't find green beans at any local store.  One grocer said that there had been a crop burn or something down south so even if I found some they probably wouldn't be the best quality.  Oh well, we'll do it again when we have our own green beans, but by then I have a feeling by then all our potatoes will be long gone.  This was also my first experience searing tuna which couldn't have been easier. 

Could I finally be learning to cook at age 36?  I welcome menu suggestions.

Red, White, and ???

Happy 4th of July!  I was going to post a red, white, and blue collage, but I only came up with two out of three today.  Red potatoes harvested this afternoon from the two big gray containers:

 

The potato salad I made with store bought potatoes (ours will be used for a special dinner tomorrow, more on that soon), but our own red onion and tarragon:

 

And the fence and containers are sort of a blue gray where I replaced the red potatoes with a tomatillo on the left surrounded by basil and a Great White tomato on the right surrounded by basil, the 20 minutes of gardening I did today:

 

I know, that was kind of a stretch, not really blue at all.  In case you want to try the French potato salad recipe (which is one of the best I've had), here you go -- from America's Test Kitchen:

 

Now back to beer, burgers, and more potato salad.  Hope you're having a fantastic Fourth!!!