Summer Booty

Hi folks! Here is some of the "booty" from the garden. Shame on you for thinking it would be something else!

If you look at the picture closely (you can click on the picture for a larger view) you will see straight neck summer squash, ruby queen corn, cantaloupe, a few purplehull peas, tomatoes, silver queen corn, and bell peppers. You can also see the tomatoes and squash we have canned so far. Unfortunately the green garden peas didn't make it into the picture. They are in freezer cartons in the deep freeze. (Did you notice the double squash next to the silver queen corn?)

The garden is doing very well. We have harvested almost all of the ruby queen corn today, and my first harvest of the bell peppers netted about 20 really nice peppers. We are getting abundant tomatoes, and they are really beginning to get some size to them.

I picked the first purplehull peas today. Picking them when they are really coming in is going to be a challenge. I planted them a little too close together. Next year I think that I'll allow more space and I may string them too to keep them from crossing up so much. They are a mass of peas now. There is no semblance of where the rows are. Does anyone have a machete that I can borrow?

I have gotten a couple ears of silver queen corn too. It will be ready en masse in a couple weeks. I think that it is time to indoctrinate my niece and nephew to the wonderful summertime tradition of the corn silking....

And we got the first cantaloupes today! We are currently waging a war with the field rats that have discovered that they are full of seeds. They don't seem to care much for the melon, they just want the seeds. If the little beggars would wait, I'd give them all the seeds they could manage, but they had to do it the hard way.

I thought that the garden peas were done, but it looks like they are putting on some new growth. I had planned to pull them up, but I think that I'll hold off for a week to see what they do.

The okra is over my head now. I was out spraying it today and it was like being in the jungle. It has finally started to bloom, so I should be getting okra soon. Perhaps I'll pickle some.

I have never seen the fordhook lima beans so full of bloom. I do believe that I am going to have my hands full when it comes to picking time - and that time is quickly approaching. The plants are full of bean pods and they are beginning to fill out. I do not look forward to standing on my head to pick them!

I guess my brother really did pick off a lot of blooms when he was a kid!

Which reminds me. He has been up to his old tricks again. Our surveillance cameras have provided us with all of the evidence that we needed.



When he was down visiting, my brother took some really interesting pictures of the garden. I never knew he was such a good photographer. You can see them at his Flickr site.

This is all for now. I have many more updates to give, but they will have to wait for another time!