Veg*n Cooking and Other Random Musings: Garden Update #16

Monday, July 21, 2008

Garden Update #16

The gardens are really starting to produce! All the plants except the unknown squash looking plant in the community garden have fruit on them! And the butternut squash plants are really starting to take over the garden. We've already had to wind them around, we think we might have to do something more drastic to keep them from taking over.

We didn't have any work in the gardens this week, just picking what was ripe. We have no bug or animal problems so far. We'll finally have to go down and water the community garden (for only the second time this year) this evening. It's been really hot and dry here for a couple of weeks, and it looks like more of the same this week, and the soil was starting to feel a little dry.

Check out the container garden:



















Are you ready for a healthy dose of pepper porn? This week's pictures were taken by the one and only Brett!















The Super Chile. We think this guy is slowly dying. Over the past few weeks, we've seen a lot of young peppers drop off, the leaves yellowing, and now, the whole plant is much lighter and quite limp looking. I think we may have overwatered it. We're not sure if it is going to make it or not.
































I am partial to this serrano plant. It might be my favorite of our pepper plants (don't tell the others!). It is looking good. We've taken 2 more peppers off of it since my local produce booty update from yesterday.















For awhile, the poblano plant wasn't really doing anything other than getting taller. But when these things decide they want to start producing they go nuts!

















This jalapeno plant is just gorgeous. And the peppers on the plant look so plump and nice! I can't wait until they ripen...

















This is the Petite Orange Bell Pepper plant. It is really loaded down with peppers. One of them is starting to ripen.

















Brett was having trouble taking a good picture of the Hungarian wax pepper plant. He ended up getting a picture of Nermal through the plant. They turned out pretty cool.

















We just picked 7 ripe cayenne peppers off this plant and it started growing that and then some since we've picked them. Some are already almost 2 inches long!















The chocolate bell still only has one pepper on it. :-(



















Banana peppers.















Regular bell pepper plant.

And on to the community garden:

















One of our two zucchini plants.















A little zucchini.















The other zucchini plant.















A zucchini on it as well.

















These are pictures of our two butternut squash plants. These things are flippin' crazy. Be warned that they will take over your garden if you ever plant one of these.

















A couple of pictures of the small butternut squashes growing on the plants. There are tons, tons, of butternut on these two plants.















Yellow straigtneck squash plant.















Yellow straightneck squash.















One of our "regular" tomato plants.















The other "regular" tomato plant.























I took a ton of pictures of the Roma tomato plant to give you guys an idea of just how many tomatoes are on here. I've never had a tomato plant produce like this, I'm so excited. And they taste excellent, we ate our first couple of home grown Roma tomatoes on some Black Bean Burgers I made last Friday.















Not sure what this one is.

Well, that's all for now. I should be posting the final installment of the Sustainable Local Diet Series sometime in the next few days.

'Til next time!

11 comments:

hmd said...

Wow! Everything looks so healthy, really! We're going to have to start calling you Farmer Jen. Looks like you really have a knack for this stuff!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Gorgeous garden!!!

Chessa said...

Wow, it all looks so awesome! I have total garden envy. We moved across country in June, so no big garden here this year - just some herbs in pots. Maybe next year!

Anonymous said...

The garden looks great!

Anonymous said...

Your peppers are getting so big--they are beautiful! And your yellow squash looks perfect. You are gonna be eating the fruits of your labor well into the winter with all of your butternut squash and the vegetables you are preserving--that is awesome!

Courtney

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

The poblano looks good! Luckily a friend gave us a few jalapenos so we don't have to worry about the scary ones!

Unknown said...

looks good! pretty soon your going to have lots of veggies to play with!
i haven't planted my butternut squash yet. its about time. i was waiting so i could have a winter harvest of butternut squash. i weas thinking of planting 2? they keep for awhile.
i amazed at how big my zucchini plant has gotten in just 1 week. no zucchini yet though just a bunch of really big leaves.

Anonymous said...

I spy a kitty!
Your garden is coming along beautifully :) I love the feeling of enjoying something you've made yourself, or in this case GROWN yourself... it makes the effort worth-while! Enjoy!

Bianca said...

Considering that they're now saying the jalapenos are responsible for the salmenella scare, it's a good thing you've got plenty of safe peppers in your garden!

J said...

Heather - Thank you. Haha! Farmer Jen! Never thought growing up a city girl in St. Louis that I would end up "Farmer Jen", but I love it. We're lucky, we've got good soil, and the weather has been great this year for the plants - well aside from all the rain we got early on.

Veggie Girl - Thanks!

Chessa - Aw, thank you. Oh no! At least you were able to get a small herb garden growing, I have been intimidated by herbs thus far. I wish you luck in next year's garden!

Ve*ganChick - Thank you!

Courtney - I know, I've been eying the jalapenos for weeks now, waiting and waiting.....

We hope to, we aren't going to be able to preserve as much this year as we want to in the future, but it's a start and we're learning.

Lisa - :-) Thanks, I'm happy they are finally coming along. Good thing!

Selina - Oh I know! I'm looking forward to a large harvest of butternut.

We probably should have waited just a little longer to start our butternuts, but I think they'll be fine. Be careful about planting two, they literally take over your garden. We've had to wind one around our plot a few times and it's starting to branch out in other directions.

Zucchini grow fast! Just you wait, when that plant starts getting fruit on it, you may rethink how much you wanted a zucchini plant - they go nuts!

OrangePop - :-) That's Nermal!

Thank you. Me too, it's a very rewarding feeling. The effort has definitely been worth it. We will!

Bianca - Well, I think the lesson of the salmonella scare should be that ANYTHING within an industrialized food system can be tainted. There are too many different hands on the products, and they are shipped all over the place, just creating opportunity after opportunity for disease.

So yes, I am thankful for our safe produce! But I also don't feel at all unsafe purchasing jalapenos or tomatoes at the farmer's market, I feel there is less to worry about there.

jessy said...

everything looks wonderful, Jennifer! that's good news too on the no bugs - yay!

wow, wow, wow - all the veggies, the shades of green, the flowering plants - it's all great! your garden is flourishing and i'm so excited it's doing so well!