We’ve been having a few days of freezing fog lately. Makes for some neat photos. Make sure you click the 4 corner button near the bottom right to view full screen — looks better that way.
If the above slideshow doesn’t work for you (mom), these same pictures can be found on our flickr site – click on our flickr photos at the right.
We’ve placed our first seed order for 2010 from Pinetree Garden Seeds. Take a look at the potential garden.
SMALL SUGAR PUMPKIN (95 days heirloom)
KIWANO HORNED MELON (90 days)
RED BURGUNDY OKRA (55 days)
BEER FRIEND SOY BEAN
ROSE ORACH (heirloom)
TABASCO PEPPER (85 days)
MINNESOTA MIDGET MELON (60 days)
KENTUCKY WONDER BEAN (66 day heirloom)
CYLINDRA BEET (58 days heirloom)
GERMAN GIANT RADISH (37 days heirloom)
CHERRY BRANDY RUDBECKIA
TENDER SWEET (heirloom)
LEMON CUCUMBER (65 days heirloom)
HOMEMADE PICKLES CUCUMBER (54 days)
TURKISH ORANGE EGGPLANT (heirloom)
LAVENDER TOUCH (F1 hybrid 66 days)
PENGUIN GOURD
PEPINO (95 days)
BANANA MELON (80 days heirloom)
FRECKLES LETTUCE (70 days)
SUHYO TK CUCUMBER (65 days)
ORANGE SUN PEPPER (81 days)
PAPRIKA PEPPER (80 days)
CAYENNE-LONG PEPPER (70 days heirloom)
EIGHTBALL ZUCCHINI (F1 hybrid 35 days)
PAPAYA PEAR SQUASH (F1 hybrid 40 days)
CARNIVAL SQUASH (F1 hybrid 85 days)
DELICATA SQUASH (heirloom)
OREGON SPRING TOMATO (68 days)
KELLOGGS BREAKFAST TOMATO (79 days)
WHITE SWAN ECHINACEA
CHIOGGIA BEET (55 days heirloom)
VIRGINIA GOLD TOBACCO
MOULIN ROUGE SUNFLOWER
FANTASIA MIXTURE SUNFLOWER(F1)
STATE FAIR MIX ZINNIA
The flowers have been spectacular this year. Everywhere I look, or everywhere Anne tells me to look, I find amazing color and photo opportunities. If only I could invest in a slightly better camera. Is it Murphy’s law that dictates the more incredible scenes available, the less charge the camera seems to have/hold? I guess that isn’t really the camera’s fault…. it’s the battery. Still, the camera, battery and those responsible for keeping it charged were momentarily in synch a few days ago and I captured the cone flowers above.
Around the other side of this center-of-drive bed is a nice patch of blackberry lily (also called Leopard Lily – Belamcanda chinensis) (above). The blackberry-esque seeds come later in the season we are told. We are also told to not eat them. This patch is entirely new this year – a sweet free addition from last year’s (or was it this Spring?) Eastern Iowa Garden Exchange plant swap.
Just one more – verbena bonariensis (purple in the foreground, yellow yarrow is in the background). I like the latin name of this plant. The common names don’t seem as interesting (Purpletop Vervain? Brazilian Verbena?). These tall, slender and branching blooms are all over the place this year. I like ‘em. They can spread around somewhat invasively, but they bloom long and add height to the garden.
There are many more blooms around the garden. Just about all our photos (good ones and less good ones) are loaded to flickr – check the link on the side menu.
We’ve been enjoying bits and pieces from the garden lately. Carrots keep coming, garlic is done, brussel sprouts have begun, a couple of fennel bulbs, a few ripe tomatoes (thanks Jeff!), and I picked the first of what will likely be a good crop of green beans. Anne made some mashed potatoes with the first of the potatoes.
Fennel bulbs are one of those veggies that will stump most employees at checkout. I’m sure they do not sell very many — it’s not a very popular vegetable in the U.S. Then again, I’ve seen zucchini stump some employees, so maybe it’s a question of employee training and/or quality. If you haven’t had fennel, I do recommend it as something completely different from every other vegetable. The foliage smells a lot like black licorice, but you won’t likely find it with foliage on at the store. We often eat it raw, sliced thin, with olive oil and salt.
Artichokes are another good stump-the-checkout-clerk vegetable. We seem to have managed to trick one plant to bloom. The aphids seem to really like artichokes.
We planted squash late so as to avoid some of the squash bugs. Haven’t seen any yet, so that might have worked. The squash vine borers on the other hand are plentiful and likely doing their slow damage to the plants.
It’s a race now to see if the plant can live long enough to bear fruit. Two new mini varieties of summer squash are growing along with spaghetti squash elsewhere in the garden. Also found a nice robust acorn volunteer squash doing very well along side the compost bin. That’s nice since we didn’t plant any acorn squash this year.
It was a rainy day.
The perfect day to try out the new rain gauge from Jan. Thanks Jan! Looks like we had just under an inch of rain today. It was a slow steady all-day kind of rain. Now the ground is soggy. And the fruit and flowers are super clean. Perhaps I too should shower.
