Hello and Happy Thursday!
How is your vegetable garden doing? Are you harvesting like mad? We’ve been picking about 2 pounds of green beans every three days or so. In years past I’ve planted the pole bean variety, but this year I went with bush beans because they fit into my landscaping plans a little better and whoa Nelly, they’re doing great!
The broccoli is doing well too! We harvested 4 heads of broccoli the other day and last night the HH made a delicious broccoli cashew salad with 3 of the heads. Normally I like to start my broccoli plants indoors in the spring, but I think I’m going to give direct seeding a try later today and see if I can get another crop before the ground freezes.
Have you direct seeded broccoli before? How did it go? I’m a little nervous but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
Here in Maine our cherry tomatoes are just starting to ripen.
But the bigger varieties still have another week or two to go. Up north at Four Seasons Farm they’ve been harvesting {and selling} their greenhouse tomatoes for months now. Moral of the story, I need a greenhouse. 🙂
Jalapeno Pepper Jelly and Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Peppers will be on the menu here pretty soon. Wahooo! I can’t remember how many jalapeno pepper plants I have in the ground… 4 maybe? That should give us plenty to work with.
I’ll be picking this beauty later today for a quiche.
And check out this baby eggplant!
And the blueberries! Gaaa! This time next week we should be swimming in fresh fruits and veggies and I couldn’t be happier. All that hard work we put into the yard earlier this spring is finally starting to pay off. I love it.
Current view of the sunflower and pumpkin patches.
And all those flowers I planted between the sidewalk and the street…. MARVELOUS DARLING, just marvelous. They’re like a ray of freakin’ sunshine don’t you think? 🙂 🙂 🙂
Well, that’s all I have to report for today. How about YOU? How are things going at your place? What are you harvesting these days? Don’t you just LOVE this time of year in the garden? Do tell.
Have a fantastic day everyone, LIFE IS GOOD.
~Mavis
Sheila says
Mavis have you had any problem with tics and other bugs where you are in Maine like you did at the old house during the summer? If not, what is the difference do you think? Is it due to being on the coast versus the woods?
Mavis Butterfield says
Not a single tick so far {KNOCK ON WOOD}. 🙂 Skeeters are about 10% here vs where we were. I don’t think we’ll be moving to the woods ever again. Ha.
Marlene Wurtzbacher says
Wow! Simply beautiful!
Annette says
I need your secret to those gorgeous petunias. What do enrich the soil with? What type of fertilizer?
Mavis Butterfield says
Absolutely nothing. We just tilled up the dirt and then mulched with a few bags of inexpensive black bark from the Home Depot.
Teresa says
Wow, that all looks wonderful. Do you, by chance, remember the variety of broccoli you planted? I can’t seem to grow broccoli that actually produces a nice head, usually it’s just “leggy pieces”!
Mel says
I can’t grow heads of broccoli either. Try looking into purple sprouting broccoli. It’s a cut-and-come-again leggy variety instead of a heading variety. It grows all winter and then produces broccoli in early spring. We love it.
Joely says
I just bought my first pack of seeds of that variety. I’m going to give it a try. Thank you!
Teresa says
I’ll have to try that. Thank you!
Katie says
How are you taking care of your petunias? I planted some for the first time (garden novice here) and they got long and crazy before I realized I should prune them. I did and they are flowering again, but I’d love the spread out look. I’ve also been “feeding” them once a week. (irrigation runs nightly) I almost wonder if they’re getting enough water. A few have been dying off. They get full morning sun and even into early afternoon.
Joely says
Your garden is doing amazingly well. How do your broccoli plants avoid the dreaded cabbage moths and their terrible green worms??? They always decimate my brassicas.
Kate says
Joely, you need to cover your broccoli/cabbage with an insect barrier fabric or light weight tulle as soon as you plant them. It makes all the difference! I did this year and didn’t have one worm.
Joely says
I have but somehow the leaves still look like lace. Maybe the tulle will work better than row cover. Thanks!
Rebecca says
Those beans look fabulous! I started a crop back in July to hopefully take me into fall. This fall will be my first time trying broccoli and I am going to start my seeds indoors. Right now I am doing container gardening in huge cattle feed buckets we were given. I am going to requisition part of the side yard from the Hubs for raised beds for next year. You are so lucky your petunias are so beautiful! It’s too hot for them down here now. Happy Gardening!
Nancy says
Hi-Will you please post your recipe for zucchini quiche? Thank you!
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes, I’ll take pictures when I make it this week.
sandyf says
How do you keep your garden free of pests? And how do you irrigate? You sure have a green thumb.
Mavis Butterfield says
Because it can be really hot humid here in the summer, and it rains for a short bit every few days it seems, I really haven’t watered the garden beds much this summer. But when I do, I just go out there with the hose and water everything down real good. Water is good… but I think a lot of people over water and that’s why their plants don’t do so well.
As for the pests, I haven’t done anything this year… I guess I’ve been lucky.
Shari Harniss says
You’re absolutely right, Mavis- Life is good!
Thank you for reminding us of everyday pleasures we so often don’t give praise for. Little things add up, don’t they?
debbie in alaska says
Folks must LOVE walking by your home — what a gorgeous spot
Linda says
Here in Southern California we’ve harvested spaghetti squash, zucchini, peas, peppers, tomatoes, arugula, and even pumpkins! Haha! That’ll teach me to better sort my seeds while drying them! But the bonus is pumpkin bread for dessert! Our plum tree has just finished a large production and one of the recipes I made was your friend Jane’s (The Hand Hath Provided) southern cobbler recipe, she makes it with raspberries but any fruit will work! I melted the butter in the pie pan while the oven was preheating and boy was it good! I see a blueberry One in your future!
Beth L Mick says
Garden here is okay. We’ve been struggling a little with squash vine borer but have a lot of nice squash- hoping the plants will survive to make more. Peas have had a fungus so lost our sugar snaps but snow peas in a different spot have been nice. Swiss chard has been incredible; green onions have too. Herb garden is also happy- tons of parsley and basil. Bush wax beans are a solid producer. Raspberries have been terrific this year, getting about 3 cups a day, they’re finally slowing down. We’ve been trying to eat them fresh- we find if we freeze them they often disappear in the freezer and get freezer burn. We’ve made berry crisp, berry crumble bars, and berry sangria. Waiting to see how the tomatoes fare- summer blight is messing with the leaves. We’ll have to do a major shuffle next year but it should be fine. Love your garden pics!