Friday Night Photos: The garden grows, even though I neglect it!
While you read this, I’m in Chicago attending the 2009 BlogHer Conference, where I’m having a great time hanging out with some of my best food blogger friends. When I took these garden photos before I left, the garden had a healthy crop of weeds. I doubt I’ll get many of those pulled until I get back, but luckily the veggies and herbs are still happily growing amid the weeds. Above is something I’m very stoked about; my Green Zebra heirloom tomatoes are really coming along. I’m not quite sure how to tell when they’re ripe, but they’re still pretty small so I think I’ll give them a little longer before I try one.
I don’t know why this 8-Ball Zucchini plant is so much smaller than my other squash plants, but finally I’m starting to get some of these lovely round zucchinis that are my favorite for Grilled Zucchini.
I’m guessing I should probably be cutting off some of the dead leaves on the bottom of my red cabbage, but they’re starting to form into a head, and I should have cabbage pretty soon
I transplanted the chives that were growing by my fence into one of the herb beds, and they seem pretty happy there. (In the back you can see some of those weeds I was talking about!)
I love, love, love garden cucumbers, so I’m always excited every year when they finally start to come. This is the first one I’ve seen this year, about four inches long when I took this photo.
The dill is thriving and I’m making sure to let some seeds appear so I can hopefully have dill in this spot again next year.
These are a type of bean called French Beans. They grow on a bush, with the beans mostly towards the top of the plant. I picked a few but haven’t cooked them yet, but I’m thinking I’m going to love these. (I’m not fond of climbing beans, too hard to keep them picked.)
It’s a little hard to see, but my Japanese Eggplant has one eggplant appearing. These long, thin eggplants are great for stir-frying.
It was touch and go for a while there, but the curly parsley is thriving. When I get home I’ll be ready to make Tabbouli and Middle Eastern Tomato Salad!
I’ve picked a few small spaghetti squash and made Spaghetti Squash Cooked as a Summer Squash, one of my favorite summer dishes.
Finally, one good thing about neglecting the garden a little is these volunteer tomatillos growing where I planted tomatillos last year! I’m thinking I’ll keep a few and either transplant them or just let them co-exist with the cucumbers!
If you ask me, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as growing your own vegetables! If you’re growing a garden this year, I’d love to hear how your plants are doing.
(If you want to see other garden updates, you can click Garden Updates.)
18 Comments on “Friday Night Photos: The garden grows, even though I neglect it!”
My garden has many tomato bushes and I am really looking forward to them finally harvesting. The amounts of recipes I have planned for my tomatoes are endless. All I can say is yours are look quite delicious. Can't wait to here all the things you do with them. Zebra tomatoes are one of the best types around.
I have dill envy. And tomato envy. But while I was at BlogHer, the weeds did seem to flourish. Ah, well, there's always next year — that's the fun of gardening.
Awwwww, so jealous that you are at BlogHer! I was tempted to attend this year, but what with buying the house it just wasn't possible to justify the expense of a trans-Atlantic flight 🙁 Your garden looks fantastic – especially those tomatoes! I've got some tomatoes, sage and rocket growing in my garden this year – and discovered that our neighbours have a plum tree that drops sweet little yellow plums into our garden. Bonus!
Love your garden, Kalyn. Debris is constant in my backyard with the construction of a master bedroom suite on the backend top floor of my house all summer. So I have created an oasis adjacent the house with container gardening. Flowers and herbs and even tomatoes. I am picking basil and chives for my dinner every night. I love it!
Wanda
It's amazing how a garden will continue to grow even if you don't attempt to give it a little extra push. Your garden looks amazing for being slightly neglected. It's okay you'll get to it when you have time.
Your garden is looking good Kalyn!
Everything looks so wonderful! As a New York apartment dweller I'm limited to whatever fits on my windowsill (rosemary, sage, thyme, lemon verbena, bay, asian basil and mint at the moment), but I'm having garden envy looking at all of your beautiful vegetables. Especially those green zebras!
Thanks, Kalyn. I'll have to watch for them next year.
Your garden is looking good, Kalyn. I've (finally) got tomatoes in my greenhouse along with some basil. Long yellow zucchini is growing outside very well and this year for the first time, I'm growing potatoes!
I'm so jealous of your garden! I live in an apartment and about the only kitchen item I grow regularly is herbs. This is the first year I've tried a pot of cherry tomatoes and they're doing well. But that's it! I'd love to have a yard with a kitchen garden!
Dara, I always buy the heirloom tomato plants, not seeds. My favorite places to find them are
Western Garden, Millcreek Garden, and (surprisingly) even Home Depot. They sell quickly when the store gets them though!
Those ball zucchini and heirloom tomatoes are absolutely gorgeous! Where do you buy the seeds for the heirloom tomatoes?
Just checking in to say I'm having a great time at BlogHer! Tonight I went to dinner with 24 other food bloggers. Can you imagine how fun that was!
Thanks to everyone for tips about the Green Zebra tomatoes. Can't wait to try them!
when the zebras get closer to yellow with green stripes (though it will be more green) and when it 'feels' like a tomato…eat it. they're great.
Kalyn, how great to have all those fabulous food at the bottom of your garden. i was lovely to 'walk thrhough the garden' with you. How lucky you are to be able to go to the blog events.And people are lucky to have you there.
Hope you're having a great time in Chicago! I fell in love with zebra tomatoes last summer – I'm hoping there's a bunch waiting for me at the farm very soon!
I just posted my Garden Update #5 too!
Your plants are looking wonderful!
I have 8 ball squash growing to so I'll have to do some grilling with them.
We grew that type a few years ago, in our old garden space. Unfortunately, when it got to be about a week 'til harvest, we were going out of town for two weeks, so we picked the green zebras close to ripe and took them with us to set on the windowsill.
I'll tell you that they did get quite very yellow-green (rather then just green-green, which is what I had anticipated). So, if in doubt, you can always wait until they get yellowish–they were delicious and had a nice tartness to them.