Week Four - Garden Shot Saturday (I really should rename it GSM!)

I know here in the Northeastern part of the country, this early summer has been one of the wettest on record. My garden shows it, for sure. The peas did not survive, the corn never came up. The cucumbers I planted didn't emerge, but plenty of compost cukes did. Just under half of the beans got eaten. Some things remain though.




The radishes remain strong. I've thinned some out and have managed to harvest a mixed handful. I love planting a seed variety for this reason, especially in smaller gardens, it seems to work well.




The dill also continues to grow. Hopefully it will thrive along with its cucumber friends so that it can be made into some yummy dill pickles come fall!




The eggplant continues to blossom. Given its proximity to the bees, I hope they're pollinating them well!




The cherry and paste tomatoes that didn't get chewed off are starting to produce. If only I could get on the garden to weed them out a little!




There are some more baby peppers. They seem to have become accustomed to the high amounts of rain, and after initially looking like they wouldn't make it have bounded back.




Some beans are thriving despite being chewed on a little. The black beans are doing the best of all. I think next year, there may be a garden fence instituted. There also may be a greenhouse come late summer/fall.




The cucumbers continue to be the winners this year. Tendrils have emerged and they are beginning to climb all over their friends and neighbors, carefully avoiding the trellis I gave them!




Apples are another thing thriving in this weather. There has been almost *no* June drop. I've gone out and shaken a few branches, but got less than a dozen apples to drop off - everything is developing. I have some branches that are so heavy they are almost on the ground!




Despite all the rain, cherries had a bumper year. We got a total of 8QTS off the tree, in a span of a week and I was able to put a lot up. This year I tried something new.




Yes, those are homemade marashino cherries. I cannot wait until later this summer to open them! I also made some chocolate cherry preserves and a QT and a PT of pie filling, so I'll have cherries throughout the winter!




The mulberries continue to ripen. Aside from grabbing some when I walk by, there really won't be a ton to eat this year. The birds will take care of them, but more will come as the tree grows.




The wild grapes are really starting to look like grapes at this point. They'll have all summer to fill out some more, too. I am curious to see what kind they'll end up being.




The blackberries also are tolerating this rain rather nicely. For blackberries, it can rain up until they start to turn, then only little bits with lots of sun, please and thank you.

Week Three - Garden Shot Saturday...on a Monday this time!

These garden shot Saturdays just keep getting later and later. It's Mother Nature's fault, I swear. Things have been so wet in upstate NY this year. As I type this, we've actually gone 24 hours without rain, given a brief shower yesterday. I'm hoping it keeps drying out a little, because most garden things aren't happy at the moment because they've actually had *too much* water!



The radishes are getting really close to being ready to be thinned out. I'm hoping if it stays dry this week, next weekend's picture will be of thinned out radishes. I planted carrots in with them, but haven't seen any carrot seedlings yet. Here's to hoping...





The dill is just starting to come up. It's very cute and I tried to weed it out the best I could. I'm glad I planted dill this year because.....





The cucumbers are the only thing that has been *loving* all of this rain. They look amazing so far. This means, at the moment, I need to plan on making some more pickles. Bread and Butter most of all.





I have a handful of pea plants. Most of them are underwater. Next year, I'll plant rice, I swear. By doing this, it will not rain and we will be in drought conditions, I figure!





The beans are growing on both sides of the fencing now and are looking pretty good. If it dries out, I'll hopefully have some blossoms by this weekend.





The bottommost pepper leaves are starting to turn yellow, which means they are water logged. I'm not sure how many peppers I will get because I think the rain kept the bees away, but this is something else I hope a few dry days will cure as well.




I'm not sure what to expect from the eggplant. This looks like a spent blossom, hopefully?




The tomatoes are still wilted, but there are blossoms that remain. Like the peppers, I'm hoping a few dry days improve their situation.





Some compost onions have sprouted up.




The cherries seem to be turning right on schedule. Unfortunately, so much rain has led to some early drop and some spoiling on the tree. I would love enough for a pie, but that is really questionable at this point.





The apples seem to be growing well. I swear every day they are getting larger. Some branches are bending to the ground and I really think I should be tending to them and picking off some baby apples that are not forming. That's what June drop is for though, right?





The wild grapes also seem to like the rain. After a week of nothing new, they finally appear to be growing. They won't be ready 'til fall though, so they have plenty of time!




The blackberries are beginning to form. Yet another plant that needs some sun sooner than later.





The mulberries are also just starting to turn. The rain hasn't hurt them to speak of. I just don't remember if they are the white ones or the more traditional purple ones. I guess another time will tell item for the list....




Wednesday I get to pick up the first share of the 2013 Summer Share Season. I still think I'm going to post on Food Friday, but we'll have to see. Two more days, I can't wait!

Week Two - Garden Shot Saturday...on a Sunday!

Oi. Since the first pictures it has rained...and rained...and rained here in the Northeast. It had just stopped *raining* and was more misting when I got on the garden enough to take these pictures. I almost had to call for rescue as the "wet part" of the garden was very like quicksand and I almost got stuck in the muck!


So, I'm just going to show you the things that have changed. No sense in re-inventing the wheel again...



My beans were the first things to come up. They're planted on both sides of the garden netting because last year, I learned that black beans climb. I've also been burned previously by so-called "bush" beans that end up climbing anyway, so I just usually give them something to climb to begin with.





The peas have started to come in slowly. I think I have three or so, but I'm sure the rest will come up eventually too.





The peppers have some blossoms.





So do the tomatoes. Despite being chewed on/off by something....I'm not sure what. I've never seen something come and lop tomato tops off like that.





So odd....





I'm hoping that this turns out to be some dill....





Those are definitely radishes. Hopefully I'll see some carrots emerge too. Then it'll be time for some thinning out.





The cucumbers don't seem to mind the rain at all though. Which is awesome. I can't wait until they start climbing!





The apples continue to grow and some varieties are starting to turn a little red.





As does the occasional cherry.





The blackberries are in all their glory and in full bloom. I hope this rain tapers off - then we'll have a bumper crop!





Especially with the help of all our honeybees (rather, our neighbor's)!

Here's to a week with less rain (according to forecast) and more garden growth!

2013 Garden - Garden Shot Saturday

This year, in addition to my "Food Friday" posts, I decided to add a Garden Shot Saturday. This is the third garden at the farm house, but the second really successful one. The first year was a dug up plot in the backyard that didn't amount to anything actually coming out of it. The second year was a combination of seeds, seedlings and the "surprise" part of gardening; since we use our own organic compost mix that we make from kitchen scraps, sometimes you get seeds that don't break down. So, last year, I had a wide variety of random tomatoes, cucumbers and even a couple muskmelon that came up!

This year's garden consists of:

3 types of peas (snow, snap, shell)
3 types of beans (green, black, edamame)
3 peppers (all bell, different colors)
3 types of tomatoes (paste, eating, cherry)
2 eggplants
cucumbers (I know most are cucumbers!)
18 hills of corn (sugar)
radishes
carrots
spinach
lettuce mix
dill



In addition to all that, there is a variety of fruit on property.

crazy amounts of wild grapes
13 apple trees (a mix, three are crabapple for the birds) - all producing
5 pear trees (new, non-producing yet)
12 rhubarb plants (non-producing yet)
a plethora of wild long blackberries
2 red raspberries (domesticated)
2 mulberry trees (1 producing, 1 non-producing)
1 cherry tree (red and sour, 50+ years old)


And now, for my favorite part, the pictures. Ideally, this will be a weekly post, detailing the growth in the garden.


The garden as it stands now. It's pretty large, 10x20 I'd say without measuring.





From L->R: Peas (1 row), Beans (2 rows), 3 Peppers (in the back)




Tomatoes and Eggplant




Cucumbers




Everything Else



Front to back it is: Radishes and Carrots (front row), dill (middle), spinach and lettuce mix (third row), corn (vertical rows in back)


Now, the fruit trees/plants:

Wild Grapes/Frost Grapes




Rhubarb




Blackberries Abound!




Cherries




Apples




Mulberries





Seeing it all laid out like this, I really understand how easily I get so busy with food prep and storage from July-October. I can't wait to show you next week's growth! Also, tune in soon for the return of Food Fridays as the CSA Season starts!