There have been years when I tried to grow a garden, and years when I was fairly successful, but the best garden years have been those where James has been involved. It's not that he has more time to play in the dirt or pull weeds, I think it's just that his thumbs are greener. I'm pretty sure at least two of our children inherited their daddy's green thumbs.
After much hard work, mostly on the part of my husband, we are now gathering in the fruits of our labor. We have cucumbers, lots of cucumbers, and we pick them small and tender. This evening I cut up several and covered them with a sauce of sour cream and vinegar with a little bit of sugar, salt and pepper, and some green onions. Yum!
Summer squash, green and yellow, finds its way into our dinners on an almost nightly basis. We cook it up on the grill, marinate it, toss it in a pan with peppers, onions, and Parmesan cheese, and even throw it into custard pie. Haven't yet made a loaf of bread, but I'm sure it will happen soon.
This year we planted a whole bed of pepper plants. As the chile peppers mature, James snips them from the plant and piles them into a box, then we take them up to the back porch, roast them on the grill and pretend we are in New Mexico. We're going to have some wonderful pots of chili con carne this fall and winter!
Hidden between the stalks of corn are my butternut squash plants. I thought we'd have a Three Sisters Garden but we never got around to planting the beans... Green onions, leeks, and chives occupy one section of garden, tomatoes another, and we even have several eggplants growing. And up by the house, in that flower garden I can't keep weeded, is growing a nice big pumpkin plant. Maybe you'll see a Jack-O-Lantern or two in the fall.
There have been years when I tried to grow a garden, and years when I was fairly successful, but the best garden years have been those where James has been involved. It's not that he has more time to play in the dirt or pull weeds, I think it's just that his thumbs are greener. I'm pretty sure at least two of our children inherited their daddy's green thumbs.
After much hard work, mostly on the part of my husband, we are now gathering in the fruits of our labor. We have cucumbers, lots of cucumbers, and we pick them small and tender. This evening I cut up several and covered them with a sauce of sour cream and vinegar with a little bit of sugar, salt and pepper, and some green onions. Yum!
Summer squash, green and yellow, finds its way into our dinners on an almost nightly basis. We cook it up on the grill, marinate it, toss it in a pan with peppers, onions, and Parmesan cheese, and even throw it into custard pie. Haven't yet made a loaf of bread, but I'm sure it will happen soon.
Oh...fabulous!!!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had been able to pick my cucs when they were smaller...but I was so surprised to see them!!! Can't figure out how I missed them the weekend before!
I meant to plant pumpkins...but forgot!!
Lucky you with a gardener husband...
I will be looking for some zucchini this weekend!
Great garden, Martha...you should learn to "toot" your own horn more often!!
As..I am sure...you had a hand in the garden as well!!
Cheers!
Linda :o)
Linda, it would be hard to keep up with a garden that wasn't in our own backyard. This one has been so much fun to watch grow and change, but I really don't deserve too much credit for how pretty it's turning out. Inspiration to plant it, yes, but actual labor? Not so much.
DeleteBeep! Beep! :)
We grow veggies in pots and planters as we don't have a very big yard, but we do have a very big dog :-) We have zucchini's and I made yummy muffins the other day. I have grated some and put them into the freezer in 1 cup lots for use in the winter - we have also eaten then daily in some form. They are coming faster that what I can use them. I like them small also. We had tumbler tomatoes in a hanging basket and got literally hundreds of them. So sweet. We also have green and yellow beans, Roma and Yellow tomatoes coming and some potatoes in sacks. It is so wonderful to eat what you grow. I also have various herbs in pots and they do so well. Your garden looks fabbo!!!
ReplyDeleteMarilyn from Canada
I have tiny tomatoes in my square foot garden up close to the house. They're kind of like container gardens, and the tomatoes are tiny, tender, and sweet. I get a few each day and am thinking it won't be long before I am inundated.
DeleteI love gardens and have had a number of them and even bought a Mantis tiller to make the ground beautiful to plant. But there is this age thing and this health thing that seems to pull me away from some things and stick me with other things. So I have no garden but there are two leftover tomato plants my daughter gave me and those were stuck in a place without flowers and two pepper plants were stuck there too. I noticed the squirrels or something knocked off two green tomatoes and those looked like those long skinny Italian tomatoes. So it was no great loss. LOL
ReplyDeleteAbe, my dad loved to garden in his younger days too. He is my inspiration, but as he grew older, his gardens grew smaller and smaller. I haven't quite mastered his weed -free garden. He said an old farmer told him to just go out and knock those weeds around every day and eventually they'd give up and die. Maybe I'm not persistent enough.
DeleteWow, that's awesome!
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot of fun. :)
DeleteWhat a lovely garden! It's always fun when the fruits of your labor start to show!
ReplyDeleteIt is, Betsy. I can't believe how much it's grown during the month of July.
Delete