What have I learned from my vegetable gardening experience?
“That climate change is really happening, and I wish I had picked my vegetables sooner!”
Here are some photos from my garden last week, after the snow:
October 29th brings us a snowstorm!!
Hard to believe that we are enjoying a crackling fire on the 29th of October!! Why? Because we are in the middle of a freak October snowstorm! We hurriedly picked the last of the tomatoes and cucumbers this morning, and then said goodbye to the garden!!
This tomato doesn't know what to think!
Crabapples
Snow Caps on Pumpkins
Summer’s Bounty…
The well tended and prolific garden, and a basket full of deliciousness…
The Hampton Court Flower Show- my first time
I stayed an extra day in the UK to visit the Hampton Court Flower Show. It is touted as the largest flower show in the world. I have been to the Chelsea Flower Show once, so I was curious to compare. Chelsea is much earlier in the season, so most of the plant material has had to be forced into bloom, and it takes place in a much smaller space in London. However, it is perfection! Hampton Court is just outside the city, and has many more acres to work with. Though the show gardens are a little less extravagant, there are many more vendors, and we (my daughter was a good sport and kept me company) found quite a few neat things. Frustratingly enough, most of the plant vendors won’t ship to the US, as our import restrictions are a pain in the neck. I hope that you enjoy the photos below.
The requisite Delphinium display packed with florets
A slightly unusual color
What a coincidence that my favorite color Peony happens to be a really luscious Delphinium color, as well
A "floating" fawcet
A display garden for a charity symbolizing the "haves and have-nots" in the world
A gargantuan cabbage 'Robinson's Giant'
More to come soon….
You could eat these right off the page….
Incredible photos from a gardening friend here in Southwestern Connecticut. She picked these yesterday morning. All early crops: Kale, Swiss Chard, Radishes and Beets. Enjoy what you see.
Radishes, Beets, Swiss Chard and Kale
Neat rows set up in the garden
We have been enjoying snap peas for a couple of weeks now. They have the sweetest pure white blossoms on the plant before they set the pea pod. The plants have grown so tall and are now flopping over the supports; there must have been too much nitrogen in the compost. Nonetheless they are delicious snapped right off the vine, and rarely do many make it from the garden to the house!
The broccoli, on the other hand…what is with all the green and no florets? Impatient that the plants weren’t producing the vegetable and frustrated with the way the plants were elbowing their way into all open spaces, inhibiting the planting of anything else, I snipped off the few florets that had grown, yanked out the plants and tossed them into the compost pile. The 
variety that I planted definitely needed its own garden. If one plant only produces one stalk, (ok and a few little ones), and for a normal dinner we eat almost 2 bunches (about 4-5 stalks) of broccoli as you buy in them in the market …..you see where I am going. There just isn’t enough room for them! However, all was not for naught. Thinly sliced broccoli leaves, sauteed in a little butter and salt, are delicious!
Dinner for 5?
Don’t trust photos in plant catalogs!
One catalog shows this Nepeta (Catmint) as Delphinium-like blue
This is a lot closer to the true color- same photo, minus the Photoshop
Always double-check plants, particularly “blue” ones, online. Just Google the plant (its Latin name, of course), and then click “images” to see various photos of the plant that have been posted on the Web. It is amazing what a difference there can be. I buy most of my plants from mail-order catalogs that sometimes have no photos at all, just a description. If you are looking to find an unusual plant that you have seen somewhere, look it up as above, but add “nursery” after the name and it will show mostly photos that are posted by places that sell the plant. Happy Hunting!
My New Electric Lopper
This Alligator Lopper is one of the best buys I have made in a while. I know it looks very dangerous, but it is actually very safe and easy to use. The chain won’t start unless the on switches of both handles are gripped, and the jaws keep the chain right on the branch. It makes short work of your pruning tasks that would take much longer to do with a hand-lopper or hand-saw. It is cordless and the battery life is excellent. I cut down 4 large shrubs in 20 min, one of which had a diameter of about 5 inches. The only thing that you have to make sure to do is to cut from the upper side of the branch so that as the branch falls, it doesn’t pinch the bar and step the chain.
My new toy and a big shrub
10 minutes later
An even bigger shrub!
Ok, so we are not the prettiest little things..
How can you resist when you can’t see what is growing beneath the soil???
Couldn’t restrain myself and had to pull these up.
What do we have? Not the prettiest Daucus carota. But they are ..mmm… sweet and delicious! These were purchased seedlings and transplanted in the garden around the 14th of April. Wondering if by that time they had already sent long roots into the 6-pack cells and started curling.
There are still a few carrots in the garden that were direct sowed. It will be interesting to see if these curl too. Supposedly, grown in raised beds, carrots should not have a problem growing down!
Compost Pile Update
It has been 8 weeks since the compost pile was started. Vegetable scraps from the kitchen have been added regularly, and grass clippings have been added once. To speed up the composting process, I read that it is a good idea to turn over the pile monthly to aerate the mixture. So I have done this twice by lifted off the fencing and placing it right next to the existing pile, then with a pitchfork heaving the pile into the new empty space. I am amazed that the vegetable scraps decompose so quickly, that there are worms the size of garter snakes squirming around the pile, and that this appears as though we are well on our way to compost! Here are pictures from today:
Moving pile from left to right
Compost pile on May 20th
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