Thursday, July 16, 2015

Around the Garden


















Summer has finally hit us in full force with heat and humidity, and I am not complaining. After the winter we had I am so happy to be enjoying these lazy, dog days of summer, as they are often referred to. We have been a little dry around here over the last week, with the exception of a bit of rain on Tuesday night. We kinda needed the dry spell after the heavy rains of the previous week. I think it has done the garden good.

Slowly, the garden is going wild, and I am enjoying it. This time of year, as things really take off, and grow every which way, with no concern for how much room they are taking up, or who they are pushing out of the way, well, it just looks wild, and I like it. I really do. I walk around the garden taking it all in, peeking in on beets pushing through the earth, beans growing a little more each day, green tomatoes getting bigger and bigger, and new flower blooms greeting me. It's a wonderful time of year in the garden.

We had our first big harvest of green beans, sugar snap peas and snow peas. They were immediately turned into dilly green beans, and dilly sugar snap/snow peas. We are huge fans of dilly green beans, and have yet to can enough to get us through the winter...we are hoping this is the year. We have never tried dilly sugar snap/snow peas, but thought we would give it a go. We will pop open a jar of those next week and see how they taste.

Kale, Swiss chard, green beans, snow peas, sugar snap peas, salad greens, herbs, wild raspberries (on the perimeter of our property), beets and alpine strawberries are being enjoyed around here. It looks like I will be harvesting the garlic on the weekend or early next week, and the purple beans are just about ready. We have been enjoying calendula petals, borage flowers and nasturtiums on our salads, and spying the first zucchinis. And of course, lots of flowers have been making their way into our home.

I think I will give up on the pumpkins, they just don't seem to enjoy growing where I put them. Reece is a little disappointed, but once I told him it meant a trip to the pumpkin patch in the fall, he quickly got over it. I seeded two rows of mixed greens under the cucumber trellis. I have never tried this before, growing a cooler weather crop in the shade of a sun loving crop, but I figured the space is there so why not try it. Fingers crossed we end up with some lovely salad greens in about a month.

Do you remember the chrysalis I showed you last week? Reece and I got home from a day in the woods yesterday to find it had hatched. We had thought it was a painted lady, but it wasn't. It is a red admiral. It spent a bit of time with us, pumping it's wings and getting ready for flight, and then courageously flew off into the world.

And that's the update for this week. How are things around your garden?

32 comments:

  1. those beans!! Oh I love to eat them up :) Your sunflowers looks regal and beautiful.. I say give up on the pumpkins and go to a patch, that would be fun :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish I could share some with you Karen, they are so good! Thank you, I love sunflowers, and after not having any last year thanks to the squirrels, they feel really special this year.

      Delete
  2. What a beautiful, abundant Summer garden. And what a lovely surprise about the butterfly :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. It all looks so wonderful! ☺ Wish I could be there in person to see it and to visit with you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Tiffany. One day my friend, one day....

      Delete
  4. I am so over the heat and humidity, my winter loving heart is ready for winter! ;)
    Glad the red admiral made a debut, spent some time visiting and is now off to see the world.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, you have been dealing with it a lot longer than we have. It is only this week it has really shown up, so we are loving it at the moment :)

      Such a joy to come home and find it hatched yesterday.

      Delete
  5. Do you have a good recipe for dilly beans? I tried one last year and we did not enjoy it, and help would be appreciated! Beautiful garden!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, not sure if it is good, but we do enjoy it :) Shoot me an email and I will send it off to you...kimcorrigan_oliver@hotmail.com

      Thank you!

      Delete
  6. It's definitely a garden in full riot - in all the best possible ways. You've got a wonderful harvest of peas and beans and those purple ones are beautiful. My girls love purple at the moment so I'm increasingly tempted to grow a purple bed next year, broccoli, beans, carrots, beetroot - it would be so much fun!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like that Carie...full riot :) I love the purple ones, so vibrant. That would be so much fun, and such a wonderful way to keep them involved.

      Delete
  7. Ah yes! The dill beans... We rationed ours last year and still only made 'til early February. More this year as well. We canned our first 3 pint sized jars of homegrown dilly green beans this week. So exciting. We were also thinking of doing the snap peas in brine, but then we came upon a recipe that sounded so good! We may have to try it : Pickled sugar snap peas with mint and chilis. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are so good, it is hard to ration them. We did make it a little longer, enjoying our last jar in late March. This year I am hoping to get us right through to the next harvest. We did it this year with pickles, still three jars on the shelf, and I am sure we will be pickling soon.

      Delete
  8. That basket filled with so much color and goodness made my heart skip a beat! So much bounty! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I love those colourful baskets, full of good food we grew.

      Delete
  9. Everything looks so great, I love the sunflowers! Ours will not bloom! I'm glad you are enjoying all of the heat and summer love.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Carlin. I am so happy about the sunflowers. We lost all of them to squirrels last year, but this year they are thriving.

      Delete
  10. This is always the time that the garden starts to take over a bit and I wonder if I will ever stay on top of it--the weeding the eating the processing, but it is lovely to see it all that growth.

    I planted salad greens in the shade this year as well. They are a bit leggy so far. We'll see how they end up.

    So many edible flowers! I will have to try that more next year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, yes, funny how every year we wonder if we will stay on top of it :) It is a glorious time of year in the garden. Yes, edible flowers are so much fun, and I love how beautiful they make my salads :)

      Delete
  11. Wow Kim, your gardens and harvest look wonderful. I especially love the bright flowers. Enjoy xo

    ReplyDelete
  12. It really has taken off!! I say with all that abundance you can let go of those pumpkins... Have a great weekend Kim!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It has Erica, and it is wonderful! Ha, yes, I think I will pull them this weekend, maybe plant something else.

      Hope you are enjoying your trip. Happy weekend!

      Delete
  13. I just went through your last couple posts...WOW, I am absolutely floored at your garden Kim!!! It's beautiful!! Congratulations on all that you've done. Our garden is the size of a pinky nail compared to yours, but we did harvest a couple heads of lettuce and some snow peas! Our pumpkins aren't doing anything either. Oh well. We some strawberries growing and a tomato plant. It's a start so I am happy for that. XOXO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, thanks MJ! I feel deeply rooted to this land we call home, and to be able to grow on food on it, well, it is all so very special, and something I am so grateful for.

      Happy to hear you are doing a little gardening. I say anything you grow in your backyard is wonderful, doesn't matter how much or how little, you did it. Happy gardening!

      Delete
  14. oh! your garden is amazing! what an inspiration! i love stopping in and seeing how much it has grown. out of all the gardens i have seen this season.... i do believe yours is my favorite :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, thank you Jenny, you have just made my day!!!!

      Delete
  15. Beautiful! Such vibrance! Such life! I love pictures of your gardens so much. Are 'dilly beans' like pickles? Our snap peas are about to explode and I'm trying to figure out if I should freeze or can them. Be well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, thank you! Yes, green beans done in a pickling brine...so good! And we opened a jar of dilly snow peas on the weekend, just as good :)

      Delete
  16. You are such an amazing photographer of your garden. And what abundance out there now! Hope your plan of the greens in the shade works, sounds like a really good idea. My garden is still feeling neglected, I was hoping the start of the holidays would help (school finally finished today) but now we have visitors about to come and stay, will be lovely to see them but I had been looking forward to relaxing into the do what we want, when we want time! And despite the neglect, our pumpkins are doing wonderfully - wish I could trade some for some of your peas, ours just never quite took off.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, thanks Sally, so kind of you to say :)

      The greens in the shade of the cucumbers was going very well until a little critter ate all the sprouts :( I have plans to replant this weekend, and will cover it with a row cover. Hopefully that works.

      Sorry you haven't found the time you would to spend in your garden. I will keep my fingers crossed that some space will open up and you can get out there.

      And yes, I would totally trade you :)

      Delete