Garden Update

It’s official: this year’s garden is the best I’ve ever grown. The beans and peas are both taller than I am. I’ve never had peas get that big before. Some of the tomatoes are shoulder height. I haven’t had them get that high before either. I’ve already picked 4 huge zucchini, and there’s at least that many still growing in the garden.

I’m not quite sure what it is that’s made the garden so successful this year, but it’s definitely the best one that I’ve ever grown. As usual, I don’t fertilize. The only thing I add to the soil before planting is compost that we make ourselves. While the onions and carrots are still relatively small, I’m sure I’ll be able to pick the carrots and at least a few of the onions by the end of the growing season.

I’m super excited about eating home grown carrots again this year. While they’re smaller than the ones I buy at the grocery store they’re so much sweeter, just like the peas.

One of the reasons I love growing beans is because of the pop of color that they bring to the garden. While it’s great to see so much green (it means plants are alive and growing), breaking it up with the red bean flowers is always pretty. While the zucchinis also have flowers (they’re big and yellow), at this point you can’t see them unless you go looking for them underneath the big zucchini leaves.

This week I ate my first peas from the garden! Just like in previous years they were perfectly crispy and sweet. The only problem with extending the netting upwards to keep up with how tall the peas and beans are growing is that it makes picking the peas a bit harder. So far I’ve been able to wiggle my fingers in there and pull the peas towards me where I can then pick them off the plants.

There are now quite a few tomatoes growing. Even though it’ll still be awhile before any of them start to turn red, I’m super excited just to see them. I planted the tomatoes way too close this year, so it’ll be interesting to try to pick the tomatoes when they’re ready. Getting to the plants on the edges won’t be hard, but the ones in the middle will be a challenge.

There’s a few zucchinis this size that will have to be picked over the next few days. The key to getting plants to produce as much food as possible is making sure to pick the veggies before they get too ripe. If they’re not harvested right away then that signals to the plant that it’s time to stop producing more veggies.

Now that you know the state of my garden, I’ve love to hear about yours. Leave a comment with the last thing you picked.