my grandson's cousin enjoys some baby carrots

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I made an obvious decision to forgo writing about and photographing my garden so far this year. It was a nice break that actually allowed me to enjoy getting my patch of green off and running without the encumbrances of camera and computer. Gardening is a messy business and I recall last year finding sudden inspiration while having muck up to my elbows. Dashing to the camera or computer in such a state required significant clean up which somewhat interrupted the flow of both the gardening AND the inspiration. This year when inspiration came I simply said, “Eh…” and returned to pulling weeds in the rain.

A friend on Facebook asked me “What do you have in your garden?” That’s my reason for returning to this.

I am experimenting with new varieties of mostly heirloom vegetables. This year I have purchased nearly all my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, an organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage. With any luck this year’s garden will contain:

• Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans from SSE – This is a wonderful old standby that I grew in my first garden in 1973. It’s the only bean I’ve ever grown. For next year I have my eyes on some Rattlesnake Snap beans. I don’t think I can resist “dark green pods that are streaked with purple – very fine flavor.” I like the name too.

• Wisconsin Lakes Pepper from SSE – I’ve always grown California Wonder peppers but wanted an heirloom variety with seeds I can save for next year.

• Jalapeño Peppers from Burpee – just one plant in a bucket from last year’s left over seeds

• Summer Crookneck Squash from SSE – I love the nutty flavor.

• Burpee’s Fordhook Zuccini – I used some leftover seeds from last year.

• Sweet Dumpling Winter Squash – I got these seeds from my son who grew them in Brooklyn.

• Purple Top White Globe Turnip from SSE – I’ll plant a fall crop of these too.

• Scarlet Nantes Carrot from SSE – I’ve finally discovered that the secret to growing carrots is deeply-tilled ground.

• Cherry Roma Tomato from SSE – These are replacing my Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes from the last two years. We’ll see…

• Red Brandywine Tomato from SSE – These are replacing my Better Boy Hybrids from Burpee. Those were pretty good but I want to save my seeds for next year and I can’t do that with hybrids.

• Brandywine (Sudduth’s Strain) Tomato from SSE -another experiment in flavor and seed saving

• Calabrese Broccoli from SSE - I was looking for larger heads this year which I didn’t get from the DeCicco variety I grew last year.

• Giant Noble Spinach from American Seed - These are left-over seeds from last year. My twenty-month old grandson likes this!

• Lettuce a variety of nine lettuces including a Gourmet Blend from Burpee, Black-Seeded Simpson, Burpee Bibb, and Roman Emperor (romaine)

• Mary Washington and Jersey Giant Asparagus from crowns I purchased at Home Depot

Please feel free to leave comments, questions, useful information or idle chat below. Maybe you can tell me what’s in your garden. There is more to come. I promise.

And thanks for asking, Mark.

I couldn’t bring myself to post a photo of the snow that fell in the Chicago area last night. Instead I’ve opted for this “warmer” interpretation of the season’s colors that I photographed this past summer. I didn’t realize how quickly I’d default to the old gardening theme of the original blog. Maybe I’m trying to tell myself something…

jalapenõ pepper and tomatoes

ripe cherry tomato!

There are some good thing to report!

• In spite of a cool, wet summer our first cherry tomato has ripened.

• Pumpkins are getting large and on their way to 25#, or so the seed packet says.

• We are learning many ways to cook zucchini! Katie had a zucchini Asiago cheese-omelet this morning.

• Wildflower seeds I planted are blooming, although I don’t know what most of them are.

Anyone who knows wildflowers please feel free to help me identify them.

Any Brooklyn pumpkins yet, Jesse?

How about Pilsen jalapeños, Andy? Does the el cast too much shade on your garden?

This pumpkin is about 12 inches long so far.

unknown wildflower

unknown wildflower with bee

unripe tomatoes

The All Star Game this week has put me in a mood to evaluate how things are going in the garden. Like the Cubs, there are both good and bad things to report.

The photos below tell mostly of the good things going on. The first peppers, both bell and jalapeño, emerged from their flowers today. Zucchini and broccoli are producing well. Noah is seeing the beginnings of what are supposed to become 25-pound pumpkins. Turnips continue to be available to pull as needed. Tomatoes are green, growing and prolific.

broccoli

black raspberries

Actually there are very few problems to report. A couple of my zucchini plants are wilting. I suspect either the Squash bug or the Squash vine borer is the culprit. I’ve seen both in the garden. Although there are Japanese beetles in massive numbers, they are not as fond of my garden without green beans this year. They are preferring the grape plants.

wilted zucchini plant

very small pumpkin

zucchini

first jalapeño pepper

small bell pepper

In evaluating this blog itself, it seems that a more regular posting would be good. This week I got rather involved with photographing insects and neglected my posts. (Well, I also had some work to do.) I will have some things to say – and show – concerning creepy crawlies in a future post.

turnip

very small pear on a nearly-dead pear tree

And finally, inspired by Jesse’s “bug’s eye view” of his pumpkin plant, I’ve included below a similar view of Noah’s pumpkin plant that long ago escaped it’s boundaries. The photo shows the point of escape.

bug's-eye view of Noah's pumpkin plants