Garden

*B* has been diligently working in the garden this season.  I must admit that I've done little more than ask for certain foods to be planted.by and large, the rest of the garden is his this year.

*B* has been putting vine scraps that we don't want growing into a trashcan.  I noticed that there were some ants around the top of the can.  I don't know if you can see it, but the left side of this pile is swarming with ants.  No wonder they're getting into our house!



On a good bug note, it looks like a ladybug laid eggs on this plant.  There were tons of pupating ladybugs there today.


*B* has had this cactus for many years.  It's thriving and putting out new pads all the time.


The honeysuckle I got a couple of years ago is really taking over.  We need to find a way to trellis it further than we already have.  It's a native honeysuckle, so we don't want to cut it back too far.


My Mister Lincoln has some buds on it.  I'm hoping to get a good crop of red roses this year.



My JFK rose is doing fantastically.  One is almost ready to open, and four more are on their way.


*B* planted red clover in with our asparagus to help out the soil.  I thought it would never flower, but it's proving me wrong.


I tend to get bit up by bugs in the summer.  Knowing our luck, the baby will inherit my "sweet meat".  This year we're trying a potted citronella plant on our table to help keep the bugs away without having to spray. 


I'm a hoarder of mint.  I've got four main types (spearmint, variegated peppermint, pineapple mint, and chocolate mint), and the little pot down in front is called Mexican mint, but it's tarragon.



The downside of being a mint hoarder is that it sometimes appears where you don't plant it.  This is a tote of arugula that was taken over my mint.


This is one of *B*'s babies.  It's called crosne or Chinese artichokes.  It's related to mint, but you eat the tubers.


This hard to see group of plants is scorzonera.  The leaves and roots are both edible.


Another *B* plant is stinging nettle.  I won't touch it because it can hurt, but it's apparently very nutritious if prepared properly.


The last of the weird plants is this grove of sunchokes in our former compost pile.  It will put up pretty flowers, it's hard to kill, and the tubers are apparently delicious!

 
Speaking of tubers, this is something I picked up off of pinterest.  It's a bin made of potatoes.  *B* made a chicken wire bin and filled it with layers of straw, soil, and seed potatoes.  Apparently, two pounds of seed potatoes can produce up to 25 lbs of eating potatoes.  When the greens die back, you pull the wire away, and all of your tasty potatoes come falling out!


For a while, I thought these were junk seeds that volunteered.  It turns out that *B* did a three sisters experiment this year.  We'll see how it goes.


The tomatoes took over our raised bed last year, so this year we did the lazy man's raised bed:  *B* opened two bags of potting soil and stuck our tomatoes straight in.  They look pretty happy.


We have royalty purple pod bush beans in the open cold frame.  The seeds were two years old, so I'm just happy they germinated.


We didn't pay attention to the rhubarb this year, and it took off on its own.  I'm not sure if it's even edible at this point.  But it sure looks happy.


We have one whole pepper this year.  It has flowers, but I'm not sure if it'll end up making it.


Our garlic should be ready to pull soon.  This is garlic that overwintered, so I have no idea what to expect.


Our snap peas are doing well.  We got a full snack for our first harvest.  We've got three varieties (sugar ann, sugar snap, and sugar daddy) and they're coming in perfectly staggered.


I read a post over at Choosing Voluntary Simplicity about perpetual celery plants.  At the end of the season, we're going to dig them out and bring them inside.


One of the easiest ways to get good carrots and parsnips is to replant the tops after you've eaten them.  The short carrots came from seeds.  The tall ones came from organic market carrots.


We had snow peas in our seed stash.  We don't love snow peas, but they're pretty good in stir fry.  We hate our hibiscus plants, so *B* let the snow peas climb the hibiscus.  If something comes of it, great.  If not, oh well.




This is my only raspberry bush to really take off.  The other ones are only about 8 inches tall.  I have no idea why one is happy and the others aren't.


The blueberry (which is just to the right of the above raspberry) is small, but slowly getting bigger.



*B* adores nasturtiums both for their taste and look, and this is the first to flower this year.


My mom made this strawberry planter for us two years ago.  The strawberries we have in our front yard are junebearing, whereas these are everbearing.  We've already had 8 or so berries off of it this year.

*B* has worked so hard on this garden.  I was convinced that with me expecting a baby, nothing would get done.  The way things are going, we have a very nice supplement to our purchased food!