In the Garden

It is amazing how much a garden can grow in a few days!

Here's a peek at the progress:


Zucchini, radishes, raspberry buds, and baby basil!


Flowers, kohlrabi, and the first tomato buds.


Red onions, cucumbers, and beets.


Scallop squash, flowers, lettuce mix.


Swiss chard, the tallest tiniest adorable asparagus, and bush beans.

Planning & Planting my Vegetable Garden

I'm almost finished with planting this summer's garden!  I made a little watercolor map of where I'd like to plant everything.  I've got a total of 6 garden beds in various locations around the house.  

This year we'll have strawberries, asparagus, onions, garlic, beefsteak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, red peppers, jalapeno peppers, zucchini  cucumbers, radishes, beets, swiss chard, baby romaine, raspberries  eggplant, acorn squash, green beans, basil, thai basil, mint, oregano, thyme, sage, and hopefully cherries!  

I also built a 5x10' raised bed garden this year to keep out the roving herds of rabbits that reside in our yard.  I plan to add two more 4x4' beds next to this one, but I think I'll wait until the fall to do that. :)

The perennial herbs I planted a few years ago are already up and doing great - clockwise from the top: sage, mint, oregano, and chives.  These are growing along the south side of our house, and they do great there despite the fact that they are a little bit shaded.  Plus, they look lovely once they start to grow and fill out. 

The onions just started to pop out of the ground today.  I can't wait!  For some reason it is impossible to find a fresh onion anywhere in South Dakota.  Seriously, all of the ones at the grocery store look diseased!  I'm going to eat so many onions this summer.

The swiss chard also popped up this morning.  I can't wait!  I love chard - it produces all summer, and around here the leaves get huge!   

And there are a few pretty flowers starting to pop up all around the house. 

Happy gardening!

Monster Garden!

This year's garden has been great (despite the zukes biting the dust, and the basil failing to grow).

We've been using almost everything and giving away anything we can't use.  The cherry tomatoes have been my favorite (the heirloom eggplants above are from the farmer's market).
The tomato plants have gone gangbusters.  These things are insanely huge!!

There is nothing like growing your own food.  I have big plans for next summer as well. :)

GIANT swiss chard!

Dog Days of Summer

Maybe the best $30 I've ever spent:

I have a feeling I'll be spending a large majority of the remaining summer sitting right there.

Sketchbook and some music - a great way to spend the afternoon!

The garden has also been coming along nicely.  We've harvested about 5 good sized zucchini, a bunch of herbs, swiss chard, and baby romaine.

The black-eyed susans are almost in bloom!  

I still can't believe how huge the lettuce is!

And we've been making good use of it too.  We have a 10 foot row of swiss chard, and a 10 foot row (that was half destroyed by rabbits) of baby romaine, and we've had more than enough salad for the two of us.  Last night we used lettuce and rosemary from our garden to make these turkey burgers:  

A quick tip when growing your own lettuce - often times it can get pretty bitter if eaten right from the garden.  If you have a lettuce that is bitter - try washing it off and putting it in the fridge for a day or so - cooling it takes away most of the bitter flavor.  

I'm looking forward to tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, jalapenos, and peppers.  I'm also thinking that I'll be expanding the garden a bit next summer. :)  What are you growing this summer?  Anything new and exciting?

Veggie Garden

The veggie garden is doing great - minus a few bunnies who keep eating the lettuces!

{Baby Romaine Lettuce - when I went outside today, this guy was munched down completely - I think I'll be investing in a chicken wire fence.}

{Sage - it is getting huge!  We've been cutting off leaves almost every day too!}

{Chives}

{Our front yard Zucchini - One thing I love about our house and neighborhood is that everyone has a veggie garden, so planting zucchini in your front yard isn't frowned upon - not that that would stop me.}

{This is the finished backyard plot - It really helped to remove the sod - we've hardly had any weeds - unlike my garden in Illinois which I had to weed every other day!}

{The first tomato flowers on the cherry tomato plants - I'm really looking forward to having cherry tomatoes, I don't think many of them will survive being eaten straight off of the plant.}

{The first serrano pepper!  It's a little lumpy, but it is growing!} 

{And last but not least, the bright lights swiss chard - my favorite lettuce because you can harvest from it all summer and fall and it keeps coming back.}

Flower Garden

{Asiatic Lily}

{Bumble Bee}

{The first of the roses}


{Flower Garden - There are two kinds of lilies, black eyed susans, and a few other flowers that haven't bloomed yet.}


{Western Columbine}

Even though I took out some of the flowers, and am going to downsize the flower garden a bit next year, I am enjoying the ones I kept around - especially after getting control of the giant thistles that were everywhere!

Peony Bouquet from the Garden

I love peonies, they are one of my favorite flowers.

Lucky for us, the previous owners of our house had planted a large mound of them in our backyard.  They are just starting to bloom, and I was excited to see that they are a pink/white variety!  So I picked a bunch of them along with some lilac blooms and they smell amazing.

It is so nice having fresh flowers in the house.

I also finished this small painting this afternoon:

Simplicity

Sometimes it is good to have a simple and relaxing day.  Yesterday was that day for me.
Painting:




Making a terrarium using a thrifted glass container and a tiny plant I found in my yard.


And a simple dinner of Salmon and Red Potatoes.


I'm waiting for corn to be in season so I can do a shrimp/potato/onion/corn boil!  Even though it is hot as hell outside, I'm really loving this summer so far. :)

In the Garden

Everything is starting to come to life in our garden!  We've got a ton of stuff sprouting and growing, and our work is starting to pay off!


{Baby Zucchini}


{Cherry Tomatoes}

{Swiss Chard}

{Genovese Basil}

{Baby Romaine}

{Armenian Cucumbers}

{Front yard raised bed garden - we took out some huge perrenial flowers and planted the zucchini and cucumbers here}

We've also got a huge mound of peonies almost in bloom!  If you live near me, you'll probably be receiving some!