Garden Friday

It's Garden Friday!
Here's a little of what's "growing on" around the homestead.

The turmeric is practically jumping out of the pots.
It seems to enjoy the combination of heat and drought.
This plant is being grown for its medicinal benefits,
as it is one of the best remedies for inflammation.

Some of the cucumbers are getting a bit of size to them.
These are slicing cukes, which will be used on salads.

The Sugar Baby watermelons are slowly growing.
They have a beautiful pattern to them.
This is our first attempt at growing melon.

Have you ever seen such a fuzzy melon?

cucumber

It took only a few weeks for the white sweet potatoes
to fill in this entire 4 X 4 raised bed.
The vines will now start climbing up the recently made trellis.
The leaves of this root vegetable are similar to spinach when eaten raw.

The butternut squash seems quite content
and continues it ascent up the folded cattle panel.

The first of the fruit was found this week.
I'm looking forward to making some soup with this crop.

The blossoms look similar to the loofah and pumpkin blooms.
The pollinators have no trouble finding these huge flowers.

The first okra was picked last weekend.
Soon, we will be overrun with the stuff.
I hope to be able to pickle a lot of it.

Even the eggplant makes me hopeful,
although it does have a few holes
indicating that something is munching on it.
Quite a few of the crops in the garden are late this season,
as there were problems with germination and pests early on.
We just keep throwin' seed at it!

The pumpkin is one thirsty plant.
We had a deluge on Tuesday that made it very happy.
Daily checks for eggs have been made,
as the squash bug loves to settle on the leaves.
I simply crush them with gloved hands.

The first loofah on the trellis hasn't stopped growing yet.
Several others have now been spotted,
so I'm hoping that we will have a number to donate to the Community Garden Fundraiser.

I love watching the loofah vines covering the gazebo structure.
Every morning when I go for my walk,
I'm amazed to see the flowers reaching for the sky!

With the forecast of rain looming,
I decided to make some compost tea.
It's actually turkey poop placed in a bucket,
then filled with water.
In this case, rainwater filled it for me.
This is used as a general fertilizer.

The Yukon Gold potatoes were harvested this week.

They were planted in mid-March,

and by the looks of the faded and flopping stalks,

it was time to see what we had growing in the straw.

This year, I tried a little experiment.

I used the potato towers that were made last year,

but instead of banking with soil as they grew,

I used straw instead.

The results yielded far fewer potatoes than last year.

You can even see a couple of green ones,

which were thrown in the compost pile.

Next year, I will return to using soil to hill up the taters.

At least we got a couple of handfuls to use for baking.

The leek I harvested was delicious and they will continue
to be picked and eaten as often as desired.
Even though it's summer,
I've been craving soup,
so I may use the potatoes and leek together to make up a batch.

This week we were blessed with some fantastic weather!
After our downpour, the morning temperatures have been in the 60's,
with highs only reaching the low to mid 80's.
What a relief after the heat wave that hit the country last week.

The stellar weather is supposed to continue this weekend.
I'm hoping to meet up with sister for lunch,
and maybe we'll even get in a hike.
Enjoy whatever comes your way!