More Lettuce

Here is the lettuce in the garden and here it is all picked. I decided to harvest it all at once because the weather started getting hot and I was afraid it would get yucky and bitter. This was bibb lettuce. I liked this lettuce, it kind of melted in your mouth and was tasty. Russell wasn't quite as big a fan, he's an iceberg guy, but he did eat some of it. Next year I will plant rows of lettuce and spinach in the big garden in-between the rows of beans and carrots etc. since the early crops won't bother the later crops. I will also plant spinach and lettuce when the weather starts to cool so that we can have a fall crop.

Lettuce

This is Bibb lettuce from my garden. I think I need to get it all harvested pretty soon, and I probably should have spaced out my plants a little further, but it is really hard to pull lovely plants out just to make room.

A salad of lettuce and radishes of our very own.

Spinach

Here is some spinach I harvested last week. I harvested all of my spinach because it started growing pointy, arrow-shaped leaves. This, apparently, means it is done and needs to be harvested or it will become bitter. I made this yummy spinach manicotti with the spinach from my garden. Just so you know, my kids thought I was really weird for taking pictures of food.

Roses and Wildflowers 6/11/2009

These are some of the back beds, mostly the roses and then the corner where some pretty wildflowers are going wild! I didn't know if that tall thing was a weed or not so I decided to leave it until the buds opened and then I would decide. I'm glad I didn't pull it because it is really pretty. I don't know what it is but I like it. I also like all of those poppies, even though the wildflower area is a little crazy.

Big Garden 6/11/2009

This is the "big garden". In this picture you can see the garden with the posts/wires for the grapes to climb on the two edges (one plant per post) and the composter in the bottom right corner.

This is the row of beets. They were the first to sprout.



These are the green beans.

These are the rows of corn (2 short rows).


This is one of the cantaloupe mounds. There are some marigolds growing around here too.

A cucumber sprout.

And finally, some dill.

I have some carrots planted in this garden too - 2 rows. There are some growing and it looks like some are just starting to sprout. They seem to be taking a while but I am still hopeful. I also just planted some potatoes so they might take a little while to show up.

Small Garden #2 6/11/2009

This is the other small garden. This garden has one row of sugar snap peas and one row of "Little Marvel" peas. When the peas are done, I will transform their trellises into cages for the tomatoes and then I think I will plant spaghetti squash in their place. I also have green onions, yellow onions, radishes, and cilantro growing in this bed. There are some chives that have started to grow and some itsy-bitsy little basil seedlings starting to show up.

This is the "herb" end of this garden, the plant on the bottom, right of the picture is the cilantro plant that has bolted and so is done. There are other little cilantro plants growing about and I don't think you can even see the chives or basil because they are so small. I'm letting the cilantro go to seed so I can collect the seeds for next year - and cilantro seeds are coriander so I could use them as a spice as well.
These are the radishes Duncan picked last night. Aren't they pretty?

Small Garden #1, 6/11/2009

This is one of the "small gardens" on the back of the house, outside the kitchen. This garden has 3 tomato plants, two large tomato plants and one cherry tomato plant, broccoli, bibb lettuce and spinach. Here is the Burt dog sniffing the garden. I also have marigolds growing around in this bed. I think that I am going to add zinnias as well.

Close up of the spinach and two of the 3 broccoli plants.

Close up of the lettuce and one broccoli plant. Only 3 of the broccolis sprouted and survived. Next year I will start them inside really early.