All of these photos are several weeks old now but I thought I'd post them anyway. We've been harvesting cow and crowder peas like crazy. We haven't actually eaten any of them yet, we're just shelling them and letting them dry.
FINALLY the basil came up! Not really enough to do anything with yet but at least there is one plant. Maybe there will be enough for one margherita pizza and one batch of pesto. Please, please let there be enough for one batch of pesto!
This is either cilantro or flat-leaf parsley. Come on little plant; grow! I'm tired of buying you at the store.
A TY Veggie Patch summer staple - squash.
And again - FINALLY tomatoes have appeared. They are all green still but they're finally here.
Everything you see here is tomatoes. These big plants better be puttin' out big quantities of tomatoes.
If memory serves, last year I was disappointed with the size and quantity of pepper plants that, but by the end of summer we had more peppers than we knew what to do with. I'm in that same place again. Only two very small plants have come up. Hopefully they'll produce a lot.
This is what, the fourth or fifth time we've attempted to plant something in this spot? This is REALLY the last time we're attempting this. If the squash and hibiscus plants Tom planted here don't 'take', that's it for this area. Although we did just buy clover seeds to use as ground cover for the bees so maybe Tom can spread some here and see how it goes.
We're comfortable enough now with our garden knowledge and skills to start saving seeds from the produce we grow. One of the advantages of growing heirloom varieties is that you can replant the seeds year after year. We've done that with a few items but this year Tom has really committed to saving seeds from everything possible so we don't have to buy more seeds. So far this year he's saved seeds from crowder and cow peas, pole and bush beans, and cucumbers. Next will be tomatoes and peppers (assuming we get any peppers).
Unfortunately we weren't as inundated with cucumbers this year as in the past two years, but we certainly got a good amount. At the point we were picking one or two cucs every day, I remember making refrigerator pickles last year so I pulled out the recipe and made a couple of quarts. I know I said this last year but they taste JUST like Claussen's. YUM!
