Late June Garden 2012

Late June is when our garden really gets going, this is the first year I have grown peas. I only grew a couple of small tubs this year, to see how they would do.  I was excited to see some pretty white pea blossoms over the last couple of weeks.  I love the shape of the leaves as well as the blossoms, and I love how the tendrils wind around the pole, what a great plant!

We are now starting to get little pods, and you can see the little peas starting to take shape, I am really looking forward to their harvest, I haven't shelled peas for quite some time.

The tomatoes are also blossoming, and starting to get a little taller, I think they are looking forward to a little more heat.

Another new addition to the garden- my little green onions. I love cooking with green onions, and had I known they were so easy to grow I would have been growing them all along, I am ordering more onion seeds to plant another pot full, they are doing very well.

My squash was very slow starting this year, and I actually had to replant them, finally they came through, and I was relieved, this variety below is a new variety that is supposed to be lime green, it will be interesting to see what it turns out like.

The pepper plants are doing good, I am looking forward to the jalapeno poppers and stuffed bell peppers later this summer.

I ran out of garden bed space, so my old cracked wheelbarrow, which held bachelor buttons last year, is now home to a small planting of lima beans, I look forward to seeing if I can get these to grow to maturity.

I have had a little trouble with the green beans this year, I have replanted the bare spots, but I have a feeling this might be it for the season, I have grown this variety for over a decade and I have never had a bad batch.  I did rotate them to a new bed this year, and I guess they just don't like it.

The bed right next to the sparse green bean bed above is also a variety of bean, I grew it as an experiment, and it is doing much better than my standard variety.  This variety is a purple bean, they grow just like a green bean, but the pod is supposed to be purple.  When you cook the beans, apparently they turn green, and taste just like a regular bean.  The stems are a darker purple color, and they are doing very well.  So although I may not have many typical green beans this year, we will hopefully have some funky purple ones, which I am very excited to watch grow. :)

I am also looking forward to starting another new gardening project inspired by my latest library visit.  I have checked out a book about growing micro greens, and it sounds like a fun project that you could grow for a large part of the year, and can even grow indoors.  I'm not sure how practical they are for feeding a family, but apparently they are packed with nutrients, and I think they would be fun on salads.

The book I checked out is called Microgreens How to Grow Natures Own Superfood written by Fiona Hill you can read more about it at my Amazon link below.  I would love to know if anyone else has experimented with micro-greens.

This week we are catching up on some household projects, as well as going on a few summer outings, so my fairy tale post will be delayed a few more days.  I am hoping to be all caught up with both last weeks and this weeks fairy tales by this weekend.

Have a great week!