The Modern Victory Garden

This morning after our Sunday breakfast was completed, I hurried out to the garden to get the green beans picked before it became unmercifully hot outside.   This is the first harvest of green beans for this season and it provided just over one pound of beans.               

We will be enjoying these for dinner tonight along with some chicken cooked on the grill and potato salad made from potatoes and onions I harvested today too.   This is over three pounds of Caribe potatoes taken from just one plant.             

I also harvested some sugar snap peas.   Since we have so much already for dinner, I just rinsed the snap peas off and set them out for snacking on raw.   The sugar snap peas provide a nice steady supply of produce for fresh eating needs - so long as I keep them well watered and grow them in a partially shaded area.  

While we are still enjoying some of the cooler season crops (like sugar snap peas), the garden is definitely shifting into the main summer season crops.   I have several large tomatoes ripening on the vine and have already harvested the first ripe tomato of the season.   The zucchini has been providing regularly for many weeks now.   Interestingly enough, the green zucchini have temporarily stopped producing while the gold zucchini is still producing abundantly.   This actually happened last year too and with these same two varieties.   We had gold zucchini for dinner last night along with savory white beans w/ carrot slices and diced onions and baked dill salmon.

Slow to arrive but coming along are the cucumbers and the peppers.          

 The onion patches (both the sweet and storage) have laid down and are beginning the final bulb development stage.                    

After these have dried down a bit more, I will pull them and let them start curing.                                   

The buckwheat green manure / cover crop that I planted several weeks ago is now up and doing a good job of suppressing weeds - developing lots of vegetative matter for later incorporation into the soil.                   

Behind the buckwheat is the Ruby Ball cabbages that are heading up nicely.   Even better heads have formed on the Primero cabbages.             

There are three of them this size and three smaller ones.   This one is pretty much ready to harvest any time now.                                 

It is VERY hot here today and I was grateful to get the green bean picking done fairly early because even with the reasonably early start - I was getting quite done in by the heat.   My cat Sid sat in the shade of the beans and squash plants and gave me friendly encouragement and company while I picked.   I noticed as I wrapped up the harvesting that he had disappeared - but I soon found where he had gone to!   He likes to sit under the Adirondack chair on the front porch where he can watch the world go by in relatively cool shade.   Smart cat!          

I hope you are enjoying a summer day in the garden.