It is that time of year. The jungle time! The garden is so thick and green it is hard to get in there to reach things and forget about even finding weeds. It is thick and lush and things are finally growing and ripening and vining. This week we are in the midst of a big heat wave though, so I don't expect full jungle to last long.
A lot of the greens which have lasted so long this summer will surely be done with all of these ridiculously high temperatures. But of course the tomatoes, cucumbers and squash will be happy as long as I can keep them watered. It is HOT!
While the strawberries are long gone the golden raspberries are still going strong, the red raspberries are turning pink, the blackberries are close, and I have been cutting huge bowls full of white currants.
Right now I'm making a white currant~lavender syrup for home made sodas. Oh yeah.
With the sun exposure (or lack thereof) in our yard our tomatoes usually ripen later than elsewhere. We won't be eating tomatoes from the garden for a few more weeks - but when we do it looks like we will have a LOT this year. I can't wait to try the candy cane cherry tomatoes.
I am just starting to pick the tiny cucumbers for cornichons, and will let some grow bigger for pickle slices.
There is so much kale it is actually kind of over the top. It usually doesn't do so well, but the crazy spring/summer weather so far seems to have been perfect for nothing but ... KALE! But of course we are cranking out the kale chips and I have one very very happy angora rabbit.
Some things are going to seed - and I am drying and saving seeds for next year. The dehydrator is working full time, drying fruit, herbs, vegetables and seed heads.
And I am continuing my love affair for these guys. Every time I have a problem pest before I can research the organic solutions they seem to eat them all. There are so many and they fly around me as I work in the garden, but I have not had one sting. They drink from the plants as I water. They eat the bad guys. And they pollinate everything else. My heroes.
How is your garden growing? What do you have so far? :)
Oh, in case you didn't know, I also have a food blog, cook.eat.think. It is busy over there this time of year with all of the fresh seasonal goodness going on!
13 comments:
Yum, yum, and yum! Ooooh, and homemade sodas! Wowza. What a fablous idea.
We love making homemade sodas. I make syrups a lot...we had rhubarb ginger in the spring. I'm making currant-lavender now. Just mix with club soda...yum.
Everything is looking swell, Denise!
Over here, we're doing great. I've had red midgets for a week now, and I have about seven dozen green tomatoes on vine at the moment. (I made fried green tomatoes last week already.) I planted late summer kale almost two weeks ago, and I'll put in post-frost/snow kale next month. This has been one of the best gardening years ever. We got everything into the beds earlier than usual, and I have been reseeding crops like lettuce and radishes and herbs over and over again.
Oh I can't love your garden enough!!! Wonderful!!!
Looks beautiful! We just came back to three weeks of monsoon season weeds in our garden. But while weeding we discovered handfuls of string beans and huge carrots. Oh sure some of the weeds were taller than me.
Beautiful photographs! Now is when we are starting to see the fruits of our labors, finally! Our Kale is also over the top still:)
What a marvelous jungle you have!
I am coveting your tomatoes - ours are still small and growing slowly but they are romas and maybe won't get so big?
You are a gardening godess!
Jungle time is right! I actually dropped my glasses (off the new "old-lady-chain I got) and it took me 10 minutes to find them in the jungle we've got going on! LOL
Oh yeah. A dropped a very special favorite new metal top off the deck. My husband about killed all the rhubarb trying to climb in there to find it. No sight of it ... he talks about it every. single. day. for two weeks since he lost it. I figure we might find it in ... November? :)
Aww maan! I hope you find it!!!
What an amazing garden! Our first year container gardening is, well, underwhelming. I had great plans for canning...and so far we eat everything that ripens while we do the daily watering. Perhaps next year! And I'm glad to hear that the heat spells are at least good for all the food growing out that way. From the news, it sounds you all are getting quite the unusual temps there.
a beautiful jungle! we've had some seriously bad weather, and it looks like most of the fruit is spoiled (grapes, peaches and olives).
I am just starting to save seeds this year--just plucked some from my dill this morning with my daughter. It is really exciting to do it for some reason! Your garden is lovely.
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