Adventures On The Farm

[bloodyrosemccoy]

The Farm continues to flourish! Anybody need some Swiss chard? SO MUCH CHARD.

Had to go get some more stakes yesterday, because it turns out that beans are unrepentant perverts. Darn things keep trying to hug every other plant in the garden, and frankly it’s creeping the pumpkins out. I had to get the little reprobates even more stakes to climb all over. But the container beans are starting to bloom, and I’m guessing the backyard ones will follow soon.

The tomatoes are going insane, too. I am especially excited for the cherry tomatoes. In my opinion, big tomatoes belong either in slices on sandwiches, or in tomato sauce.

One of the calendulas is blooming. I’m hoping the nasturtiums follow soon—Dad and I both love nasturtiums. They’re certainly looking excited enough at the moment—the leaves are getting huge, but the flowers are still not ready. I’m kind of bouncing around like a little kid, checking every day to see if they’re any closer to flowering.

Weeding is continuing to stress out my tendon, but it is offset by the awesome sense of dragging up dandelion roots.

Oh, and a couple of days ago I was muttering about needing some blue flowers. “What are you talking about?” Mom said. So I showed her my seed collection—and it’s all for red and orange flowers, with a few yellows tossed in for variety. I am drawn to orange like a magnet.

Still not sure about the rest of the backyard, although I did find a hobbit-sized shovel that isn’t falling apart. Only trouble is, a hobbit shovel’s going to take a lot longer to dig things up than a regular-sized shovel. Or a backhoe. But it’s a start!

Comments

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I am so envious of your garden!

But I have zucchini blossoms! It's a start!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I don't do zucchinis, but from what I hear, they are a very good start indeed!

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Around here, the joke is that the only time you need to lock your car is during Zucchini season: Lots of people try growing them, hearing they do well. Well ain't the half of it. So there's a certain time of year when half the Island is trying to foist off Zucchini on anyone they can before they get buried under it all ;)

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

There was one year where we had three zucchini plants. We would harvest what seemed to be the entire crop for the day, then the next day find one we'd apparently missed that was the size of a baseball bat. Repeatedly. We had zucchini pickles, zucchini relish, zucchini bread, zucchini chocolate chip cupcakes...

It all tasted good but we had very little desire to plant zucchini the next year.

[michellerz.livejournal.com]

Yee gads, Swiss chard grows like weeds. We can't figure out what to do with it all at our house, either!

What we did for our string beans last year (and our cucumbers this year) was planted them by the deck, and then dangled lots of long lengths of string down to them. The plants climbed up the string - and the beans actually climbed the string, then right up the rails of the deck and began spilling over the top - but at least they stayed away from the other plants, for the most part! ;)

Glad to hear your garden is flourishing so well!!! :)

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Chard can be used just like spinach. You can blanch and freeze it, you can stir-fry it, and you can make tasty tasty pie things with it.

This recipie: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/spinach_with_sesame_and_garlic/
is AMAZINGLY YUMMY with chard.

A cheese and greens tart from medieval Germany: http://www.medievalcookery.com/search/display.html?kuchb:30

Another yummy medieval tart: http://www.medievalcookery.com/search/display.html?menag:458:SPNX

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Nasturtium and tomatoe sandwiches are delicous. Especially with tuna.