Locavore pizza

This was two weeks ago now, but it was DELICIOUS: pesto pizza with locally grown/raised roasted beets, asparagus, potatoes, caramelized onions and local pork sausage. Heaven.

Flowers and birds and bunnies oh my

So we've had our share of garden pests this year. Squirrels, bunnies, chipmunks and other little critters also enjoy the fruits of our labor. So we've decided to fence off the lowest beds first - the tomato beds.

Secondly, I've attracted a lovely mix of birds just by changing our food source. We now have northern cardinals, purple finches, goldfinches, nuthatches, chickadees and hummingbirds regularly feeding in our yard. They are much more beautiful and have the sweetest songs. The sparrows continue to feed but I beam every time I see a goldfinch - or two or three - feeding on our thistle. I had no idea it was that simple around here to attract birds.

Midsummer Garden

We are suffering from a midsummer garden. So many crops so close to harvest (carrots, onions, more broccoli, squash, loads of tomatoes); so many main season crops just sprouting/transplanted  (green beans, edamame, corn, more storage onions; cucumbers); a few spots laying low for a few weeks before fall crops are sowed. Hard to think about cold-weather crops on a week like this.

The heat and humidity have been a boom for the garden. The watermelon tunnel is the best we've ever grown. Three varieties growing in an 8-foot long remesh hoop house. It should be a bumper crop this year, thanks to our hoop house we placed over it - and still have in place. After this cold high pressure moves through this week and it looks like the heat is with us for good we'll take off the plastic.

We have been eating well from the garden but still feel there's more we could be doing:

• savoy cabbage
• broccoli goodness
• greens, more than we can eat 
• basil (need to do another double batch of pesto, seems to be a monthly routine)
• carrots, baby carrots to think out the main crop
• strawberries continue
• raspberries, just starting to be gobbled up
• tomatoes, a few more this month!

Grow beans, grow!

I spy red, orange and yellow in the garden beds!

Mmmm, sweet bells. This is our early variety. The later one is just opening flowers. Perfection.