The posting by Carol at May Dreams gave me pause for reflection as I spent my early morning hours in the garden. I have a vegetable garden and with prices in the store the way they are at the moment I am happy to take the rough with the smooth when it comes to gardening there. I bet it won't be long before the flower gardeners are thinking about growing a few vegetables themselves. We have enjoyed tomatoes when people were afraid to buy them in the stores for fear of contracting Salmonella.
The peppers are just starting to ripen and I picked the first one today. By the end of the week there will be a dozen or more. The color of this ripe pepper is as beautiful as any orange flower I have seen. I'm glad a grew jalapeno peppers this year as I see they went on the suspicious list today. Unfortunately it is the wrong time of year for cilantro here.
There is nothing more exciting than seeing the first cantaloupes setting their fruit. Now that we are through those days of 100 degrees the cantaloupes and cucumbers are finally starting to fruit.
There are always flowers growing among the vegetables because the seeds come in with the compost. I am happy to leave them there as they attract pollinators into the garden.
There is nothing more exciting than seeing the first cantaloupes setting their fruit. Now that we are through those days of 100 degrees the cantaloupes and cucumbers are finally starting to fruit. 
Among the several varieties of basil that I grow is one Magical Michael. I use it to decorate a serving plate. It produces a beautiful bloom.
Tricolor sage brings delicate shades of purple and cream to the herb garden. These are just a sampling of current color in the vegetable garden.
Your vegetable garden is one of the prettiest I've seen and very inspirational. If someone didn't have a vegetable garden, I think they'd want one once they saw yours.
ReplyDeleteYour peppers, melons, basil and sage are all beautiful!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Your garden looks lovely as always.
ReplyDeleteSo did you pull your tomatoes out or only prune them back. I've tried the prune back method before and will do it again this year. Do you ever take cuttings and start new plants for fall?
I've never figured out how salsa came to be when cilantro grows in the fall and winter and tomatoes and peppers grow in the summer.
Thanks Carol. I am delighted with the tricolor sage this year. It must be its moment in the garden-perfect conditions or something.
ReplyDeleteMSS I pulled some tomatoes out because they were horrible but others I have trimmed back. They have some new growth which I am hoping will bear fruit in a few weeks. I have also layered one plant in the hope it will produce new roots.
I read in an English magazine that you can root them in water but it didn't work for me.
I have several seeds coming up from tomatoes that rotted on the ground. We'll see what they do.
jenny
Your peppers look great! I didn't put any of the larger ones in this year because i had little success las year. But I may put them back on the list for next year.
ReplyDeleteYou never can tell what will do well from year to year. these peppers are really early this year( the heat I expect). I bought what I thought was a 6 pack of mini orange peppers. Well they turned out to be big ones. I'm not complaining because they taste great and they have done well. Next year I think I'll start my own seeds to be sure of getting the right ones. It seems my tomato Juliet was also labeled wrongly.
ReplyDeletejenny
Your melon looks good and the peppers are beautiful. It's impressive to see a big pepper! We have Gypsies and Cubanelles, and thought there'd be some to eat by now but some animal thought otherwise, ripping off branches and biting chunks out of any almost-ready pepper.
ReplyDeleteIt happened overnight last week so I guess it was a raccoon...do you get raccoons or squirrels where you live, Jenny?
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Oh yes-in fact I had one pepper plant that was completely eaten down to a nub. There was a pretty good sized pepper on it. I still don't know what it was but I also had a lot of green tomatoes that were eaten. They seem to have stopped now though. maybe they got stomach ache.
ReplyDeleteI have had skunks, racoons, possums and a rabbit in the night but the worst are the hispid cotton rats. They love vegs. It would be just too easy without these annoyances. Gardening is not for wimps!
Jenny
Very pretty veggies and fruit. I love the orange peppers--I use them a lot to make stuffed peppers. They have a nice flavor.
ReplyDeleteAiyana
Love the orange peppers! Are you fertilizing them at all?
ReplyDeleteI love these peppers best of all for salads. I am fertilizing with liquid seaweed but I'm afraid I don't have a regular program. I always dig in compost before the season's planting.
ReplyDelete