An Early July Visit to My Vegetable Garden
My vegetable garden is so much fun to visit right now because of all the growing produce - there’s something new popping up every day. Take a look at the drone photos on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48.
So far, we've had some extremely warm and humid days, which is great for most of the growing vegetables. We've also had some good soaking rain - also vital for all the gardens. Yesterday, my gardeners Ryan McCallister and Brian O'Kelly, checked in on our crops and harvested the first lettuces of the season.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Last week, this vegetable garden was already looking so beautiful with all its growing produce. Here is a view down the center of the garden adjacent to the chicken coops. I try different configurations every year to see which ones work best for what we are growing. I like to use the most amount of space possible for planting. This year, I decided to create a space specifically for herbs in the center of the garden.
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- Yesterday, the garden was even more lush – everything is growing very quickly.
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- We planted the tomatoes at the back of the garden this time around. I always like to practice crop rotation. Doing this reduces the spread of soil-borne disease and avoids nutrient depletion in the soil. I grow both hybrid and heirloom tomato varieties. Soon, the shorter metal stakes will be replaced with taller, more supportive teepee style bamboo canes. I like to use bamboo because they’re easy to buy in bulk, look most natural in the garden and can be found in a variety of sizes. One can also purchase tomato cages specially designed for supporting tomato vines at any garden supply shop.
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- Here is our crop of basil. Basil is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae. It is native to tropical regions from central Africa to Southeast Asia. Basil is a tender, warm-weather, fragrant herb that tastes great in many dishes. Be sure to plant basil seeds or transplants after all danger of frost has passed and the soil is warm.
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- This year, we planted one artichoke plant at the end of each crop bed – they’re all looking so great. Globe artichokes are half-hardy perennial thistles native to the mild climates of the Southern Mediterranean. In this area, they grow best started indoors from seed and then transplanted outside. Artichokes are actually flower buds, which are eaten when they are tender.
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- And don’t forget all the lettuce. Lettuce is a fairly hardy, cool-weather vegetable that thrives when the average daily temperature is between 60 and 70-degrees Fahrenheit. Look how beautiful these lettuces are growing in this bed.
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- I love all the different lettuce varieties and colors and can’t wait to use them for my family’s many delicious salads.
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- Ryan picked a few lettuce heads. This is a lettuce knife. It has two cutting edges. The short, front cutting edge can be pushed against the lettuce plant base, making one quick cut. The long edge is for trimming and harvesting cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and others.
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- When cutting, simply cut the entire head of lettuce with the knife toward the bottom of the plant, above the soil line.
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- Here, Brian is giving the harvested lettuces a little rinse before they go up to my Winter House kitchen.
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- Kale or leaf cabbage is a group of vegetable cultivars within the plant species Brassica oleracea. They have purple or green leaves, in which the central leaves do not form a head. They also have either flat or ruffled leaves.
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- I grow lots of brassicas. Brassica is a genus of plants in the mustard family. Members are informally known as cruciferous vegetables and cole crops – broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale. Everyone always asks what I do with all the vegetables I grow. I share them with my family, but I also love sharing the bounty with friends, colleagues, and my hardworking crew here at the farm. I provide fruits, vegetables, and eggs for magazine and video shoots. And, of course, all my birds get vegetables too.
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- My cabbages are growing rapidly. To get the best health benefits from cabbage, it’s good to include all three varieties into the diet – Savoy, red, and green. And don’t forget, cabbage can be eaten cooked and raw.
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- Vicia faba, also known as the broad bean or fava bean is an ancient member of the pea family. It has a nutty taste and a buttery texture. I always grow lots of fava beans.
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- This is fennel – an aromatic perennial herb, widely cultivated for its edible, licorice-flavored leaves and seeds. The variety ‘Purpureum,’ also known as Bronze Fennel, has dark, smoky and interesting foliage.
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- A well-growing herb in the garden is Salvia officinalis, the common sage or just sage, is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae and native to the Mediterranean region.
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- Variegated sage is a bushy herb with woody stems and multicolored leaves. It produces fragrant purple flowers in the spring. It has an earthy spicy aroma with a more subtle flavor than standard sage. It is also a slower growing variety and slightly more tender than standard sage.
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- Thyme is an herb whose small leaves grow on clusters of thin stems. It is a Mediterranean herb with dietary, medicinal, and ornamental uses.
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- Fragrant variegated thyme is green with white leaves. It is delicious with fish or poultry and imparts a lemony flavor. Masses of pink spring blossoms attract bees while the pungent foliage helps to keep pesky bugs away.
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- I am so excited about this year’s growing season. There will be a lot of delicious produce from my garden this year! How are your gardens doing? I would love to know – share your comments in the section below.
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