What's Growing in My Vegetable Garden
My vegetable garden is producing so many wonderful and nutritious foods.
It's fun to plant a vegetable garden at the beginning of the season, but to keep it thriving, it must also be carefully maintained. My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, visits my large half-acre patch every single day to check on what's growing, harvest what is ready, pull any weeds that emerge, add support stakes or ties where necessary, and water, water, water.
Here is the latest update. Enjoy these photos.
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- What a difference a month makes. Every crop in this garden is developing so well. I planted onions, shallots, and leeks a few weeks ago. These will be harvested later in the summer when the underground bulbs are mature and flavorful.
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- All 120 tomato plants are also growing fast. I always grow an abundance of tomatoes to share and to make all the delicious tomato sauce I enjoy through the year. Most tomato plant varieties need between 50 and 90 days to mature. Planting can also be staggered to produce early, mid and late season tomato harvests.
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- Here are five of our first summer squash. It’s important to check a vegetable garden every day – there’s always something ready to pick.
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- The artichokes are also growing. The globe artichoke, Cynara scolymus, is actually a flower bud, which is eaten when tender. Buds are generally harvested once they reach full size, just before the bracts begin to spread open. I like to harvest them when they are still small, but these need a little more time.
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- It is good to pick eggplants when they are young and tender. Try to pick a little early, which will encourage the plant to grow more, and will help to extend the growing season.
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- All my brassicas are so terrific this season – big and flavorful. Cauliflower is filled with nutrients. They hold plenty of vitamins, such as C, B, and K. Cauliflower is ready to harvest when the heads are six to eight inches in diameter – this one is ready.
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- Ryan holds up one of the broccoli heads – it’s huge, and weighs a good 10-pounds. Broccoli is a hardy vegetable that is high in vitamins A and D.
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- To get the best health benefits from cabbage, it’s good to include all three varieties into the diet – Savoy, red, and green. I have so much cabbage to share with family and friends.
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- The radish is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family. Radishes are grown and consumed throughout the world, and mostly eaten raw as a crunchy salad vegetable. Long scarlet radishes like this one have a straight, tapered shape, similar in appearance to a carrot with curved shoulders and a distinct point.
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- I need lots of basil. It’s great for many dishes, such as salads, soups, pasta sauces, and pizza. Its leaves can be used whole or blended into sauces, puréed into soups, or chopped up for salads. Here is my bed of basil.
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- Also always growing here at the farm is parsley. This will find its way into my morning green juice. Parsley is rich in vitamins K, C, and other antioxidants. It has a bright, herbaceous, and slightly bitter taste.
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- And many will recognize the leaves of sage. Common sage, Salvia officinalis, leaves are often grayish-green, but can also be purple, silver, or variegated. They are pebbly, slightly fuzzy, and can grow up to five inches long.
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- Another attractive herb is rosemary. Rosemary is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae and is often used as a culinary condiment.
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- Thyme is an herb whose small leaves grow on clusters of thin stems. It is delicious with fish or poultry and imparts a lemony flavor.
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- In a center bed, along this trellis we put up, are lots of peas – one section for shelling peas, which need to be removed from their pods before eating, and another for edible pods, which can be eaten whole, such as our snap peas. They are best grown on supports to keep them off the ground and away from pests and diseases.
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- There are lots of hot peppers too. The jalapeño is a medium-sized chili pepper of the species Capsicum annuum. It is mild to medium in pungency depending on the cultivar.
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- Many of the green bell peppers are ready to pick. I am also growing red and yellow bell peppers.
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- In a couple of the smaller beds, Ryan plants more vegetables as part of a process called succession planting, meaning planting at different times, so there is a consistent supply of harvestable produce throughout the season.
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- Here, Ryan plants more radishes. Ryan plants the seeds in rows that are about a foot apart. All the beds are raised slightly and all surrounded by wood frames – more than 40 beds in this half-acre garden. Raised bed gardening allows good drainage, prevents soil compaction, and provides protection for those plants that may otherwise get trampled.
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- Many of our seeds are from Johnny’s Selected Seeds in central Maine – a company I’ve been using for quite some time. Johnny’s Selected Seeds is a privately held, employee-owned organic seed producer. Johnny’s offers hundreds of varieties of organic vegetable, herb, flower, fruit and farm seeds that are known to be strong, dependable growers.
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- Here, Ryan planted more lettuce. After the seeds are dropped, he uses a soft rake to cover the seeds and carefully backfill the rows with soil. Lettuce, Lactuca sativa, is a cultivated plant of the daisy family, Asteraceae. Lettuce is a fairly hardy, cool-weather vegetable that thrives when the average daily temperature is between 60 and 70-degrees Fahrenheit. We always grow several varieties.
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- And here is just one of my sunflowers. I have many growing so beautifully in the center of the garden. Typically, sunflowers stay in bloom for about three weeks, but one may get a full month if lucky. This garden is so amazing. I hope your garden is growing as well as mine is this year.
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