Pictures!

Here's what's going on in the garden right now. Some of these pictures are out of focus because I can't seem to take a good picture with Nathanael's camera. These are the Accidental Poppies. I planted them last winter on a whim and then thought they had dies. As I was weeding the spinach, I realized that there were a whole lot of this one weed and they seemed to be where I had planted the poppies. Smoke started coming out of my ears and I realized the truth. This picture doesn't capture how gloriously red they are, and how they seem to float in the air when you stand at a distance. Next time, I will plant them in between something else because they kind of fall over without support. They've been blooming now for weeks with no signs of stopping. Those spikey things in the next bed are my garlic and shallots which are almost ready to harvest. This is the Rainbow Chard. Hopefully you can't see how blurry the picture is. Behind the chard are two tomatoes, some lettuce and to the left of the lettuce is mache or corn salad, a lovely little green that can take the cold and has yet to bolt during our 80 degree days. There's also a great big florance fennel that will hopefully bloom soon and attract wasps to kill the army worms that are beating up on my cabbages. These are the blooms on our Owari Satsuma. Our Kimbro Satsuma has already set its fruit so Owari is a bit of a Johnny-come-lately, but the blossoms are just beautiful and the fragrance is intoxicating. Roses don't got nuthin' on citrus blossoms for smell. This is the Giant Red Mustard. I got the seeds from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, a great catalog that specializes in stuff that grows down here. In person, their color is really magnificent, varying from lime green veined with purple, to purple veined with red. They're also delicious and we've been eating them at least once, sometimes twice a week for at least 6 weeks. You can see some lettuce in front that we've cut for salads at least three times already and it's still growing. Behind you can see the scarlet runner beans growing up window bars that used to be on the house when the neighborhood was rougher. The taller thing is our smallest fig tree and way in the back, around the corner of the shed are the poppies but you already know all about those.
Ok, this is Kitty sitting amongst various members of the Curcurbit family. For some reason, nothing has germinated well in this bed and I just can't figure out why. What you see is maybe one fourth of what I actually planted. Anyway, there's a lemon cucumber, two Charentais melons, one zuchinni, one yellow crookneck, 4 watermelons (woohoo, one Cheyenne Bush pumpkin (not shown) and three plants that are either weeds or the yarrow I planted. so far, I can't tell the difference, but here's hopin. On wednesday, I mulched with the live oak leaves from the front yard with newspaper underneath to keep down the grass. I'm hoping to get some okra in the bed in the next couple of weeks. In the background you can see the herb bed with cilantro that's gone to flower and also the famous mating lawnmowers which now serve to hold up the clothes line. Here we have the mighty dill that is beginning to put out it's yellow umbels. Every one of these little flowers will produce a dill seed for my pickles. It's hard to tell from the picture, but these flowers are almost as tall as me and hopefully they too will attract some good bugs to the garden along with the cilantro flowers. Last weekend I made blackberry jam: You just take a bunch of berries and a bunch of sugar and magically produce jam.
Tada!








My adorable neighbor Naden has been learning to love blackberries this season. He started dancing around in the yard when I said I was going to take his picture. Can you see all the blackberry bits on his face? Behind him you can see my collard greens, strawberries, Calemondin Orange, and a pinapple plant.
These are the men in my life: Aren't they adorable. Ok enough pictures. Mr. Courtney, for whom I used to pick kumquats, gave me a basket full of mayhaws today so I have to try to make jelly with them.