-whew-

Can you handle some more garden pictures? I showed a little of the beginning of our garden, when we were tilling, organizing and planting earlier this spring. Well, here are some of the results.

This picture below is one of my favorites. It is part of my little planting of beets. I just love the little puppies; that bright green and deep red... My mom finds it ironic. I spit my first taste of beets across the kitchen some 50 years ago, staining the floor until a few years later, when they replaced it. But I like them now!



This little bed holds lettuce, spinach, onions, and cauliflower. That lettuce in the front left of the picture is no longer there; it was delicious! It's buddy behind it is slated for tonight's table.




Those beets above are in the middle of this bed. This was the bed I planted first; I planted garlic in it last October. It overwintered really well and is beginning to brown up. I predict fresh garlic before the 4th of July! There are also more onions in there, and young broccoli.




This picture was taken just as I finished planting my parsley and basil down the center. Since then, I've planted 5 types of tomatoes in there. Because our past two summers have been wet and cool, we haven't had our own tomatoes for three years! I tried two varieties, Stupice and Siberian, which are supposed to like cool, damp weather. Since this summer is shaping up to be more "normal" for NE IL, I also planted some Supersteak, Fresh Salsa, and Juliet, which is a grape tomato. The hoops, by the way, I used for holding floating row covers over these beds, to keep them warm during late April and early May. I won't need them anymore; the heat and humidity moved in this weekend, so that "more normal" summer weather I mentioned is here at last. More telling, the peonies are beginning to bloom. As my good friend, Elephant's Child, tells me, once that happens, there won't be any more cold nights until fall.



More broccoli, a few green beans, and the Kennebec potatoes. Just past this bed, you can see a bed with a row of Red Pontiac potatoes next to a bare row. That row is now in it's third planting of Yukon Gold potatoes. One of our hens just loves that specific variety. After she dug them the second time, I had Mary clip her wings severely, and planted for the third time. I told the potatoes that, if they let her eat them again, they were done, and I'd plant cucumbers there. I'm sure they'll listen! That far bed also has two kinds of peas planted; Sugar Snap and a snow pea whose name I can't remember right now.




My next huge garden chore is rejuvenating this asparagus bed. The middle of the bed has died out, leaving us just enough asparagus to flavor something, but not enough to have a real meal! I have some new roots, and they'll get in there this week. John is also moving compost into two new beds, where I'll plant peppers.



The garden work never ends, but have you ever seen a gardener who wasn't in decent shape? At least we're getting something additional from our workouts!