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"A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch." - James Beard


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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Our Garden

Ever since we moved into our house 6 years ago, we've had some kind of garden where we grow herbs and vegetables. We've tried many different veggies and had some setbacks caused by plant diseases, weather and critters, but it's very rewarding to eat sun-warmed vegetables grown in your own backyard!


This year we added a raised bed to our herb garden beside the deck.  Here it is when it was first planted in May.




We planted everything from seed and didn't start any plants inside due to absentmindedness more than anything.  Luckily, an extremely warm spring gave us a huge boost.  Here's the garden in June:




In the back we have snow peas and sugar snap peas climbing metal trellises. Then a row of carrots, then radishes ready to harvest, then golden zucchini growing on the right and a small spaghetti squash on the left.  In front is spinach.  



We harvested the first round of radishes and replanted.  We also added parsley, Romaine lettuce and red onions up front. 


Now it's July and things are extremely lush. The warm weather seems to be getting things to grow earlier than they ever have before.  




The zucchini is getting a little out of control and Matt had to build a frame for it.  It's starting to give us zucchini already though!




Plus many zucchini blossoms I hope to stuff and eat soon.




We're also seeing some snow peas earlier than expected.




We harvested some spinach this weekend and had a very tasty salad with steak, grilled onions and balsamic vinaigrette.




Here's our side herb and pepper garden.




Some of the herbs are perennials, some are newly planted annuals.  In the back there's rosemary which never makes it through the winter, except this past very mild winter when we were astounded to see it still alive after the bit of snow melted.  The lemon thyme up front also came back, as usual.  We planted the two basil plants and the oregano in the centre.  




We have asparagus up front on the left that's already done for the season but comes back every year with more stalks.  Also, chives up front  on the right that came back really early from last year.  In the top centre is purple sage.




Our peppers are doing very well.  We planted these as plants, not seeds.  Above are super chilis and a jalapeno plant.




Jalapenos are doing well.  Last year we got so many peppers we gave away pounds of them.  




We also have yellow hungarian peppers and, I think the green ones might be Anaheim chilis.  
























Plus we have two San Marzano tomato plants in pots.




And last but not least, this crazy mint over by the side of the house that came back with a vengeance this year.  




The dark green one is chocolate mint and the white mottled one is pineapple mint.  Also there's some rogue dill in there.


I've already made a few dishes with stuff from the garden, and there will be many more this summer!  Our favourite is tomato sauce in August but I see many zucchini recipes in our future!

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