A few weeks ago I was telling you about my garden envy and wishing my tomatoes would hurry along. Well, the time has come and the tomatoes have arrived, along with many other wonderful goodies in our gardens here in Huntington.
While tomatoes might be the flashy red fruit we all love, it would soon be boring without the accompaniment of its supporting cast. The Swiss Chard is coming along very well, standing tall at 2 feet with its red, yellow, and white highlights. The chives have grown in, nicely filling that spot next to the marigolds, which border the garden. The lettuces are beginning to recover from the summer heat and starting to produce wonderfully tender leaves that will make a wonderful bed for those flashy tomatoes. The corn was salvaged from the tyrannical deer that preyed ever so relentlessly, and a few jars put up for a later day.
In another garden is the space where the Red potatoes used to be, they have been harvested and safely stored for use over the next couple of weeks. Peppers, oh the peppers! It amazes me that no matter the success or failure of everything else that is planted, peppers are a sure-fire producer. We have a great variety of peppers, both hot and extra hot! The bell peppers are coming along much slower with less production, but at least everyone will have zesty salsa in the coming months.
One of our gardens produced amazing quantities of yellow squash, enough to feed the gardener, his family, and some extended family. While they have enjoyed the fresh squash, they are ready to move on to another season for some variety in their diet.
We also have spent the time planting and growing perennials, that will produce in the coming years. Having a mix of annual vegetables and perennials in the garden is a blessing in my opinion, giving the gardener a variety of food that comes back with minimal inputs.We were lucky enough to be able to supply our gardens here in Huntington with blueberry bushes this year. Most all of them look very healthy, but we all wish that it didn’t take so long for them to mature and produce more than a handful of blueberries. The patience will pay off though in the coming years, since blueberry bushes produce for many years as long as they are cared for. I planted rhubarb for the first time this year, and others have tried grapes, fruit trees, and strawberries.
We are also planning a mushroom cultivation workshop for our Veterans. This will allow them to have mushroom for several years once they prepare the logs for their garden. (More about that next month!)
This is amazing and the people who have been involved and all we have learned BethAnn is a testimony to your exceptional dedication. Thank you for making a dream become reality.