garden

In our garden Mr. Lincoln has made a comeback and is going strong.

garden

A few weeks ago I saw that my back flower bed had been attacked by deer. If you could see where we live you would understand how gross it is that we have deer in our yard. The deer need to travel a bit to get to our yard and cross many big roads. They did a lot of damage to the flowers and ruined my hard work and wasted a ton of money.

I was annoyed about the flowers, but I was furious when I saw that they got to my vegetable garden this past weekend. They did a ton of damage to the cucumbers. Even though I hate putting it up and I hate the way it looks, I was forced to put up the deer net. Now they can go pick on someone else, the free meals are over!

in the garden

Due to the awful June weather I was not sure how much produce we would get from our garden, but it has started to produce a small amount. I am pretty sure that it will not be as much as in years past, but something is better than nothing.

in the garden

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in the garden

We have seen the sun for over a week now and the garden is very happy. Everything has started to grow and there is lots of color.

sun

The sun is out right now and that seems to be a rare thing these days.

sun

The sun was out today, it seems like it has been weeks since it has been sunny.

in the garden

more color.

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from the garden

The garden is starting to show some color.

csa

After getting shut out last year, I just found out that we got into the csa that I wanted and I am very excited. It will probably change what I plant in my garden a bit, but that will be fun to change it up a bit. I am looking forward to us having different produce every week and up for the challenge of finding new and different ways to use it.

snapshot of fall 06

A spot of color left in the garden.

summer snapshot 03

summer cooking

During the summer months, when the garden is in full production, I tend to cook around the produce that we have. Last night I made some roasted beets and green and purple beans. They are simple to make, toss them with some olive oil, sea salt and fresh gound pepper. Put in a 550 degree oven for about 15 minutes. They are good either hot or room temperature.

from the garden

Last night we had our first dinner that was almost all from the garden. The the first tomato was picked and used on top of burgers. I made a really good creamy cucumber salad with the cucumbers and dill. Lastly, I picked a ton of green and purple beans and roasted them with salt, pepper and olive oil.

I love this time of year!

oh deer

Last night the kids and I were giving a dinner guest a tour of the garden. While explaining what is what I realized that in the past day or two my garden was attacked by deer. This happened to me two years ago, so last year at the beginning of the season I put up a deer net. I was hoping to not have to use it this year (it is not very nice looking and it also makes it hard for the kids to pick stuff to eat while they are outside playing), but during the middle of the dinner party I had to get the netting out and the kids and I scrambled to get it up before it started to pour.

Honestly if you know where I live you realize just how gross it is that we have a deer problem.

beds

I am getting close to the time when my flower beds reach their peak. Just a few more weeks...

production

It has been an amazing spring for our vegetable garden.

from the garden

We had our first batch of peas yesterday. As is the case with a lot of the produce we grow, now made it into the house. The kids pick and eat them while they are playing outside. Hard to complain about that.

fresh

Yesterday we finally had our first dinner with some produce from the garden.

purple basil

It took me awhile, but I finally found purple basil. For some reason nobody seemed to have it this year. It is the last herb I needed for the garden, now I just need to wait for everything to grow!