I think I can now say that summer has arrived in my garden because I reaped a summer’s harvest in the past week! I harvested about 2.5 pounds of various greens, 3.5 pounds of sweet and hot peppers, 3 pounds of various snap beans, 116 heads of garlic, 3 onions, 63 radishes, 8 cucumbers, and my first tomato. Pictures of my garden bounty!
This past week I noticed so many of my plants are now fruiting! I’ve shared some pictures in my Sanctuary Gardener updates the past two weeks, but there were too many “firsts” this week to share in yesterday’s update. It’s nice to start seeing the fruits of my labor. đŸ™‚ Fruits in my garden!
Yesterday, I mentioned that I had an incredible pepper harvest one day last week. I hadn’t harvested in several days, so I took my basket out to the garden to see what might be ripe enough to pick. Was I surprised! After almost an hour of harvesting, I filled this huge basket with sweet and hot peppers. It was so full, the picture couldn’t show all that was in it. So, I took separate pictures of all the peppers. More!
This has been a great week of harvesting here in my Sanctuary Garden! I was almost overwhelmed with lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, and snap beans. We’re eating lots of salads, and I pickled beans and cucumbers. Yesterday, I made almost a dozen stuffed peppers. And more are coming. I picked my first cherry tomato yesterday, and a few Mortgage Lifter, blue and Roma tomatoes are almost ready! This is my favorite part of gardening. See the harvests!
We received a lot of rain this past week, but not as much as we could have. Thankfully, Tropical Storm Andrea didn’t bring us as much rainfall as predicted. Yet, the rain we did get seemed to spur the harvest. Last night, I entertained family and my entire meal was provided by two weeks of harvests from my garden (except the meat, of course). I was pretty proud of that! Take a look!
This is my second year gardening in the Charleston, SC area, but I am still amazed at the new things I see in my garden. For example, as my following knows, I planted three types of potatoes in five-gallon buckets – three white fingerling, two peach-colored fingerling, and five purple potatoes. (I bought them at the grocery store, so I’m unsure of the exact varieties.) The peach fingerlings are now blooming! (See picture above.) There are no blooms on the other potato plants, but I learned not all potatoes flower. Who knew? Come see what else is new in my garden this week!
Sanctuary Gardener 