Vegetable Garden Week 20

May garden was looking a litle downtrodden last weekend with the deer and all of the hot sun, but it looked a lot better this weekend. The Swiss Chard came back and there were lots of tomatoes and a big eggplant. There are a few little jalapenos growing and some zucchini that will probably be the perfect size next week. There was a beautiful yellow brandywine tomato that still had to ripen a bit, but I picked it to ripen in the city off the vine because I was afraid it would fall off during the week. I may make more Babaganoush with my big eggplant because it was so tasty last time, although I'm tempted to grill it too because it's so fresh and sweet. We had some Swiss Chard sauteed with garlic and chorizo last night - with a drizzle of maple syrup - and some crispy fried zucchini blossoms. Also some great August corn (not from my garden, but really really fresh and tasty).

Vegetable Garden Week 19

Although the deer have been chewing on some parts of my garden (the green grapes got crushed and one of the Better Boy plants got chewed on a fair amount), there were some amazing tomatoes!


This was the first of the yellow brandywine. Look how pretty and orange it is! I should have held it in the picture to show scale - it was huge and probably weighed almost 2 pounds.


Look how gorgeous the slices look - so meaty! We made the most amazing BLTs with these. Crispy bacon, good baby lettuces, and a thick slice of tomato that took up the whole width of the sandwich. It was sweet and tart and juicy. I could have eaten 5 of them.


Here are some other goodies from the garden. Some amazingly pungent basil, a delicious red tomato, and some zucchini blossoms just begging to be fried.


Here is the better boy tomato all sliced up. We ate it with some heirlooms and beef steaks from the farm stand and we were happy to know that the homegrown tomato definitely tastes better and is worth all the work! (The farmstand tomatoes were good too, just not quite as sweet or flavorful.)

Vegetable Garden Week 15

After my hiatus in Greece, my garden was booming! The peas were finished and turning brown and the Swiss Chard were taken over by zucchini, but everything else was super happy. The yellow brandywine tomato plant is about 6 ft tall with a few big, green tomatoes. The thing is like a tree! It got so heavy I had to go buy steaks to position on either side of the garden and tie the cage to them with twine - hopefully soon those green tomatoes will turn yellow so we can eat them! The three better boy tomato plants were covered in green tomatoes (I've learned with heirlooms the plants tend to get pretty big but you get less fruit, so the yellow brandywine is huge but just has two tomatoes on it while the better boys are smaller but each had about 6-10 tomatoes already) and the green grape tomato plant has tons of little green tomatoes, some of them already edible and sweet ad delicious.

There were 4 eggplants on the eggplant plant - 1 ready to eat - so sweet and tasty. I was surprised. I've never grown eggplant before and I was kind of expecting to just get one eggplant all summer. This little plant seems to be pumping them out, plus it has really pretty, light purple flowers. Watch out for little purple thorns on the flowers and eggplant stems!

Vegetable Garden Week 10

I don't know if it was least week's heat wave, but the garden is growing like crazy! The zucchini are enormous, the yellow brandywine tomato has grown up to about 3 feet, the green grape tomato is bushy and thick, and the three Better Boy tomatoes are starting really grow (about a foot high now). The Swiss Chard is growing and I was actually able to harvest some - dinner recipe will follow soon.

The peas are getting a little too tall for their trellis, but there are finally peas to be had!

The basil is also growing like crazy, and one of the peppers has its first flower. I can't wait til next weekend when I can start pulling off peas. The mulch (and all the rain) has helped keep the garden moist, and the new marigolds and nasturtium give it a little more color. The zucchinis are starting to have little blossoms, so that'll add some nice yellow/orange flowers. And fried zucchini blossoms are out of this world (recipe will follow). The eggplant is also finally growing, yay!

Jamie behind the peas

 Beautiful healthy garden

 Me with my basil and Swiss Chard - first harvest from the garden

 My pretty rainbow Swiss Chard

Vegetable Garden: Week 7

 My Swiss Chard, Zucchini, and Peas - all from seeds!

After not making out to Long Island for two weekends, I was a little worried about my garden. Luckily there had been a lot of rain. I went out on Saturday and am happy to report that everything is happy! The peas are two feet high and clinging to the trellis, the tomatoes plants look good - not too much change, two zucchini plants emerged from the seeds I planted, and the Swiss Chard finally came up! Aside from a large bunch of weeds, I couldn't have been happier.

After admiring all of my little seedlings, I got to work planting the newcomers. I stopped at the farmer's market on Friday and picked up a 3-pack of Better Boy tomatoes, a 3-pack of zucchini (I didn't know if any of mine had sprouted), and a 3-pack of jalapeno peppers. I also got 2 little basil plants. I planted the tomatoes with cages around them (it's better to put them in early as not to damage the roots) and planted the two basils in between the tomato plants - apparently growing basil with your tomatoes improves the tomato flavor. I planted the new zucchini next to those that I planted, so my zucchini patch will be a bit larger than anticipated. I left plenty of room around the chard because I know they'll get a lot bigger - provided they don't become bunny food. I planted the peppers with lots of space in between. There's a fare amount of free space right now which I think I'll fill with herbs, nasturtiums (pretty and edible), and marigolds (to keep the bad bugs away, also adding a little color).

It's so satisfying to see things you've planted from seeds growing. (My little peppers in the egg shells are growing, just a little slowly. They might stay in the city in pots.) I can't wait to get out there again next weekend to mulch, water, and plant herbs/flowers. Stay tuned!