An Update on the Vegetable Garden . . .

I've had a few requests to post some recent pictures on how the vegetable garden is evolving, so here they are! I finally settled on staining the gate to match our deck. I used a really great non-toxic stain that uses natural mineral pigments instead of dyes and no formaldehyde or other toxic ingredients called DuroStain by Safecoat. Unfortunately, you can't find this at your local Home Depot; I found it at the Center for Green Building in Bridgeport CT: http://www.centerforgreenbuilding.com/

 

I added a little decoration to the gate; a metal honey bee to pay homage to these most necessary workers in the garden. Plus, I like how it looks against the honeycomb pattern of the chicken wire:

The veggies are starting to really pop; some rain and then warm days following have finally caused the cucumber plants to take off in earnest. Baby squash are appearing; I picked the first sugar peas yesterday. By now, the kale is old hat (not that I'm complaining); it's been producing it's nutrient-rich leaves for about a month now.

Here come the zucchini!!!

Oregon Sugar Pods - they taste amazing!

the kale is coming in strong as always . . .

Amongst the veggies, I planted a new variety of nasturtiums - "Alaska Variegated" to add a different look to the garden this year.  I'm excited to see these plants mature and their jewel-colored flowers appear:

In addition, we have a couple of tomato plants, collards (try wrapping a banana in a collard leaf - tasty and nutritious!), lettuce, garlic chives and cilantro. I'm planting some extra-dwarf pak choy this weekend. So the garden is well on it's way of providing us with some really good (organic) eating this summer.