Now I'm going to show Erin mine :)

Here's my compost bins and my fork. I was never able to get the "Little Helper" to pose for a picture with our fork.....so here it is. The fork was my grandfather's. He passed at 96 and farmed his entire life. I have no idea how old it is.

Peas & Pests Post

Yes, I am marveled by the Little Marvel English peas! I picked my first peas yesterday.

I wonder how much I will get from 8 oz?

Well, I think that I have the pill bugs under control. I never had the chance to put beer in the garden the other night due to the rain. I think that the diatomaceous earth worked. I guess it just takes a couple of days. I haven't seen any bugs in that bed for two days now.

Harvest Monday

We had a pretty good harvest this week. The spring spinach is finished. It really starting bolting with all of this hot weather we have been having. I am really pleased with the amount of spinach from this planting. I think that I will plant some heat tolerant spinach this week and see how it does.

We also had a very nice harvest of snow peas, some broccoli, lots of herbs, lettuce, scapes, one lone leek (overwintered by mistake) and strawberries.

I have already started to dry some herbs and have been freezing some of the vegetables and strawberries. I have found that drying the basil and parsley in the oven on the lowest temperature with the convection setting, is working really well. The parsley & basil have never dried with such a nice green color.

Basket of mixed lettuce, broccoli and wonderful snow peas!

Salad of mixed lettuce, strawberries and roasted almonds.

We had dinner at my sister-in-laws this past week. She made a really nice dressing with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, strawberry honey (from Italy) and a little sugar. It was great on this salad!

Ahh.....mojito made with fresh mint, nice on a hot day!

 Harvest total for the week:  9 lbs. 15 oz.

Broccoli - 9 oz.
Herbs - 9 oz.
Leeks - (overwintered) 6 oz.
Lettuce - 1 lb.
Scapes - 12 oz.
Snow Peas - 2 lbs. 2 oz.
Spinach - 1 lb. 3 oz.
Strawberries - 3 lbs. 6 oz.

HELP..... PILL BUG INVASION!!!

The pill bugs are taking over the bed where I have planted my purple pole beans! Last year we lost the pole beans to a hungry groundhog. I sprinkled diatomaceous earth in the bed yesterday when I noticed that they were eating the beans as they were popping up. Does anyone have a good organic solution to this problem??

Look at them munching away right in front of me!!

Tomatoes, Artichokes, Peppers, Peas & Little Cukes

The tomato plants are really taking off. Thirteen of the nineteen plants have tomatoes on them already! Two of the nineteen plants have yet to be planted. They are from the seeds that I received from Italy. I will probably plant them this weekend.

Tiffen Mennonite - Similar to a Brandywine

Eva's Purple Ball - This variety is very prolific and ripens early

Matt's Wild Cherry - a/k/a Garden Helper's Tomato

Long Winter Storage

This is the first time I have planted a winter storage type.

Imperial Artichoke

Thomas, I lied...this is one of the first batch of plants that I received. It is a bit bigger then your artichokes.

Serrano Pepper

The pepper plants are doing much better since I gave them a nice shot of fish & seaweed fertilizer. Thanks MojVrt for mentioning the fertilizer.

Little Marvel Peas

They are almost ready to pick....just a few more days!

Cucumber seedlings are coming up after only being planted 6 days prior to this picture. I was surprised to see them since we haven't had much rain.