Wednesday, July 18, 2007

A Summer Harvest

Summertime, and the living is easy .........

July is a great month in the kitchen garden. There is so much to enjoy. I love picking Sweet Pea posies every day, and the more you pick, the more flowers will grow. My house smells divine, there's Sweet Pea posies in the living room, kitchen, conservatory, bathroom, study, hallway and bedrooms. Utter bliss!


And there's so much more. It's great fun to harvest healthy home grown food from the kitchen garden. Everything is grown organically and has been given enough time to grow as mother nature intended it. A normal growing period means lots of flavour. My tomatoes really smell and taste like tomatoes, unlike those watery balls you buy in the supermarket.
And I grow a lot of tomatoes: pomedori, cherry tomatoes, Cherokee, yellow tomatoes and Marmande. In fact there are so many tomatoes growing in my Victorian greenhouse and outside in my garden, that I can be Lady Bountiful and give lots of tomatoes away to family and friends.
This year I'm growing black sweet peppers in my greenhouse. Aren't they beautiful? Can't wait to use them in a salad, it will look and taste great!

This month I've harvested all the garlic, the last of the Red Duke of York potatoes, the last white currants, the first tomatoes plus lots of herbs and Sweet Peas as shown in the first pic of this post.
I was very happy to harvest my Opal plums. There weren't all that many as this was the very first year that my plum tree bore fruit, but oh, how lovely and sweet they tasted! Delicious!

And there is so much to look forward to. Soon I'll be able to harvest the first blackberries
and elderberries. And that means it's jam making time!
Since early June I've been harvesting sugar snaps and this month I will continue harvesting them. The rocket salad is growing away like there's no tomorrow, I've been harvesting rocket since May and will go on harvesting it until the end of October.


The strawberries are ripening and will soon be ready for picking. This will be the third crop this year. I love strawberries and can never have enough of them.
The basil is almost ready too. Can't wait to harvest it and turn it into pesto, purple pesto! How wonderful is that? That's the fun thing of growing your own veggies, herbs and fruit; you don't have to make do with the ordinary stuff but can go for the sometimes very extraordinary varieties, such as black peppers and purple basil.


There are always loads of herbs to be found in my garden, both in the potager and in my borders. This year the fennel decided to grow 7 feet tall. I use fennel in the kitchen but in bouquets too. Your bouquets smell delicious when you add a few sprigs of fennel.

In the black pots in the background the french purple potatoes are almost ready for harvesting. Can't wait to see those potatoes on my plate! The red cabbages are growing merrily away, even though their leaves are a bit slug damaged.

It looks like there will be quite a few pumpkins to harvest in the autumn. The pumpkins in my 3 sisters bed are growing like mad. All that rain is doing some good I suppose. I love pumpkin pie and soup, such wonderful comfort food on a cold and bleak winter's day.
The corn in my 3 sisters bed is doing great too. If you look closely you'll see the beans winding round the stem of the corn. The beans are sister number 3, the corn and pumpkins (squash) being sister number 1 and 2.

I'm tickled pink with my 2 new apple trees. This is their first year in my potager and look, both of them bear fruit. Isn't that just simple marvellous? I wonder how those apples will taste!
Another fruity first this year, apart from the plums and apples, are the grapes that grow over the pergola. There's a white grape and a blue one. They will be ready for harvest in September/October.

The walnuts will be ready for harvest in October/November. The walnut tree is laden with fruits and the branches are hanging low because of the weight they bear. It won't be such a prolific harvest as last year, but still a very good one.


There's no liberty in gardening. The wo/man who undertakes a garden is relentlessly pursued. S/he felicitates her/himself that, when s/he gets it once planted, s/he will have a season of rest and of enjoyment in the sprouting and growing of her/his seeds. It is a green anticipation. S/he has planted a seed that will keep her/him awake at nights.
Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in the Garden, 1871

39 comments:

Anita said...

Wow, that's one of the real joys of summer: watching the plants grow and harvesting your own home grown vegetables! Eet smakelijk! ;-)))

Unfortunately, my own veggies seem to be a bit lazy this summer but I was already able to harvest the fist cocktail tomatoes yesterday, they tasted yummy yummy!

Enjoy the fabulous weather en groetjes uit Duitsland!

P.S.: Where did you get those nice baskets on the first pics from? I have been looking for similiar ones for quite a while but I only found some very (far too) expensive ones!... ;-(

Anonymous said...

Zo te zien zijn er drukke oogsttijden aangebroken bij Bliss! Het ziet er supersmakelijk uit en de zwarte paprika in een salade en de donkere pesto uitgestald op een mooi, wit (linnen?) tafelkleed....:-)oh - ik draaf door.....
DRIE van die leuke plukmandjes..!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Mmmmmmmmmmm.....het water loopt me al in de mond. Kan bijna proeven hoe lekker het is.
Leuk....je Sweet Peas.

Unknown said...

Mmm... I am drooling. It all looks delicious, Yolanda Elizabet! :)

lisa said...

Wow, what a delicious garden you have! You'll never go hungry living there, for sure!

Robin's Nesting Place said...

Your garden looks marvelous! What delicious looking organic food, everything looks so healthy and pest free. I can't believe the variety you have. You are my inspiration to get a bit of land to a have a kitchen potiger of my own.

Anonymous said...

Hi YOlanda,
It's always nice to enjoy the fruits of you own work. So it must be extra tasteful to eat your self grown fruits and vegatables?
Let us know how it all tastes.

Beye
Bert

Anonymous said...

What a tremendous amount of food you grow! How big is your potager, do you know?

RUTH said...

Fabulous crops; there's nothing as tasty as home grown vegetables. The supermarkets may sell all the pristine perfectly shaped fruit and veg but it doesn't taste half as good. I've never heard of the black sweet peppers....they look lovely. Happy Harvesting and eating :o)

Tira said...

I am at a loss for words- may I one day have even a fraction of this! you make me feel like getting on a plane and getting to your garden LOL. Everything looks scrumptious, you must dine really well.
The purple basil is very pretty, I grew those a few times, trying different varieties, but here they come out mostly green with purple edges, I guess because of the heat?
Yes, radish grows well here, as do all vegetables originating from Asia. And I use both leaves and root. Next I plan to get some seeds of the hotter white type,

stadtgarten said...

It must be wonderful to have such a variety of vegetables and fruit in your own garden. Everything looks so fresh and healthy and very very tasteful.
Groetjes, Monika

Bev said...

What a wonderful, beautiful bounty you have!!! I can just smell all of those sweet peas.

Anonymous said...

Nothing beats the taste of fresh fruit and vegetables and what a harvest you have there Yolanda. Everything looks so happy and healthy. I have a very shady garden and gave up trying to grow vegetables there but I now have an allotment. I think that I now spend more time there than in my own garden but find it most rewarding.

Andrea's Garden said...

Yolanda, it all looks very delicious. we have been able to enjoy the first cocktail tomatoes, too. andrea

Anonymous said...

YE: That is some great harvest! What time is dinner?

Carol Michel said...

I've been harvesting from my garden, too, and I agree there is no better food than from one's own organic garden! Beautiful harvest, all around.

(And another quote from "My Summer in a Garden", perhaps you will be posting something for the Garden Bloggers' Book Club?)

Carol at May Dreams Gardens

Sweet Home and Garden Carolina said...

What a wonderful bounty you have. It reminds me of the garden of my childhood when I my first summer in the garden was tending to the vegetables on our family farm.

Laurie and Chris said...

Wow ! You must have a large yard to have all those fruits and vegi's growing. Everything look really good.

Unknown said...

You inspire me to try a kitchen garden...we're cleaning up an area where I plan to make a couple of raised beds and then I WILL start a potager--next year, hopefully once we kill off the Aegopodium. Delicious post, Yolanda Elizabet!

Kylee Baumle said...

You've got a regular garden of Eden there, Yolanda! Third crop of strawberries?? Wow!

A wildlife gardener said...

A veritable cornucopia of amazing crops...I'm salivating again, like a big hungry dog:)

Lis vom Lindenhof said...

Na in deinem Garten muss man wirklich nicht verhungern. Da wachsen ja wirklich leckere Sachen drin und alles sieht so gesund aus. Jetzt werden auch bei uns die ersten Tomaten rot, aber so viel Obst und Gemüse wie du haben wir leider nicht.

Anonymous said...

Can I come over to your place to eat?! LOL! Such delicious summer delights. Those black peppers are amazing things! Happy Days! :o)

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a great variety of fruits and veggies you have. We only have an ornamental garden but pictures like this (and imagining how it all will taste) make me start to look around for places to get my own potager started.

Anonymous said...

Wow, your kitchengarden looks great! And you're right: home grown vegetables and fruits really taste good! :) I'm waiting for the tomato harvesting to start here as well. It sounds wonderful to pick all these Sweet pea. I forgot to sow them this year but next year I must....

growingagardenindavis said...

Your photos are lovely...and you are having a wonderful harvest! I can't imagine growing sweet peas and tomatoes and peppers at the same time of year!

Connie said...

Your potager is producing plentiful pretty produce. Sorry, I couldn't resist. :-) It all looks wonderful!

Libbys Blog said...

Such a great harvest you have had! I have been very disappointed with my veg patch this year! My sweetcorn is still only 6 inches tall!!!!!! The french beans -non existent, peas and sweet peas seem to be the only thing that has grown well!

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for that delightful garden tour :)

Naturegirl said...

Oh my your garden is so bountifull!
I have never seen so many various fruits and veggies all in one garden other than on a farm! I have never seen or heard of ~black~ sweet peppers! A WONDERFUL garden Yolanda!
Those apples look so delicious!!
There is nothing better tasting than picked ripe from the vine! hugs NG

Sarah O. said...

It is wonderful to read about your 3 sisters bed - that always pops up in the first class of any pre-Confederation Canadian History class. The Huron agricultural technique (and of other agriculturally-inclined aboriginal groups) - it's nice to see it has made it across the pond! Part of my vegetable garden is also dedicated to a "three sisters" technique this summer.

Rusty in Miami said...

Reading your post today inspired me to go out to the garden this coming weekend and do some gardening that I have neglected for to long. Is it great to be gardener?

Annie in Austin said...

The black sweet pepper caught my eye, too, Yolanda. What a wonderful array of delicious, health-giving produce. You are an amazing gardener.

Apparently there are no squirrels or woodchucks or armadillos or raccoons in the Netherlands, or we might see YE out in the potager with a loaded shotgun, protecting her paradise!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Shirley said...

Hi again, Yolanda

I have just posted on “Bloggers For Positive Global Change” and wanted to tell you that I have nominated you. Have a good weekend!

TYRA Hallsénius Lindhe said...

Hallo Yolanda, back from the fishing,with no fish....How absolutly lovely to walk through your garden again. Nice to see that you grow 'three sisters' and I'm amazed by your black sweet peppers, well done Yolanda!

Anonymous said...

Wow! dat ziet er allemaal fantastisch uit joh!

Silvia Hoefnagels . Salix Tree said...

Lovely fruit and veggies! Love the pic of the corn, so silky.
Your blackberries are already fruits! Mine are pink flowers right now.

Sanna Tallgren said...

It is looking great and delicious! I have such a small amount of vegetables growing this summer. My perennial areas and flower beds are taking all my attention so I´ve decided to leave vegetable growing for other gardeners! I´ve tried it and in the end of july I couldn´t find my carrots and lettuces from the weed jungle:)

Thats the gardener main trouble in here. Lack of time. And there is so much growing to do and plants to have :))

Anonymous said...

I'm amazed to see sweet peas and tomatoes growing at the same time. For me, sweet peas are a late winter/early spring flower and tomatoes are middle of summer.

And most fruits (like apples and many berries) won't grow here at all because it we don't get enough cold days in the winter.

Your garden seems like paradise to me.