Monday, June 18, 2018

Harvest Monday June 18, 2018

It is a hot hot start to our week here in Kentucky Zone 6. So much has been going on in the garden this week! I'll start with the garden harvests.
Oregano, Dill and cucumbers...soooo many cucumbers this week!
Kale, Cilantro, cucumbers and shelling peas, and the first purple bush bean! My daughter ate it raw! She loves them! When she was little she use to steal them off my counter when I wasn't looking.
First raspberries of the season. Since they have been transplanted twice from the old house to church and then this new house they have not been super happy. They look better this year but still not as good as they use too. Maybe next year will be even better.
Chard, cucumbers, peas and berries!
Cucumbers, peas, berries and snap peas. These cucumbers are called Sweet Success and I am quite happy with them. They have resisted the mildew that is taking over the rest of the bed and they are so long! I thought maybe I didn't get them in time but they are mature around 10-12 inches! These 4 snap peas may be the end of those for the season. They will probably get pulled this week and make room for other stuff in the bed that is getting ready to take over!
More Sweet Success cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, zucchini, shelling peas, raspberries and the second purple bush bean, which my daughter also ate!
Cucumber, zucchini and shelling peas.
A large bounty of cucumbers, the first green and yellow bush beans, parsley, zucchini, berries, greens, and shelling peas.
Look at the size of that blueberry! It is a Chandelier. A very large plump but not super productive berry. Productive enough just not as much as the other 4 bushes. This is the first one of the season off that bush. My 8 year old was salivating over it as I was washing everything up!
He told me to put it ON TOP of the quarter! He thinks it's pretty cool too. He devoured that whole pile of berries without sharing in about 2 minutes!
This is what I used up my zucchini with this week! It was so amazingly delicious! Spinach and Artichoke Zucchini Boats. I linked the recipe, check it out! I used some of my chard and leftover spinach in it and I also added gluten free italian bread crumbs to the top! OH MY GOODNESS! AMAZING!!!! You must try it if you have an abundance of zucchini and like spinach and artichoke dip!

On to the wildlife.
In case you missed it, we found a bunny nest in my bush bean bed this week. My daughter went looking for her little turtle in the garden and this is what we found. We started off with 5. I was a little worried about that but nature seems to be taking care of itself, sadly.


On Friday there were 2 left. One died after a rain. It was away from the nest and cold and wet and shivering. I returned it to the nest with the warm cozy ones, but he quickly died. Two disappeared and I don't know what happened to them. They are very young, probably less than 2 weeks. And then one of the last two met with a neighborhood cat.

She is a lovely cat, just doing what cats do. I enjoy her greatly. Here she is keeping close to the nest, hanging out under the sweet potato vines keeping me company while I work in the garden. She's sweet.

This is the last bunny. I am doing what I can to protect it and as soon as I can I will transplant it to a safer place. For now he is hiding quite well up under all the weeds. Bunny's are very cute but super destructive in the garden. I do hope he survives though. (Edited to add: this poor bunny did not make it either. We are sad. We had really hoped to transplant him to the nature preserve :( 
And our swallowtail has emerged this morning. It's wings are still wet and flimsy. He should be ready to go soon!

Can you see the three in the tree? Finches that is! Love them! So pretty and bright in the garden!

This is becoming one of my favorite coneflowers.  Double Scoop Orangeberry. Isn't it lovely? It is even prettier now than when I took this photo. It gets prettier every day! LOVE!


Denver Daisy Rudbeckia

Teddy Bear Sunflower. This one here is not even a foot tall! Super small, but they can get up to 3 feet. Cute, isn't it?

I hope everyone is having a fabulous gardening week! 
Please leave a comment and share with me! I Love the garden talk!
What are you harvesting this week! Share with us at Our Happy Acres!

6 comments:

  1. Cucumbers and berries and zucchini, oh my! What wonderful harvests. Sad about the bunnies, they were cute. Was momma bunny not around? That swallowtail is beautiful. So different from the varieties that are common here.

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    1. I'm not sure what happened to some of them other than the cat and the rain without protection. I guess it is harder than we think for them to survive. I really don't know about the momma. I never saw her but that is not unusual.

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  2. You really are getting lots of cucumbers! I have made a note to try Sweet Success next year. I do recall growing it in the past. Too bad about the bunnies. Nature can be hard to watch sometimes, as it was with our baby bluebirds. But then the swallowtail emerges! That is amazing. Your flowers are beautiful too. That coneflower is a real stunner, I don't think I've seen one that color before.

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  3. Such cute cucumbers, you're getting a great combination of spring and summer vegetables. That's sad about the baby bunnies. We usually get bunny living in the bean patch mid-season, it probably provides a lot of cover from neighborhood cats. We were trying to trap a bunny using a cage trap last year, but ended up with a huge possum instead. It was quite the surprise.

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    1. That must have been rather exciting in a shocking kind of way! ;)

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