Zucchini Harvest

The garden is looking quite full, and so far we've been able to harvest lettuce, spinach and zucchini. But they'll be a bit more variety soon, as the tomatoes, cucumbers and potatoes have started to flower. Here's a look at how the garden is progressing:

First fruit

Checked out the garden this morning and was shocked to discover our first fruit of the season - a zucchini! I checked yesterday and little flower buds had formed, but today the flower is huge and yellow and has a little zucchini on the end. Everything has really taken off with the hot weather we've been having, and I hope to see more fruit soon. The tomato plants are developing the beginnings of little flowers, so hopefully the tomatoes we'll emerge soon.

Here's some more pics of what's growing in the garden:

Garden is Full

Completely filled up both tiers of the garden on Friday. The tomato plants are in, and I finished planting all my seeds. I can't wait until everything pops up and starts filling out!

The Next Tier

Over the weekend, we added a second vegetable garden tier below the original. And it was just in the nick of time, as my seeds from The Cottage Gardener arrived today and the top tier is now officially full. I'm so excited about these seeds - Rossa di Milano (red heirloom storage onions from Italy) and Small Sugar Pumpkins, which apparently make THE best pie in the world.

So what exactly have I filled the top tier with? Well, from seedling we've planted yellow peppers, two kinds of zucchini, and pickling cucumbers. And from seed, we've got Scarlet Nantes carrots, a 20 lettuce blend (green, purple and polka-a-dot, oh my!), a rainbow carrot blend, and garlic.

There's a row of space left, but it's reserved for the heirloom tomatoes which are currently being hardened off.

A third tier is definitely going to be necessary though, as I currently have ground cherry, chives, lavender, chamomile, and pea plants growing from seed indoors.

An Update in Pictures...

Festina Beans

Scarlet Nantes carrots

Potato

20 Lettuce Blend

Garlic

Spinach

Kale

Merlot lettuce

Books

The Bowen Island Library has a nice little gardening section, and I've found 2 books in particular that are very helpful. Seed Sowing and Saving not only teaches how to collect and save seeds from plants that you have grown, but it provides step-by-step instructions (with pictures!) on how to then successfully plant those seeds the next year. Root Cellaring is especially great because it teaches how to live off the produce of your garden all year long, even in the dead of winter. Very 100 mile!

Seedlings

The kale and lettuce that I planted 2 weeks ago has sprouted and is coming up nicely. The kale looks great, but the lettuce is the real star - it's dark purple! I planted the carrots about a week ago, but they haven't come up yet.

My order from Salt Spring Seeds arrived yesterday. Last night I planted the Bali tomatoes and yellow lavender in pots to start indoors. The tomato really should have been started weeks ago, but I'm going to give it a go anyway. Today I planted 2 rows of the 20 lettuce blend outdoors. It'll be interesting to see what comes up from that blend.

I'm waiting on a few more seed packets to arrive. I wanted to grow fruit from seed, but berries and pitted fruit take years to establish. Then I found something great from Sunshine Farm in Kelowna - ground cherries, which are actually tiny sweet tomatillos. The flavour is described as a mix between strawberry and pineapple. But the best part is you get fruit by the end of the season.