Farmer Friday: Beginnings of a Bounty

Real blogs have regular "features" so I'm officially starting one. Fridays are now becoming "Farmer Fridays" with pictures from around our abode of all the growing things and vegetables. If you are feeling adventurous, feel free to share your own pictures and what you're growing in the comments!

First up, my hydrangeas which were at the house when we moved in and have made a serious comeback this summer (the plant was struggling last year). Yes, they're a little past their prime now, but absolutely beautiful nonetheless.


This year's vegetables are all from organic seeds and the one seed type I had to get was for roma tomatoes. The plant is typically easy to grow, lasts late into the season and has a large bounty of tomatoes. I thought this plant was a little slow to start growing fruit until I was watering and noticed I had just missed some of the first fruit. Not much longer now!


Of course what goes better with tomatoes than basil!? In case you didn't already know, herbs should not flower (called "bolting") or they will stop growing leaves so make sure and pluck flowers as soon as they begin to appear. This forest of basil has already been mixed with greens, cherry tomatoes and small marinated mozzarella balls then dressed with balsamic dressing for a wonderful salad.


With the whole kitchen remodel going on I haven't been able to harvest my vegetables and this beet is WELL overdue to be harvested. I'm thinking it could be perfect for the beet and dark chocolate ice cream and then I'll saute up the leaves with butter and salt!

Around our new arbor we planted two kinds of grapes, a wisteria and are training a rose to climb it. One of the grape plants already had some itty bitty bunches on it but with a transplant most died off. This one has a few that might survive.

The perfect summer flower is getting it's start on one side of the yard...

And on another side of the yard the sunflowers are getting ready to bloom! I bought decorative sunflower seeds that are a mix of different types and planted some edible ones as well. I can't wait for these to bloom!

Limes, limes and more limes are starting to grow!

For a grand finale, there's another new thing in the front yard. A new front fence! Our neighbor is a sweet older woman and there used to be some scraggly hedges here. She wanted to take them out so once they were gone, we went in on this nice new fence since she has a private front yard. I planted two gardenias, three azaleas, three hostas and some little flowers. My grandma is going to remind me of the name of those little guys but I forget at the moment. Once these all grow in this is going to be a really nice partial shade garden. I need a few more plants though to fill in... maybe some more varieties of hostas? Or my favorite, calla lilies? It's hard to find good plants for dry shade, but I think the azaleas will do well once established.


Happy Friday! Start getting those pictures ready to share for next week's Farmer Fridays!