Saturday, July 31, 2010

End of July Garden Updates

The forecast calls for it to be in the 100's here the next three days - just in time for the weekend, my only free time to work in the garden (very funny, Mother Nature). My garden has been suffering this year. I'm not sure if it's from the heat or what. Things that always bloom haven't (bearded iris, tiger lily), and my veggie garden has been ridiculously hit or miss (lots of green beans early, lots of cherry tomatoes and cowpeas later, a very few eggplant and larger tomatoes now, bell peppers just getting started, no cucumbers in sight, and some utter failures: corn, pole beans, butter beans, winter squash).
One weird thing about pregnancy is that your tastes change, so some things I planted in the garden the spring don't appeal to me now, namely eggplant.

This is the second year I've grown these asian eggplants from seed. The basil and black krim tomatoes were grown from seed, too (the red tomatoes are from a friend). Trying to figure out what to do with these eggplants that sounded remotely appetizing right now was a challenge, but then I found this recipe. I basically followed it except that before frying the eggplant pieces, I breaded them in flour with salt and pepper mixed in (and skipped the step about drying the eggplant pieces after rinsing them). It was so good!

The tiny fish pond is the only area of the yard that looks lush. I was thrilled to find this helvola dwarf water lily blooming! Word to the wise, even a dwarf lily will send out an incredible number of lily pads. I'm glad I didn't just get a small lily, because this is all our ~100 gallon pond can handle.

These naked ladies took a couple of years to bloom, but they were worth the wait. They are a shimmery pale pink and so pretty.

I love how they come up literally overnight on these long stems.

The heat has not put a damper on the critters. Check out this neat/creepy sphinx moth that was hanging out in our carport last weekend. It was huge! It reminded me of the stealth bomber.

Have a great weekend and stay cool!

5 comments:

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

Talk about pregnancy and the weird things, it is the husband of a young couple we know that develops taste change. The wife maintains such wide appetite. Your fried menu looks really good! ~bangchik

Randy Emmitt said...

Ginger,
So your having a baby(s), put in that s because you never know. Congratulations! We just got done with those high temps, yesterday we turned off the ac and opened the windows unheard of this time of year.

Susie said...

I think the heat just about did everything in. I threw in the towel on my garden last month. Nothing has done remarkably well except for peppers.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

I guess I missed out on some big news. Congrats on your pregnancy! I'm so happy for you.
I went back and read the last few posts I've missed. Your garden looks beautiful and your pond has really filled in. Our garden has had a strange year too, but more from the lack of heat and all the rain we started with. Try to stay cool this weekend.

Shady Gardener said...

Your post made me ooo and ahhhh and then "Yum!" ;-) Happy news. Hope you're feeling well.