My Vegetables Are Growing!

This is the containerized Tomatoberry plant that my wife wanted to try, next to one of my horseradish plants. I've gotten 9 tomatoes from it so far this year. I've used field fencing material to help support it's branches, along with two metal fence posts to keep it from blowing over in the wind.




















This is one of the three Black Beauty Eggplants we have. There are several eggplants that have already gone past the blooming stage and are now about the size of a large acorn.




















These are our Giant Marconi peppers. According to my spreadsheets, they should be ready to begin harvesting on June 29th.




















Here we have Henderson Baby Butter Beans. Some folks call them Baby Limas.




















This is Ruby Red Swiss Chard. I began harvesting it a few hours after this picture was taken.




















These are slicing cucumbers, also using the field fencing material for support. They all look very healthy, so I expect a good crop.




















There are dozens of blooms like this one, and some have dropped the flower already. It won't be long before we're picking cucumbers.




















This is the Whiteout Corn from Johnny's Selected Seeds that I planted in the back corner of my garden.




















This is is a Brown Turkey Fig tree. I planted it recently, so it has a while to grow before it bears fruit. The maximum size of the tree is supposed to be 10 feet high and 15 feet wide.




















Here are some of the blueberries from one of my 4 bushes. It's almost time to put up the bird netting to protect the crop.




















I have 3 sets of posts and wires for my grape vines. I have three types of seedless grapes: Reliance (Red); Nimrod (White); and Glendora (Blue). With proper care, the vines are supposed to last 50 years.




















This is the first cluster of grapes that my vines have produced! They are of the Reliance variety. They have a long way to go before they're ripe.




















Along with my Heritage Red Raspberries along the driveway, I planted 17 Giant Mammoth Sunflowers. The large stalks of these can be used for tying up the raspberry canes when they grow to sufficient height. The sunflowers are supposed to reach a height of 10 to 12 feet, with a head greater than 12 inches across.




















I have five Heritage Red Raspberry bushes. They are planted between the driveway and the house foundation. I chose this location to keep the raspberries from taking over the yard.




















This is something new this year for our garden. Potatoes in a barrel, or 1/2 barrel actually. I have four half-barrels for this. The plants seem to be doing well as I've added 6 more inches of topsoil to the barrels twice, after they had grown 6 to 8 inches higher each time. I'm supposed to add soil every 6 to 8 inches of growth until the barrels are full to the top. Then, when the plants turn brown and fall over, the potatoes are supposed to be ready to harvest.




















The Fortex stringless snap beans from Johnny's Selected Seeds have hundreds of blooms on them. Soon, they'll be the 10 to 12 inch long stringless seed pods that we enjoy so much!




















Our Park's Whopper tomatoes are growing nicely. I made my own tomato cages this year, using galvanized rolled field fencing material. As you can see, it's not welded, but wound. I prefer this type of material over all others I have tried. I know it is durable, because the fences are still there that I climbed across 50 years ago as a child on my Grandparent's farm.




















... the rest of the row of Park's Whoppers.




















These are our Sweet Banana Pepper plants. All 3 plants are doing very well. Lots of blooms and small fruits. Last year the banana peppers were extremely abundant. I made Sweet Banana Pepper Mustard and it was a great success!




















This one is the oldest of my 13 horseradish plants. The root system is two years old, but the foliage is all this year's growth. It stands about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide. I'll harvest the root and process it this fall.




















We have a Chayote plant, or Vegetable Pear, as some folks call it. The taste is like a cross between a cucumber and a cantaloupe. I thought it was delicious! I started growing two of these under fluorescent lights equipped with a timer during January of 2010. Both plants grew about 4 inches high, but one prospered and one died. I planted the surviving plant outside on May 14th. It is on an 8 foot long piece of field fencing mounted on two metal fence posts. The vine is said to grow between 30 and 50 feet long, with 75 to 100 fruits on it. I'll have to braid the new growth into the fence fabric every 3 or 4 days. We'll see what it looks like in September when it's supposed to be ready for harvest.




















This is what the Chayote fruit looks like.



















Thank you for visiting my blog on Back Yard Organic Vegetables. I hope it inspires you to try growing some vegetables in your back yard or in containers on your balcony, whichever you have. I'm thankful for the vegetable gardening knowledge I have gained thus far in my life. It's all a blessing!