Swiss chard is beautiful, isn't it? I only wish I knew what to do with it. I suppose I could google it.

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The pumpkin is amazing!!! I had one that had volunteered at my condo, and my neighbor said it was like the little shop of horrors because the vine kept going onto his deck and he would carefully move it off the deck, only to have it move back on the next day LOL!!!!! -Cass

Nice garden! The red celery is beautiful and you've inspired me to grow that and cauliflower next year.

Jon

Wow, great photos! Your cukes are a lot bigger than mine. The marketmores I direct seeded around mother's day are still just a couple inches tall. :-(

And ribbit: the best way I like to use Swiss Chard is simply slice into 1" ribbons, saute some garlic in a bit of olive oil, then add the chard and lightly saute till wilted. Serve with a squeeze of lemon. Yum!

My grandmother makes pies with swiss chard, she cooks it with some evoo, onion, garlic and black olives, then makes a pie shell out of pizza dough...its super yummy, even after baking the next day cold...

Lovely.

Why are you pinching off the pumpkins?

As a kid we used to regularly pick pumpkins out of the lilacs that bordered the garden because my dad insisted that Big Max was the only pumpkin he wanted to grow and those vines went everywhere.

Some years when the neighborhood's bad kids went smashing and stealing pumpkins early the ones in the bushes were the only ones we got since they were hidden.

super nice garden. It looks so healthy and not eaten! How do you do that! Everything you have is so much bigger than my stuff, and I am in z6 too. I just got some stuff started a little slow. Hopefully it will catch up with all the rain and stuff we have had!
Nice garden!

My Garden Blog

Beautiful produce. Im jealous.....LOL
Thanks
Jean

Thank you for all the nice comments!

I'm afraid some of the things do look eaten. Many of the chard leaves have fallen victim to leaf miners, and the eggplants have many holes in them. I've spied a few squash beetles and their eggs, so the battle is on with them.

KillerBs, I'm only pinching the pumpkins that are trying to grow hanging in the air. I'd rather have the plant direct its resources to growing a few nice Jack-O-Lantern size pumpkins on the ground, because my fence isn't stout enough to support 20# pumpkins even if the vine is. ;) I'm trying to keep it from sprawling into the grass so that DH can mow to keep the crab grass and bindweed at bay.

I got a bunch of composted goat manure this spring, and the places that were most heavily amended with that are doing better than the areas where I added horse manure last fall. I think that's my secret. Also, even when we have a "rainy" spring, it's still fairly dry so the ground doesn't stay cold and soggy like in wetter areas with similar temps.

That is some tasty looking Cauliflower...and don't ya just love that Chard?! I grew 'Bright Lights' 2 years ago and was still eating from them in fall. Early summer they were attacked by leaf miners so they were ugly for a little bit. Just had to keep picking and destroying infected leaves and eventually it worked out lovely :)
Now Celery is one I have to try. I didn't think it was possible given they are like 5 months from planting out to maturity. I've also read that plants exposed to temperatures below 55F can cause them to bolt. This just might not be an easy one for me here since uur lows are not consistently above 55F until like first week or so in July! Are you growing an early maturing variety? Do tell :)

Vera

Hi Vera, if you're in the Spokane area, your climate is just a little colder than us here in Boise. I don't see why you wouldn't be able to grow celery. This is my first attempt, and the stuff does grow slowly, but it just chugs along and hasn't been bothered by any bugs or other issues. I don't know about the bolting issue - perhaps that only happens in the fall? I started them indoors around March 1, and set them out in the garden around May 5, when we were still getting near-freezing night temps. My Vegetable Gardener's Bible says to plant out when day temps are 55 and night temps are above 40. The author also mentions that in the fall, right before a hard frost, he digs his plants and keeps them just moist in planters in the root cellar and harvests celery from them all winter. He doesn't mention anything about bolting. Pinetree's website says the Redventure celery is 95 days to maturity. From planting out May 5, I should be harvesting around August 20th, which seems on-track with the progress of the plants, though I might steal a few stalks before then. ;)