Mmmm, veggies

Vegetables grow at an alarming rate - slightly over a week has passed since the previous vegetable related post and it really is a jungle out there now.  It's really amazing what a handful of seeds will turn into.

WOAH

These pictures were taken yesterday...
I'm pretty sure the pumpkins are even bigger today.

Peppers & tomato

Onions, lima beans, green beans, purple beans

Black beans, yellow beans, lettuce, more onions

  

Huzzah!

Happy Flag Day!

Did you know that PA is the first (and only) state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday?  Aaah any reason for the state workers to take off, we're awesome like that.  Damn, I wish I worked for the state. 

P.S.  Today is also the day the Army celebrates its birthday - happy 237th!

Do go chase some waterfalls!

Saturday I decided to take a break from the usual yard work & took a road trip to Ricketts Glen. The 2.5 hour drive was well worth it to take in some of nature at its finest.  What's really amazing is it started to rain when I made it to the parking lot near the Falls Trail - but once you enter the forest little to no rain makes it to you.  The trees are so big and old they make a fantastic natural umbrella.  I didn't make it the whole 7 mile loop to see all the falls, hell I didn't even get half as far.  BUT I did get to see the main attraction - the 94' Ganoga Falls.  In a word, stunning.  I would highly recommend visiting this park right now - bring plenty of water, take your time, wear good shoes - the trail is clear but a little rough in some spots.  There is great access to the falls, lots of photo opportunities.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Welcome to the Jungle

Until now the only pictures of the 2012 veggie garden have been really lacking.  Mostly because it was so damn weedy it was hard to see where the real plants were.  Shawn and I were fortunate to have an assistant weeder/rock picker yesterday (who will be rewarded with lots of veggies come harvest time) and things are looking quite marvelous - see for yourself.

Hooray for veggies!

Sweet cherry peppers

Itty bitty sweet cherry peppers

Big guy jalapeno
Supposed to get up to 5"

Peperonici
*These are grown from seeds that I saved from last year's crop!

The seeds I saved for the sweet peppers did not germinate.
So, I bought some seeds and these guys are a bit behind.

Big Mama tomato!

Lima beans

Green beans

Purple beans
*Also grown from seeds saved from last year's crop

Black beans

Yellow beans

Mmm, lettuce

Onions
These are planted around the perimeter of the garden:
Rumor has it bunnies don't like them.

The 2 remaining eggplants

The rogue tomatoes!  I think/hope they are summer salsa - nice, meaty tomato.
If not, they are the supersteak hybrid.  Magic tomatoes that were growing amongst the onions.  Must have been from a tomato that fell on the ground last year & rotted.

Horseradish

Bucket-o-taters

TRIPLE rainbows you say?

Yesterday the weather beat the bejesus out of all the plants, luckily nothing is mortally wounded, just standing a bit crooked now.  Nothing a few supports can't fix.  I try not to whine too much about the rain anyway because the veggies sure do need the water and of course with rain showers there's always the hope of a rainbow.  Shawn pointed out a very faint but very wide rainbow, so of course I grabbed my camera.

Oh look, a rainbow nuglet!

A bit before 8:00 I looked out one of the living room windows to see what Forrest was staring at & saw another rainbow.  This one was much brighter and far more complete so I went outside to see.  Upon further investigation, I saw something I'd never seen before: a DOUBLE RAINBOW!

WHAT DOES IT MEAN???

Oh yes, full on!  Across the sky!  So intense!  It was so bright & vivid!  I almost cried like this guy but then I remembered it's science and not a unicorn peeing across the sky.