My New Favorite Tomato

I've fallen for this beautiful variety of tomato called Pineapple. It is a yellow beefsteak type that has delicate shades of red running through it. The bush loads itself with so many of this big beauties that it's a wonder it can hold itself up.

Had to show you the inside- how pretty each slice is. And the flavor? Absolutely delicious, mild and meaty. I'll be keeping the seeds from these for next year so I can have more than one plant. Although seriously , one may be all you need!

My Pepper Plantation

This week has been a great week for harvesting our bumper crop of peppers at the community garden. The peppers are big and meaty and abundant!

Orange bell peppers, just starting to ripen.

These long thin peppers are super hot. They turn red when ripe, making it such a pretty plant.

A shorter hot pepper. This bush is so pretty with the varying shades of red.

The hunt for big ones.

Success! This one is a keeper!

These will ripen yellow.


Bull's Tongue, ripens red. A big beautiful stuffing or canning variety. A little bitter raw.

Sweet Cherry Peppers


The happy harvest ready to take home.

Chinese Red Noodle Bean

A new addition to my beans this year is the Chinese Red Noodle Bean from the Bakers Creek Seed catalog. They are really an interesting plant. For most of the summer they sat at the bottom or the trellis with only a couple inches growth.

Just at the moment I had given up on them they sprang to the top of the trellis and produced some interesting flowers .They either resemble an alien or an angel, not sure which.
Then, magically , the red beans appear, looking like a cascade of fireworks.

I picked one off and tried it right off the and it was good! (and almost a meal in itself.)

I gathered the longest ones and brought them inside. I knew I was going to blow the kids mind with these babies. What was their reaction? Nothing, nada, zilch- not even the usual eye roll.

Whatever, I'm a dork I know. But these are really cool beans.

Tennessee Spinning Gourds

Every spring my husband and I get into an argument about the gourds I'm planning to grow in the garden. He thinks gourds are utterly useless and take up too much valuable space that could be put to better use. I , on the other hand, keep expanding my selections of gourds each year and stick them wherever I find an empty spot. This year I've found a new favorite. The Tennessee Spinning Gourd, or Dancing Gourd as it is sometimes called.


The leaves are a brilliant shade of green and have a nice size and shape to them.

The gourd themselves are about two inches long with pretty green stripes.

The vine has neat fairy tale- like tendrils all over it that adds interest to this lovely vine.

Here is one that is just starting to form.

The gourd can be used as a top when turned over and spun on it's skinny end. They also are a nice size to paint and use as jewelry.



The little gourds are prolific. I have one plant growing out of a big pot in my kitchen garden and it already has about a dozen spinners on it.

As you can see I've totally flipped for this beauty!

I just can't stop taking pictures of it.

Even the dog likes it!

A Garden Visitor.....

Look what we found in the garden this morning!

A huge snapping turtle nestled in among the peppers.

At first we thought she dropped by for a bite to eat.

Upon closer inspection we found the real reason for her visit! A new egg to research!

Cup and Saucer Canterbury Bells

Campanula medium (Bellflower)

These are biennial. They flower the second year . A great lesson in garden patience!

These were on of the first flowers imported to America in colonial times. Thomas Jefferson kept them in his garden at Monticello. ( just some nerdy garden info for you.)

In this picture you can see how the bottom petals flair out to form a saucer.

My girls started these from seem last year. From a packet of seed we ended up with 3 big beautiful blooming plants this year.

A Look At My Community Garden

I finally finished planting the plot I have in my community garden. It's been such a wet and cold spring here in the Chicago area, so planting days have been few and far between. A large plot is only $15 for the season. Sometimes it is a struggle to get over there, even though it's only 5 minutes away. But it is a wonderful place to meet gardening friends and de-stress for a while.




Here is a picture of the garden a couple weeks ago. It is marked out with sticks. We have to use the rototiller on our own , but it's really not too bad. The soil is lovely and rich, but parts are more full of clay then others.


This is how it looks today. Everything is planted but still very small.
This is my lettuce bed on the left. The middle is cayenne peppers, separated from the other peppers on the other side. Also some celeriac and kohlrabi. The row on the right is eggplant.



Here are my various gourds and pumpkins. I just started the trellis, haven't finished it yet. Last year my winter squash got hit hard by some sort of vine-boring worm. So I planted radishes around each hill to try and deter pests .

These are some neat markers some gardeners have a few rows down. Just thought I'd show them to you.

Here is a larger view. I'll have to look for those for next year.

More pictures to come when things really get going!