Good Morning!

I love my mornings here. My boyfriend goes to work earlier than I do which means I get the pleasure of taking care of the poultry and walking the dog. The mornings are really special. I still get a thrill out of collecting eggs and poultry are surprisingly happy to see you first thing,  I would even say the turkeys are affectionate, as for the hens, well they're not mad anyway. 

The garden always looks especially nice in the mornings. My boyfriend picks lettuce, beans and peas, as well as anything else in season, to make his lunch before heading to work. I often eat breakfast standing in the garden, picking peas, beans, lettuce and herbs before cooking myself an egg. I love checking out the garden first thing since when things are really growing and forming you can honestly notice a difference from one day to the next. Things really do grow and pop up overnight. 

The very first thing the turkeys do in the morning is go outside. We put them in at night to protect them from predators 

They love being outside and would sleep out there if we let them. Our hens are really good to put themselves to bed at dusk so we assumed the turkeys would do the same, however they had different plans. We have had to make them go inside after they have been all piled up together outdoors, already sound asleep. 

One side of the garden. My garden will never, ever be without pole beans again. I love the giants. 

The other side. I am allowing a whole bunch of stuff to go to seed in the cold frame to collect the seeds. Gardening can cost you next to nothing if you save your own seeds. 

Our version of a three sisters bed. Only moss would grow in this back corner despite it being one of the sunniest spots in the whole yard. I made a lasagna bed back there over the winter by laying down cardboard and layering chicken manure, eel grass, compost and leaves. I covered it with a small amount of top soil in the spring and planted corn, soybeans, all our squashes, melons and cucumbers after the risk of frost was over.   

Pumpkin flowers are so pretty. All flowering veggies are pretty although pumpkin flowers stand out because of their large size. 

My main melon. Going to start melons even earlier next year in hopes of getting some kind of yield. I'm hoping to have a green house for all my seed starting. 

More pumpkin flowers. We have a lot of pumpkins forming and some are a pretty good size already. Pumpkins are a fantastic veggie to grow and are often under emphasized. Pumpkins are good for much more than just a jack o' lantern. They store forever, they are super nutritious, super delicious, make great soups, stews and other dishes, you can save and eat the seeds and they grow like crazy, usually producing many pumpkins per plant. 

Baby cob of corn. 

The pumpkin trying to escape the bed. I'm hoping it does not wrap itself around that rhododendron and try and take it down. 

The soybeans are huge at half the height of the corn. They're also loaded with beans. 

Onions from seed. They take a bit longer to really get going, however they still form nice big onion bulbs that are, In my opinion, a superior onion to those grown from sets. They are often described as longer storing, rounder, more flavourful and less likely to go to seed than those grown from sets. 

Pole beans. Thinking we'll be needing a few more tee pees of these next year. Extremely happy with their performance and appearance. They're beautiful! 

Dying potatoes in the middle. We've been eating them for awhile. There is nothing quite like a potato from the garden. 

Jalapeño in a container. I tried so hard to focus on the peppers and still so hard to see. Regardless of what it looks like here, this is loaded with peppers. Salsa and mexican food in my future.