Harvesting peanuts in Wisconsin!

It was a bountiful and delicious weekend as we harvested peppers, potatoes, carrots, acorn squash, beets, pumpkins, and peanuts... yes, PEANUTS!

They need to dry for two weeks on the vine before we can roast them. Here's our method:

Chili and jalapeno plants were pulled into the wheelbarrow and then into the garage for washing and chopping:

Carrots and onions went into turkey soup the same day. Same-day potatoes are remarkably more flavorful than those from the supermarket.

Pergola

Four years ago, we had a patio poured at our front entrance and added a pergola. Then I rototilled up all the grass, dug a French well, and put in a perennial garden. Today:

Watermelon

Transplanting strawberries

Beaucarnia

First potato harvest

Harvest kitchen

Tomatoes and eggplant slices spruce up a supermarket pizza. Baked tomatoes make easy sauce.

Harvest still life and Brussels sprouts

Two of four Brussels sprouts plants have sprouts:

Afternoon harvest from August 4

Tomato and tomatillo harvest

And then someone arranged them into tomato-tomatillo-tetrahedrons...

Ready to eat and still growing

Garlic bulbs are small but healthy. I will save the largest cloves to replant in the Fall, as well as trying some different varieties.

These "pie pumpkins" will make some huge pies! I will have plenty to give away.

Summer squash and zucchini ready to harvest

Italian eggplant - way too many for this family! Food pantry donations in the ripening...

Just one of my jalapeno plants

Tomatilllos

Sungold cherry tomatoes delicious despite the early blight on the leaves

It appears that the chipmunks may be losing interest in the strawberries at last. Good thing these are "ever-bearing"

Basil for pesto ready for the kitchen

Night time harvest

Less-common Iridaceae

Crocosmia Lucifer (red flowers) and Belamcanda chinensis (orange flowers)

These Zone 5 perennials fare well on an east-facing wall of my generally Zone 4 garden on a hill in southern Wisconsin. Crocosmia originates in East Africa. The crocosmia is a favorite of the ruby-throated hummingbird, who does not seem to mind that it is not a North American native.

Belamcanda Chinesis is originally from China, as the name suggests. It is also called Iris domestica, and was introduced to North America via Thomas Jefferson's gardens at Monticello. The black berries that form after the blooms have passed have medicinal properties and are attractive in wreaths and winter floral arrangements. 

Raspberries, moths, and toads

These raspberry canes are bearing fruit this summer! We dug them in Spring from a friend's place and planted them early- just after the last snow. Andy told me they would not fruit until next year, so we are pleasantly surprised. The variety is one of the "thornless," which really means that the thorns are more fuzzy than prickly.

This Luna moth (see size of doorknob for reference) didn't seem to mind the peeling paint on our garage door this morning. Looks as if his wings are still drying.

Toad buddy in the veg garden about the size of my palm. No pesticides=biodiversity and happy amphibians. He is crawling on cardboard that I use to keep weeds in check under the hardwood mulch.

Early July 2015 Raised bed gorgeousness!

Sweet peas ready to harvest! Overall view

And tomatoes getting tall:

And a view of the garden:

So what's growing?

Well, the veg garden finally received its aesthetic boost with mulched paths between the raised beds:

So what's growing? asparagus for next year, strawberries for the chipmunks... but FOR US: snap peas, onions, shallots, chives, garlic, many kinds of tomatoes, tomatillos, bell/jalapeno/cayenne peppers, eggplant, cilantro, sage, basil, dill, chard, lavender, oregano, parsley, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cucumbers, potatoes-purple and "normal", acorn squash, zucchini, peanuts, popcorn, beets, salad greens, green beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, edamame, carrots, beets, raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb.

Panorama of planted veg garden

Well it's not so pretty yet (paths still not mulched), but the broccoli is ready to harvest and the later crops are all in. 

Baby ground hogs

Well there are six of them this year! When they emerged from under th deck, they ate grass and then became interested in the perennials, toppling my delphinium so until I sprayed smelly egg mixture. 

Ad hoc greenhouse

I made this simple cold frame out of cinder blocks and old window frames for hardening off my seedlings. It's on a concrete slab and it worked perfectly!

Also, a view of the irises blooming:

Update on sprouts, tulips

This is what the tulips looked like when I pulled them out of the garage in April: