our homestead: garden's growing

My little garden is off to a good start. I am beyond happy that the growing season is here again. Every morning I enjoy the ritual of letting my birds out, watering the plants in my greenhouse and watching the growth of my vegetable garden while casually plucking weeds. I'm fairly tired from a busy day of working the yard and I'm about to go sit out on the porch for the remainder of this warm evening we're having to listen to the sounds of nightfall and to smell the sweet scent of my white lilac (it seems to emit the most perfume at dusk), so I'll post a few photos of my garden's current state.

Wild numbers of sunflowers are popping up every which way around my yard. Aww, we'll be so lucky when they are all flowering.

Nasturtiums, German Chamomile and poppies are all growing.

Velvety and tangy 'Apple Mint' growing taller everyday. I'm looking forward to some summer mojitos made with this. Yum!

Our main vegetable patch (we have a few other patches scattered around the yard). This is also where we grew our garlic patch last year. I made some nice raised beds and everything I've planted here is coming up.

I've already snuck a few 'French Breakfast Radishes' from our radish patch. Oh so sweet and adorable.

One of my little broccoli plants. This is my first year growing broccoli.

Potatoes! This year I planted two potato patches: one for us and one for the ducks. I read that mashed potatoes make for a good filler food for ducks, so we'll be able to stretch our feed dollars more.

Baby 'Lacinato Kale' peeking out of the soil. Waiting to be braised with some lemon and chickenstock.

Our arugula patch. Soon this will grace my homemade pizzas with pancetta and goatcheese. Oh baby! 

Itty-bitty kohlrabi: one of my favorite vegetables. When it's full grown, its stems will swell into little green baseballs. You peel them and snack on them fresh or can roast them up. They are in the cabbage family and taste like sweet broccoli.

'Arabian Nights Nasturtiums' peeking out of the ground in the vegetable garden. Their flowers are supposed to be red, white and purple in lieu of the usual orange and yellow. They'll help ward off certain insect pests and will be a sweet and spicy addition to our salads.

Fava beans! These guys are sweet and nutty, like a delicious lima bean (har har), and can be planted with peas as they are more of a colder season bean.

Snap and shelling peas coming up below my branch pea trellis.

My tomatoes are in full swing in the greenhouse. I think they are taller and healthier than they were last year at this time. In fact, I'll have to go back and check, but I'm not even sure I had them out to the greenhouse yet last year.

I also have lots of tomato flowers blooming, meaning I'll have tomatoes sooner this year than last.

Oh what have we here! My first "tomato".

Here's one of my 'English Brown Turkey' figs, leafing out.

And the peppers!

This is my happy place.