Wednesday, July 27, 2016

A July Garden

Two weeks ago I took some photos of my garden. Since then it has grown - both more weedy and more dry. The last two weeks have had many days with temperatures above ninety and with no rain, we feel rather parched. 

If you, like me, like to see others gardens, here is a glimpse of mine. Thankfully you can't quite tell how much of the green in the photos are weeds.


Our lower garden (the smallest of our two patches) has zinnia, sweet corn, and pumpkins this year. Yesterday we ate our first sweet corn. Yum. Our resident ground hog was also enjoying the corn but he made the mistake of showing up this morning, sluggish from a belly full of corn, before Ed had left for work -  and that was his last meal.



This is our larger garden. In the front is the strawberry patch which we rejuvenated by mowing, narrowing, and mulching. It is beginning to green up again. Beside the strawberries was a row of garlic that was just harvested.


Next is peppers interplanted with marigolds, zucchini squash, and eggplant. My eggplant looks terrible this year. I didn't use a row cover this year and the tiny flea beetles are chomping it down. Out of sight behind the taller plants is what should have been a row of carrots. I planted twice and still only have a few tiny plants growing. 


But the potatoes look great, so as usual, some things grow well and others do not. (And the red roots always do well.)  Beside the potatoes are the green beans. The ground hog took a nibble at these, but not nearly as badly as last year. But the beans are not doing well. Maybe because of how hot and dry it is? I'm getting a few to put away but I wish they were producing better.


The onions are nearly ready to pull. Behind them is the broccoli and cabbage hiding under row cover. We have eaten several meals a week from these broccoli plants. They look overgrown and misshapen but  they keep producing side shoots so they earn their spot in the garden. Behind the broccoli is two rows of early potatoes that we are digging.


The tomatoes are just starting to show signs of blight. I'm hoping they produce some before they succumb. It doesn't seem to matter what trick I try, blight hits our tomatoes every year. 


And here is the view from the tomato end of the garden showing both garden plots.


The red raspberries are looking great. If we would just get rain...




Last year my herb garden had totally grown up in weeds and grass so I dug it all out and started over this year. It is still a little sparse but I'm enjoying fresh dill, parsley, and basil.



Not everything that grows here is green! In the last month this girlie has started crawling and sprouted two teeth - what a change from six months ago when we were cuddling our newborn. She loves to be outside, she loves to eat, and she loves her mama so I expect I'll have another garden helper before long.

What challenges and joys have you faced in your garden this year?

21 comments :

  1. The weeds in our flower are growing....and the ground is too hard to pull them, oh well, they haven't taken over yet. Your baby is adorable, the denim blanket is cute too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carolyn
      I missed the picnic Sunday and was disappointed to not get to see you!
      Gina

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  2. I always enjoy your garden posts. This year the cucumber beetle took over and I lost so many cuc plants. I have a couple hanging on. Then a type of aphid took over and ruined many squash and pumpkin plants. The adult looks like a stink bug and borrows down to the roots. Its very sad to come out and see a pumpkin vine completely flat and wilted in the ground. Do row covers actually help prevent these type of bugs? And I love the picture of your baby--such a sweet smile!

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    Replies
    1. Row cover will help protect from any kind of flying bugs. The problem with squash, cukes, and other kinds of vining plants is that they need pollinated by bees so you will need to remove the row cover when the plants start to bloom.
      Gina

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  3. Gina, first of all I want to thank you for your blog. I stumbled upon it somehow, and was up way to late last night pouring over different articles you have written. It is EXACTLY what I needed as encouragement in life and faith. Reading your words reminds me so much of myself. I just wanted to thank you for your work and please keep on writing! I love your blog!
    -Tracey

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  4. We are growing eggplant for the first time this year. We enjoy gardening and trying new things, but I really have never cooked with eggplant. When I saw you grew eggplant I wondered if you have any tried and true recipes that your family likes that uses eggplant? Thanks in advance if you post any : )

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    Replies
    1. My favorite way to eat eggplant is eggplant parmesan. You can find the recipe here.
      http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2013/09/eggplant-paremsan.html
      Hope you enjoy it.
      Gina

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  5. I got a smile today from your garden and from that glowing girlie!!

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  6. Thanks for the update on your garden. I too enjoy seeing other's gardens. With a newborn myself I had to scale back some on the garden this year. Right now we are in high 90's and no rain. But surprisingly the garden has done very well this year. I planted catmint with my eggplants this year and they weren't devoured by flea beetles, so you might try that next year.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the flea beetle suggestion. That sounds like an easy cure.
      Gina

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  7. Yes I have had issues with a blight on my tomatoes for a few years. I was told if you don't plant tomatoes for one year then the next year you should not have that problem, so I am trying that this year. A year without tomatoes fresh from your own garden is not ideal but I thought is is worth a try.

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    Replies
    1. I have been told that blight stays in the soil over winter so maybe I need to do something radical like not planting tomatoes. Hope you have good success next year.
      Gina

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  8. Ilove your blog. YOur daughter is so cute and so is the quilt. Did you make it. Would love to see a post on that too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did make the quilt. It is sorta like this quilt http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2009/03/frayed-baby-quilt.html except that I sewed down the edges instead of letting it fray.
      Gina

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  9. I always love to see your garden! It looks well, in spite of our odd summer. My hubby sprays our tomatoes with a product called Daconil..which really does control blight.It is widely available at hardware or garden stores. The baby is so cute!! Growing like a weed..or shall I say flower?!!?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the blight suggestion. I hate to spray but I need to do something different next year.
      Gina

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  10. I would use the spray serenade it is organic.. the problem is it must be started early before you see blight and continued every week for effective control. I usually just plant more plants and try hard to move the plants in a 4yr or more rotation that does not plant them where tomatoes, potatoes, or peppers grew before.

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  11. This is the first year in many I have been able to have a garden. We are enjoying it. For some reason my lettuce and cucumbers sprouted, then stopped, and now, after almost two months of stalling are starting to grow again (I did try to give them some natural stuff to help them grow). Otherwise things are doing well overall. I read that some seeds are resistant to certain things...maybe there are tomato seeds that are resistant to blight?

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  12. Great garden! And darling Haven! I wish I could give you some green beans. I've canned 100 plus qts. and they won't quit!
    The remedies I see for blight are usually calcium related. This year I sprinkled a lot of high calcium lime around mine. I'm still waiting to see if it helps. I also think just an old fashioned trick of pouring milk around them might help...

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  13. We have blight too (late blight here) it comes from our local potato farms in our case. Overwinters in the tubers, and spreads by wind. Wipes out the whole neighborhood's tomatoes. I was so sad about it when we moved here, this was our 5th garden and I finally had a good crop, and NO BLIGHT. Whoo hOoO! I tilled a new spot and only planted seedlings from seeds we bought called "Defiant". They really didn't get it. Real productive, short plants, great sz for whole canning. Not the yummiest tomato in the world for fresh use, but that's OK. They made nice salsa, and I canned a bunch whole. I've been enjoying your posts. I stumbled upon a post about ketchup when I was wondering about thickening ketchup with modified cornstarch (I used clearjel in mine this year, just a little). Came out very good, thanks.
    ~Cathy from rural upstate NY.

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  14. I'm late responding to this so don't know if you will see it but I was wondering if you have problems with cucumber and squash beetles or aphids. If so, how do you feel with them? They ravaged my garden last year. I love the tour of your garden! Thx for posting them.

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