Friday, July 11, 2014

July Garden

I took some photos of our garden recently. We have been getting such wonderful rain showers and everything is growing so well that if I don't share them soon, the garden will look nothing like these photos!

I love to see other's gardens and view their successes and failures. Mine is far from perfect, but maybe you will enjoy seeing it anyway! And I find that from a photo you can't see half the weeds!


We have two garden patches. This is the original garden. It is becoming too shady to grow things well here so I'm only using about half of the garden. To the left is a weedy patch of strawberries. Apparently these strawberries got some sort of blight. The leaves had spots and then turned brown and fell off. We hardly got any strawberries out of this patch. Since I know that blight is difficult to fight, I plan to get rid of this patch and plant something else here. In the middle is green beans (which I planted very late - I know lots of my neighbors are picking beans). To the right is zucchini.

 

This is our second garden, the larger of the two. The first row is garlic, almost ready to pick. Beyond the garlic is broccoli hiding under row cover from the cabbage worm. To the left is some lettuce that has bolted. After pulling the garlic I will replace it with some fall garden crops.

 

Next to the broccoli is red beets,sugar peas, and onions. The onions that are flowering are sweet onions. Do you know why they are flowering?

 

Next is carrots, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes.



Ed always says I crowd the garden, and here is an example. When the plants were small it looked like I would have room for some vine plants such as pumpkin and watermelon next to the tomatoes. As they grow, I see I was wrong. But maybe I can train the vines to grow over the potatoes as the potato plants die back.

We had planted some little shriveled up potatoes with foot-long sprouts that were left over from last year's crop. I know that experts say to buy new stock each year, but these were languishing in the basement and I decided to see if they would grow. I think that every potato grew and we have some of the nicest potatoes ever. (I would be scared to try in another year though in case our potatoes do get infected with disease.)

 

I'm reaching under the plants to find nice potatoes like these!

 

Sweet corn follows the potatoes.

 

At the end of this garden is another weedy patch of strawberries. This is the patch that gave us our harvest this year. We plan to revamp this bed and mulch it for next year.



On top of the hill by our garden is a row of red raspberries. Eagerly waiting for their harvest!

How is your garden growing?

21 comments :

  1. I love reading about your food production

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  2. That's a beautiful garden. You inspire me!!

    If you don't mind my asking, how many acres do you own?

    ~daybreaking

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have almost three acres. But much of that is not tillable - we have LOTS of rocks. Probably half of our land is "wild" - growing up in weeds, thistles, and brush.
      Gina

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  3. your garden looks wonderful! i would love to grow potatoes like the ones you have. my garden has lot of weeds too! will you be doing much canning this year?

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    Replies
    1. I did so much canning last year that I still have a nice amount left. But I still hope to do green beans and tomatoes. Guess I will wait and see how everything continues to grow!
      Gina

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  4. Your garden looks great. I remember when we had a big garden, but not as big as yours we only have four in our family. These days the garden is smaller but gives us all we need to put up for the winter for the two of us and some to share with our daughter. Wish I had enough room to grow sweet corn.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheryl -
      Corn does take up a ton of room! But we sure love fresh corn-on-the-cob!
      Gina

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  5. Love seeing your garden, I too tend to underestimate the space it will need and end up with "high density" gardening. ;)

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  6. Hi Gina, I haven't checked in with you for a while but knowing you are also an avid gardener, I hoped for pictures of how yours is doing and see that it's going well! How are you keeping up with weeds? I'm afraid with our cycle of rain followed by days of intense heat, the weeds have been extra hearty this year.

    Also, congratulations on your newborn. A bountiful harvest, indeed!
    Monica

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    Replies
    1. Monica -
      The weeds are growing like crazy here too! My only hope is in the mulch that my husband has been faithfully applying every time he mows the grass. As I said, there are a lot more weeds than show up on these photos, but the weed-free spots are only thanks to mulch!
      Gina

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    2. Thanks, Gina. I need to get serious about mulch or else learn to preserve and eat crabgrass.

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    3. If you figure out a way to enjoy crabgrass - you'll be a wealthy woman.
      Gina

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  7. Your garden looks great! I was keeping up with the weeds till I put my back out last week. Hope to get down there with the help of some Advil and the chiropractor. I have recent pics up on my blog. We have a rather short growing season and I lost hope of having green beans this year when our first planting failed... used old seed. I planted about a week late and planted a different bean, so they are doing well. We've had a good mix of rain and sun, so the garden is doing quite well. We do our best, but God does what we cannot do to get our garden growing and keep it that way. I know what you mean by overcrowding only in our family it's just the opposite. Mr. D wants to cram the garden full, but the last couple years we've had trouble with powdery mildew on the "curcubits". I checked with the extension service to be sure that this wasn't something in the soil and found out it is solely due to overcrowding and air circulation. We took the squash right out of the garden this year and planted in old tires on the hill where there is lots of room for them to roam. We then opened up the garden space, so the stuff that doesn't require a lot of roaming room will grow nicely. I'm happy so far and all is well.
    I'm not sure when you get time to do gardening and weeding. I have my grandson to watch some days and have taken him to the garden with me, but he likes to pull everything in site... including the plants. He has a little kid-sized hoe that has been a terror to the garden and the dogs. Because of this we stay away from the garden when he's here visiting and the dogs hide :)

    Have a great day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good hints on the curcubits!

      Most of my garden time is in the morning right after breakfast. The older children keep the baby. I have found it is a great way to have some quiet time. None of the children want to be put to work in the garden so they disappear! (Don't worry, I love my children dearly, but quiet is scarce and enjoyed whenever I can find it!)
      Gina

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  8. Hi Gina,
    My onions are flowering as well! This is our first year growing onions, so I'm curious to see how they do. We are on a mountainside and our ground is very, very rocky.
    Your gardens look great! I hope to get some pictures of mine up, hopefully. I'm hoping to put up many canned jars this year :)
    Blessings to you!
    Jamie

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  9. Hi Gina. About the blight on your strawberries, I've been noticing something on my strawberries too and now I am a bit worried. I've noticed a white powdery film with spots that look a bit like rust. Is this what blight is? Sorry, I'm relatively new at gardening. And your garden looks good!

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    Replies
    1. Anna -
      That sounds like powdery mildew. Try searching "strawberries mildew" and you should find pictures and descriptions to compare to your berries.

      Even those of us who have gardened for years are still facing unknown challenges!
      Gina

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  10. Hello Gina. Just wanted to make a difference quick comment about your pumpkins and watermelons. We have a very small garden patch, so my husband is trying something new this season for our pumpkins and watermelons, he is growing them up a trellis. Our trellises are inexpensive, and we're made from pvc and nylon string. It's an idea that may help with your vines taking over, lol. I'm sure you can Google growing pumpkins on trellises or look it up on YouTube or pintrest. I do my best praying in the garden, btw.

    Blessings, Brandi Ps 16:11

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    Replies
    1. Brandi-
      Thanks for the idea. I think a trellis would be a great solution for watermelon but I'm not sure about pumpkin. The variety I grow makes HUGE vines. I can't imagine a trellis big enough to corral it!

      Let me know how your garden does!
      Gina

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  11. I just found your blog and I have enjoyed reading it! I wanted to let you know the flowers on your onions are seeds. You can harvest the seed and sow them to grow your onions for next season. I'm trying my hand at strawberries this year. I planted them in pallets, so far so good.

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