In the Garden :: June and July

June and July in the garden isn't very exciting because it's all about growing.  You end up weeding and watering and waiting.  But when you finally do see the first bit of produce show up all of the work that went into it seems to disappear. 

Baby chickies arrived in late June after we got back from the cabin.  They are always so cute and entertaining.  Fluffy and sweet for two weeks before they start to get scraggly as their real feathers start to come in.  Then it's out to the coop for more room to run until they get as big as the adults.  By the fall they'll be all mixed in and you won't be able to tell babies from adults.

Beans were the first to be harvested.  We had so many bags of string beans that there was no way were we going to eat all them even if they were part of every breakfast, lunch and dinner. A few years ago before Mom retired, she bought a pressure canner so that we could preserve the excess beans but never had the time to use it.  This year we got to can some of those yummy beans for later.

Zucchini are always early as well and as you know from a previous post we've been trying to stay ahead of those too.  Some got too big and went to the chickens and I took a few with me when we visited Nicole.  No sense in not sharing the bounty!

We had planted the potatoes in April and it was time to pull them out of the ground.  The tops were starting to die back and that was a good sign that they were ready to harvest.  Mom had a good morning doing that and even remembered to take pictures!

There were portions of a bed that I didn't have any plans for this year, so we ended up sowing a crop of oats.  I had done some research on crops to grow to as cover crops for years when I didn't have plans for all of the beds.  Oats will keep the soil from eroding and adds organic matter to the soil.  We can harvest the heads and try making our own rolled oats, or just give them to the chickens as oat hay by cutting the entire head off.  In truth they are so pretty I may plant them every year!

Other than that all the other fruits and veggies are coming along.  The tomatoes are still green...

The pumpkins are starting to turn orange...

Watermelons are small, but coming along...

And the peppers are getting bigger.

We also have produce growing in the orchard and vineyard.  Make no mistake, our "vineyard" is only five grape plants planted along our fence line, but as they grow they should provide enough for what we want.  They are all Concord grapes for making juice and jelly.  This year we only had a couple of bunches, but we are keeping the birds from them.  We'll see if they just end up straight in our bellies.

And the apple trees we planted a few years ago are starting to produce as well.  I think this may be the tree that provides cider apples...

Beyond all that we got a cow.

Okay, it's not really our cow.

But we feel like we've adopted her.  Whenever Mom goes out to work in the yard or mow she will come to the fence and ask for the weeds pulled or the grass mowed.  Her name is Love Game, but we call her Lovey.  One day when Mom was pulling weeds around the grapevines by the fence she heard a loud snuff, looked up and was eye to eye with the cow.  Now Lovey comes to the fence to watch us in the yard and walk along waiting for nummies.

I feel like overall I abandoned the garden this year.  The weeds grew overmuch, the plants weren't watered well enough and I didn't pay enough attention to it.  I'm really hoping to put bricks down between the beds in the fenced in area to reduce the amount of weeds in there and I am also looking into watering options for next year.  This year we put in a lot of new soaker hoses, but they seemed to get clogged up and not provide enough water early on.  It was also very hot in June, 100 degrees and over for two weeks straight, and I think that affected everything.  All the fruits and vegetables seem small and spare.  There's still plenty of growing time left, however, and a garden can surprise you!