Garden Update- July.

It's been a while since i posted a garden update, in fact i'm not even sure i've posted one this year.  If you've been following my blog at all, you know that this entire year has been a bit of  crazy, wild ride.  We were not able to move back to our property until June 1st, so my entire garden got a really late start this year. Then  it pretty much rained all of June and so far most of July...so the garden has had a rather slow start.

Now, half way through July and it is really just starting to fill in and produce. So here is a brief update on this years garden.

i only put in a dozen broccoli plants this year.  One of them bolted while the plant was still small, but the others did well.  After harvesting the heads, w are still harvesting occasional side shoots from the plants. 

By the middle of June we were harvesting tons of lettuce, garlic scapes, asparagus and strawberries.  i planted tons of lettuce, and plant it about every three weeks so we are still harvesting a bunch.  Our strawberries never do that well, but we did manage to pick a few handfuls. 

 By the end of June we were still harvesting plenty of lettuce and garlic scapes. We were also getting sugar snap peas, berries and day lily buds. We were just beginning to get some beans.  i love summer meals like this that are entirely grown at home.

 i always plant a ton of cold crops, and so i've been getting lots of kale and rainbow swiss chard. Swiss chard has become a new favorite this year, and i'm wishing i had planted more! i will be sure and plant a bunch this fall.

By the beginning of July the berries really started producing!  This has been our best year for blueberries.   i think it was all the rain. We have a deep freezer set up at Kenan's shop, so i have been able to freeze a ton.  The kids are outside daily eating unlimited blueberries and raspberries.  i even made a couple mini batches of jam. 

So that brings us to the middle of July. i really can not believe it is July.  :(  i planted a ton of beans this year.  The rain washed away a bunch of my seeds, and so i ended up planting beans in all those empty garden spots just to fill it in a bit.  Now they are all really starting to come in. i'm harvesting purple pole beans now, and have christmas lima, yellow wax, scarlet runners, and purple bush beans in bloom.  My potatoes were put in late, but i dug around a couple plants to harvest some new potatoes and was pleased to see they are doing well. i have red, white and purple potatoes planted this year. :) 

 We are just starting to enter blackberry season!!  We are still getting a ton of blueberries, although the red raspberries have tapered off a bit. They are every bearing though, so we should get another harvest this fall.  My squash are a bit behind, but they are loaded with bloom and baby squash so we should be picking them in the next week or so.

My tomatoes had a very rough start, i had to pull about 8 plants that were diseased and may of the others were showing sign of distress from the constant rain and cooler temps.  However, we have actually seen the sun a bit this week and my tomatoes seem to be making a come back.   i'm really hoping to be picking some soon. My peppers and sweet potatoes are doing fantastic and i planted a few rows of corn that seem to be doing okay. i've never had much luck with corn, but plant a couple small rows every year anyway.

So, i knew my garden wasn't going to be perfect this year and am actually a bit surprised i was able to plant it at all.  We have a lot on our plate this year, with just trying to get back to the property and now trying to plan to build a new house.  We are slowly making progress and i will post details eventually.

We are enjoying our time back 'home', although it has rained almost every day that we have been ehre. We are trying to make the summer as fun as we can with lots of weekend road trips. i am super behind with my posts, but will share our adventures soon.

This has definitely been the year for change for us, in more ways than i can possibly express.



All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.  ~Anatole France