Monday, July 14, 2014

garden update: mid-July

This is the time of year where the garden seems to explode overnight and all of the sudden it's time to pick something. Like this, our first tomato of the season.


We've got a million green tomatoes and tiny peppers not far from ripening, too. 

Look at these tiny bell peppers. They look like peppers for a dollhouse kitchen.


Hot peppers are coming along nicely too. Just need a few more tomatoes ready to make some fresh salsa.


If the size of these tomato plants is any indicator, we should have a good harvest this year.


One thing we've already been able to harvest is swiss chard. We usually just eat the chard on its own, sauteed in garlic and chicken broth. It's one of my favorite vegetables, so I typically don't have to find ways to eat it or use it up! 

Cucumber plants are also going gangbusters, and Mark's been waging the war of attrition against cucumber beetles by smooshing them when he is out attending to the chickens.


The sweet corn was just about knee-high by the Fourth of July, and it's looking strong. It rebounded nicely from a nasty storm we had awhile ago where it looked like the stalks were keeled over.


The beans have also taken over their bed. At my last garden update, we were noticing the gaps where the chickens had disrupted the seeds when they got into the bed and messed around. But here you can barely see the gaps - it looks like solid beans from border to border! 


I don't have good photos of my herbs, because actually several of them died. They didn't get watered while I was on vacation and we had several scorcher days in a row (an accidental oversight, but still that's what killed them). I think I've been able to salvage the basil, rosemary and chives at the very least. Working on bringing the dill back to life, as well as the sunflowers. Hopefully by my next garden post, I'll have good news to report on that front!

How's your garden doing? Any harvests yet?

5 comments:

  1. Our kale is exploding! We've gotten a couple peppers and tomatoes but most of them are still ripening. I love being able to go outside and cut some chives or grab a pepper to go along with a meal. :-)

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    1. I think our climate does really well with greens - once they take off, they just keep going!

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  2. Also, forgot to add your garden looks fabulous!

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  3. I"m jealous! The only things we have are the plants we bought b/c seeds...well...were a disaster and pumpkins my lil pumpkin planted and 2 pea plants that won't even produce I'm sure before it turns cold. My sunflowers didn't even grow. I'm so irritated. I have more grass and weeds than vegetables. We also go the early blight and are fighting off rabbits....I've pretty much just thrown up my hands. I do tend to the plants growing when I can and have a few tomatoes and peppers coming along but the rest of the garden I'm letting go back to grass! I enjoy our lettuce on the deck and have yet to use my chives. My parsley didn't grow and the oregano mom gave me PLUS what I planted from seed is dead. I'll still to flowers I suppose. :(

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    1. I think starting from seed successfully around here requires a ton more setup and free time than most of us have. We've had a ton of success with these seedlings from Penn's Corner and Grow Pittsburgh.

      As for the rabbits, Mark got a few removable posts from Lowe's and some plastic netting that attaches to them - it keeps the chickens AND rabbits out and it's relatively inexpensive and reusable each year. For blight, you probably know this, but rotate out whatever type of plant got blight there this year with another type for next to give it time to recover.

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