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July 24, 2014

July Garden



The garden is so lush right now; it has seemingly caught up after its late, slow start.  Many people are starting to say goodbye to their peas by now, but ours are just beginning.  The beans are ready for their first picking; the corn is starting to grow tassels; the cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen, and I found baby squash on the vines just yesterday. We enjoyed our first cucumbers the other night and are excitedly awaiting more.  The Brussels sprouts have set their babies, and the cabbages have lovely little heads. The blueberries are ripening and require daily picking, and the grapes have set an abundance of darling little clusters of grapes.  I am still holding my breath, but this year may be are very first harvest of grapes.  The area beneath my bird feeder is crowded with sunflowers that have self-seeded from the seeds that have dropped from the feeder.  I'm looking forward to the very first blossoms.

Along with enjoying the abundance of our garden, we are also battling the pests.  The weeds are growing just as fast as the vegetables, if not faster, and an army of Japanese beetles has arrived, attacking the grapes, roses and pole beans. They have figured out if they target the plants up high, they are out of reach of the guinea hens that faithfully do their job battling the bugs every day. I have been paying the Littles to hand pick the beetles, putting them into a jar of soap and water, but it seems the more we pick, the more we see. I'm also on watch for a late blight that I have heard has hit the area. My tomatoes are doing well so far, but my mom has just noticed signs of it in her plants. The spinach was doing wonderfully, in spite of the heat we have been having, and only a few plants were starting to bolt. We had been having it in salads almost every day and enjoyed one meal of it steamed. I recently went to the greens garden to collect some only to find that it was completely gone...withered up, brown, dead on the ground. I have no idea what happened.  My only thought is that it didn't like being flooded by a torrential downpour we had during a thunderstorm last week. I have always had a difficult time with spinach, I don't know why. It never really produces very well for us, and I thought that changing its location was going to be the ticket for us this year.  Not so.  I may consider planting much less next year, just enough for salads and try planting Swiss chard instead.  I remember eating Swiss chard at my grandparents long after the spinach had stopped producing and helping Grandma freeze bags and bags of it for winter use.  I think it tends to be a bit hardier in warm weather and continues to produce tender leaves through-out the season without bolting.

Oh, the flowers...they are beautiful right now too, but I must save them for another post.  I simply love this time of year when everything seems to be so lush and verdant. Yes, this is definitely my favorite time of year. I hope you are all having a wonderful summer, and I would love to hear how your garden is growing.

5 comments:

  1. Your garden looks wonderful Emily, so much beautiful produce. I am with you on spinach I have never been able to grow it to a point that you can eat anything :(. I have however had great success with chard.

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  2. As I was polling down the page looking at the images the first word that sprung into my head was 'lush.' I love all the green and your garden is full of it. I love too, that moment each year when you spot the first bud, then flower and then fruit. It never gets old or tired. It's like the first time, every time. Congratulations on your first potential grape harvest.
    I can empathise with your disappointment at losing your crops that you have worked so hard to achieve. Whenever I plant salad vegetables I have lost them to deers or rabbits. I tried planting them just outside my kitchen door but the cheeky deers still came out of the woods to nibble them. I have some photographic evidence on an old blog posts that I must share again sometime.
    We are enjoying mostly fruits and herbs from the garden this year. The mulberries have just begun to ripen. They are my most favourite berry. They are sweet and sour and juicy and dye your hands bright red when you pick them from the tree...wonderful.
    Thank you for sharing this tour of your kitchen garden with us. I look forward to seeing your flowers.
    Enjoy your summer garden.
    debx

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  3. Your garden is looking beautiful, such a satisfying reward for all your hard work in it. And as much as all the vegetables and produce have to be the best bits purely for their deliciousness, I love the sound of your sunflowers self seeding under the bird table! Sounds like an extra little reward for your work in looking after your birds!

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  4. I officially have Garden Envy. Wow, Emily, but everything is beautiful! The vegetables and the blueberries are amazing, and I would imagine, taste wonderful. I know you said this post isn't about flowers, but those creamy white hollyhocks! I am so inspired for next year. I am really hoping to be able to spend more time outside. :)

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  5. Such abundance! And wonderful images of it too. But I'm sorry to read you are battling the pests.

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